by Ron Enderland

"Say what you want about the 60's" I said. "The real decade of change was the 90's."

"I don't agree" said Norman. "The 60's was the decade that brought us Vietnam, social upheaval, civil rights legislation, and the Beatles."

I sipped my drink and eyed him steadily. "You mean to tell me that there was more significance in the Haight-Ashbury love-ins than in the introduction of Windows 95?"

"Come on!" he said, exasperated. "The progress of the 90's could have never taken place without the changes of the 60's"

The video wall was showing highlights of Super Bowl XXXVII, the one where Tampa Bay squeaked past the Redmond Cowboys. "Take television technology, for instance" I said.

"Okay. Cable TV was introduced in the 60's. So what happened in the 90's?"

"Bill Gates buying the big three networks had more impact on TV than cable. We would have never had the advent of NetTV 98 in 2001 without Gates' 90's corporate coups."

Norman sputtered with anger. "I've never heard anything so ridiculous in my life! Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon made more of an impression on history than some corporate tycoon taking over a few struggling TV networks!"

The wall was now showing footage of Tiger Woods winning his thirteenth US Open. "Yeah, sure" I baited him. "And I suppose you don't think that Microsoft's purchase of Intel in 1998 had much of a jolt on technology?"

My opponent in the debate heaved a deep sigh. "If it wasn't for the impact that IBM made in introducing business class computers in the 60's, the world might have never come to depend on the thinking machines like they do now. Heck, Microsoft might have never even come about."

The wall was showing George Foreman knocking out Mike Tyson Jr. back in '27 as I spotted wisps of smoke coming out of Norman's ears. Just a little bit further...

"Okay. Here's the clincher. In 1999, Gates orchestrated the hostile takeover of General Motors. That was, without a doubt, not only the greatest single act of fiscal conquest, but the most monumental achievement of any sort of the entire century."

Norman had had enough. He stood up. "Listen to me! Microsoft is not the most powerful force in the universe!" Suddenly, he stiffened. His eyes went blank. Another droid rolled over and picked up his motionless mass and carried him out, no doubt to be recycled into Centium processors.

I had stumbled onto the shutoff feature of the droid units by accident. A couple of years back, a mechanobot was changing the oil in my Explorer. It mentioned that a Corvette from the early 90's could outrun a '33 ActiveX. The words were barely out of its mouth when it froze up.

I thereby deduced that if you could just get a MicroBot to state out loud that its creator was not invincible, the Central Processing Unit in Redmond would swiftly shut it down.

The blonde at the end of the bar had been keeping an eye on me. Microsoft had never, to my knowledge, used human spies, but I wouldn't put it past them. Three droids would have to be enough tonight. I laid a 10 .dll note on the table and slipped out.