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Perfect! Now I know what to get my wife for Christmas.

Thanks for the great tip.

I like the MS DOS shirt the best...I'd wear it!!!

--tayme

"So, people will make fun of this stuff, but it looks like typical hipster menswear to me."

I agree. A lot of people are going to mock this and are already, but this is not much different than some of the stuff you get at stores like Banana Republic or even college campus stores like Urban Outfitters.

I don't think it's the shirts that people will be mocking.

Only nerds would even consider...

More "niche" netbooks sold in 3Q2008 than iPhones

>I think this is worth a comparison however, mainly because Apple continues to see netbooks as a "niche" product market and also due to some thoughts that the iPhone can replace a portable computer.<

www.jkontherun.com/.../more-niche-netb.html

This is what Microsoft has been missing all this time fighting the cultural gap between them and Apple -- T-shirts.  Zune sales are going to go through the roof.

I like the Microsoft ones but Common ought to know better than to use a variable pitch font for a binary listing.

"Only nerds would even consider..."

Yeah. That's why we're all interested.

And "nerds" differs from "people who spend lots of time posting on a comment board about software" how, exactly?

I like the blue "Microsoft" t-shirt. I'll buy it :-)

I still have my tee shirt with the longhorn cow skull, an OSX logo and the caption "Longhorn. It's what's for dinner."

I've actually had people at the gym ask me if "longhorn" is really good steak, so I guess it qualifies as real geekware.

techfan

I agree with you, the one with the old Albuquerque has a certain mid-'70s appeal.

I wish there were one that used the logo between thhe Albuquerque logo and the blibbet logo, though.

>And "nerds" differs from "people who spend lots of time posting on a comment board about software" how, exactly?<

Nerds lack style.  Lots of people use the Internet for communication...

"I still have my tee shirt with the longhorn cow skull, an OSX logo and the caption "Longhorn. It's what's for dinner."

I've actually had people at the gym ask me if "longhorn" is really good steak, so I guess it qualifies as real geekware."

Oh, come on. We all know that anything with an Apple or an OS X logo is COOL. Didn't we have that discussion yesterday?

Only nerds would be interested? Hell, my fiancee is already begging me to get her the DOS T-shirt -- and she is as interested in computers as I am interested in debating the merits of "Worlds of Warcraft" over "Dungeons & Dragons"; it took two years for me to convince her to ditch her six-year-old laptop with the 512-megabyte RAM and 40 gigs of hard drive space for a spiffy new Dell with three gigs RAM and 160 gigs of hard drive (along with a half-terrabyte external hard drive). My sister's love for electronics extends only to the iPOD Touch (she hardly reads either, as smart as she is) and she loves the DOS and Bill Gates mug shot tees as well.

I'd get the DOS tee myself if it was a V-neck; I generally prefer black v-neck Ts (with no adornment myself).

Once again, some folks think little about the extent to which "geek chic" has actually entered into the mainstream. More importantly, a cool tee is a cool tee. The shirts aren't really needed for burnishing M'soft's image; most people are still buying Windows and when it gets down to it, think it works. But hey, why not win over some of those geeky tech writers who think owning an iPhone and dishing out smack against Nokia and M'soft makes them so cool.

@chuckb84 - Do you have one of those Apple stickers in the window of your car? That's cool!!! I liken thse shirts to the retro rock band shirts, like Pink Floyd and AC/DC.

--tayme

And, of course, the binary in the "The 101" t-shirt spells out "Softwear by Microsoft" in ASCII encoding.

My eyes are kinda bad...can anybody tell me what the small icons are on the 85 tee?

--tayme

Yes. I did look it up the binary in an ASCII table.

Yes. I am king of the geeks.

At least its better to wear a shirt, than to slap an Apple logo on your vehicle or your non Apple computer. That my friends is what we call sad.

@Ocean said:

"Nerds lack style."

Really? Almost everyone in some mannor shape or form has been or still is a nerk, geek, or whatever label you wish to form. Heck, I think you're the biggest nerd on here. So I guess you lack style and substance. Funny, your arguements do too.

