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Microsoft

Microsoft Gets XBox Name 131

Posted by CmdrTaco from the settling-the-controversy dept.
chewy_fruit_loop writes "The humorous situation Microsoft found itself in a few months ago regarding the X-Box name already belonging to someone, has been settled. The BBC are reporting it here ,and XBox Technologies have this press release. I wonder how much that cost Microsoft ;-)" Apparently The corporation formerly known as XBox is located like a half hour from here. Congrats guys! I expect to see you in shiny ferarris sometime soon.
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Microsoft Gets XBox Name More

Microsoft Gets XBox Name

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  • Same thing happened when Ford spun off Visteon, and didn't check first to see if the name was taken. The little guy (a consulting firm in Florida, I believe) had to take it in the shorts. Same thing with X-Box. Don't these people know how to use Google? (FP, btw!)
  • ... of registering the names Office2002 and Windows 2002 yet?

    ---
    Living is a way of life ...

  • I would have loved to see them hold their ground (Score:4)

    by Masem ( 1171 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @05:21AM (#143747)
    By all accounts, XBOX the company had every right to the XBOX name, and beyond tossing as much money as they could at XBOX, MS could do nothing about it legally. I would have loved to see XBOX hold rock solid against MS, and watch the antics as the MS engine rapidly tried to pull another name from it's magical hat, probably hurting both their PR value and market value as the next generation of consoles comes out this Christmas. But even I would be daunted by having probably millions pushed in my face just to change the company name.

  • I would have held out just for spite against M$. Well until they started flashing a lot of money. :-)
  • Microsoft.gov

  • win/win/win situation (Score:5)

    by joq ( 63625 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @05:22AM (#143750) Homepage Journal

    Not only did they probably make off with a hefty payment, but after looking at their company, I can't determine what the heck XBoxTechnologies actually does, so if they were headed for FuckedCompany.com, they could use the publicity of their name to actuall do something since their page lists squat other than some broad description of nothing.

    Surprisingly no one is in an uproar type of posting mood claiming MS is bullying someone, so we all win here by not having to read the redundancies.
  • . . .and I'm curious to see what will leak out on exactly how much M$ paid them for the name...
  • I wonder if they have sold the rights to the name to M$ or sold a licence to them....
    If it was me I'd ask for 1 cent per unit sold, or I'll see you in court.
    Who wouldn' want to bleed microsoft? :-))

  • The American Dream (Score:4)

    by Violet Null ( 452694 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @05:27AM (#143753)
    At one point, it was to work hard, earn a fair amount of money, and then retire.

    Then it was to join a rising tech company, work for a little bit, sell your shares after the IPO, and retire.

    Now, it's to trademark a name that someone with big pockets, and lawyers who can't do research, will pay you gobs of money for, and retire.

  • I'm glad that was resolved... (Score:4)

    by briggsb ( 217215 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @05:27AM (#143754)
    I had been losing sleep over it for days. However, I'm more worried about Microsoft getting control of all the .NET [bbspot.com] domain names.
  • That means I'll have to get my superhero pr0n somewhere else?

    Damn...

  • Working for a start-up way back when (May-ish 1998), we decided that "XBox" would be the perfect name for our product (NDAs live on post-mortem, yadda yadda yadda). So I do the whois, find out they're registered, port scan them (is that legal anymore?) and find out there's not a single service up and running on their webserver.
    I get in touch with the domain contacts and ask them if they'd be willing to part with the domain, seeing as how they're not doing anything with it.
    To paraphrase, the response I got back was, "We have many exciting business opportunities planned for the near future for xbox.com, but we would be willing to part with the name for $10,000." Long story short, maybe that extra Sun box instead of that domain name wasn't the most prudent business move we could have made; thankfully, I had nothing to do with the business end, so I'm not losing any sleep over it. As for their claims, it looks like it took them a year and a half to get a single press release out; on Internet time where OpenBSD gets scolded for taking 6 f'n days to get a patch out, is that near future?
    At any rate, I'm glad to see that domain squatting's bad, except when it happens to Microsoft and open source is good, except when Microsoft uses it, etc., etc.

