Psychotic coders, marketing missteps and more mildly disturbing Microsoft news |
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Psychotic coders, marketing missteps and more mildly disturbing Microsoft news
Have you seen the video of students from Keith Valley Middle School in Horsham, Pa., doing the Microsoft Bing Dance? The fact that it was apparently a grassroots student phenomenon makes it slightly less disturbing than it would appear on the surface, but still, you gotta wonder how the parents of these children will feel.
Even better is this factoid from the official Microsoft Bing blog: "Stacy, the school’s cheerleading instructor spent 12 days teaching the sixth graders the 'Bing dance' with the grand finale being an all-school assembly where the school’s new mascot was announced."
Yes, that would be 12 days. Thankfully, the new school mascot is the "Kats," not the "Bings." (Via TechCrunch)
This one is disturbing, too, but at least it's intentional: Check out Microsoft's Dan Fernandez in a starring role as a highly creepy Visual Studio developer in this special Halloween video from Microsoft's Channel 9. Forget Redmond -- Fernandez belongs in Hollywood.
Microsoft has been displaying Twitter posts on the Windows home page to demonstrate public interest and enthusiasm for the new Windows 7 operating system, but in at least one case, the featured tweet didn't come from some random member of the public. One Flickr user demonstrates how Microsoft featured a glowing quote from a "Twitter User" that, upon further investigation, turned out to work in Microsoft marketing.
We haven't seen this tweet featured on the Windows home page yet, but Microsoft should probably put it on billboards: "Windows 7 is like having a new prettier, younger girlfriend that does things your ex couldn't or wouldn't do," says Las Vegas resident Alex Aguilar in what must qualify as the new operating system's most resounding endorsement yet.
And finally, if that one doesn't drum up interest in Windows 7, the guys at the Penny Arcade webcomic offer this alternative: "Windows 7: Less bad than you expected."
About Todd Bishop
Todd Bishop is co-founder and managing editor of TechFlash. He has covered Microsoft and the technology industry for more than five years, most recently as a daily newspaper reporter and blogger based in Seattle.
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