Cars and computers... (1 Viewer)

[Mike Voigt]

This is for anyone who has ever had to futz with a computer that ceased working...

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating, "If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Only one person at a time could use the car unless you bought "CarNT," but then you would have to buy more seats.
6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive- but would run on only five percent of the roads.
7. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "General Protection Fault" warning light.
8. New seats would force everyone to have the same sized butt.
9. The airbag system would ask "are you sure" before deploying.
10. Occasionally for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither need nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50% or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.
12. Every time GM introduced a new car, car buyers would have to learn to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
13. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.[/list=1]

 

[Geno]

How true how true!!!!

I personally like the Macintosh one!!!!

 

[Kevin P]

I came up with these ones (well, the first one) a few years back:

• Anytime you change the radio station, you have to shut off and restart the car for the change to take effect.
• The car comes with an AM/FM mono radio standard. If you want to upgrade, you have to purchase "Stereo 2000" separately, but many older cars don't have a big enough dashboard to fit the stereo. If you want a CD player, you have to purchase "Stereo 2000 Professional." The latest version, "Stereo XP" is even bigger and requires you to call Microsoft to get the anti-theft code so the radio will work. If you replace more than 6 components in the car, the radio will stop working until you re-activate it.
• Microsoft cars have numerous security holes allowing thieves and carjackers to get into your car without your knowledge, unless you install a firewall and patch the security holes with Bondo.