So, Windows 95 is out. Yep, August the 24th, the big day, came and went, without a whimper of hype or advertising. Not!
But you won’t see me complaining about the hype. Nope. Not me. I like the hype surrounding Windows 95. I like the Rolling Stones jingle, I like the advert, I like the way they showed the nerdy insomniacs who decided to go buy it at midnight.
But most of all, I like the way I won a free copy from a radio station by answering a really easy question (which by some miracle noone else knew, or shouted fast enough or loud enough) out on St Kilda Road yesterday.
What a job that must be. Driving around in the Black Thunder or the Triple Thunder or the FM ThunderCrew Wagon Thundermobile (why do all the radio stations name their vehicles after thunder?), and giving away stuff. You’d end up thinking you were the most popular person on the planet. Everyone would always be pleased to see you.
"Hey Jim, here, take these fifty copies of Windows 95 in the Black Triple Thunder Machine, find a crowd of people and give them away!"
"What are they Ben?"
"Aww hell, I dunno, I work in radio. Something to do with windows."
"Okay, we’ll head down to the Glaziers’ Conference in William Street…"
But you know what got me? The media. For once they get a chance to talk about computers without mentioning the dreaded "I.S." cliche, and what do they do? They pretend they’ve never touched a keyboard. Trying to appeal to the common folk. Does anybody believe that journalists, even TV journalists, never use computers???
Some nameless gimboid on "NBC Nightly News Without Tom Brokaw" (Tom didn’t bother to turn up) says it’s got "something to do with computers…", and Ray on A Current Affair says after the story that the reporter was "the only one in the office who understood it." Yeah. Right. "Please folks, we’re common people here on TV. Even if we do earn millions of dollars a year for reading an autocue."
- From 2010: Windows 95 is fifteen years old today — including some of the promotional brochures
