Tue Mar 14, 2006 4:09 pm

Heh, well played, Microsoft, Well played indeed!

Tue Mar 14, 2006 4:47 pm

In all seriousness though can you seriously think a company that responded with such pique when workers were found to be flashing their iPods on campus would see this as simply a bit of a laugh. I think not, I suspect people are being hung, drawn and quartered this very minute, at least metaphorically speaking the actual process is probably being confounded by a blue screen of death in the torture chamber at present. After all, judging by the spookily similar plan for marketing at least 6 versions of Vista at the last count it is obvious that irony isnt a quality the powers that be at Microsoft fully understand.

Tue Mar 14, 2006 5:19 pm

> I think not, I suspect people are being hung, drawn and quartered this very minute, at least metaphorically speaking the actual process is probably being confounded by a blue screen of death in the torture chamber at present.

Jeez. Get a life. Microsoft has a long tradition of making funny videos about itself. Here's one of the newer ones: http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2679657?htv=12

> After all, judging by the spookily similar plan for marketing at least 6 versions of Vista at the last count it is obvious that irony isnt a quality the powers that be at Microsoft fully understand.

Yeah, because marketing software == marketing an mp3 player. Not. And before you forget, Microsoft has been _far_ more successful at marketing software than Apple.

Tue Mar 14, 2006 5:51 pm

I thought it was funny, and it made me feel a little better about MS. People who can laugh at themselves can't be all bad. For some of the above comments, I agree with the sentiment, "Get a life."

Tue Mar 14, 2006 6:06 pm

its iPod not I-pod

Tue Mar 14, 2006 6:51 pm

Etherdog writes:

Use http://keepvid.com/ do download any vid on the net. Easy, free. Almost Mac like.

Tue Mar 14, 2006 7:14 pm

That is so awesome! I actually liked the redesign more than the original. Awesome.

Tue Mar 14, 2006 7:33 pm

by the way, I tested the keepvid .mp4 and it played just fine. I haven't downloaded the other formats....

Tue Mar 14, 2006 10:38 pm

prolly means the microsoft programmers were making fun of ms marketting. the usual engineer/non-engineer clique environment at most large companies.

Wed Mar 15, 2006 12:11 am

As a graphic designer who has worked with inept management (they are nearly all are), i can say that it was obvious that came from a frustrated designer(s). there are no other kind. it really is design 101 in video form. I applaud the bitch slap their packing team was able to deliver to marketing. To Quote Battlestar Gallactica, So say We All.

Wed Mar 15, 2006 12:56 am

The real truth is this explans how people at Microsoft really think. MS has so much money for R&D and still comes us short next to Apple. it always amazes me the wealth of talent they may have but don't use. its all about the marketing people. MS will never be Apple no matter hard they try. they just don't think outside the box. the culture there is taught not too. Don't rock the boat we need the profits.

Wed Mar 15, 2006 2:29 am

To say that "MS will always come up short to Apple" and "MS will never be Apple no matter how hard they try" must be one of the most asinine statements I have ever read on the internet. Bill Gates did not become THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD without being an innovator, to say that MS has not (been an innovator) is just plain ignoring the facts. Apple had a small hardcore niche market until the iPod sparked people's interest in them again. No one can doubt Apple makes solid products that have a growing following, no one can doubt the quality of the iPod or any of their products but to attribute all of the sucess to Steve Jobs himself is idiocy, hundreds if not thousands of people contributed to the success of Apple's products. Also concerning "thinking outside of the box", Apple is the box now, they made a great product and now it is everyone's goal to make a better one. Someday someone will create a new product that will "Make Apple look like MS", no one is number one forever.

Wed Mar 15, 2006 3:44 am

MS DOS

The bluescreen

Frustration

Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:58 am

Clippy!

Wed Mar 15, 2006 9:11 am

Quote

Guest wrote:
Not sure if you realize this, but I'm almost 100% certain that nothing is leaked from MS unless they want it to be.

You're right, I didn't realize that some random dumb and illiterate pustule was almost 100% certain of that.

Wed Mar 15, 2006 12:13 pm

Brilliant and funny. My respect for MS just went up a notch or two.

Wed Mar 15, 2006 1:43 pm

Guest said: "Brilliant and funny. My respect for MS just went up a notch or two."