  • Terms (Score:3)

    by A Commentor ( 459578 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @05:30AM (#143757) Homepage

    Hopefully they were smart enough to ask for some percentage of the sales... That could help them out if the blow the big initial payout.

    Something like 1/2% would get them $2.5/box, not bad to have a nice steady income like that..

  • spare me (Score:4)

    by joq ( 63625 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @05:30AM (#143758) Homepage Journal

    It would never happen. Just because Microsoft buys companies to benefit themselves mean little, if there was a company I would be worried about it would be something more like GeneralElectric.gov who has their hands in so much shit it isn't even funny. Business is business and MS is no different from other companies who purchase others, look at CitiGroup, why not make an uproar about them?

    Posts like this may little sense.
  • how many people got fired over the whole xbox technologies thing?? Isn't there supposed to be a process when a name is picked? You go through trademarks, domain names, other incorportated entities in your target market...

  • Holding their ground (Score:4)

    by laertes ( 4218 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @05:31AM (#143760) Homepage
    How many people here said that they should have held their ground, and not sold the name? I thought so. But consider this, if they have any shareholders, and they don't take a deal like his, then they'll probably be liable for a shareholder's suit.

    But this is slashdot, and we don't like to think about business, except Sony and Nintendo.

  • When MS releases the next generation of X Box, they'd better not call it X2!
  • Microsoft could have avoided paying off XBOX Techs altogether in order to maintain their incredibly large assets and money. They could have easily changed the XBox name to something else without having to pay anything to XBOX Techs.

    The reason they didnt do this was to avoid embarrasments. I guess that means they werent embarrased by the following events:

    • service release to Win2k less than 6 mos. after it's original release
    • gates getting blue-screen-of-death during Win98 demo.

  • Re:Ferraris (Score:4)

    by Psiren ( 6145 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @05:34AM (#143763)
    Sorry, but selling out is not attractive to a man of principle...

    No, but it'll probably get them lots of sex. Hmm.. tough call ;)

  • Model: So, what are you into?
    Patrick: Murders and Executions, mostly.

    XBOX Technologies, from what I can gather, was the name of a firm involved in Mergers and Acquisitions. Kudos to those who place the quote, btw.

  • Do you really think Gates cares about being set back a couple of millions (even 100) if that were the price to buy the rights to the name ? Moreover, I dont think MS would take a risk such as that, seeing how bad their PR already is. As far as I know/care, these guys got their Lamborghinis.

  • Addendum (Score:5)

    by 3ryon ( 415000 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @05:35AM (#143766)
    In other news, all employees of Xbox Technologies were found dead this morning. It seems that during a all-hands strategy meeting was held in a conference room which had a gas leak. Detectives are still puzzeled how the sales people who were teleconfrencing were also killed by the gas leak.

  • Would never happen (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Remember, this is M$ we're talking about. If the boys at XBOX decided to play hardball, it would only be a matter of time before somebody fished them out of the bottom of a lake or found them dead in a single-car "accident." Do the math: mega-corporations plus a "business friendly" presidential administration equals a threatening environment for "little guy" competitors. Microsoft would have killed these guys, and the Justice Department would sweep it tidily under the rug.

  • Re:Yep, Next MS will have to pay US Robotics for " (Score:4)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18, 2001 @05:35AM (#143768)
    According to an inside source, Microsoft is considering naming the next generation game box:

    • Coca Cola
    • TiVo
    • Formica
    • Linux
    • Cowboy Neal

  • My mom was wrong (Score:3)

    by cnkeller ( 181482 ) <cnkeller@gmail . c om> on Monday June 18, 2001 @05:35AM (#143769) Homepage
    Money can buy you everything....
  • Lots of sex is not attractive to a man of principle either.

    It comes down to the quality of sex.

  • Hope it never goes this far, but X10 is a registered trademark as well.

    --

  • Favourite quote (Score:4)

    by Dr_Cheeks ( 110261 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @05:36AM (#143772) Homepage Journal
    "It was a
    very, very mutually satisfying agreement," said Robert Koolen for Knowledge Mechanics, a computer-based education company that is the main holder of XBOX Technologies. [my emphasis]

    Man, I hope M$ decide to call the next major product they release in the UK the Club-Foot : )

  • Interesting... (Score:4)

    by ryanw ( 131814 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @05:37AM (#143773)
    As part of the settlement, Microsoft will have all trademark rights to "Xbox," which is the name of Microsoft's new video game console system, and XBOX Technologies has agreed, in due course, to change its corporate name.