Anyone that associates a computer company or an corporate logo as being cool, seriously needs an appointment with a local psychiatrist.

The best people who are cool are individuals who don't let products, companies, or fads define them. The best ones don't give a damn what anyone thinks and march to their own drum.

A t-shirt with an Atari logo would be cool.

http://tinyurl.com/6729sr

But I have to wonder about a guy who advertises that he is both "micro" and "soft" on his t-shirt.

"At least its better to wear a shirt, than to slap an Apple logo on your vehicle or your non Apple computer. That my friends is what we call sad."

No, "sad" is a Star Wars picture as your avatar.

;-)

"But I have to wonder about a guy who advertises that he is both "micro" and "soft" on his t-shirt."

No need to wonder. It means he doesn't feel the need to compensate.

@ Tayme

The 85 has a mix of video game logos and characters, Microsoft logos, and various 80's logos and images scattered through out.

Peace.

@lotsa,

One persons sad is another persons badge of honor. Thank you for the compliement.

I am such a dork for wanting those.

"The best ones don't give a damn what anyone thinks and march to their own drum."

Hence Microsoft using BillG's mugshot both here and in the Seinfeld ad.

Can you honestly imagine Steve Jobs or Larry Ellison or Scott McNealy or Sergei Brin (or any other executive who sells their company image off their persona) using a photo of themselves in marketing material that didn't look just "oh, so perfect"?

"Hence Microsoft using BillG's mugshot both here and in the Seinfeld ad."

Maybe Ballmer threatened to throw a chair at him if he didn't cooperate?

Ballmer is another person in the "don't give a damn what anyone thinks and march to their own drum" group.

>The best ones don't give a damn what anyone thinks and march to their own drum. <

Once button mouse anyone?

Seriously though, to each his own.   I just read this exchange on Ars Technica:

>>I know our readership a lot better than you do; let's just leave it at that.  These are people who, in very large, vocal majorities, would rather not go to a bar that has free unlimited booze and food if they feel like they might not be 100% at-home wearing their Taco Bell-stained hoodies.

Trust me. We know from experience.<<

">>I know our readership a lot better than you do; let's just leave it at that.  These are people who, in very large, vocal majorities, would rather not go to a bar that has free unlimited booze and food if they feel like they might not be 100% at-home wearing their Taco Bell-stained hoodies."

Wow. Nice way to make your readers feel good about themselves, even if that isn't true. :-)

Wow they raided Mikey's closet!  Seriously nothing wrong with those shirts.

I think she's guessing they'll never, ever step foot inside a thread dedicated to style...

It's here by the way, towards the bottom:

episteme.arstechnica.com/.../77

Lindy

Although I do have the original MS-DOS 5 t-shirt that the MS-DOS one's based on, I'd be happy to have any of these to add to my collection. (Hey, it IS the holiday hinting season)

Shark

"Nice way to make your readers feel good about themselves"

Well, you can't establish yourself as a fashionista if you don't put down everyone who isn't following exactly the same people you are.

More seriously, fashion tends to have a very few leaders who have their own style, a lot of blind followers and a fair number of enforcers (like that Ars person) who make up for their own lack of style by keeping the less dedicated followers cowed.

>>fashion tends to have a very few leaders who have their own style<<

Can you give us an example of someone that you consider to have their own style?

>>Well, you can't establish yourself as a fashionista if you don't put down everyone who isn't following exactly the same people you are.<<

To her credit, the writer posted what she used to dress like in the same thread (scary!).

And now she makes her own clothes...

Those are pretty cool.

But real geeks get their T-shirts from here:

http://tinyurl.com/5zyk3x

or perhaps here:

http://tinyurl.com/58st72

I actually have this one (gift from my wife)

http://tinyurl.com/6jualp

"To her credit, the writer posted what she used to dress like in the same thread (scary!)."

How is that to her credit? It's essentially like saying "I used to be like you but I got better". It's just another way of putting the non-followers in their place.

