[fuber2018]

I knew a guy who worked at MS when they were developing the Barney doll. He signed up to beta/play-test the doll since he had a son in the target age range.

He left work on Friday with the new Barney doll.

When he came into work on the following Monday, he told his co-workers, "Looks like I'm going to HAVE to get a Barney doll for my son when they're released."

The power of Barney...

He also mentioned that when all the Actimates dolls and other consumer-related products were released, the internal-only Microsoft store looked like a techie-version of FAO Schwarz instead of a Microsoft-leaning Egghead software store.

The bean counters at MS killed a lot of product ideas when they came up with the high revenue bar for any possible new products - as if anyone could predict that stuff accurately.

[qingcharles]

What's funny is that in the internal Microsoft Store you could buy a boxed copy of SQL Server Enterprise Edition for next to nothing, but a Microsoft Teddy Bear cost a fortune. I used all my Microsoft Dollars on stupid toys from the store. Their teddy bears were the softest ever. I lost them to First Wife in the divorce.

[seanthemon]

How many microsoft bucks for a new wife + teddy?