Blue screen of death crashes Gates at CES

[MacBytes]

Category: Microsoft
Link: Blue screen of death crashes Gates at CES (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20050107005520)
Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)

Approved by Mudbug

[redAPPLE]

i wish i were there... *lol*

[24C]

is this news? :-)

[sorryiwasdreami]

LOL! So funny! The Conan O'Brien jokes were on point.

"I got too drunk, I woke up with a hooker," O'Brien said. "Bill got too drunk, he woke up with an Apple computer."

[puckhead193]

I'm glad somone posted it. I saw it the screen savers on G4 techtv.... And just before it they had a program decated to the apple II...... go figure... I was cracking up... i woke the whole house up.... Gates looked pretty mad, well that what u get when u make a poo of a product.
I'm so glad that i have my mac.... :D

sorryiwasdreami - nice quote ;)

[katanna]

Is there any kind of video of this?
This is just too funny!!! It happened more than once!!
LMAO

Matthew

[Poff]

Is there any kind of video of this?
This is just too funny!!! It happened more than once!!
LMAO

Matthew

Yeah, is there? Hope so!

[billyboy]

Have there ever been any similar disastrous/embarrassing episodes for Apple presentations?

Using my Mac everyday for presentations, I never really consider it wont work as expected - although once the sound from iTunes was a bit naff until I disconnected the external sound card and plugged it back in - nearly burst everyones eardums.

[Fender2112]

The sad part is that Windows users think this is normal and expected. :D

[eric_n_dfw]

Have there ever been any similar disastrous/embarrassing episodes for Apple presentations?

Using my Mac everyday for presentations, I never really consider it wont work as expected - although once the sound from iTunes was a bit naff until I disconnected the external sound card and plugged it back in - nearly burst everyones eardums.
A few years ago a digital camera wouldn't power up for Steve (I think we was demoing iPhoto) and he actually threw the thing at an Apple employee standing on the floor at the front of the stage and told them to get him something that works (or something like that.)

That's the first time I've seen him pissed off in public; although he's well known for his rage in private.

[aarond12]

A few years ago a digital camera wouldn't power up for Steve (I think we was demoing iPhoto) and he actually threw the thing at an Apple employee standing on the floor at the front of the stage and told them to get him something that works (or something like that.)

That's the first time I've seen him pissed off in public; although he's well known for his rage in private.

You're right. Steve Jobs mentioned it was a pre-release Kodak digital camera after he chucked it across the stage. Ironically, the camera that caused Bill Gates' computer to freeze up at CES was a pre-release Nikon camera.

Note to keynote presenters: Don't use pre-release digital cameras! :)

-Aaron-

[azdude]

Have there ever been any similar disastrous/embarrassing episodes for Apple presentations?

Using my Mac everyday for presentations, I never really consider it wont work as expected - although once the sound from iTunes was a bit naff until I disconnected the external sound card and plugged it back in - nearly burst everyones eardums.

Not that your asking for individual experiences, but I've only had one myself... and it was minor.

It was my first preso using PowerPoint 2004 ( ;) ), and since I like to run with my external monitor as the primary (in spanning mode), the damn "presenters notepad" page came up on the screen. I tried switching to mirrored mode (an easy one-keypress action), but IIRC I had to go into Display Preferences and move the menu bar to the PowerBook's monitor in the end.

But... that one was MY fault, not Apple's or really even MS's. :D

Now I know.

[shamino]

You're right. Steve Jobs mentioned it was a pre-release Kodak digital camera after he chucked it across the stage. Ironically, the camera that caused Bill Gates' computer to freeze up at CES was a pre-release Nikon camera.

Note to keynote presenters: Don't use pre-release digital cameras! :)
Do keynote speakers do dry-run rehearsals of their presentations?

It would seem to me that any problems with props (like a non-functioning camera) should be caught then. Any attempt to make changes between the rehearsal and the presentation should be soundly rejected.

