No Rock And Roll Fun

WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO TODAY?: The iPod has swept the world. Including, it seems, Microsoft's campus, where as many as 16,000 of the corporation's 25,000 employees (in as far as they actually have proper employees) are choosing to use Apple's musicbox rather than the Msoft 'Plays For Sure' players. Naturally, this is going down pretty poorly with Bill Gates - the people he's bought having the competition blasting straight into his head - and management are rushing to try and correct this free-thinking bug:

For example, an internal e-mail circular sent to several senior managers in mid-December talked about iPod shipments to Apple's nearby store in Bellingham.

The e-mail said: "FWIW, the gal at the Bellevue Square Apple Store said that they are getting in two shipments of 200 iPods every day to keep up with this week's demand, and are nearly constantly selling out."

The note prompted a curt reply from Dave Fester, general manager of the Windows Digital Media division, who wrote the group: "I sure hope Microsoft employees are not buying iPods. We have great alternatives. Check out http://experiencemore."

Fifteen minutes later, the manager responded: "I don't know what I was thinking. I'm sure that Microsoft employees are not buying iPods, or Macs or PlayStations."

Microsoft have always been touchy about Apple products - they canned a blogger who took a snap of Apple Macs being delivered to their headquarters, even although - since Microsoft make a range of products for the Mac - there was nothing that odd about them owning the machines.