    Interesting ... this company (XBoxTechnologies) is publicly traded on Nasdaq as "XBOX". To change the name seems like it'll take quite some doing .. I guess MS musta' paid them all a very pretty penny.

    Here's the link to see the price of their stock ...

    http://quotes.nasdaq.com/Quote.dll?page=multi&mode =Stock&symbol=XBOX [nasdaq.com]
  • Instead of standing rock solid and getting no cash, how about calling up Sony and asking them how much they'd pay for the trademark....

    Now that would've been cool.

    HI Mom!

  • What, you never seen the Simpsons? (Score:3)

    by nakaduct ( 43954 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @05:39AM (#143775)
    Congrats guys! I expect to see you in shiny ferarris sometime soon.


    Gates: OK boys, buy 'em out!
    [wanton destruction ensues]
    Xbox: What happen?
    Gates: You don't think I got rich by writin' a lot of cheques, do ya?

    cheers,
    mike
  • this man of principle is one boring arsehole then ;)
  • That's not domain squatting, unless you have more information than you're sharing. Buying a name nobody else is using as a trademark with the intent to use it isn't squatting, even if you later decide you want it.
  • I'm guessing the quote is American Psycho
  • They're trading below a dollar a shoare, I don't think many people care what the ticker says, as long as it goes UP.

    -bZj
    prompt> finger Down8
    Login: Down8 In real life: I am a Viking.
  • It's kind of obvious. They waited until MS can't back off on the X-Box name. So much time has been spent on the design (or so they say, the controller testing thing) that reinventing it to match a new name (and hence the removal of the big X from the actual machine, and changing of the controllers) would kill the release date.

    These guys have also probably been planning this for a long time, considering the X-Box/ rumors of it and its name have been around for much longer then a few months.

    However I can't fault them because considering they don't make- or do- anything, and without this nice bundle of cash they'd be closing up shop soon.
    --------------------------------------

  • Re:Funny (Score:5)

    by babbage ( 61057 ) <cdevers AT cis DOT usouthal DOT edu> on Monday June 18, 2001 @05:48AM (#143781) Homepage Journal
    No no no, that's not it. Microsoft, wise multi billion dollar company that they are, forgot to pay their $35 fee to renew the hotmail.com domain name, thus disabling the service all at once on Christmas Eve, 1999. A guy named Michael Chaney realized what was going on, paid the fee, and went about his business. Microsoft sent him an unsolicited check for $500, but he refused it -- putting the check they sent him up for sale on eBay and promising to give whatever proceeds from the auction (and matching up to $2000) to a charity of the winning bidder's choice.

    The links about it are still available online -- Slashdot played it's role in events.



  • New company name? (Score:3)

    by minyard ( 101989 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @05:49AM (#143782)
    X-X-Box
  • On principle, boredom is not an option. Principle takes constant vigilance, which is an adventure of its own. Gandhi was a man of principle--was he boring? Moses was a man of principle--was he boring?

    A man of principle is unable to be bored. And whether he is boring to observe or not is a decision best left in the hands of another man of principle.

    XBox shouldn't have sold out. But the past cannot be changed. Therefore, if you find yourself in the future being presented with a check from Microsoft... don't sell out. Be remembered for having standards, not for selling them to MS.

  • Something that I think is worth considering, particularly for all you moral purists out there who are snootily insisting that this meaningless little business should have held the line and stood on principles, is that "X-Box" is a stupid name for a video game console and an even stupider name for a vaguely defined tech company. This is probably one of the best business decisions these people ever made...
  • No.

    Now it's: Write code all your life. GIve it away for nothing. Die an angry, unshaven, heathen under a bridge somewhere.

  • By my math the company is worth all of $7600, but even if I slipped a decimal point, they're still not worth much. I think Microsoft is the luckiest thing to ever happen to them.

    "What are we going to do tonight, Bill?"

