Early Experiences - What turned you on?

[a9127]

Originally Posted by ila

The Windows 95 logo of course. What could be sexier?

Good news. Hayley is currently leading 4 to 1. You can probably guess which of the two is already gracing my desktop...

However, the Windows 95 logo might be “sexier” then most people think. In 1995, Microsoft chose the song “Start Me Up” by the Rolling Stones as the theme song for the release of their new operating system. It was played during commercials and you could even order the album “Tattoo You” directly from Microsoft.

Microsoft was also pushing, at the time, the “educational” aspects of technology and targeting younger people (especially grade and middle school students such as myself). Of course Apple had this market wrapped up almost from the beginning. I remember that Microsoft targeted “Encarta” a “multimedia” CD-ROM based encyclopedia at people my age. I still have my copy and it is painful to look at almost 24 years later. Once I showed it to my current students (college age) during a discussion of the evolution of interactive technology and they couldn’t stop laughing at it. The “basketball” video is a classic.

Anyway, I digress. Someone in "PR" wasn't paying attention... If you are familiar with the lyrics to “Start Me Up” you know it’s not appropriate for a “family friendly” product. Also it received unintended ridicule from “IT” professionals with the lyric “You make a grown man cry” as it was notoriously difficult to work with. But it gets better… Here are some of the actual lyrics, my favorite are the last two:

If you like it, I can slide it up

Slide it up, slide it up, slide it up

You, you, you make a grown man cry

You, you made a dead man come

You, you made a dead man come