Of course, pre-release system software (as in the MS presentation) can crash at any time, even if it worked fine in rehearsal. Which is what I hate about presenting anything pre-release (except in the form of a slide show.)

IMO, a product that is unstable/untested should never be shown to the public, no matter what the intent of the presentation is. If you really need to give a demo, then you test your pre-release package and make sure that it is stable. You can be missing features but you can't ever crash in public. Sure, the extra QA work costs money, but the consequences of a public failure will cost more. I don't know who at Microsoft forgot this rule, but if it was me on stage, I'd be just as pissed.

[mrsebastian]

thats freakin hysterical! poor, poor bill ... NOT :D as mentioned by someone previously, that's pretty scary when the blue screen of death is a normal thing and considered a part of using a windows machine!! heck, i beat the hell out of my dual g5, electronically speaking and it has never crashed.

[Santaduck]

The timing couldn't be worse for Bill, as this is the year that Switching to Apple may be gaining steam with the iPod H.E.

video would be great if anyone has a URL.

[mduser63]

Here's a link to the video: CES Video (http://metahost.savvislive.com/microsoft/20050105/ms_ces_20050105_300.asx), however it's not working for me today. It was working yesterday, so I'm not sure what the deal is today. It was posted on Slashdot, so it could be that that's why it's not working. Anyway, the part where the computer crashes for Bill is about 26 minutes in. It's quite amusing to watch :).

[Koyder]

During the Macworld SF 2000 keynote, when OS X was being previewed for the very first time, Steve had Phill Shiller demonstrate Quake 3 running on the alpha version of OS X. Phil started loading a level, and the game froze up. Steve's reply was 'Well, it looks great when it works."

But remember that it was an alpha-stage game running on an alpha-stage OS. And I believe it was only the app that froze up, not the entire OS.

[ALoLA]

The sad part is that Windows users think this is normal and expected. :D

I was reading some of the linked articles on Google news and came across one where it said something like they were happy that at least the owner of the company (MS) suffered as they did. :rolleyes:

So instead of being frustrated and upset at their crappy OS, they were pleased that Billy boy commiserated with his own share of Windows debacles. Sounds like these poor suckers have been beaten into submission. Too bad, since we all know there's a simple solution to all of their pain and suffering. :D

[Neuro]

PC Fanboys always use the excuse of Macs being a closed Os<->Hardware system, therefore easy to get things right.... Well, you'd have thought an MS demo on known hardware would be rock solid...

Ho ho ho. ;)

[virus1]

lmao.. i wonder if gates sees how bad windows is... if he has ever used os x, he does for sure... hate to say it, but he just can't see reason.. ms has the money to make windows reliable, but they don't seem to care.. kind of pathetic.

[slooksterPSV]

Thats the best!!! You know what, I fell in love with Apple and thats why I woke up with one. Good joke. I can believe all of this because it just makes sense. Karma's came to town.

[brentonbrenton]

"I got too drunk, I woke up with a hooker," O'Brien said. "Bill got too drunk, he woke up with an Apple computer."

and bill probably would have found that it also had considerably less viruses and easily transmittable diseases; unlike his redmond h*es

[Lugonn]

I haven't seen the blue screen of death since an VPC 3.0 :D

When my wife started working at a windoze only shop I used to always ask her "how many time did your system go down today?" :p

[nagromme]

PC Fanboys always use the excuse of Macs being a closed Os<->Hardware system, therefore easy to get things right....

Very true! Well, maybe not closed entirely, but OS and hardware designed together as a system. One of several key advantages of a Mac. One of the difficult challenges MS can't avoid--one of the prices of being in their position. A valid "excuse" in a sense--except that the end result is just as bad no matter what the history is.

I hope nobody who's aware of that decides they should feel bad for MS, and then buys Windows out of pity :) That's the only "PC Fanboy" logic I can think of that could possible turn that excuse into anything anti-Apple.

[slooksterPSV]

Very true! Well, maybe not closed entirely, but OS and hardware designed together as a system. One of several key advantages of a Mac. One of the difficult challenges MS can't avoid--one of the prices of being in their position. A valid "excuse" in a sense--except that the end result is just as bad no matter what the history is.

I hope nobody who's aware of that decides they should feel bad for MS, and then buys Windows out of pity :) That's the only "PC Fanboy" logic I can think of that could possible turn that excuse into anything anti-Apple.

Is it true also that since Mac's hardware is proprietary, you get the best performance out of it?

[nagromme]

Well, proprietary isn't exactly the word--there's a lot of industry-standard hardware in a Mac, from the HD and optical drives to the slots to the peripheral connections. The key is that Apple designed BOTH the hardware and the OS. Apple even co-designed the PowerPC line, and collaborated on the G5.

That lets them build better things, faster, basically. Poor MS has to make Windows run on infinite chaotic combinations of parts from thousands of PC makers! Ugh! And their CPU is by Intel--or Intel clone companies.

One of the benefits of this control is that Apple can make things perform better. That can mean stability, speed, whatever.

But it's not the ONLY factor. With graphics, for instance, the GPU isn't made by Apple, and needs drivers from ATI or nVidia.

(PS... appleturns.com reports that Microsoft USED to have the Gates keynote online... but then they replaced it with a badly-edited mess of a version that doesn't include the crashes :D And as AtAt points out, when Steve has had problems--which can happen to any product--Apple has not edited them away. Apple has posted the whole keynote regardless.)

[slooksterPSV]

Well, proprietary isn't exactly the word--there's a lot of industry-standard hardware in a Mac, from the HD and optical drives to the slots to the peripheral connections. The key is that Apple designed BOTH the hardware and the OS. Apple even co-designed the PowerPC line, and collaborated on the G5.

That lets them build better things, faster, basically. Poor MS has to make Windows run on infinite chaotic combinations of parts from thousands of PC makers! Ugh! And their CPU is by Intel--or Intel clone companies.

One of the benefits of this control is that Apple can make things perform better. That can mean stability, speed, whatever.

But it's not the ONLY factor. With graphics, for instance, the GPU isn't made by Apple, and needs drivers from ATI or nVidia.

(PS... appleturns.com reports that Microsoft USED to have the Gates keynote online... but then they replaced it with a badly-edited mess of a version that doesn't include the crashes :D And as AtAt points out, when Steve has had problems--which can happen to any product--Apple has not edited them away. Apple has posted the whole keynote regardless.)
You're right, its not really proprietary - its how you phrased it.

Hey, don't call AMD a clone (now VIA is). AMD is the 2nd best processor company in this world. Everyone thats talked to me, seems to think so now (well first since they're Windoze users). And ATI, I like them a lot better than NVidia, even though I've seen specs that say NVidia is faster. So AMD and ATI is the winning combination for my PC's. But ATI and Apple - Winning combination for my Macs (if I had one :( it'll be here by Wed., see siggy)

[GRAHAMUK]

If gates is played by Milhouse, then the only appropriate response when his crappy demo goes down is:

Ha-ha! - Nelson Muntz

[shamino]

AMD is the 2nd best processor company in this world.
I'll agree with this. And IBM is 1st. :D

Seriously, I don't think Intel even comes close to being "best" these days. They get their speed by pumping the clock to insane levels, and then making crazy design decisions (like a 20-stage pipeline with micro-ops) in order to make it do something useful at those speeds.

It is very telling that their competition is getting just as much real-world performance from chips at much lower clock speeds. For example my Athlon 64 3200+ has a 2GHz clock and performs similarly to a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 for most purposes. A friend's Athlon XP 3000+ (which is less efficient than an Athlon 64) has a 2.17Ghz clock and performs like a Pentium 4 at 3GHz.

IMO, getting equal performance from a slower clock is a clear sign of superior engineering talent.