I had a dream:

Monday, 10 AM -- Chicago, Illinois -- Start-up software developer Cuisine
International announced CUISINENET, the first internetworking program to
seamlessly integrate word and food processing.  Called a breakthrough for
small restaurants and snack bars, Cuisine Chairman Mark Meigs confidently
predicted sales of thousands of copies with shipments soon to begin.

Monday, 4 PM -- New York -- Cuisine International shares closed sharply
higher on announcement of new CUISINENET product.

Tuesday, 9 AM -- Redmond, Washington -- Microsoft Chairman William H. Gates,
III announced that Microsoft Food for Windows would soon enter beta testing.
Gates described the product as the first of a projected family of products to
include Food for Windows, designed for small commercial dining
establishments; Personal Food for Windows, designed for home kitchens;
Portable Food for Windows, designed for lunchboxes; and, of course, at the
high end, Food for Windows NC (Nouvelle Cuisine) designed for large
institutional dining rooms.  Asked by a reporter about CUISINENET, Gates said
that he had never heard of the product, but was not surprised by it, because
the software business is highly competitive, and Microsoft has to compete on
the merits with many strong competitors, as the FTC had recently concluded.

Tuesday, 3 PM -- Chicago, Illinois -- An angry Mark Meigs showed reporters a
copy of the nondisclosure agreement signed by Bill Gates, under which Cuisine
International had informed Microsoft a year earlier about plans for
CUISINENET.  Meigs said that in hindsight, he should never have signed the
agreement, as the only thing he learned from Microsoft was that Gates was
considering making changes to Windows.

Wednesday, 9 AM -- Redmond, Washington -- Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates
announced that Microsoft would soon publish specifications for the Windows
Open Kitchen Architecture (WOKA), a series of design specifications to permit
manufacturers of toasters, ranges, and other kitchen appliances to integrate
their products into the forthcoming Microsoft Food for Windows line.  Asked
about reports of a nondisclosure agreement with Cuisine International for a
similar product, Gates said that the other product was really at most a niche
product, and would probably have less functionality than the food-related
features that Microsoft would be building into the new Unsaturated FAT File
System which would be part of DOS 7.0.  Gates said that he doubted there
would be much interest in a dead-end solution that would not be able to keep
up to date with advances in WOKA.  Gates added that over 11,000 manufacturers
of kitchen appliances were already having serious discussions with Microsoft
about WOKA, and that he expected almost all important eaters of food to
standardize on the WOKA environment.

Wednesday, 10 AM -- Redmond, Washington -- Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates
announced that he would be giving the keynote speech at the American Bakers
annual convention on "Nutrition at Your Fingertips." Gates played down
speculation that he would use the Bakers convention to introduce Microsoft
Food for Windows, saying only that alpha testing was proceeding ahead of
schedule, and the product would be shipped when it was ready.

Wednesday, 11 AM -- Redmond, Washington -- Microsoft Corporation announced
that its Chairman, William H.  Gates, III, had made a donation of over $250
of personal funds to the Cordon Bleu to begin an endowment fund for the Bill
Gates Professorship of Advanced Cookery.  The famous French cooking school
confirmed that it had agreed to be a beta site for the much discussed Food
for Windows application sweet.

Thursday, 9 AM -- New York -- PCWeek Magazine reported in a copyrighted story
that it had obtained a copy of correspondence from Microsoft to Cuisine
International, demanding that the small developer of kitchen software cease
using the Cuisine name, as it infringes on the trademark for Microsoft Food
for Windows NC.  Microsoft added that Chairman Mark Meigs would also have to
change his own name as Mark infringed a copyright on the Windows Edit menu,
Meigs infringed the trademark on Meigs Field in Microsoft Flight Simulator,
and Chairman infringed the trademark on Bill Gates's title which he had
acquired with personal funds from Mao's estate.  Also, Microsoft advised that
while the company did not actually have to move out of Chicago, use of the
name on press releases infringed a trademark on Windows 4.0

Thursday, 4 PM -- New York -- Cuisine International stock closed at 0-bid,
1/16-asked.

Friday, 9 AM -- ??? -- An anonymous spokesman for an unnamed Midwestern
software developer announced the discontinuation of operations.  Undescribed
legal problems were cited as the reason.  Others speculated that a failure to
appreciate the competitive nature of the software business may have led to
the company's sudden collapse.

Monday, 9 AM -- Microsoft Internal Mail

    From: billg
    To: mikem
    Re: Food Program

    Please see if you can reassign one of the 3,000 engineers from the OS/2
    virus development project to do a feasibility study on a food-related
    program.  Not sure what it would do.  Low priority.

*EOF(WINFOOD.TXT)
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