Banana
Computers
By Chris Clark |
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The
field of computers and technology is always changing and new companies
come in as quickly as old ones go out. Now take a look at the cutting
edge in state of the art information systems: Banana Computers.
The
Banana Computers Company was developed in October of 2000 under the leadership
of the brilliant Norman Gerbels of Backwater, MI. Norman was featured
on the Syndicate twice before in Yurivich Gruskenvald's Chaos
Theory and Potato Chip Decisions and in Dr. Floyd H. Shkletzinheimer's
follow-up: Salty Potato Chaos - A Rebuttal.
After Norman's brush with global destruction (featured in those articles)
he realized he needed to make something of himself in the world. The Banana
Computers Company was formed, and it set out to create a line of technological
gadgets the likes of which the world has never seen.
In
this article I took a look at some of the hottest devices available on
the new Banana Computers 2002 line. For each gadget I managed to get a
few words from Norman himself on just what each device does and what features
they include.
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Me,
Chris Clark, asking the questions
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Norman
Gerbels, Banana Computers Mastermind
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The BananaMax 2600C Work
Station
Price:
$4,400 American
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The BananaMax
2600C Work Station is the premier desktop terminal on the market
today. Its features include:
- Built-in cappuccino
machine with included stock of cups
- 23" Monitor
with a color count high enough to be statistically rounded to
infinity
- Spherical
gravity-defying wireless mouse
- 12" satellite
dish hookup
- Three impressive
looking slots on the tower
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Tell
us about this model, Norman. |
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The
BananaMax line features my favorite new toy, a spherical
floating mouse. |
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How
does it work, exactly? |
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Think
of it as a baseball that floats about six inches above your
mouse pad. When you move it, the mouse pointer on screen moves
in any of three dimensions. |
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Wow.
What else makes this model unique? |
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As
a geek who sits hunched in front of his computer during the
midnight hours, I was pleased to install a cappuccino machine
in the tower. The actual liquid that comes out does taste a
bit like copper wire and packaging material, but it keeps you
up all night! |
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And
what about the three slots on the tower, what do they do? |
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Make
the machine look more advanced, I suppose. Maybe one of them
takes CD's or something, it's anybody's guess. |
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The
PowerBunch 3X Reality Simulation Helmet
Price:
$13,200 American
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The PowerBunch
3X Reality Simulation Helmet is the cutting edge in virtual
reality technology, fusing the power of corrugation with the capabilities
of cardboard. It's features include:
- Double-thick
corrugated card material casing
- Safety stabilization
flaps on the underside
- Stylish external
directional artwork
- Cubic shape
for enhanced functionality
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I
think this is the product that really has the techno-world buzzing. |
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I
couldn't have put it any better myself, Chris. The PowerBunch
3X is a simply amazing piece of machinery, decades in development. |
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How
exactly does it work? |
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Well,
I don't want to go to in-depth as we could be here all night,
so I'll try to keep it brief. The user firmly attaches the one-size-fits-all
helmet to his/her head and psychokinetically initiates whatever
program is to be run by merely thinking of it. |
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Fascinating. |
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Quite!
The program plays out within the helmet, utilizing every sense
of the user for a totally believable experience. Every thought
the user has to make a change in the program is immediately
detected, analyzed, and initiated. |
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Yikes!
A device that can do all that is only thirteen thousand? Are
you guys still profiting off this? |
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Just
barely Chris, just barely. |
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Norman
left us with a few ideas he has buzzing around in his brain for the future
of Banana Computers. They were quite intriguing, and I made sure to write
them down in my brand new Palm Peel 250-XP Handheld (a little gift
from the friendly people at Banana Computers). I'd talk about those ideas
here, but my Palm Peel gave me a lengthy error message when I tried to
extract the data. Now it seems I can't access any files and the PDA is
repeatedly transmitting a malicious computer virus to any machine that
comes within a few feet.
I guess I'll have to
call customer support about this one.
-Chris Clark
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