*OT** HUMOR **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 fire."
Scientists pegged the explosion at around 100 kilotons. "I nearly dropped
my latte when I saw the seismometer" explained University of Washington
geophysicist Dr. Whoops Blammover, "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.
E.E. Thymes 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." |
