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Not Quitting Our Day Jobs (4/19/98)
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Being primarily Mac users, we at AtAT don't spend a whole lot of time worrying about what's going to happen in the year 2000; after all, the Mac's designers were perfectly aware that computers would still be around in the 21st century. (That doesn't mean we aren't going to suffer the effects of our banks, governments, etc. using PC's, but hey, at least we can keep our own records straight.) Anyway, given that Microsoft is just now posting extensive year-2000-compliance info on their website (and in fact they admit that Windows NT 4.0 isn't fully compliant, though NT 5.0 will be, when released), we were wondering why Apple hasn't cashed in on the end-of-the-century hysteria and publicly touted this particular benefit of using Macs.
Since Apple/Chiat-Day haven't leapt on this issue yet, we thought we'd offer a free commercial idea. What about something like this: Pull back from a closeup of a wall calendar showing the current date as being the first Monday in January, 2000. Reveal the interior of a standard business office setting, with the sounds of chaos ensuing. Pan from one desk to the next, showing various Y2K problems in succession; the woman at the first desk is on the phone to accounts payable, unable to get a check cut for an important deal, the man at the second is trying to calm a customer on the phone, explaining that he's unable to retrieve the necessary order information, etc. The sounds of consternation remain, but the picture fades to white, with the following successive captions in Apple Garamond: "Q: How can you be sure a computer is ready for the year 2000?" "A: Look for this symbol:" (Fade to Apple logo.) Voiceover: "Macintosh. Ready for 2000 since 1984." Fade to caption: "Think Millennium." Fade to black.
Eh, what do you expect for free? ;-) (More on the Y2K Microsoft conspiracy in a future episode.)
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SceneLink (643)
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/19/98 episode: April 19, 1998: An embittered Gil Amelio recounts his days on the cast, and wishes he'd get some credit for the recent turnaround. Meanwhile, Intuit gives its official reasoning for why it's ceasing Mac Quicken development, and Apple continues to ignore the potential advertising gold mine known as the "Year 2000 Problem..."
Other scenes from that episode: 641: Don't Get No Respect (4/19/98) Ex-cast member Gil Amelio continues to get press about his recent tell-all memoir, On the Firing Line, My 500 Days at Apple. Although a Nando.net article reveals an Amelio that outwardly claims to be "ecstatic" about Apple's recent financial improvements, we sense an undercurrent of jealousy and injustice, and a man who honestly thinks he laid the groundwork for Apple's turnaround but isn't getting any credit. To be fair, yes, it certainly sounds like Amelio did a lot of work during his year and a half that led to many of Apple's current strategies... 642: Quickly Intuitive (4/19/98) We feel slightly less upset about Intuit's recent decision to cease development for Quicken for Macintosh. It sounds as if they will reconsider their strategy when (if?) Apple starts targeting the consumer market again, but until then, it doesn't make financial sense for Intuit to release a new version of Mac Quicken every year...
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