The Future is Ginger

[Laurel]

http://inside.com/it.html

Harvard Business School Press executive editor Hollis Heimbouch has just paid $250,000 for a book about IT -- but neither the editor nor the agent, Dan Kois of The Sagalyn Literary Agency, knows what IT is.

All they do know: IT, also code-named Ginger, is an invention developed by 49-year-old scientist Dean Kamen, and the subject of a planned book by journalist Steve Kemper. According to Kemper's proposal, IT will change the world, and is so extraordinary that it has drawn the attention of technology visionaries Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs and the investment dollars of pre-eminent Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr, among others.

Bezos is quoted as saying that IT ''is a product so revolutionary, you'll have no problem selling it. The question is, are people going to be allowed to use it?''

Jobs is quoted as saying: ''If enough people see the machine you won't have to convince them to architect cities around it. It'll just happen.''

 

[R Nitelight]

Oh, I gotta get one!!!!

 

[Never]

Did anyone see the Pinky and the Brain episode where they crash national phone service by making an infomercial selling nothing?

 

[Laurel]

Oh, I gotta get one!!!!

Me too. Whatever it is, I'm there.

 

[Madame Pandora]

You guys....

WHATEVER IT looks like, it doesn't matter. At some point it's going to turn into a clown that sounds like Tim Curry and munch you and crunch you and be generally unpleasant.

Stay out of the Barrens.

MP

 

[April]

LOL, MP. That's pretty much what I was thinking. IT. *shudder*

 

[Unclebill]

Bezos is quoted as saying that IT ''is a product so revolutionary, you'll have no problem selling it. The question is, are people going to be allowed to use it?''

With this last question, it must have some sexual function, otherwise, why else would there be a question of permission to use? Maybe the alleged "jack-off machine" I was warned of in my youth?

Seriously, though, I looked for the April 1, 2001, date on the article and didn't find it. Must be encoded in the html somewhere or perhaps disguised in a graphic!

And finally, for years, I've been hearing people say, "Voila! This is iT!". Maybe this guy really has found IT.

 

[Endlessly]

*whimpers*

If someone invented a clown that turns into a gigantic spider, I'm going to pee myself and move to Canada..

 

[Madame Pandora]

Oh yeah....

The CANADIANS will protect you. You'll be heading to France next.....

MP

 

[Dillinger]

Last time Kamen made the news... http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9911/26/ibot.idg/index.html

 

[April]

ROFL MP. I cannot believe you said that! *snickering anyway*

 

[Bonnie Wee Lassie]

*whimpers*

If someone invented a clown that turns into a gigantic spider, I'm going to pee myself and move to Canada..

I would protect you. But I want it to....or maybe I already have it?

 

[scylis]

hmm..
well, the thing is called "Ginger" so maybe it's the most realistic blow-up doll ever made, which just happens to look like a character from an old TV show that was the "Survivor" of its day....

i'll be happy just as long as it ain't that damn clown thing!!!
*sobs*
I DON'T WANNA MOVE TO CANADA!!!! EH?!?

 

[Bonnie Wee Lassie]

Heh!!!!


What is wrong with Canada?????

 

[scylis]

nothing...
i just want to go to Alaska, is all...

 

[Bonnie Wee Lassie]

Oh ok. Well your safe then.

 

[Guru]

 

[Never]

Breathe deep hun, that's 'one is a genius the other's insane.'
They're laboratory mice, their genes have been spliced.
To prove their mousey worth, they'll overcome the earth.
They're Pinky, they're Pinky and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain!

Wait, should I be more worried that I know the song?

 

[christo]

Is it April 1st??

Part of me thinks that this Ginger bullshit is, well, bullshit. Just another cheap marketing stunt. But these aren't a bunch of executives from Fox TV. The guy who invented this thing is a heavy hitter in engineering circles. I can't imagine Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs making asses of themselves just for some gimmick (Bezos has to worry about his company surviving another year and playing the fool would be a big mistake). And John Doerr is not going to invest millions of dollars and risk his reputation for a stunt. Neither is Harvard Business School.

So what the hell is IT? I read something that Bezos actually tried IT, that the dude who invented IT brought IT to the demonstration in a couple of canvas bags and put IT (I'm getting sick of capitalizing that) together with a hex wrench and a screwdriver.

The engineer is supposedly interested in helping people who have trouble moving for whatever reason get around. He designed a wheelchair that can go up stairs. And IT will allegedly help people escape a daily task they endure in cities that is frustrating and dirty and a pain in the ass. Bezos said everyone in America would want one, maybe two. Someone else said that Ginger would be the biggest startup in history and that the guy who invented it will be richer than Bill Gates in 5 years. So, what the hell is it? IT?

 

[Adoratrice]

It's a scooter...we'll all know for sure in 2002.

Waiting on the edge of my seat

 

[Dillinger]

I'm not sure if there is any connection... I doubt it... but the first time I saw IT one thing came to mind... well 2 things.

1)Being a least an honorary geek I know that IT is the common abbreviation for Information Technology

2)Stephen King

 

[Gingersnap]

Did someone call my name??

 

[Gaucho]

You guys....

WHATEVER IT looks like, it doesn't matter. At some point it's going to turn into a clown that sounds like Tim Curry and munch you and crunch you and be generally unpleasant.

Stay out of the Barrens.

MP

Interesting that you should bring that up, MP. I'm currently trying to slog my way through IT. I think he must have written IT during his "Yes, I will publish my laundry list and fuck you if you care" stage. No wonder Insomnia tanked.

I mean, I love Big Stevie and all, but I want to just slap him and say, "Get to the point already!"

<sighs> I think it may be 2002 before I finish this fucker.

IT floats, all right. IT floats like Weird Harold's wood.

Maybe I'll use it as kindling for my own "smokehouse".

 

[Guest]

The Future is Ginger!

 

[R Nitelight]

'Ginger' Inventor Uses Cartoonist Dad to Sketch

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010521/od/picture_dc_1.html