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February 24, 2006 12:03 AM
Broken: Microsoft anti-piracy banner
Reader "True Wireless" sends in a picture from Microsoft's website and points out:
On Microsoft's partner section of their website, there is a banner image at the top of the page that says "Protect yourself and your customers from piracy," but it shows a man holding an Apple iBook.
It looks like the banner advises people to buy Macintoshes to protect themselves from piracy.
You could look at it a different way: The Apple iBook is getting stolen(of which piracy is a synonym) the the evil man dressed in black. The logical assumption would be to buy a Windows notebook so nobody steals it.
part of me says not broken (pro apple side)
the other part says broken (broken side)
I cant really decide.
Microsoft does sell some OSX software, or it could go like this: new apple laptop with intel chip hacked with windows xp on it??
Mike-
Yes, could be true except for one detail: as of right now, there is no iBook with an Intel chip in it.
I say broken. It's almost like saying that Macs have better privacy features.
I think that's Steve Jobs in his signature long-sleeve black turtleneck...and, if you remember way back when, Apple was famous for flying a pirate flag in front of their Cupertino headquarters...http://www.soundman.com/MACINTOSH/Apple%20pirate%20flag.JPG
Can anyone tell me how do you tell that's a Mac computer? I just see a picture of one side of a laptop, showing some USB ports, and to me it looks like any ordinary brand or model....
On the other side, Brian, what's wrong about Microsoft (or anybody for the matter), being "obsesive" about protecting itself from piracy? If you inveted something, wouldn't you try to protect your intellectual property from being stolen?
who's to say that the laptop is being stolen. Maybe the laptop is actually being used as part of the crime. It's an apple-loving microsoft-hating hacker child.... That ibook has all of your company's secrets on it....
Microsoft writes Macintosh software.
This is almost as idiotic as that blogger who worked at Microsoft and got fired for taking photos of MS unloading G5 Macs at the loading dock. MS makes Mac software; of COURSE they buy Macs to do it, you morons. Why is this news? Why did people look at that image and giggle like idiots?
Anyway, I own a 14" iBook, and yeah, this is almost certainly an iBook. Although there are a lot of PC makers that are ripping-off the Apple look (both the Powerbook look and the iBook look), PC makers usually aren't savvy enough to put all the ports to the computer on the side wher they're easy to reach. They usually put most of them on the back, where you have to slide the laptop aside to plug in a network cable. Also, notice how the CPU exhaust is on the side as well... the vast majority of PC laptops have it in the back. (The back of iBooks is just blank. No ports or vents or anything.)
I should add that Microsoft is the *only* company that makes a half-decent spreadsheet for Macintosh. Come on, Mac software companies, give me a spreadsheet that doesn't suck ass for God's sake!
if it is a mac, here's my theory:
time and again, ads for computer related thingies feature macs when they are not promoting macs ... why? because all the cool designers have macs, and they take a quick img of the nearest computer
I noticed something completely different... The gradient effect of the background goes from orange to white, which looses the bottom of the "y" which looks to me like a "v". Can anyone actually see the bottom of the "y"?
>Sam: "Can anyone tell me how do you tell that's a Mac computer?"
What, you can't?
The answer is the same as how you can tell a VW Beetle is a VW Beetle without seeing the VW logo on the back: The design is distinctive enough to anyone who is at all familiar with cars.
Heck, even those who don't know cars will know the Beetle isn't a Volvo even if they don't know it's a VW. I don't think anyone is going to mistake that laptop for a Sony, Dell or Gateway.
Of course, I'm typing this on an Apple iBook that looks exactly like that, so if I'm out of line thinking that most people would recognize that as an Apple design then please pardon me.
Though how many people noticed the image is reversed? The ports on an iBook are actually on the ~other~ side of the computer....
I didn't say Microsoft made the *only* spreadsheet for Macintosh, I said they made the only *decent* one.
OpenOffice is X11. X11 apps suck ass for many different reasons I won't get into here... there's a version of OpenOffice for Macintosh that's Java (NeoOffice, I think), but Java also sucks ass for many different reasons I also won't get into here.
That said, OpenOffice Calc is ok in Windows, so if it weren't X11 or Java, I'd probably be satisfied with it. (Even though it doesn't have all the features of Excel.)
> Though how many people noticed the image is
> reversed? The ports on an iBook are actually on
> the ~other~ side of the computer....
Uh, not on mine... on might all the ports are on the left-hand side (the side pictured) except the AC adapter port which is on the right. I have the 1.25 mhz G4 version with the slot-load CD drive.
Ugh. "On might" = "on mine." There should be a law that all forum/blog posting software allows a 5 minute grace period for edits.