"Can you give us an example of someone that you consider to have their own style?"

Yes. But I won't because that discourages people from developing their own style.

Webguy

Yep. ThinkGeek has some good shirts. Of course, for real geek cred you need to wear old team t-shirts from projects at least 5 years old - and you have to have been on the project.

>>It's essentially like saying "I used to be like you but I got better".<<

I'd disagree.  There wasn't a scent of condescension in what she said...

@Mike - Re: shirt/logo - Great idea! I think a shirt with a logo that would be even better. A blibbet in the white "Microsoft" in the Albuquerque shirt would be nice too.

Also, Re: Ballmer and Gates (that sounds like a law firm) walking to their own drummer -  I agree. Just look at the mug shot in that t-shirt. I bet Ballmer would do something similar (I'm sure there are lots of shots of him where Ballmer doesn't appear "normal"). Now Jobs would never do something like that. Never.  

It is cute, and it gets Microsoft on people's minds. What more do you really need from an ad campaign?

Can it be the butt of jokes? Yes. Personally, I respect people more who can see the humor in jokes aimed at them; we make fun of our company at work all the time, but at the end of the day, I am fairly confident that we all enjoy working there, and like the company as a whole.

And all that aside, the shirts are cute. That, much more than something as transient as "style" is the whole point.

"Do you have one of those Apple stickers in the window of your car?"

No. I don't put stickers on cars, except those required by law. Well, once I made my own that said "No baby on board, go ahead and hit me", but that was because I was so fed up with those little yellow diamond "baby" signs.

"Of course, for real geek cred you need to wear old team t-shirts from projects at least 5 years old - and you have to have been on the project."

Do they have to be dead products too?

Does that mean in a year or two, you'll be wearing a Windows Live OneCare shirt?  ;)

"No baby on board, go ahead and hit me"

/aligningknuckles

waethorn

Well, for the highest credibility, they should just have the codename rather than the name after release but those don't always happen (for example, I have a little desk clock for "Thunder" but the team t-shirt didn't get made until the product had a name)

For OneCare, we didn't have t-shirts, we had little bottles of A1 steak sauce.

techfan

The Microsoft logo in the Albuquerque shirt is actually 2 logos earlier than the blibbet logo. (in between was one with a kind of swoosh that's mostly seen on the brown looseleaf books Microsoft used before the green color became standard)

"Thank you for the compliement."

There's a joke in that misspelling. But I'm going to ignore it.

"/aligningknuckles"

Be sure to put your thumb on the INSIDE, Wae. Let us know how that works out for ya.

I still have a t-shirt from 1989 I'd say from Diskeeper sales rep with a cartoon guy leaning over a Vax with the phrase: "Fragmentation happens"

@Mike - I see. I didn't know that but it's a cool bit of info. I had only seen the bibblet to present logo.

@mikegalos@msn.com

"Yes. I did look it up the binary in an ASCII table.

Yes. I am king of the geeks."

Pfffft. You mean you can't sight-read binary ASCII? :)

callayheeko

Not well enough in a variable pitch font when they use different numbers of bits per line that I'd trust the translation enough to post it.

Waethorn

""No baby on board, go ahead and hit me"

/aligningknuckles"

Glad you like it. I used to watch people in my rearview mirror when they pulled up behind me and read that. It got a lot of laughs. Those "Baby on board" stickers were rampant then. Even Jay Leno had a great joke about them.

I also wanted to steal the sign across the street from my house in Washington, DC (it was not the greatest neighborhood) that said "Drug Free School Zone", but I was afraid that people would then start selling drugs there ;).

I think the Bill Gates Mug shot will sell the best.

"Be sure to put your thumb on the INSIDE, Wae. Let us know how that works out for ya."

Inside your eye socket?  (j/k)

It helps to be double-jointed too...

@waethorn: "OS X does not a Mac make."

What dimwit would run anything but OS X on a Mac?

No you can publicly proclaim how much taste you don't have. Showing off that you're a Borg drone. Almost as bad as the losers on the "I'm a PC" (copied idea from Apple) ads.