You need an antibiotic: http://www.theregister.co.uk/media/578.mpeg

Wed Mar 15, 2006 2:16 pm

Quote

Guest wrote:

Quote

Guest wrote:
its iPod not I-pod

yeah obviously retard! its spelled crappy because it's MICRO$OFT, the way Apple spelled it looks too good for microsoft

I'm thinking it's got a hyphen because iPod has a copyright on it. Microsoft wouldn't want to infringe on another companies copyrights.

Wed Mar 15, 2006 5:01 pm

Kudos to whomever is responsible for this Video which just made my day much better. Funny stuff, they deserve a cookie!

Wed Mar 15, 2006 5:09 pm

I find it funny how anal-expulsive some folks are about their politics, but let me just say that Rummy is far more successful both in terms of promulgating ideology ("Old Europe", combat readiness, military modernization) and of sucesses where people's lives are on the line, than any armchair general. Don't bother with the facts, though, enjoy the air in your closet of leftist flatulation.

Now, on to the video at hand. It's hardly surprising that designers are going to take on marketing. That happens everywhere. What the M$ rep said was a nice PR cover, but are there heads rolling? No doubt. If you've read up on M$ corporate culture, it'd be hard to believe that there wouldn't be retaliation. Honestly, M$ is no Apple -- the corporate DNA is wholly different.

Wed Mar 15, 2006 6:51 pm

It should come as no surprise that all large companies are broken up internally into warring feifdoms. Engineers vs admin vs design vs marketing. Even various engineeering projects fight for perceived recognition etc. This sort of video is not unusual by any means. Just another grenade over the parapet.

What surprises me is that they left the size of the box alone. Doubling it would have made more space for text etc including the "contents may settle during transport".

May contain traces of nuts.

Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:26 pm

The re-design is just like their software...spaghetti code

Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:03 pm

Quote

Guest wrote:

Quote

Guest wrote:
MS DOS

The bluescreen

Frustration

Nope !!!

MS - DOS was bought in.

Quote

Guest wrote:

Quote

Guest wrote:
To say that "MS will always come up short to Apple" and "MS will never be Apple no matter how hard they try" must be one of the most asinine statements I have ever read on the internet. Bill Gates did not become THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD without being an innovator, to say that MS has not (been an innovator) is just plain ignoring the facts. Apple had a small hardcore niche market until the iPod sparked people's interest in them again. No one can doubt Apple makes solid products that have a growing following, no one can doubt the quality of the iPod or any of their products but to attribute all of the sucess to Steve Jobs himself is idiocy, hundreds if not thousands of people contributed to the success of Apple's products. Also concerning "thinking outside of the box", Apple is the box now, they made a great product and now it is everyone's goal to make a better one. Someday someone will create a new product that will "Make Apple look like MS", no one is number one forever.

Wow. Revisionist History 101.

Not to start a war or anything, but can you name three things that Microsoft innovated? (Do not include anything bought, copied, or stolen.)

Sure no problem ....

Infra-red Mouse

Visual Studio Codesense Engine

Unified IDE

Natural Keyboard

RTF (Rich Text) File format

Tabbed Window View

IntelliMouse

Customizable Tool Palettes

But you fan-boys seldom get the point MS is about ebracing standards and expanding on the functionality .... its worked for them ... meanwhile apple gives us crappletalk and the much loved single button mouse. Microsoft DOESN'T innovate ... they make computers usefull

Hell the dreamcast was innovative .... but that diddn't go so well. oh and BTW OSX is no inovtion it was bought (openstep) and sadly not even that is all to special (BSD)

Now its your turn ... tell me what apple has created. Besides an irritating CEO

Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:18 am

Quote

Guest wrote:

Quote

Guest wrote:

Wow. Revisionist History 101.

Not to start a war or anything, but can you name three things that Microsoft innovated? (Do not include anything bought, copied, or stolen.)

Sure no problem ....

Infra-red Mouse (Not!)

Visual Studio Codesense Engine

Unified IDE (Not!)

Natural Keyboard

RTF (Rich Text) File format (Not!)

Tabbed Window View (Not!)

IntelliMouse

Customizable Tool Palettes (Not!)

But you fan-boys seldom get the point MS is about ebracing standards and expanding on the functionality .... its worked for them ... meanwhile apple gives us crappletalk and the much loved single button mouse. Microsoft DOESN'T innovate ... they make computers usefull

Hell the dreamcast was innovative .... but that diddn't go so well. oh and BTW OSX is no inovtion it was bought (openstep) and sadly not even that is all to special (BSD)

Now its your turn ... tell me what apple has created. Besides an irritating CEO

Accessories

Airport (codeveloped with Lucent)

Control Panel

Cut and Paste

Desktop Bus

Drag and Drop

Hypercard

Inside Macintosh

Laser Printer

MacDraw, MacPaint, MacWrite

Plug and Play

Undo

Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:25 am

For you MS haters, think about what apple actually developed, just like MS they buy or steal most of thier ideas. iPod was not the first MP3 player, Apple's OS was not the first GUI. I'm not trying to say MS is better, but isn't this a case of the pot calling the kettle....

Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:37 am

Newton PDA

Quicktime Audio/Video

BTW: Who sold the first GUI, if not Apple?

Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:52 am

Quote

Mr. Pilla noted: "While MS did not release the video, it's natural to share funny things with friends.

What, wasn't that communistic? Anti-social? Destroying families and America?

Thu Mar 16, 2006 3:03 am

Apple is a wonderful company where everyone is happy and nobody ever feels mistreated. Everyone has a nice big window in their office. The hallways are strewn with fresh roses. They don't care about making money, they care more about being nice guys and gals. They have never taken a position that caused another company to make less money or realize less income. If it were up to them, everyone would make money and succeed, even if they had competing products. Everything Apple has ever done has been 100% through their own innovation. They have never had an unoriginal thought, much less an unoriginal product. They never make you install software that you do not want. Their software is always perfect and doesn't try to change my default file associations and reorganize my music collection. They are all about open source. Apple has never tried to leverage their position to increase sales.

Does that about cover it? If I were to take all the anti-MS pablum that I hear on these boards and assume the opposite is true for Apple, I would be left with the above nonsense.

Why do I personally choose to not use their products?

I won't install Quicktime because the associated .mov file extension is only usable with Quicktime. I refuse that product on principle. If MS were to do the same thing, all you who "drank the Kool-Aid" would be up in arms saying they are not playing nice.

iTunes does nothing notable that I can't do with less invasive applications.

The iPod does nothing notable I can't do for a cheaper life-cycle cost.

Nobody makes Apple compatible client software for the technical applications I use. BTW, if they had as many third-party folks writing applications for their OS, they would lose any stability advantages that my Apple-obsessive friends tell me they have with the Apple OS.

As I see it, Apple makes totally acceptable products for leisure, multimedia, and nonspecific office work. That's fine, if that's what you want. It doesn't meet my needs, but to each their own. I need a computer that is capable of running the third party applications as needed by my customers.

However, if you think Apple is a warm, fuzzy company that is somehow different from the evil MSEmpire, you may be surprised to know what happens when they close the shades. Business is business. Apple is better at marketing that happy-happy-joy-joy feeling that Saturn could have patented in the 80's and MS is better at bringing products to market that are more usefully applied.

The only difference is that MS is currently winning the race and Apple is spinning that fact into the "Aw, shucks... We just want you to like us, because we are just the innocuous little guys." Personally, I have an instant mistrust of any company that claims to be in business to "make great products". That is total marketing and is a total lie. I've always known MS was in business to make money, isn't everyone?

Thu Mar 16, 2006 6:05 am

It's possible Microsoft released the video to try and get some of the "grass roots" and "friendly" aura that is Apple marketing. Microsoft's attempt at putting on a human face unfortunately has backfired as countless people who have seen the video nod their heads in agreement how Microsoft has managed to turn yet another great idea into a horrible mess.

Someone said Microsoft does great marketing. In fact the opposite is true. They are big because of illegal anti-trust tactics (i.e., criminal activity) and nobody caught on when they are perpetrating their crimes. On the other hand, Apple has not only survived but is thriving, even against such an enormous beast. So obviously the winner is Apple with its superior products and superior marketing over the years.

Thu Mar 16, 2006 6:38 am

why dont they spend some money on creating some decent products? over some phoney advertising for laughs?

why? because Microsoft sits on thier asses mucking round and we get the cruddy products as a result.

Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:33 am

actually, reading the comments here (especially the ones from the Apple-Fanboys) is a lot funnier than the vid itself.

Sat Mar 18, 2006 12:57 am

Lol, pretty funny stuff all around. One thing that often gets lost in the news about 'the corporate giant' is that Microsoft started out as a small company and grew big by acquiring small and large companies. It does have a lot of consistency under the Microsoft branding, but each product group has their own culture and personality.

As to heads rolling over funny clips, google Microsoft PDC videos for some more funny stuff, like the wonderful 'Bill Gates goes to college': http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2679657?htv=12&htv=12