I have decided James is a Microsoft Dildo.
X11 is prabably the best windowing system ever made. Beats the shit out of the Windows windowing system
Erich, with all due respect, I think your example trying to compare laptop computers to VWs and Volvos is quite dumb. Because a VW has a very distinctive and unusual shape, that makes it quite different from any other car. But let's say you're not much into cars and you have to tell a Honda from a Toyota, just by looking at a small picture of the chassis. Would you be able to tell one from the other? I don't think so...
Well, I've never had and never cared to have a MAC computer, just like the majority of computer owners around the world, and that is why I can't tell the computer in the picture is a MAC. My question in my original posting was legitimate, but maybe I should be even more specific and ask: what elements in the laptop shown in the picture are so unique and distinctive that allow us to say it is a MAC and not just any other computer?
I couldn't tell it was an iBook, either, but I'll take you guys' word for it. The MS software piracy protection home page has the same banner, except with a different image (open laptop with windows desktop). Might be the two are simply graphical space-fillers, and we're reading too much into it? I can see the "y" in "piracy" if I tilt my screen back a bit.
"Can anyone actually see the bottom of the "y"?"
yes, but barely. You won't see it on an LCD monitor (at least not a cheap one).
and another thing ...
i glanced at it fast and with the hard to read type on the salmon background competing with the big white letters, i thought it said:
"protect yourself ***from*** your customers"
which is not an inaccurate guiding principle for some corps ... such as ...
That is a very distinctive Apple design. Rounded corners, the shape of the vent holes, the order, number, type, and placement of the ports (and the inclusion of Firewire and mini-VGA, and the exclusion of a line/mic input), and the placement of the Kensington lock, all scream Apple.
>James Schend:"Uh, not on mine... on might all the ports are on the left-hand side (the side pictured) except the AC adapter port which is on the right. I have the 1.25 mhz G4 version with the slot-load CD drive."
Actually, you are correct that the left hand side is pictured...but it is reversed nonetheless.
The Kensington lock slot is at the back (hinge end) of the iBook, and the vents are at the front under the trackpad. Thus, in this picture the hinge side is down, so ostensibly we're looking at the right side. As you've noted, however, the slot-load CD drive and AC adapter port would be visible if this was the case, and the ports seen are on the left side. Ergo, reversed photo.
>fluffy:"That is a very distinctive Apple design....all scream Apple."
At least I'm not the only one to think so! :-)
>Sam:"But let's say you're not much into cars and you have to tell a Honda from a Toyota, just by looking at a small picture of the chassis. Would you be able to tell one from the other? I don't think so..."
Point taken, though I must say that though I'm not all that into cars I can tell a Honda from a Toyota from just a small portion. Useless anecdote: I once told my mother she was walking towards someone else's Mazda of a similar color and not her Subaru when all we could see was the roofline in the parking lot, and she was amazed that I was right. I guess some people are more attuned to visual cues while others notice other things. My wife is spot on with faces and voices, and recognizes actors I've never noticed. To each his/her own.
I would simply ask you to point out another WHITE laptop out there. From the iPod to iMac, Apple has pretty much branded the "white and brushed metal" look as its own. I for one can't think of a similar looking PC laptop at all.
Microsoft owns 20% of Apple.
No, it doesn't. It never did.
The $150 million in Apple stock that Micro$oft bought in 1997 would have been about 7% of Apple, but it was non-voting stock.
The stock has since been sold.
The Mac is probably intentional. MS does make a lot of software for the Mac. And the Mac is notoriously secure, mostly because they make both the hardware and the OS and the fact that virus creators rarely, if ever, write viruses to target Mac products.
Most likely scenario:
The designer of this ad used a picture from a stock photography company and placed it in there without recognizing this as being an Apple iBook.
I think calling this broken is a stretch. Mildly amusing? Maybe. Fuel to the fire for the staunch pro-Apple/anti-Microsoft camps? Absolulely. I don't see the big deal. It was obviously put together by a junior-level designer (who may or may not work for Microsoft) because the design itself is not so great. FYI- I do own an Apple computer at home and an iPod, etc. but also work with Microsoft products on a daily basis.
Uhhhhhh
Ya'll are so stupid nothing on there says it's an microsoft and or thing from the website so mabye the guy is lying to us :( That is so sad that someone would lie about it :(
Comments on this entry are closed
Previous: Roman numeral on clock | Main | Next: O' Neill building sign
(first!) Maybe they're equating apple to piracy.
Or maybe it was some advertising artist trying to make a statement.
Posted by: =David at February 24, 2006 12:37 AM