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Software Wars |
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Written by Nick Kotarski
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Sunday, 10 April 2005 |
Monday, 10 AM -- Chicago, Illinois -- Start-up software
developer Cuisine International announced CUISINENET, the first working
program to seamlessly integrate word and food processing. Called a
breakthrough for small restaurants and snack bars, Cuisine Chairman
Mark Meigs confidently predicted sales of thousands of copies with
shipments soon to begin.
Monday, 4 PM -- New York -- Cuisine International shares closed sharply higher on announcement of new CUISINENET product.
Tuesday, 9 AM -- Redmond, Washington -- Microsoft Chairman
William H. Gates, III announced that Microsoft Food for Windows would
soon enter beta testing. Gates described the product as the first of a
projected family of products to include Food for Windows, designed for
small commercial dining establishments; Personal Food for Windows,
designed for home kitchens; Portable Food for Windows, designed for
lunchboxes; and, of course, at the high end, Food for Windows NC
(Nouvelle Cuisine) designed for large institutional dining rooms.
Asked by a reporter about CUISINENET, Gates said that he had never
heard of the product, but was not surprised by it, because the software
business is highly competitive, and Microsoft has to compete on the
basis of merit with many strong competitors, as the FTC had recently
concluded.
Tuesday, 3 PM -- Chicago, Illinois -- An angry Mark Meigs showed
reporters a copy of the nondisclosure agreement signed by Bill Gates,
under which Cuisine International had informed Microsoft a year earlier
about plans for CUISINENET. Meigs said that in hindsight, he should
never have signed the agreement, as the only thing he learned from
Microsoft was that Gates was considering making changes to Windows.
Wednesday, 9 AM -- Redmond, Washington -- Microsoft Chairman
Bill Gates announced that Microsoft would soon publish specifications
for the Windows Open Kitchen Architecture (WOKA), a series of design
specifications to permit manufacturers of toasters, ranges, and other
kitchen appliances to integrate their products into the forthcoming
Microsoft Food for Windows line.
Asked about reports of a nondisclosure agreement with Cuisine
International for a similar product, Gates said that the other product
was really at most a niche product, and would probably have less
functionality than the food-related features that Microsoft would be
building into the new Unsaturated FAT File System which would be part
of DOS 7.0. Gates said that he doubted there would be much interest in
a dead-end solution that would not be able to keep up to date with
advances in WOKA.
Gates added that over 11,000 manufacturers of kitchen appliances were
already having serious discussions with Microsoft about WOKA, and that
he expected almost all important eaters of food to standardize on the
WOKA environment.
Wednesday, 10 AM -- Redmond, Washington -- Microsoft Chairman
Bill Gates announced that he would be giving the keynote speech at the
American Bakers annual convention on "Nutrition at Your Fingertips."
Gates played down speculation that he would use the Bakers convention
to introduce Microsoft Food for Windows, saying only that alpha testing
was proceeding ahead of schedule, and the product would be shipped when
it was ready.
Wednesday, 11 AM -- Redmond, Washington -- Microsoft Corporation
announced that its Chairman, William H. Gates, III, had made a donation
of over $250,000 of personal funds to the Cordon Bleu to begin an
endowment fund for the Bill Gates Professorship of Advanced Cookery.
The famous French cooking school confirmed that it had agreed to be a
beta site for the much discussed Food for Windows application sweet.
Thursday, 9 AM -- New York -- PCWeek Magazine reported in a
copyrighted story that it had obtained a copy of correspondence from
Microsoft to Cuisine International, demanding that the small developer
of kitchen software cease using the Cuisine name, as it infringes on
the trademark for Microsoft Food for Windows NC. Microsoft added that
Chairman Mark Meigs would also have to change his own name as Mark
infringed a copyright on the Windows Edit menu, Meigs infringed the
trademark on Meigs Field in Microsoft Flight Simulator, and Chairman
infringed the trademark on Bill Gates's title which he had acquired
with personal funds from Mao's estate. Also, Microsoft advised that
while the company did not actually have to move out of Chicago, use of
the name on press releases infringed a trademark on Windows 4.0.
Thursday, 4 PM -- New York -- Cuisine International stock closed at 0-bid, 1/16-asked.
Friday, 9 AM -- ? -- An anonymous spokesman for an unnamed
Midwestern software developer announced the discontinuation of
operations. Undescribed legal problems were cited as the reason. Others
speculated that a failure to appreciate the competitive nature of the
software business may have led to the company's sudden collapse.
Monday, 9 AM -- Microsoft Internal Mail
From: billg
To: mikem
Re: Food Program
Please see if you can reassign one of the 3,000 engineers from the OS/2
virus development project to do a feasibility study on a food-related
program. Not sure what it would do. Low priority.
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