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The Other Side of Drama (6/14/99)
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Sometimes while watching "Redmond Justice," it's easy to forget that Microsoft is capable of pulling off a courtroom shock play, too. Sure, in most cases the really interesting developments in the ongoing antitrust trial originate from the government side and Smilin' Dave Boies: the event that first springs to mind is how he spotted that Microsoft's videotaped Windows speed test was a fake. But when they get together and put their minds to it, the Redmond team can sizzle, too. Take, for example, the dramatic highlight of Steven Holley's cross-examination of government witness Edward Felten, as reported by Inter@ctive Week Online.
Felten, you may recall, is the gentleman who came up with a program that he claimed could "uninstall" Internet Explorer from Windows, thus proving that it was a separate application and not an integral part of the underlying Windows technology, as Microsoft has repeatedly claimed. Microsoft's response to the Felten program is that it removes only a small portion of the overall code that comprises Internet Explorer, and to prove it, Holley pulled off what we felt was rather a nice dramatic demo. First he handed Felten a "new Toshiba laptop" and told him to go ahead and run his IE-removing software. When that was done, Holley told Felten to press a sequence of keys. Lo and behold, a working IE browser window popped up. Certainly that kind of demonstration should have elicited a few gasps from the peanut gallery, no?
Of course, it doesn't actually prove anything, but it's definitely good showmanship, and we can respect that. For their part, the government lawyers objected, which is crucial for any courtroom stunt to qualify as truly "dramatic," and Holley and Felten then "proceeded to trade barbs over what the demonstration proved." Judge Jackson also played his role admirably, eventually stopping the demonstration and denying a request by Holley that the demonstration be repeated on another PC "without any other software on it," presumably to prove that he hadn't cooked the demo by preparing the Toshiba ahead of time. (After all their exposed faked demos, we perfectly understand Microsoft's desire to prove that they aren't pulling any strings.) So you see, the Microsoft team isn't completely uncharismatic and dull after all; they can inject a little drama now and then when they need to. That's why "Redmond Justice" is such a great show-- the whole cast shows talent.
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SceneLink (1603)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 6/14/99 episode: June 14, 1999: Mac resellers are up in arms over Apple's apparent decision to override their earlier Apple Store promises. Meanwhile, more "details" of P1 paint the laptop as very much a portable iMac, in both positive and negative ways, and Microsoft pulls off their own little courtroom shocker in "Redmond Justice..."
Other scenes from that episode: 1601: Coming To A Head (6/14/99) If there weren't some tension somewhere in Apple's relation with resellers, it just wouldn't be Apple. Most recently we were all treated to a squabble over fruit flavors between the Cupertino mothership and the Great Yellow Terror, formerly known as Best Buy; piled on top of a host of other irreconcilable differences, the color clash resulted in the severance of what should have been a powerful partnership... 1602: Thankfully, Leaks Happen (6/14/99) As the next Macworld Expo draws ever closer, so does the introduction of what may well be the most anxiously awaited computer in Apple's history: the as-yet-to-be-named consumer portable internally referred to as "P1."...
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