Gadget celebrity extraordinaire Stephen Fry was one of the guests of honour at this year’s T3 Awards in the UK, and his speech is littered with little nuggets of quotable gold. Like his thoughts on Windows:
And for 20 odd years, most people were doing the equivalent of getting in a piss-smelling lift, electrocuting themselves on a nylon carpet, trying to read while flickering fluorescent lights over their heads buzzed with dead flies in them – and it was called “Windows”
The whole speech is educated and entertaining in typical Stephen Fry fashion. Enjoy.
[T3]
GiantGuineaPig
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 at 1:57 PMNice quote, but gets followed up with him saying that Microsoft now get it too. So it’s his thoughts on the old Windows, not Windows now.
Don’t forget context!
G
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 at 2:03 PMoh what a surprise… one of the biggest apple fanboys at the fanboy awards, where they hailed steve jobs as a wonderous “inventor”
glennc
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 at 3:25 PMmy thoughts exactly. who cares what a blind apple fanboy thinks? the guy is an idiot. an idiot of the comedic genius sort, but still an idiot when it comes to technology.
johnd
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 at 3:55 PMI was going to comment, but then thought “If you think Stephen Fry is an idiot, I doubt you would understand any rebuttle I posted.”
gargravarr
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 at 4:23 PMWhat are you then, if not a blind fanboy of things that are not Apple? Like most people who resort to the tag ‘fanboy’, you’ve probably not used the thing you are bagging someone else for using. If it is the result of ignorance, how are you fit to comment if he knows anything or not?
Wozza
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 at 4:38 PMGlennc again….you’re busy today aren’t you? (Shit My Jobs Says: Earnings Call Edition comments).
Obviously Stephen Fry is an idiot because you said so and your name is SO much more well known, you’ve done SO much more than Stephen Fry and you are SO much more well respected on a local and international level than he is. Guess that’s what qualifies you to pass judgment and pronounce him to be an ‘idiot’.
Tell me know though Glennc…does your handle actually stand for Glen No Clue?
pedant
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 12:45 AM@johnd
there’s nothing better than witnessing someone who claims intellectual superiority then go on to misspell one out of two of their three syllable words. Especially when they do so in a way that clearly isn’t just a typo. And even more so when they could have used a much a simpler word (eg response), but felt the need to (attempt to) show off. Delicious! I await your poorly spelled rebuttal (again)!
matt
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 1:09 AMyes, he is a big fanboy.
NO, he is NOT an idiot.
it was, in fact, a great speech, that I imagine would really speak to the emotional nerd.
johnd
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 8:56 AM@pendant
Look down on your keyboard to the left or right. You will find a key called “Shift”. Most people start sentences with a capital letter.
Like you, it’s much easier for me to comment on the form rather than the content.
matt
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 at 2:26 PMwow… what a nerd…
I’ve always just seen an OS as a tool… If I DON’T notice it as I’m going about my daily work, its working perfectly.
also, I used macs since 1992, all through school, used dos and windows too (probably less than the macs) and I really don’t get what he’s talking about, both seemed much of a muchness to me…
and I always remember, every half hour when I get to gaze upon the hypnotic Mac pinwheel, the last thing on my mind was how pretty it was…
software engineers… FIRST make sure your stuff WORKS. then how easy it is to use. then, if there is time, you can worry about how it makes you “feel”
ozonewocean
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 at 3:47 PMExactly the same with me- in using Macs and Windows all through university and at work afterwards. the only real difference was the lack of a right mouse button on the Macs, but that eventually changed too.
-That Mac pin-wheel really started to get bloody annoying after a while, more-so than the Windows hourglass since the animation has less variation (constant circle as opposed to filling and then turning)