Found this in my e-mail:
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:
l. 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
Dept.
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.
Redtalon 