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Blue Screen of Death



 In a surprise announcement today, Microsoft President Steve Ballmer
 revealed that the Redmond-based company will allow computer resellers
 and end-users to customize the appearance of the Blue Screen of Death
 BSOD), the screen that displays when the Windows operating system crashes.

 The move comes as the result of numerous focus groups and customer
 surveys done by Microsoft. Thousands of Microsoft customers were asked,
 "What do you spend the most time doing on your computer?"

 A surprising number of respondents said, "Staring at a Blue Screen of
 Death." At 54 percent, it was the top answer, beating the second place
 answer "Downloading XXXScans" by an easy 12 points.

 "We immediately recognized this as a great opportunity for ourselves,
 our channel partners, and especially our customers," explained the
 excited Ballmer to a room full of reporters.

 Immense video displays were used to show images of the new
 customizable BSOD screen side-by-side with the older static version.
 Users can select from a collection of "BSOD Themes," allowing them to
 instead have a Mauve Screen of Death or even a Paisley Screen of Death.
 Graphics and multimedia content can now be incorporated into the
 screen, making the BSOD the perfect conduit for delivering product
 information and entertainment to Windows users.

 The BSOD is by far the most recognized feature of the Windows
 operating system, and as a result, Microsoft has historically insisted
 on total control over its look and feel. This recent departure from
 that policy reflects Microsoft's recognition of the Windows desktop
 itself as the "ultimate information portal." By default, the new BSOD
 will be configured to show a random selection of Microsoft product
 information whenever the system crashes. Microsoft channel partners
 can negotiate with Microsoft for the right to customize the BSOD on
 systems they ship.

 Major computer resellers such as Compaq, Gateway, and Dell are
 already lining up for premier placement on the new and improved BSOD.
 Ballmer concluded by getting a dig in against the Open Source
 community. "This just goes to show that Microsoft continues to
 innovate at a much faster pace than open source. I have yet to see any
 evidence that Linux even has a BSOD, let alone a customizable one."
 

 
 
Date: Thu, 04 May 2000 01:12:06 -0500
From: Thad Phetteplace 
X-Accept-Language: en
To: keg@dotparagon.com
Subject: BSOD Article

Hello Kathy,

While surfing the web, I noticed that the "Microsoft Announces
Improved BSOD" article that I wrote for Segfault a while back has
been copied and reprinted on about a zillion different web pages
on the net.  I think that is majorly cool!  I've also noted that
a lot of people have asked "who the hell originally wrote this
thing?"  That would be me.  I submitted it to segfault a couple
of years ago but forgot to sign my name at the end of it.  I'm
sending this message out to webmasters who have copied the
original article (or its minor emailed variations) in case they
want to provide proper attribution.  No big deal if you don't
want to... though it would do my ego no end of good to see may
name plastered all over the web.  :-)

The URL: http://www.dotparagon.com/moto/humor/bsd.html

Thanks,

Thad Phetteplace
mailto:tdphette@glaci.com

P.S. The original segfault article is signed with my email
address, so it is possible to verify that I am the author.
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