  • XBox name by itself (Score:4)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @05:58AM (#143787) Homepage Journal
    The pity is, it's such a lame name. It reminds my of that Simpson's episode where they tried to create a hip, cool, new attitude character for Itchy and Scratchy, according to all market research it should have been a success, but predictably flopped.

    Names Microsoft could have used:

    Nintega 2600

    Sonendo Games Station

    Segtari ZX2

    Supreme Extreme Intergalactic Game Playin' Machine! With Hip Graphics, Cool WiMP Sound, New Attitude Controllers!

    Edsel

    --
    All your .sig are belong to us!

  • Well, their market cap [yahoo.com] was only about $5 million before (and sinking fast). I imagine this will do pretty damn well for their net value when they eventually get the payout.

    Predicting the name of major products before they're announced seems to be a better racket than whatever they were doing before!

  • an even stupider name for a vaguely defined tech company
    I don't think it's as dumb as "Zero Knowledge" from last week's /. an in-joke that just looks stupid to those who aren't crypto-geeks.
    But it is a dumb name; has nothing to do with gaming, like 'PlayStation' does.

    "What are we going to do tonight, Bill?"
  • I would have loved to see XBOX hold rock solid against MS
    XBOX has a market cap [yahoo.com] of $5 million, MS's market cap is over $350 billion. Do the math.
  • how many people got fired over the whole xbox technologies thing?? Isn't there supposed to be a process when a name is picked? You go through trademarks, domain names, other incorportated entities in your target market...

    You missed a step. Should be, "You go through trademarks, domain names, other incorportated entities in your target market, see if any of them can stand up to your financial and legal resources..."

    At least that's the Microsoft way. ;-)
  • Microsoft is a behemoth. I wonder how many corporate lawyers got fired for this massive foobar...

    Here's hoping those dumbass corporate lawyers get to join all the homeless dot bomb'ers [slashdot.org] not a few of which Microsoft - through the help of these lawyers - put there.

    --CTH


    ---
  • Okay, my math was screwed, I was looking at oustanding shares, not total shares.
    Which explains why I don't invest :)

    "What are we going to do tonight, Bill?"
  • No. He means XXXBox. In other words, Pam Anderson's goonya.

  • I think this sums it up (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Name Last Change Volume

    XBOX US$0.17 -US$0.05 32,4000

    The funny thing about this was that had they not caved in to Microsoft, M$ would have been hosed big time!

  • actually they're running Win98 or NT on IIS... how's that for irony? linkage below:
    http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?mode_u=off&mod e_w=on&site=www.xboxtechnologies.com&submit=Examin e [netcraft.com]

  • Name Change.... (Score:3)

    by i_m_sane ( 145871 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @06:14AM (#143797) Homepage
    They should call themselves the TPFKAXBOX. The programmers formally known as the X-Box.
    | - Adam Sane :-)
  • Nobody could confuse a dishwasher with an operating system. That's why you have Netscape Navigator and Lincoln Navigator, they're completely different. I don't know what Xbox does, but they're definately a tech company. That's too close to the console Xbox for MS to use the same name.

    -B
  • The XXX-Box might give better market share. (from a coworker sitting next to me)
    | - Adam Sane :-)
  • Naw, TCFWXBOXDNS. The Company From When X-BOX Did Not Suck.
  • Not worth it, really, as Microsoft would just relabel the machine if it got too much of a hassle. Besides, I don't think Sony wants to make an enemy of Gates, Inc. as they'd suddenly find Windows doesn't seem to work very well or run very fast on Sony VAIO computers, which would hurt business and tie up courts trying to prove anything.

    --
    All your .sig are belong to us!


  • Microsoft remains on target for a successful North American launch of its Xbox video game system on Nov. 8.

    Thats not the target I remember, just back at E3 it was going to be like late september, or pretty close to that. The big deal was how Nintendo decided they we're not only release there shiznat a WEEK earlyer, but also for a 100 bucks less.

    Anyone know what's up with them changing the date?

    -Jon

  • Re:Way to applaud XBox Tech for domain squatting. (Score:3)

    by Sabalon ( 1684 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @06:32AM (#143803)
    find out there's not a single service up and running on their webserver.

    Yup...web is all them thar domains names are good for.
  • If Cowbow Neal is an option, this should be a poll.
  • Not selling microsoftsucks.com, yes, that would be standing on principle. Not selling "xthingie.com", that would be what we in the business call "stupid", especially since it's a fairly generic name that has no public recognition value for their company anyway.

