I am the smartest man alive

alternateorg on March 22, 2001

Not surprisingly, 3Com has killed the Audrey, their ill-fated web appliance:

The $500 device led a vanguard of Web-browsing gadgets aimed at families and users anxious to send and receive e-mail, but uneasy about buying a pricey personal computer system, seen by some as difficult to set up and maintain.

Isn’t $500 a little ‘pricey’ for a device that sends and receives text files? I mean, hell, I could buy one of those computers you use at the library to look up books to do that shit. And an 8″ screen? Please. You can hardly see pictures your friends email you on that (or 5MB movies about cars…).

Mistakes were made, apologies abound

alternateorg on March 22, 2001

I have to thank 808 for pointing out a rather substantial error I made in my last post. The poster almost certainly actually said, “Think Different” instead of “Resist.” That basically changes the entire meaning of the ad. When I saw the ad I made a note on a receipt in my pocket that said, “Resist – Cesar Chavez – Apple Ad.” My apologies.

Resist the urge to think that Cesar Chavez would be a corporate spokesman

alternateorg on March 21, 2001

I realize that most of the posts on this page are in support of Apple in some shape or another. This one is not. I saw an Apple ad on a billboard a few days ago. It was simplistic, featuring only one word, “resist.” Behind that it had a big picture of Cesar Chavez. Then the Apple logo next to it. I understand the logic behind it, but its just inappropriate. Why not paste a picture of Che Guevara and have it say “revolution.” There’s a very superficial correlation. Either the advertisers who made the ad had very little understanding of who Cesar Chavez was, or they assumed that we don’t.

Note: I looked for the ad online and couldn’t find it. If anyone knows where I can find it, please let me know.

*EDITORS NOTE* — Thats because the poster you are refering to does not say “Resist” it says “Think Different”… That’s quite a different Ad from the one you are explaining and kind of nulls the point, doesn’t it? See the actual Ad here. Let me know how wrong I am by emailing me (808).


César Chávez founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962 and built it into the United Farm Workers of America. Chávez organized the formerly powerless migrant farm workers of California and forced growers to pay better wages and provide better working conditions for workers. He effectively used the boycott to achieve his aims. In 1968 he produced his first nationwide boycott of grapes, and later lettuce, which helped change the bargaining position of the California farm workers.


I’d say thats “Thinking Different” ….

Stop this mad man before he blows up the planet…

alternateorg on March 21, 2001

I thought things were going to be bad when Bush got in. But I just can’t believe how fast things are deteriorating . This guy is certifiably mad… He is gonna kill us all!

Of course, I am not an American and I wouldn’t even comment on this except I live on the same goddamn planet that he is endangering 🙁

In less than six months, Bush has…

…undid environment rules

…reversed position on emissions reductions

…signed repeal of ergonomic rules into law

…provoked Russia

…bombed Iraq

…boosted religion, charities funds

…poison pilled the campaign finance reform with paycheck protection

Even though I am not a Christian… God Save Us All!!

But I liked holding hands and singing…

alternateorg on March 20, 2001

An open letter from K10k to ‘CEOs of any media companies that are still (barely) alive:


Dear Mr. Bigwig CEO,

We know that your company is going through a hard time right now. We know that it seems like the end is near, and that truly nasty and drastic measures are being considered.

We know that you have probably been forced to fire some of your employees already, and that perhaps you’ll need to fire some more before you can make it back onto the road to profitability.

However, have you ever stopped to consider who it is you are actually firing? Yes, you’re firing production people – the people who helped build your company, who sweated blood & tears & other bodily fluids on super-late-night, we-love-the-company deadlines. You’re firing the backbone of the company – which is pretty damn stupid if you ever want to get back on your feet.

So take a step back – re-evaluate those layoff plans, and start cutting jobs in those sectors that sound oh-so-good when you’re a big company, but that in reality doesn’t do anything but provide a massive drain on company resources (and employee morale). You know who we mean, don’t you? If not, let us spell it out for you:

– Human Resources (no more employee handbooks)

– Project Management (i think we can handle it ourselves,
thank you very much)

– Middle Management (an end to the evil pointy-haired
micro-managing nazis)

– Senior Management (do you really need 6 senior VP’s who know even less about the internet that you do?)

– Anybody who has anything to do with team-building exercises (let’s hold hands – and sing – and perform for each other!)

– Anybody who has anything to do with quality control

That should do the trick. And might also convince the few remaining employees to give your company another chance.

You’re welcome.

Sincerely,
michael + toke + per / K10k”

Just about hit the nail on the head, as far as I’m concerned… If they hired the right people to do the production/design, QA & project management and everybody else on that list aren’t needed.

Passport to your Privacy

alternateorg on March 20, 2001

This is an absolute must read. It’s an explanation of how MS plans to take your information and sell it:


The golden rule of cookies that protects your privacy is that they are only sent back to the same web domain as they came from. Microsoft Passport eliminates this protection allowing any Passport site to share information about you.

Isn't it the 24th down there by now?

alternateorg on March 20, 2001

An Australian man has seen MacOS X. And he’s even posted a review of it on his website. But don’t bother clicking now, because it’s all enccrypted with PGP. He is (and should be) afraid of Apple retaliating. And they would. So he’s going to make the key available once X is finally released. The more I think about it, the less interesting this story gets.

What a Fucking Joke….

alternateorg on March 19, 2001

So, the guys at MS dropped some screenshots of X-Box on the net… The funny thing is that the images are so fucking fake that it’s completely obvious. They used a Photoshop flare in its default location and size to add a refelection. They even clipped out the character from a higher res image and pasted it into the screenshot from some snowboarding game. The reason the images are enhanced is so you think the X-Box itself is going to be that sharp and have live reflections and flares…. Yeah RIGHT!!!!


To see the forgery yourself, click here.


*Note: We have received some emails from readers who think that we are way too Mac oriented in our postings. I say to all of you, stories like this one are the reason why we love our Macintosh and the company that makes it. I mean, at least Apple had the vision to trash the Pippin (a game console Apple developed) instantly upon its luke warm entry into the console market. Let’s hope X-Box doesn’t survive for 5 years and lose billions in hardware sales just to make up revenues from game developer companies who are locked into software contracts. I am willing to bet that MS is planning to do no less than that.