Microsoft exec grilled by high school students

I'm not sure what I'm more worried about here: The future of America (as seen in the kids quoted in the article) or the future of Microsoft's entertainment division. Anyhoo, here's my favorite part of this silliness : Bricenel Lindsey, a 20-year-old super-senior at Challenger High School in Spanaway, asked Bach why so many Xbox 360s had technical problems. "You're right about the fact that in the early versions we had a problem in the box," Bach said. "Three red rings, there are a lot of names for it." Yes. One might say its name is Legion , in fact. But this is just disingenuous: "That was a technical problem. It didn't show up for almost 12 months after we started selling the product." "We have addressed it." It is now a matter of court record that Microsoft knew about rampant Xbox 360 reliability problems months before it shipped that product, actually. As for having "addressed" the issues, time will tell. Better still, how can a 16 year old high senior construct a sentence like the following and not be immediately sent back to elementary school? "Is Windows 7 going to be better than Vista, because Vista is a lot crashing right now?" Good God. You know what? Never mind. :)

Paul Thurrott

February 13, 2009

1 Min Read
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I'm not sure what I'm more worried about here: The future of America (as seen in the kids quoted in the article) or the future of Microsoft's entertainment division. Anyhoo, here's my favorite part of this silliness:

Bricenel Lindsey, a 20-year-old super-senior at Challenger High School in Spanaway, asked Bach why so many Xbox 360s had technical problems.

"You're right about the fact that in the early versions we had a problem in the box," Bach said. "Three red rings, there are a lot of names for it."

Yes. One might say its name is Legion, in fact.

But this is just disingenuous:

"That was a technical problem. It didn't show up for almost 12 months after we started selling the product."

"We have addressed it."

It is now a matter of court record that Microsoft knew about rampant Xbox 360 reliability problems months before it shipped that product, actually. As for having "addressed" the issues, time will tell.

Better still, how can a 16 year old high senior construct a sentence like the following and not be immediately sent back to elementary school?

"Is Windows 7 going to be better than Vista, because Vista is a lot crashing right now?"

Good God.

You know what? Never mind. :)

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Microsoft

About the Author

Paul Thurrott

Paul Thurrott is senior technical analyst for Windows IT Pro. He writes the SuperSite for Windows, a weekly editorial for Windows IT Pro UPDATE, and a daily Windows news and information newsletter called WinInfo Daily UPDATE.

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