@mikegalos: "Ballmer is another person in the "don't give a damn what anyone thinks and march to their own drum" group."

Yes, he is. Completely oblivious to the fact that he and his whole company has no taste.

I don't think he goes to an east coast school, by the way.

And, as expected, and right on time, several of my points have now been demonstrated.

I am guessing its Pacific Time...

--tayme

@mikegalos: You haven't made a valid point in months now. Just spreading FUD.

"What dimwit would run anything but OS X on a Mac?"

Obviously your President-Elect, since you can't use a Zune on OS X.

"You haven't made a valid point in months now. Just spreading FUD."

Spoken like a true a$$hat.

@Paul - Have you made any progress on te ignore feature that many ofus would love to have?

--tayme

Wow...my typing s*cks today!

--tayme

Here is the t-shirt I have:

photos1.blogger.com/.../kloon.png

ANd you can go here:

biospud.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_archive.html

And scroll down to:

Raxco t-shirt charlatanism

For the article of my shirt!

Now, who's cool?  :-)

Enough. I'm outta here, for good. Bye lads!

Thats not really how I act, is it?

on a side note Ralph's released an updated version of his bluebage tool that doesn't change any fies.. it just updates the registry aka  all features unlocked ftw. :)

Hey, waddayawant, good profits or good taste?

BTW, as I've posted before, the last two events that had a Ballmer appearance really impressed me. After some butthead threw eggs at him in Germany, Ballmer joked it off with the audience in a humble manner. A CNET interview when he was flamebaited, he never said a single bad word about the competition. In fact, he complimented them. I respect gentleman behavior. I come from a blue color family and aspired to become as such. Of course I kept lifting weights so that when someone would not yield to a professional, I could kick their ass.

"Enough. I'm outta here, for good. Bye lads!"

We'll hold you to that promise.

Though, if it's anything like johnpapola's, we're not holding our breath.

"I come from a blue color family"

Do you have a quirky, musical stageshow with seizure-inducing laser lights and instruments made from PVC tubing too?  LOL!

http://tinyurl.com/6h4far

Lol.. i dont know if i would buy any of those. Maybe the DOS one.

Oh (offtopic but funny iphone video)

www.newgrounds.com/.../472735

i feel like a spammer but oh well >,>

It's hipster-doofus gold, and I want it all.

Waethorn said:

"

"What dimwit would run anything but OS X on a Mac?"

Obviously your President-Elect, since you can't use a Zune on OS X."

Try to keep up, POTUS 44 is an ipod user:

macdailynews.com/.../19301

"Try to keep up, POTUS 44 is an ipod user"

But really, who cares? What I want to know is what* he listens to on it. Probably replays of the Rev. Wright...

--tayme

"But really, who cares? What I want to know is what* he listens to on it. Probably replays of the Rev. Wright..."

I think that's the reason he has to borrow his staff's Zunes when he needs to work out. :-)

""But really, who cares? What I want to know is what* he listens to on it. Probably replays of the Rev. Wright..."

I think that's the reason he has to borrow his staff's Zunes when he needs to work out. :-)

Oh, that's an easy question to answer. Who really cares? Waethorn. He cared enough to bring it up, and get it wrong, like so much here...

Way better than the generic swag out their Corporate store. I'm getting the DOS one.

I will get one if it isn't over-the-top nerdy. But cool idea, anyway.

As for what President Elect Obama listens to on his Zune, the Zune Insider blog lists his playlist at social.zune.net/.../ContentRedirect.ashx

We were so poor, that we couldn't afford a dictionary. Sorry for the typo. But Wae, my dad was a fireman and a musician. On weekends, he played in a country western band for years, but near the end of his career, he played in a rock band. It was great to see him play at friends weddings and stuff. That brings back good memories. But not even this good doctor could save him. He's where I got my electronic skills as he was an auto mechanic and electronic repairman too. Before that stuff, he was a drill instructor in the Army. You can bet that the we never left the toilet seat up!

