Together at last: Microsoft and SUVs

The increasing need to remind people that the Zune is a small iPod-style music player available in shops is starting to fry Microsoft's brains. Their latest idea was to pull up outside a nightclub and pump music from a Zune out into the night.

Unfortunately, they chose a residential area, and the locals aren't thrilled. They wrote an open letter:

Dear Microsoft,

We would like to thank you for the egregious display of noise terrorism commited on Ludlow Street between Stanton and Houston during the early hours of Sunday, February 25th. At approximately 03:00 EST, a Toyota FJ Cruiser with a competition grade car stereo rolled up outside of 178 Ludlow Street. In what was seemingly a desperate bid for attention, music was blasted in a very dense residential area.

There is, however, something odd about all this.

The noise supposedly prompted the creation of a WakeUpMicrosoft.com website - it was up briefly, containing the open letter. But it disappeared almost straight away.

Even more oddly, a blog and separate domain was created at roughly the same time - hellsquare.com - which also carried the letter. Now, we can see you might scramble to create a website to carry a 'screw you, Gates" letter - but to create two seems like overkill. And Hellsquare.com also disappeared as soon as it appeared. The whois lookup suggests the domains were registered through an anonomising third party - if you're posting a letter from your own address, with that address in the letter, why would you hide your domain details?

The truly cynical might wonder if this whole thing - angry residents and all - are all part of a marketing move?