BHA

(idea) by mkb Wed Mar 07 2001 at 4:44:02
Back when Apple was designing their fancy new Power Macs, they had a code name for each of them. The entry-level 6100 was code-named Piltdown Man (a hoax), the high-end 8100 was code-named Cold Fusion (another hoax), and the middle-of-the-road 7100 was called Carl Sagan (errr, not a hoax).

In a magazine article, Carl Sagan read his name used in connection with a product along with two hoaxes and fired off an angry letter demanding that his name be removed from the product, and that he would never allow his name to be used as a form of endorsement, especially without getting paid.

Apple's engineers complied, and the code name of the Power Mac 7100 was changed to BHA.

Word got out that BHA stood for Butthead Astronomer, so Sagan sued for libel, demanding once again that Apple's engineers change their internal code-name.

They complied once more, taking the advice of Apple's legal department, changing the name to LAW, for Lawyers are Wimps.

Carl Sagan continued with his libel suit, which was thrown out.


corroborated in both Macworld and David Pogue and Joseph Schorr's Mac Secrets 2nd or 3rd edition.
(thing) by anyend Thu Nov 14 2002 at 1:38:57
It should be noted the two other systems were not themselves hoaxes, but the code names were taken from famous scientific hoaxes. It's conjectured that Sagan did not like that his name was sandwiched between two famous scientific hoaxes. What was that saying about him as a scientist? It's akin to having your name sandwiched between CHILD RAPIST and CHILD KILLER and then the triptych becoming as fixed in people's minds as the Chicago/Windows 95 association was for the couple years prior to its released.

Sagan's butt-head astronomer lawsuit was filed in April 1994. The presiding judge, Judge J. Baird, threw the suit out in July 1994. He ruled that "BHA" was used purely in house and it could not libel Sagan. In his judgment he noted "One does not seriously attack the expertise of a scientist using the undefined phrase 'butt-head.' "

Apple claims after the suit, it reached an undisclosed, amicable settlement with the butt head.
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