Doc

Mike, you looked up the binary in an ASCII table? I'm shocked.  (I confess to having to get help to remember some of the punctuation now and then, although usually I can work it out.  It was easier when they lined up properly with a KSR-33 keyboard.)

Tayme, I've been using Apple products since Oct, 1977.  I've never attached an Apple decal to anything.

These days, it is hard to find a plain grey sweatsuit.  I've been looking for about 3 years, and replacing the shirt from 1992 is getting critical.  Why should I have to pay to carry advertising around?

Wow! 86 comments, most of them MS vs Apple wank.... and a flounce from robertsjoe to boot!

... all because of t-shirts!

Amazing!

johnbaxter

Well, to be fair, we've been pretty much focused on Unicode at Microsoft since Michel Suignard and Asmus Freytag gave us a lecture on it during the NT Live lecture series back in 1991. (The Windows NT family has been based on Unicode since long before it went public)

Microsoft putting out t-shirts? Hard to believe, but they must be going out of style. Not that these are particularly unstylish. I'd rather wear something like this than a worn band shirt.

"And, as expected, and right on time, several of my points have now been demonstrated."

And vice versa :)

OMG how awesome is the Bill Gates mug shot on a t-shirt.  I love that they can do that and not take themselves so seriously.  Brilliant.

"We were so poor, that we couldn't afford a dictionary."

Don't they say, "Real men don't use dictionaries?"

"Why should I have to pay to carry advertising around?"

That's the reason I won't wear these t-shirts. That's the reason I give away my Apple stickers to friends who put them on their cars or non-Apple laptops. :)

Now, if Microsoft paid me to do this...

"POTUS 44 is an ipod user"

So is he pulling another "Clinton" and claiming he didn't inhale?

BTW:  Funny, but totally true story:

Yesterday another iTard (this makes more sense in context) brought a 13" White Macbook in to my store for servicing.  I was out on a service call at the time, so one of my workers brought it in.  Anyway, the guy had it in because he had it in his school backpack.

He also had a bottle of pop in there.

Put 2 & 2 together.

What was his obvious instinctual action to do the moment he found out?:  

TO PLUG IT IN TO SEE IF IT WORKED!!!

I mean, COME ON!

The inside of it was drenched, and most of it was drained, but HE LEFT THE BATTERY IN IT!  It was still there when he brought it in!

When I got a chance to look at it, the components were still wet and sticky, and after finding an online doc on how to disassemble it (it takes 25 screws to take just the keyboard off - RIDICULOUS!), I cracked open the top, and immediately got a whiff of good ol' southern-fried electronics.

Now it's a $1200 piece of unusable (but sticky - from what I'm hoping is the pop) shiny white plastic.  That's an expensive paper weight!

All I have to say is:

"!?!"

"Real men don't use dictionaries?"

That explains losta.  ;)

Not quite right there Mike, by all accounts it appeared that the initial reporter can't be sure just what he was using:

www.tomsguide.com/.../Barack-Obama-Zune-iPod-MP3,news-3087.html

blogs.wsj.com/.../obama-zunegate-day-two

And even the Zune Fanboys site acknowledge it:

www.zuneboards.com/.../36750-obama-doesnt-use-zune.html

For the record I could care less what he uses. What MP3 player the president uses means absolutely nothing nor is it relavent.

"For the record I could care less what he uses. "

True. If you cared a little less you'd only have 2 links denying it could be true. If you cared even less than that you'd have posted only one link in defense of your product. Why, you could have really cared less and just whined "it can't be true. I like him so he must love his iPod" without any links.

Personally, I'm just amused watching the Apple fanatics sputter as they deal with even the concept of liking somebody who isn't part of their little cult.

@Waethorn - Sorry, but your storry is irrelevent. I have seen adults bring in HP, Compaq, Dell, and other Windows based computers in exactly the same shape...for the same reasons. It has nothing to do with Mac vs. PC...it has to do with being careless and irresponsible.

--tayme

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