    Taking their money would be the best revenge. You can always give it to charity or use it to support your favorite open-source project.
  • I think the same thing happened 20 years ago with an obscure band called Guns n' Roses. When Axel Rose and Slash (without the dot) made their own Guns n' Roses band, the band holding the original name negociated a deal which is actually a percentage of each record sold. Not too bad a deal...!

  • MS did this before (Score:4)

    by Alien54 ( 180860 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @06:45AM (#143807) Journal
    They had a similar problem with the product name 'Internet Explorer"

    You can still download the original Sprynet (Non-MS) Internet Explorer at the Evolt.org browser archive [evolt.org], here [evolt.org]

    I recall that MS also had to settle with Synet (not Sprynet) on the name Interner Explorer. The original company went under, but was kept alive long enough by lawyers for some sort of settlement from MS. That story you can read about here [ardmoreite.com], with added info here [computingsa.co.za].

    Then, these are the people who insist that "BookShelf" is not a generic term.

    Check out the Vinny the Vampire [eplugz.com] comic strip

  • as much as i would have been amused by seeing the little guy screw over the dreams of the big guy, such a tactic would only have cost the little guy. the people who owned the name xbox probably made a good bit of scratch off this deal, and something tells me that they made more by selling the rights to the name then they would have made by using the name. microsoft stood to lose nothing other than the equivalent pocket change thrown at marketing people. remember nintendo and their 'ultra 64'? and how until just a few months before it's release it was called 'ultra 64', until somebody realized they had rights to that name and called them on it? nintendo then changed the name to 'nintendo 64' and years later most people don't remember the 'ultra 64' thing at all. xbox (the company) did the right thing, and they're probably all going on vacation right now because of it :)


    "I hope I don't make a mistake and manage to remain a virgin." - Britney Spears
  • M$ audited them for licenses and they didn't have enough, just like every company in the world that usese M$. So they made them a deal they couldn't refuse :)

  • Re:Ferraris (Score:5)

    by malfunct ( 120790 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @07:08AM (#143810) Homepage
    Its funny that you worry about the XBox company selling out to MS when from the articals on the page XBox is a company thats all about asking other companies to sell out to them. XBox is an aquisitions company and you can only imagine how evil and cuthroat they are. Looks like thier purpose on life is to run around looking for floundering companies with potential and buy them up for rediculously cheap prices before they blow up and become something big.

    Getting cash from MS just to change the name of thier company just fits in to thier plan. I love how you guys berate MS no matter what they do but when another evil corporation comes into view you think they are all good stuff. Blah.

  • Yes, it was a bad transition. The first sentance was a response to the Linux dishwasher post. The second sentance was my example of a browser and an SUV with the same name. I think the smart folks around here can figure out what I meant.

    -B
  • What "principle" do you hold that says that it's wrong to sell a domain name?
  • The reason nobody is posting anti-M$ is because M$ screwed up and had to layout some big cash to fix the problem...I wonder if the person that came up with the "brilliant" idea for the name Xbox is still employed..now if we can just find someone to port linux and a PS2 emulator to the Xbox it would be the icing on the be F-U cake.
  • I just hope they drive better than they manage their company! According to Yahoo Finance, their management effectiveness rating is -381.36 percent. Thats based on losses over earnings. Ouch! That and I can't believe they sold it to M$, why didn't they take it to Sony, Nintendo or even Sega instead?

  • Microsoft has a difficult time hiring good marketing talent, apparently.

    X is a name you use when you mean, "I don't know what." It is a symbol for the unknown. It's use as the name of a product causes the reader momentary confusion, not something you want in a trademark.

    Besides, X-Box sounds like it is X-rated. There will be people who will think it is a porno appliance.
  • Actually, as an ironic sidenote to that comment. USR had to cease marketing "x2" products in Brazil as some company down there was already producing a product by that name. It was a tape drive or something like that. It only caused a little stress as V.90 was just about out by then so they pulled the product and did special packaging for that country only that did not mention x2, just V.90. Goes to show it is hard to find a name that is not used somewhere these days.
  • Actually, this is a valid concern (about GE that is).
    Last year, General Electric's revenue exceeded 1% of the GDP of the United States.

