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Technology Stocks : MSFT Internet Explorer vs. NSCP Navigator -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jay Rommel who wrote (18366)	4/7/1998 9:49:00 PM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 24154

Popcorn with your operating system? salonmagazine.com Hey Jay, here's a sardonic take on that Microsoft Xtreme thing. I sorta remember when it was announced, I was hoping for Bill skydiving on a surfboard or something. Sounds like it was much more prosaic than that. Extreme's host -- a perky Microsoft product manager named Suzi LeVine, who had plastered a stray lock of dark hair to her forehead -- greeted the unveiling of each new product feature with little grunts of pleasure and cheerleading exhortations: "Wow!" "That rules! "That's awesome!" "Excellent!" "Way to go!" During the PalmPC demo by product manager Pamela Goldschmidt, LeVine asked, "There's one word you use to describe passing information to these devices. What do you call that?" "We call that squirting," Goldschmidt replied. "That's exciting!" LeVine cooed, with an utterly straight face -- and for just a moment we might have been eavesdropping on some late-night talk show, with a shopper's guide to sex toys in progress. But a quick cut to a video clip of Microsoft research guru Nathan Myhrvold, droning about "making the computer a better partner for human beings," put an end to the double entendres. Sounds like cruel and unusual punishment to me, cutting from the babes talking dirty to tubby Nathan of supersonic dinosaur tails, the information toll road, and Nixon dirty tricks fame. The only remotely "cutting edge" technology on display turned out to be Microsoft's AutoPC. Soon, you can be the first on your block to turn your car radio into a computer based on Windows CE (Microsoft's consumer-appliance operating system). AutoPC promises a total transformation of your driving life: It will perform essential tasks like reciting directions and dialing your cell phone based on voice commands. Assuming, that is, it doesn't crash. As LeVine put it, "Windows in your car. Wow!" Or maybe not. The AutoPC demo was the only part of Microsoft Extreme to elicit an audience response -- and it consisted of a couple of people muttering, "Puh-leeze!" Oh dear. The natives are restless and jaded, just waiting for Bill to take them where they want to go. Cheers, Dan.