From owner-NMACD-L@cornell.edu Wed May 20 14:29:01 1998 Return-Path: Received: from cornell.edu (cornell.edu [132.236.56.6]) by postoffice2.mail.cornell.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id OAA14937 for ; Wed, 20 May 1998 14:25:36 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from daemon@localhost) by cornell.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id OAA22189; Wed, 20 May 1998 14:25:36 -0400 (EDT) Received: from anise.ee.cornell.edu (ANISE.EE.CORNELL.EDU [128.84.239.14]) by cornell.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id OAA22148; Wed, 20 May 1998 14:25:35 -0400 (EDT) Received: from listproc.mail.cornell.edu by anise.ee.cornell.edu (4.1/1.6.10+n-y-Cornell-Electrical-Engineering) id AA23910; Wed, 20 May 98 14:25:30 EDT Received: from localhost.mail.cornell.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by listproc.mail.cornell.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id OAA24012; Wed, 20 May 1998 14:25:29 -0400 (EDT) Received: from cornell.edu (cornell.edu [132.236.56.6]) by listproc.mail.cornell.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id OAA23923 for ; Wed, 20 May 1998 14:25:00 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from daemon@localhost) by cornell.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id OAA21642 for NMACD-L@listproc.mail.cornell.edu; Wed, 20 May 1998 14:24:59 -0400 (EDT) Received: from HARLIE.ee.cornell.edu (HARLIE.EE.CORNELL.EDU [128.84.235.135]) by cornell.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id OAA21619 for ; Wed, 20 May 1998 14:24:57 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from breed@localhost) by HARLIE.ee.cornell.edu (8.8.7/8.8.7) id OAA11581 for nmacd-l@cornell.edu; Wed, 20 May 1998 14:24:59 -0400 Message-Id: <199805201824.OAA11581@HARLIE.ee.cornell.edu> Date: Wed, 20 May 1998 14:24:59 -0400 (EDT) Reply-To: bwr1@cornell.edu Sender: owner-NMACD-L@cornell.edu Precedence: bulk X-PH: V4.1@cornell.edu (Cornell Modified) From: "Bryan W. Reed" To: Subject: Microsoft Bomb Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-To: nmacd-l@cornell.edu X-Ph: V4.1@cornell.edu (Cornell Modified) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] X-Listprocessor-Version: 7.2(a) -- ListProcessor by CREN Status: RO MICROSOFT TESTS NUCLEAR DEVICE AT SECRET HANFORD FACILITY REDMOND (BNN)--World leaders reacted with stunned silence as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) conducted an underground nuclear test at a secret facility in eastern Washington state. The device, exploded at 9:22 am PDT (1622 GMT/12:22 pm EDT) today, was timed to coincide with talks between Microsoft and the US Department of Justice over possible antitrust action. "Microsoft is going to defend its right to market its products by any and all necessary means," said Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. "Not that I'm anti-government" he continued, "but there would be few tears shed in the computer industry if Washington were engulfed in a bath of nuclear hellfire." Scientists pegged the explosion at around 100 kilotons. "I nearly dropped my latte when I saw the seismometer" explained University of Washington geophysicist Dr. Richter Temblor, "At first I thought it was Mt. Rainier, and I was thinking, damn, there goes the mountain bike vacation." In Washington, President Clinton announced the US Government would boycott all Microsoft products indefinitely. Minutes later, the President reversed his decision. "We've tried sanctions since lunchtime, and they don't work," said the President. Instead, the administration will initiate a policy of "constructive engagement" with Microsoft. Microsoft's Chief Technology Officer Nathan Myrhvold said the test justified Microsoft's recent acquisition of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation from the US Government. Not only did Microsoft acquire "kilograms of weapons grade plutonium" in the deal, said Myrhvold, "but we've finally found a place to dump those millions of unsold copies of Microsoft Bob." Myrhvold warned users not to replace Microsoft NT products with rival operating systems. "I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a radioisotope thermoelectric generator inside of every Pentium II microprocessor," said Myrhvold, "but anyone who installs an OS written by a bunch of long-hairs on the Internet is going to get what they deserve." (see financial news: MSFT up 73pts). The existence of an RTG in each Pentium II microprocessor would explain why the microprocessors, made by the Intel Corporation, run so hot. The Intel chips "put out more heat than they draw in electrical power" said Prof. Sadie Carnot of MIT. "This should finally dispell those stories about cold fusion." Rumors suggest a second weapons development project is underway in California, headed by Microsoft rival Sun Microsystems. "They're doing all of the development work in Java," said one source close to the project. The development of a delivery system is said to be holding up progress. "Write once, bomb anywhere is still a dream at the moment." Meanwhile, in Cupertino, California, Apple interim-CEO Steve Jobs was rumored to be in discussion with Oracle CEO Larry Ellison about deploying Apple's Newton technology against Microsoft. "Newton was the biggest bomb the Valley has developed in years," said one hardware engineer. "I'd hate to be around when they drop that product a second time."