    I don't know if this ever happened before but certainly not in modern times.


    #include sig.h

  • I would have loved to see XBOX hold rock solid against MS,

    Hand[0]: Big fat juicy check with B. Gates' signature at the bottom.

    Hand[1]: Smug satisfaction of burning M-Soft's corporate ass.

    Err, I'll take what's on the check, Monty!

    and watch the antics as the MS engine rapidly tried to pull another name from it's magical hat,

    Like "HexBox" or "EcksBox" or X-Boss or S-Boxx or...

    But even I would be daunted by having probably millions pushed in my face just to change the company name.

    Daunted? Are you sure you didn't mean "sport major wood and drool like a baby sucking a lemon"?

    I know I would.


  • Need a marketing consultant?

    I'll help you avoid foolishness like this.
  • On a serious note, why is Microsoft allowed to use the .net name? Surely some domain-registration organisation has the rights to that name?
  • American Pyscho.
  • kind of funny that MS is even paying off a company that makes its living buying out [xboxtechnologies.com] smaller tech companies... at least xbox tech. is up-front about it :)
    -----
  • Nah, it's dead as a doornail when he dies. Oh, it'll survive for awhile, but it will wither away. Several OS gens down the road it'll swap with some other OS.

  • Actually, Microware sued Apple, since Microware users might not be able to determine the difference between an OS for industrial equipment and an OS for iMacs.

    What a surprise that their case was thrown out of court...although not as big of surprise as when Apple Records sued Apple. Their argument was: "Apple computers have a mic-in port, they must be a record company."

  • That's a much better deal than the Love and Rockets comic book got...

  • And if you own the stock and don't want to sell it? Besides, if they wanna buy a flaming ship (stock price under .5 for several months) and shut it down, hey, great, cash for everyone, meetcha at Cheers in an hour.

    (And we'll pick up those ferrari's tomorrow.)

  • We can probably find out how much $$ was involved (Score:3)

    by HEbGb ( 6544 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @08:15AM (#143827)
    Note that Xbox is a public company; their financial reports will undoubedly have a line-item indicating how much money they made from the sale of this trademark.

    From the looks of things, they really needed the dough... they've only got $22k in the bank. Their stockholders didn't really apprciate this, however, seeing as their stock is down 13% today..

    http://biz.yahoo.com/p/x/xbox.ob.html [yahoo.com]

  • Bullshit. The American Dream has ALLWAYS been to get rich.

    The Spaniards came to the Americas for God, Gold, and Glory. But most of all for Gold.

    American immigration has always been advertised with the idea that "in America, the streets are paved with gold."

    California gold rush.

    Manifest destiny (read as: one big land grab)

    Capitalism, itself is about nothing more than individual wealth. Hell, you could define capitalism as the philosophy that we can let everyone be greedy and get rich as long as their struggle to get rich enriches others.

    Listen to Hollywood and Disney if you want, but the reality is that the American Dream is and always has been about getting rich and not having to work. ('Little' house with white picket fence my ass).

    I'm just glad to see that someone was able to realize their dream at Microsoft's expense.

  • Joel Hodgeson, the creator of Mystery Science Theatre 3000, made a revolving stage setup called an "X-Box" in 1997. A group of comedians performed a single show that was aired on Comedy Central and HBO. Here's the link : Joel and Jim Hodgeson's X Box [gizmonics.com]
  • Besides, X-Box sounds like it is X-rated. There will be people who will think it is a porno appliance.
    And thats a bad thing? It's the first thing that game to my gramp's mind, and he swore on his deathbed that he'd be the first in line to get one. He is a little upset about them focusing on the T&L, but maybe thats just because he isn't much of a legs guy.

    So maybe the name wasn't such a bad decision after all?

    Revelations 0:0 - The begining of the end.
  • I wonder how long till MS pays of Home Depot for 'Windows' ?

  • Re:OS9: Microware vs. Apple anyone? (Score:3)

    by IronChef ( 164482 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @09:11AM (#143836)
    Even more dumb than the Apple Records suit are the conditions under which it was settled: Apple was not allowed, for a long time, to do anything on Macs that related to music. Apple's own lawyers maintained that to be safe they couldn't even use notes from musical instruments as the system "beep" options.

