Microsoft, General Motors & Some Good Movies

[pjl83]

Whenever I hear about microsofts faults it reminds me of this story about the general motors director and bill gates. I've cut and pasted it below for your entertainment.

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 mi/gal."
Recently General Motors addressed this comment by releasing the statement "Yes, but would you want your car to crash twice a day?"
So here's what would happen if Microsoft made cars:

Every time they repainted the lines on the road you would have to buy a new car.
Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you would just accept this, restart and drive on.
Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre would cause your car to stop and fail and you would have to re-install the engine. For some strange reason, you would accept this too.
You could only have one person in the car at a time, unless you bought "Car95" or "CarNT". But, then you would have to buy more seats.
Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast, twice as easy to drive, but would only run on five percent of the roads.
The Macintosh car owners would get expensive Microsoft upgrades to their cars, which would make their cars run much slower.
The oil, gas and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single "general car default" warning light.
New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
The airbag system would say "are you sure?" before going off.
If you were involved in a crash, you would have no idea what happened.
:22:

[Mike]

I enjoyed that one, Paul. Did you see the news about GM today? They've launched an all electric car. Has a range on batteries of about 40 miles but has a top speed of 100 mph and great torque. When you run out of battery power she starts up a small petrol motor that recharges the battery, so she still runs on the electric motor. Cost, at this stage, around £30,000.00

This is a start, I would say, and not necessarily a great one. What amazes me is that it is surely clear they've had this technology for some time - and sat on it. The claim is that they've spent about a billion dollars on R & D. So, I guess that's where some of the taxpayers' bailout money has gone. Yet they are expected to go on funding GM through the price they must pay for the product. Hmmm ... not sure I am too impressed by that.

Nonetheless, the ripost from GM to Bill Gates was right on. So too was the list. I am not a fan of either company, like so many others out there. But I am rather enjoying watching them squirm at the moment. It's been a long time coming, I feel.

Thanks for that one.

Best wishes

[pjl83]

i would imagine so many things have been "sat on" or "shelved" over the years. the majority of which is due to greed and I bet a frightening amount are far more political than we would ever wish to know. I remember reading about a guy who invented an ever-lasting light bulb. a major bulb manufacturer bought it from him, tied him up in complexed legal paperwork and then made the idea "disapear".

as you rightly say though - the electric car is a step in the right direction but miles away from making any meaningful difference at that price.

[Mike]

Your post above reminds me of a film I enjoyed watching called 'The Formula' (starred George C Scott and Marlon Brando). The ending in that was a classic. Precisely what you are hinting at above, Paul. And I somehow don't doubt you are absolutely right.

I do remember seeing a media frenzy many years ago around a chap who had invented a carburettor that vastly improved fuel consumption on any standard car engine. Things suddenly went very quiet and rumour had it he had been paid a vast sum of money for the design, which was then destroyed. It is well within the realms of plausibility, is it not? After all, the big oil boys really are pretty ruthless individuals.

[pjl83]

i'll have to look out for that one mike. sounds like a good film.

[pjl83]

I would rate it at 8/10 - but I could be on my own. If you want to know more, here's a link to the movie on IMDB.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080754/

George C Scott is a particular favourite of mine. Best movie was The Last Run, in my book. Here's a great quote from The Formula by the character played by Marlon Brando:

Adam Steiffel, Chairman Titan Oil: "We're not in the oil business; we're in the oil shortage business!"

Does that strike a chord with you, Paul? It certainly did with me. ;) This movie is great fun. Hope you get to see it. Film Four shows it from time to time.

Best wishes

[pjl83]

"We're not in the oil business; we're in the oil shortage business!"

i like that mate. i love a good business story. i've read so many autobiographies of businessman. my favourate story is the guy that was made redundant from wh smiths. I cant remember exact figures but he got around 10 grand as a pay off, he used this to set up a book shop called waterstones. wh smith bought the waterstones chain years later for over 100,000,000 quid! how's that for return :JC_hurrah: