20 ms·

Is there any reason to believe that this actually happened? Conveniently, it was published on April 1st. The story itself would be a great April Fools' prank. :

Is there any reason to believe that this actually happened? Conveniently, it was published on April 1st. The story itself would be a great April Fools' prank. :)

juotlrjrb 6y ago
Good point, an article on a news site should be required. Simulacrum, simulacra, ...
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
a2g4rAVy 6y ago
SSL cert is very suspicious. It is by Google Trust Services LLC valid starting on Thu, 01 Apr 2021 02:07:46 GMT. Video was uploaded to YouTube on April first. I would go with a fun joke.
- judge2020 6y ago
  I believe GTS certs are Google (employee) only, correct? The hostname also goes to 1e100.net. host `dig www.microsoftcoffee.org +short | tail -1` 51.165.217.172.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer pnatla-aa-in-f19.1e100.net.
  - gruez 6y ago
    >I believe GTS certs are Google (employee) only, correct? Doesn't seem like it https://crt.sh/?Identity=%25&iCAID=180754 https://crt.sh/?Identity=%25&iCAID=180754
    - judge2020 6y ago
      Ah ok, I thought Letsencrypt was the only available auto-issuing CA on Google Cloud but that must have changed with GKE. The 1e100 address is probably pointed at a gke load balancer then.
      - jhugo 6y ago
        Why GKE? It's probably just a static site hosted on Google Sites or something...
        ipython 6y ago
        It is hosted on google sites. The little (I) pop up in the bottom corner gives it away.
        efreak 6y ago
        IIRC, Google sites doesn't actually have static sites.
- praisewhitey 6y ago
  the webpage is hosted on Google Sites
- gruez 6y ago
  >SSL cert is very suspicious. It is by Google Trust Services LLC There's nothing suspicious about that CA. If you do a search[1] you can see plenty certificates issued for benign sites. My guess is that's the CA for google related products? eg. GCP, app engine, or google site builder. [1] https://crt.sh/?Identity=%25&iCAID=180754 https://crt.sh/?Identity=%25&iCAID=180754
  - a2g4rAVy 6y ago
    Yep! but the dates are suspicious. There is no record of this happening anywhere before April 1st. Youtube, SSL, domain, everything. April first. Also, humorously hosted on google.
    - alisonkisk 6y ago
      What's so suspicious about celebrating the 25th anniversary of a prank by publishing it, but preferring anonymity because people on the Internet are terrible nowadays?
wnevets 6y ago
That would be a better Aprils joke than the one being claimed
- Steltek 6y ago
  I disagree wholeheartedly. I'm pretty tired of fictional April Fool's joke. If you've got a good idea for a (harmless) prank, DO IT. Don't write up some lame webpage to make people think you did it.
  - wnevets 6y ago
    > Don't write up some lame webpage to make people think you did it. But are we sure this is just some lame webpage? If the prank is to gaslight the internet into believing the Microsoft Coffee prank took place wouldn't the news segment covering the prank also be fake? I have no idea if that was the anchor for that TV station in the 90s. That would be way more entertaining to me than some press release or fake product page.
    - judge2020 6y ago
      Kind of related to the last few seconds of the news clip - Feb 14 1996 "Zoo Gorilla Gives Birth In Seattle" - I imagine visitation for the new baby would come around a month and a half after birth. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1996/feb/14/zoo-gorilla-gives-birth-in-seattle-baby-and/ https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1996/feb/14/zoo-gorilla-gi...
      - iso1210 6y ago
        Had to remove the /1, but good find. That does seem to put the right timeframe -- and with confirmation they're real presenters too. It's not a matter of finding a c. 25 year old clip from the news to base a fake on, it would be finding one from about March-May 1996 (which itself would be amazing to have for no reason), and then replace it. I'm leaning more to "this is real", but it's astounding there's no reference to it before yesterday.
brundolf 6y ago
The news footage is pretty convincing
- coding123 6y ago
  I'm assuming Seattlites would be able to confirm. However as much discussion we've had about the internet remembering everything, I can't find anything in Google to confirm "Microsoft Coffee" except for this site, discussion of it on Reddit 13 hours ago.
  - brundolf 6y ago
    Remember that the prank preceded the mainstream web, and MS PR clearly went to great lengths to cover it up. I don't think the internet was "remembering everything" yet at that point
    - iso1210 6y ago
      Usenet would have, there would be mentions on a pro or anti (mainly anti) microsoft group about it. It was 1996, not the stone age Google has lost a lot of old posts from those days, but I'd be surprised if it would have lost all of them.
      - dannyw 6y ago
        Google's public index is just the short head, maybe even less than 5% of the internet by pages. Old stuff is more or less all pushed out unless its popular.
      - lupire 6y ago
        April 1996 was a long time ago, almost the dawn of the Internet as it relates to Microsoft. Internet Explorer only launched in 1995, and the anti-Linux Halloween Documents were 1998.
  - iso1210 6y ago
    > I'm assuming Seattlites would be able to confirm. Perhaps, however remember the Mandela Effect. I'd expect ong time KOMO viewers and staff to recognise the presenters, and I'm sure they were the right ones. I wouldn't trust their recollection of this story though, especially once they had seen the video - after all the camera never lies. Remember news anchors read dozens of these stories a day, to recall one specific prank 25 years later isn't likely. Unlikely KOMO still have recordings of their output from back then.
kpierce 6y ago
Have meta jokes gone too far?
iso1210 6y ago
I'd expect to see something in usenet archives, or at least some mention of it somewhere before this year, even if it's to someone complaining about the lack of evidence of it happening. Couldn't find anything. The fact I've spent some time actually looking this up though makes this the best prank of the last few years. The video especially is a masterpiece of fakery.
- kthejoker2 6y ago
  I can't tell if this is related or not, seems in the same spirit but not directly related to the prank ... https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy/c/7JQgzAcNM-g/m/ayFYLhKysjgJ https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy/c/7J... Like, maybe this inspired the prank somehow?
- yosito 6y ago
  Looks like the wayback machine's closest capture of the PC Week page that was screenshotted in the article is from December 96. The design is different, but there's an 8 month gap. https://web.archive.org/web/19961222040420/http://www.pcweek.com/spencer/spencer.html https://web.archive.org/web/19961222040420/http://www.pcweek...
purple_ferret 6y ago
We know Satya Nadella has a Hacker News team to speak positively about Micro$oft and defend it here. The real Conspiracy question is if they've been 'activated' to help cover up this story by trying to claim it itself is a hoax.
- dang 6y ago
  You broke the HN guidelines badly with this. Please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules. As they explain, if you have evidence of abuse on HN, you should be emailing hn@ycombinator.com so we can investigate. But other commenters having different $BigCo tastes from you doesn't count as evidence.
umvi 6y ago
Someone ought to ask Bill Gates next time he does an AMA on reddit
- verklaring 6y ago
  YES!
flanbiscuit 6y ago
There's a screenshot of pcweek.com page but unfortunately (or very conveniently) the earliest the internet archive goes for that domain is May of 1996, missed it by just one month! The full link in the screenshot is this and it still works! http://www.pcweek.com/spencer/spencer.html http://www.pcweek.com/spencer/spencer.html update: adding wayback link: https://web.archive.org/web/19960512211429/http://www.pcweek.com// https://web.archive.org/web/19960512211429/http://www.pcweek... update 2: From the main link: "There are a handful of print articles from tech magazines at the time" Turns out that the Internet Archive has a ton of computer magazines scanned in and there's a lot from 1996 so now I'm going down a rabbit hole both searching for any mention of this and also nostalgia: https://archive.org/details/computermagazines?sort=-date&and[]=year%3A%221996%22&and[]=languageSorter%3A%22English%22 https://archive.org/details/computermagazines?sort=-date&and...
- WalterBright 6y ago
  I thought PCWeek was totally forgotten. I can't find any issues from the 1980s, wish I'd kept the ones there was an article about myself in :-)
daveleebbc 6y ago
This line gives it added credibility, imo: "In the end, it was all a huge overreaction by PR."
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
throwanem 6y ago
I can't find any mention of it on contemporary Usenet via Google Groups search, and you'd think someone would have mentioned it in comp.os.linux.advocacy if nowhere else...
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
atommclain 6y ago
For what it's worth, I searched The Seattle Times, the Seattle PI, and "Washington Newspapers" through the Seattle Public Library online portal and didn't find anything. There were articles recounting April fools day pranks, but none mention Microsoft Coffee which is weird to me considering that it was covered on a local station.