    Some guy at Apple, fed up with this, put some kind of musical "toot" in the OS as a beep option. The sound file was named "Sosumi." So... sue... me... get it...?

    With iTunes and all, I guess the terms of the Apple Records settlement are long dead. If Apple didn't have to avoid music technology for so long I wonder where they would have taken it by now?

  • I live near a bridge. I should probably go over there with some soup and a blanket. And some clean socks.
  • Nah... XXXbox, bundled with virtual valery :)
  • I hope M$ decide to call the next major product they release in the UK the Club-Foot

    Didn't you steal it from Mr. Bean?
    __
  • "bringing innovative technologies"

    sounds like they're going to work for Microsoft
    ---
  • This is the quite of quick buck progress that makes me proud to have George W. as president and a congress that is acutioned off bienially. Take that, you euro-posers!
  • since xbox is changing its name, and giving full rights to M$, I bet they bought the name outright. I don't feel bad for the Xbox people at all! This is probably the best thing that ever happened to them. Can you imagine what microsoft was willing to pay to ensure that they secured the name by the scheduled release date?

    -
  • Hopefully X-Box Technologies doesn't make an operating system called QDOS [vcnet.com] :)

  • Re:Those who have a clue don't name things X. (Score:3)

    by selectspec ( 74651 ) on Monday June 18, 2001 @12:47PM (#143855)
    Actually, X does have traditional meanings:

    XML as in Extensible. Of course, I doubt the X-box is extensible.

    X-Windows, standing for Cross Windows. Symbolizing cross compatibility and remote access. Of course, I doubt Microsoft had any of these ideas in mind when they came up with the X-box.

    xinitd as in extended initd. A new version is often symbolized with x (such as PCI-X). Microsoft isn't releasing anything extended here.

    Actually, the reason Microsoft is calling it the X-box, is because the box leverages the Direct-X API's developed on the windows PC operating systems. Direct-X gets its X because it is a hardware emulation layer and the name implies Direct-[any video/sound chipset].

  • ... hrm, you mean like those mice that MS started releasing about a year ago? The Intellimouse Optical, was it? If I recall correctly, there's a pretty severe defect with those that causes them to fail after about 3 or so months. I know of several people who have them - and have had to have them replaced several times each.

    I don't call that a high quality product. Besides that, these mice feel light and weak, as if they were made with a subgrade plastic. I'll stick with my Logitech, thanks.

    On another note, doesn't MS primarily produce an operating system or two and an office suite? I could be mistaken, but their mice and joysticks aren't the primary product of Microsoft, Inc....

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    Caimlas


  • A woman I met here told me the same story. She bought a computer, signed up for AOL, and immediately began getting about 30 porno messages a day.

    So, the first thing she did every day was delete everything pornographic. To her, it was obvious that everything from Hotmail was x-rated spam, so she deleted it without reading it. She learned of her mistake when a friend called her and asked why she never responded to his e-mail.

    I suggest that Microsoft should go all the way and call its new product HotBox . That way Microsoft could get back the 29 cents it spent for the name X-Box.
  • No, actually I couldn't abide the show and avoided it whenever possible (still been subjected to it by family members or on planes, so my dislike isn't unfounded). Rowan Atkinson was much funnier in Blackadder.

    Did the same low-quality pun get made on the show as well? I genuinely came up with the name myself, but was faintly surprised that I'd not head it done before (although since then I've heard of some bar in Chicago or somewhere with the same name).

  • Well, the phrase could be interpreted as a club (disco, organisation, etc.) with the name "Foot" - hence Club Foot.

    However, Club Foot is also the common name for the disease called Talipes which causes club-like deformity of the foot.

    I've taken this one step further with my site, which I've subtitled "The Lamest Site On The Web", since lame could mean both unable to walk properly (as in someone suffering from Club Foot), or of poor quality.

    I know; it's in poor taste, but so's most of the rest of my site, so what the hell. Hope this cleared things up for you; learning a language with as many contradictions and tricks as English must suck (I'm learning Japanese at the moment, and I can see the grammar is way easier than English).

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