Blunder Road. A Microsoft music video by "Bruce ServicePack and the Vista Street Band" has been causing a few chuckles and a lot of retching across the Net. In the video, a Born in the USA-era Springsteen impersonator sings:

"Last year when Vista was new
You sold the Optimized Desktop Value
That's a pitch that never fails
And you saw lots of sales"

Microsoft insists it was not the world's lamest sales motivational tool but a clever spoof. Personally I think it was both. Microsoft is actually pretty good at poking fun at its own hopelessly uncool self (see the Bill Gates farewell video). But when the line "See what's on employees' laptops/With AIS and MDOP" is a big howler in the hallways at Redmond, you're already in the final stages of terminal dorkiness. Best to just pull the plug.

These are better days, baby. Speaking of farewells, the clever editors at Infoworld point out to me that June 30 marks both the last day Microsoft will sell shrink-wrapped and OEM copies of Windows XP and the last day Bill Gates will schlump through the doors at One Microsoft Way. Coincidence? We think not. Even Sir Bill can't stand to be alone in the building with Vista.

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Posted by Robert X. Cringely on April 18, 2008 06:48 AM