[TriLUG] If ..... made toasters

[Roy Vestal]

I know this may be floating around, but it's funny.

I got this from a friend......

================================================================

If SAP made toasters ....
The manual to run the toaster would be approximately 10,000 pages long. 
The toaster would come with 2,500 switches which would all have to be set 
in an exact pattern and in a precise sequence in order to toast specific 
kinds of bread. Each pattern would be established by SAP's experts as the 
"Best Practices" method of toasting that kind of bread. It would take a 
team of basis and functional contractors about 1 year to configure the 
toaster in the best manner and then another 6 months to test it. In the 
meantime your entire family would need to attend extensive training 
classes on how to use the new toaster. In order to support end users and 
consultants, MIT would establish a list-serv for people to post questions 
and answers regarding toaster set-up and operation. Of course, the online 
help would randomly pop up in German. But once it was running (if 
ever...), you'd get the best toast in the world.


If IBM made toasters ...
They would want one big toaster where people bring bread to be submitted 
for overnight toasting. IBM would claim a worldwide market for five, maybe 
six toasters


If Xerox made toasters ...
You could toast one-sided or double-sided. Successive slices would get 
lighter and lighter. The toaster would jam your bread for you.


If Oracle made toasters ...
They'd claim their toaster was compatible with all brands and styles of 
bread, but when you got it home you'd discover the Bagel Engine was still 
in development, the Croissant Extension was three years away, and that 
indeed the whole appliance was just blowing smoke.


If Hewlett-Packard made toasters ...
They would market the Reverse Toaster, which takes in toast and gives you 
regular bread.


If Sony made toasters ...
The ToastMan, which would be barely larger than the single piece of bread 
it is meant to toast, can be conveniently attached to your belt.


And, of course: If Microsoft made toasters ...
Every time you bought a loaf of bread, you would have to buy a toaster. 
You wouldn't have to take the toaster, but you'd still have to pay for it 
anyway. Toaster '95 would weigh 15000 pounds (hence requiring a reinforced 
steel countertop), draw enough electricity to power a small city, take up 
95% of the space in your kitchen, would claim to be the first toaster that 
lets you control how light or dark you want your toast to be, and would 
secretly interrogate your other appliances to find out who made them.  
Everyone would hate Microsoft toasters, but nonetheless would buy them 
since most of the good bread only works with their toasters.


If Apple made toasters ...
It would do everything the Microsoft toaster does, but 5 years earlier.


If Linux made toasters...
Anyone could build his own toaster from the spare parts in the garage, but 
people would still pay money for pre-built toasters. All the parts would 
be user serviceable, and the design plans would be freely downloadable. 
Instead of the complexity of having to push a button, you would simply 
type something like -toast_lightness=Úrk -bread_type=brown. The toaster 
would burn your toast by default, but once you enable the 
don't_burn_my_toast feature in /etc/toaster.conf (as described in the 
TOASTER-RTFM-HOWTO) it would toast reliably for years. People who eat 
Linux toast say that it is better than Windows toast. ...