Nostalgia Waxes

So apparently there's something going on today in New York City (I don't know what it is, since I'm not invited :)).

However, a couple of weeks ago, someone dug up a piece of Microsoft nostalgia and posted it on Google Videos.  I saw the first couple of seconds and I shouted out "Hey, it's W-W-W-Windows!"

Wow, that brought back HUGE memories. 

The video was filmed in Building 2, where I worked - while they were filming it, Valorie and I were standing off camera watching the proceedings (they took over the lobby of the building and we couldn't walk through it).  My office at the time was just behind the receptionists desk.

The "Nice Guy who sold her Windows/386" was Adrian King,who was the head of the OS division at the time.  He later left Microsoft with Rob Glaser to found Real Networks. Silly trivia: when you installed Real Player, back in the day, it played a short audio clip ("Welcome to Real", I believe).  It was Adrian's voice on the clip.

"T. Bone Perkins" was really Frank Gaudette.  Frank was the CFO for Microsoft at the time.  Frank was known internally as the soul of Microsoft.  He used to give the most remarkable company meeting financial announcements.  He passed in 1993, but his legacy lives on in the Village Theatre's primary venue, the Francis Gaudette theater.

Victoria Carver, the actress who played "Linda" later on did a series of ads for a local eyeglass company.  Every time Valorie and I saw her in the ads, we'd shout out "Hey, it's the W-W-W-Windows lady".

Some other things I noticed...

Did you notice the big brown Compaq 386 box?  IIRC it was the only one on the market at the time.  Also the prominant mention of OS/2.

The clock at the very beginning was a Microsoft time-in-service award - they gave a clock away for 5 years in service, that was the 1st generation clock (I have the cheesy 2nd generation clock (my name's stuck on the battery cover - how lame can you get)).

The reason that the video made SUCH a big deal about "Printing" is that OS/2 couldn't really print (or rather, that out of the box it only supported printing to about 5 different models of printers).

Also, several of the extras standing around in the final shot were HR people.  The guy who was 2nd from the left at the final shot was John Jenkins from OEM sales.

Edit: s/Susan/Linda/ ; Thanks Juan.

Edit: Added more Frank comments.

 Edit: Added clock.