Is there any reason to believe that this actually happened? Conveniently, it was published on April 1st. The story itself would be a great April Fools' prank. :)

juotlrjrb 6y ago

Good point, an article on a news site should be required. Simulacrum, simulacra, ...

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

a2g4rAVy 6y ago

SSL cert is very suspicious. It is by Google Trust Services LLC valid starting on Thu, 01 Apr 2021 02:07:46 GMT. Video was uploaded to YouTube on April first. I would go with a fun joke.

judge2020 6y ago
I believe GTS certs are Google (employee) only, correct? The hostname also goes to 1e100.net. host `dig www.microsoftcoffee.org +short | tail -1` 51.165.217.172.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer pnatla-aa-in-f19.1e100.net.
- gruez 6y ago
  >I believe GTS certs are Google (employee) only, correct? Doesn't seem like it https://crt.sh/?Identity=%25&iCAID=180754 https://crt.sh/?Identity=%25&iCAID=180754
  - judge2020 6y ago
    Ah ok, I thought Letsencrypt was the only available auto-issuing CA on Google Cloud but that must have changed with GKE. The 1e100 address is probably pointed at a gke load balancer then.
    - jhugo 6y ago
      Why GKE? It's probably just a static site hosted on Google Sites or something...
      - ipython 6y ago
        It is hosted on google sites. The little (I) pop up in the bottom corner gives it away.
      - efreak 6y ago
        IIRC, Google sites doesn't actually have static sites.
praisewhitey 6y ago
the webpage is hosted on Google Sites
gruez 6y ago
>SSL cert is very suspicious. It is by Google Trust Services LLC There's nothing suspicious about that CA. If you do a search[1] you can see plenty certificates issued for benign sites. My guess is that's the CA for google related products? eg. GCP, app engine, or google site builder. [1] https://crt.sh/?Identity=%25&iCAID=180754 https://crt.sh/?Identity=%25&iCAID=180754
- a2g4rAVy 6y ago
  Yep! but the dates are suspicious. There is no record of this happening anywhere before April 1st. Youtube, SSL, domain, everything. April first. Also, humorously hosted on google.
  - alisonkisk 6y ago
    What's so suspicious about celebrating the 25th anniversary of a prank by publishing it, but preferring anonymity because people on the Internet are terrible nowadays?

wnevets 6y ago

That would be a better Aprils joke than the one being claimed

Steltek 6y ago
I disagree wholeheartedly. I'm pretty tired of fictional April Fool's joke. If you've got a good idea for a (harmless) prank, DO IT. Don't write up some lame webpage to make people think you did it.
- wnevets 6y ago
  > Don't write up some lame webpage to make people think you did it. But are we sure this is just some lame webpage? If the prank is to gaslight the internet into believing the Microsoft Coffee prank took place wouldn't the news segment covering the prank also be fake? I have no idea if that was the anchor for that TV station in the 90s. That would be way more entertaining to me than some press release or fake product page.
  - judge2020 6y ago
    Kind of related to the last few seconds of the news clip - Feb 14 1996 "Zoo Gorilla Gives Birth In Seattle" - I imagine visitation for the new baby would come around a month and a half after birth. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1996/feb/14/zoo-gorilla-gives-birth-in-seattle-baby-and/ https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1996/feb/14/zoo-gorilla-gi...
    - iso1210 6y ago
      Had to remove the /1, but good find. That does seem to put the right timeframe -- and with confirmation they're real presenters too. It's not a matter of finding a c. 25 year old clip from the news to base a fake on, it would be finding one from about March-May 1996 (which itself would be amazing to have for no reason), and then replace it. I'm leaning more to "this is real", but it's astounding there's no reference to it before yesterday.

