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Whom To Trust? (11/10/98)
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Here's a toughie for any Mac user to answer: whom would you rather believe, an Intel executive, or Bill Gates? (It's almost a Zen koan, isn't it?) These are the tough decisions that Judge Jackson faces in the ongoing "Redmond Justice" trial. According to an IDG News Service article, Steve McGeady's testimony continues to contradict Gates' videotaped deposition. First the conflict was about whether or not Microsoft threatened to withdraw Windows support from Intel processors unless Intel ceased all Internet software development. The latest contradictions are all about Java, Sun's cross-platform programming language that threatened to break Windows' stranglehold on the operating system market.
Way back in August, when the government taped Gates' deposition, they asked him if Microsoft made "any effort to convince Intel not to help Sun and Java." Gates' answer was, "Not that I know of." Now, some might find it suspicious that it took him thirty seconds to come up with that answer, especially since he spent those thirty seconds "looking down at his desk and rocking gently back and forth." It's tough to judge based on a mere description whether Gates was bored, nervous, or just really in need of a visit to the bathroom, but we're mighty skeptical of the answer he finally gave. When government mouthpiece David Boies asked McGeady the same question, he unflinchingly answered, "Repeatedly and on multiple occasions."
While you're deciding for yourself which side to believe, here's a little comic relief from the trial... Apparently McGeady took some notes during a 1995 meeting between Intel and Microsoft, at which both McGeady and Gates were present. McGeady quotes Gates as having stated, "This antitrust thing will blow over." (Yes, and 640 KB of RAM is more than anyone will ever need.) Better still, Gates also added, "We may change our e-mail retention policy." Hey, at least the courtroom found it funny; reportedly the whole place burst into laughter when that last quote was read.
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SceneLink (1139)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 11/10/98 episode: November 10, 1998: So is the QuickTime bug really a bug, or just Microsoft using non-standard filename extensions? Meanwhile, either Intel or Microsoft is lying, and given Bill Gates' behavior during his deposition, the smart money's on Microsoft. And leave it to Apple to profile a relatively obscure but important record label on their web site...
Other scenes from that episode: 1138: Breaking Convention (11/10/98) There's more than meets the eye to this whole "QuickTime bug" issue that's come out of the "Redmond Justice" trial. If you're a little behind on the plot, here's the broad strokes: Apple's software veep Avie Tevanian was called as a witness in the Microsoft antitrust trial and alleged, among other things, that Microsoft had deliberately introduced bugs into Windows to prevent QuickTime from working properly... 1140: XXX Mac Til Death XXX (11/10/98) Hands up, who's heard of the band Youth of Today? How about Judge? Or Gorilla Biscuits? We're willing to bet that there's mighty few hands up out there in AtAT-Land, with the possible exception of the grubby paws of faithful viewers Todd Wheeler and Mike Bromberg, who both have a background in this stuff...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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