brundolf 6y ago

The news footage is pretty convincing

coding123 6y ago
I'm assuming Seattlites would be able to confirm. However as much discussion we've had about the internet remembering everything, I can't find anything in Google to confirm "Microsoft Coffee" except for this site, discussion of it on Reddit 13 hours ago.
- brundolf 6y ago
  Remember that the prank preceded the mainstream web, and MS PR clearly went to great lengths to cover it up. I don't think the internet was "remembering everything" yet at that point
  - iso1210 6y ago
    Usenet would have, there would be mentions on a pro or anti (mainly anti) microsoft group about it. It was 1996, not the stone age Google has lost a lot of old posts from those days, but I'd be surprised if it would have lost all of them.
    - dannyw 6y ago
      Google's public index is just the short head, maybe even less than 5% of the internet by pages. Old stuff is more or less all pushed out unless its popular.
    - lupire 6y ago
      April 1996 was a long time ago, almost the dawn of the Internet as it relates to Microsoft. Internet Explorer only launched in 1995, and the anti-Linux Halloween Documents were 1998.
- iso1210 6y ago
  > I'm assuming Seattlites would be able to confirm. Perhaps, however remember the Mandela Effect. I'd expect ong time KOMO viewers and staff to recognise the presenters, and I'm sure they were the right ones. I wouldn't trust their recollection of this story though, especially once they had seen the video - after all the camera never lies. Remember news anchors read dozens of these stories a day, to recall one specific prank 25 years later isn't likely. Unlikely KOMO still have recordings of their output from back then.

kpierce 6y ago

Have meta jokes gone too far?

iso1210 6y ago

I'd expect to see something in usenet archives, or at least some mention of it somewhere before this year, even if it's to someone complaining about the lack of evidence of it happening. Couldn't find anything. The fact I've spent some time actually looking this up though makes this the best prank of the last few years. The video especially is a masterpiece of fakery.

kthejoker2 6y ago
I can't tell if this is related or not, seems in the same spirit but not directly related to the prank ... https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy/c/7JQgzAcNM-g/m/ayFYLhKysjgJ https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy/c/7J... Like, maybe this inspired the prank somehow?
yosito 6y ago
Looks like the wayback machine's closest capture of the PC Week page that was screenshotted in the article is from December 96. The design is different, but there's an 8 month gap. https://web.archive.org/web/19961222040420/http://www.pcweek.com/spencer/spencer.html https://web.archive.org/web/19961222040420/http://www.pcweek...

purple_ferret 6y ago

We know Satya Nadella has a Hacker News team to speak positively about Micro$oft and defend it here. The real Conspiracy question is if they've been 'activated' to help cover up this story by trying to claim it itself is a hoax.

dang 6y ago
You broke the HN guidelines badly with this. Please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules. As they explain, if you have evidence of abuse on HN, you should be emailing hn@ycombinator.com so we can investigate. But other commenters having different $BigCo tastes from you doesn't count as evidence.

umvi 6y ago

Someone ought to ask Bill Gates next time he does an AMA on reddit

verklaring 6y ago
YES!

flanbiscuit 6y ago

There's a screenshot of pcweek.com page but unfortunately (or very conveniently) the earliest the internet archive goes for that domain is May of 1996, missed it by just one month! The full link in the screenshot is this and it still works! http://www.pcweek.com/spencer/spencer.html http://www.pcweek.com/spencer/spencer.html update: adding wayback link: https://web.archive.org/web/19960512211429/http://www.pcweek.com// https://web.archive.org/web/19960512211429/http://www.pcweek... update 2: From the main link: "There are a handful of print articles from tech magazines at the time" Turns out that the Internet Archive has a ton of computer magazines scanned in and there's a lot from 1996 so now I'm going down a rabbit hole both searching for any mention of this and also nostalgia: https://archive.org/details/computermagazines?sort=-date&and[]=year%3A%221996%22&and[]=languageSorter%3A%22English%22 https://archive.org/details/computermagazines?sort=-date&and...

WalterBright 6y ago
I thought PCWeek was totally forgotten. I can't find any issues from the 1980s, wish I'd kept the ones there was an article about myself in :-)

daveleebbc 6y ago

This line gives it added credibility, imo: "In the end, it was all a huge overreaction by PR."

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

throwanem 6y ago

I can't find any mention of it on contemporary Usenet via Google Groups search, and you'd think someone would have mentioned it in comp.os.linux.advocacy if nowhere else...

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

atommclain 6y ago

For what it's worth, I searched The Seattle Times, the Seattle PI, and "Washington Newspapers" through the Seattle Public Library online portal and didn't find anything. There were articles recounting April fools day pranks, but none mention Microsoft Coffee which is weird to me considering that it was covered on a local station.