I have just discovered that one of the points I made in my previous post is partially incorrect. I stated in the third dot-point,

Why do I want the new Office? What's wrong with the old (or pirated) one that I'm using right now? What's included in Ultimate? Hell, there isn't even a link to the Office site on it at all (not that I could find, and I looked unlike most other visitors)! The only somewhat helpful page is the one is the 'don't believe its real' link, and that's the boring-est page ever. Looks exactly like one of those licence agreement pages, and everyone knows noone reads them. Doesn't tell me what the lesser-known components of Office do either - wtf is InfoPath or Groove? Geez, do you expect us to go spend our precious non-drinking time researching your product too before we part with our limited cash supply? Only those who intended to buy it anyway will benefit atm (i.e. geeks who researched it, or those with new computers without Office on it at all). Sell your product (not overly, but smartly and in context with uni students) - the new UI is a good starting point because we're superficial creatures (admit it); if it looks good we're more likely to take a second look.

I obviously didn't look hard enough - the link to the official Office site and the list of what's included is there after you click on the following button on the site:
That is better but still not good enough if you ask me - the button looks like something I'd click if I was ready to make the purchase, not something I'd click to find out more (doesn't help that the button links to the digitalriver domain, but the typical person won't see that).

Anyway, assuming I stayed long enough to click on that, I get a page that gives me a quick 5 second somewhat-relevant spiel and a list of what's included (still, no explanation as to what each does). To find out more, I get redirected to the official Office site, where the site is primarily oriented towards the business customer, and offers no more information than I got before. I have to click further for that. Someone has to tell Microsoft that the more clicks a user has to click, the greater the cognitive load and the less interested they become. Anyway, assuming I click on to say the Overview page, everything there is so general you actually have to think about what's written before knowing whether you need it or not - increasing the cognitive load.

I still stand by the point I made in the above post (except the bits that are wrong, i.e. no link to Office site, no list of what's included). Too much research is required; sure some might go to the lengths of actually looking it up, but that number will be small compared to the potential hundreds of thousands of students out there wanting/needing Office.

A much better way would be to add an overview (complete with nice screenshots) on to the actual itsnotcheating site itself (with a big link on the front page), and write an overview for a student audience. Then, link that to the official site when the visitor is sucked in and wants to know more. The cognitive load is reduced substantially, and you can get a much stronger feeling of 'I need it' in the visitor, rather than 'I think I need it because I think that's what it can do for me'. Maybe Microsoft expects magazines and bloggers to write relevant pieces to provide this - wake up Microsoft, there are no student mags I know of that talk about productivity software, and the student population who'll write about this on their myspace is miniscule. You need to do the hard yards yourself, make yourself needed, make yourself look cool, make yourself desirable enough for a student to forgo a decent night out.

I posted a quick update to the post in the comments too, which I'll repeat (elaborated on and edited for clarity) here for those who missed it:

Quick update:

My mates just told me about how outragously expensive Office and Vista is, especially if they wanted at least Home Premium and needed Publisher and Access (therefore have to buy Ultimate). I directed them to the www.itsnotcheating.com.au site, but alas, it took me over 15 minutes just to try and convince them that its legit and real, and I'm still not convinced that they're convinced (don't think I could add 'convince' into that sentence again ). They're right to be skeptical - Office never sells this cheap here, especially the one with the lot.

This is real-life research showing you the site's not working.

This site isn't getting much love from Long Zheng either, though he's attacking it from a completely different angle, saying that the price is ridiculous for piracy, those who bought Home & Student, retail partners, and the true value of Office. He compares it with the full version of Office Ultimate, even though its likely the copy obtained via this promo will be an Academic/non-commercial licence. Still, his points are valid ones.

Seems like Microsoft's luck is continuing to deterioriate...

The Microsoft Office marketing team in Australia have a new target in their sights - uni students. Mentioned on many blogs, e.g. here and here (as well as on the aus-dot-net mailing list too), they're selling Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for 25 bucks for a year, or 75 bucks for an unlimited-time licence. They've launched a promo site for this offer titled, It's not cheating! (http://www.itsnotcheating.com.au/).

If you're just cruising through seeing if this offer is a scam, here's the answer: this offer is not a scam; it is a legitimate offer from Microsoft Australia.

What follows is a promotion nearly as bad as the global Office dinosaur campaign. Here's what's wrong in my opinion, and given I'm a uni student atm, I think it resonates with many others:

• Why can't Microsoft be innovative and stylish about their advertising? The idiot (that's the nicest word I can think of - he reminds me of Borat actually) is hardly appealing, the site lacks design (check out www.scouta.com for a similar style but better design - cool site btw), and looks like a promo site for crappy 'made in china' products (but without the spelling misteaks). There's hardly any authority conveyed in it, apart from the Microsoft logo at the bottom of the page. Curious types aside, I wouldn't have even looked that far.
• Following on from the previous point, add more credibility! The 'don't believe its real' link at the bottom of the page after you've selected your uni is not good enough. We're a skeptical bunch, especially when it comes to 'special offers', though we're easily swayed by them too.
  
• Why do I want the new Office? What's wrong with the old (or pirated) one that I'm using right now? What's included in Ultimate? Hell, there isn't even a link to the Office site on it at all (not that I could find, and I looked unlike most other visitors)! The only somewhat helpful page is the one is the 'don't believe its real' link, and that's the boring-est page ever. Looks exactly like one of those licence agreement pages, and everyone knows noone reads them. Doesn't tell me what the lesser-known components of Office do either - wtf is InfoPath or Groove? Geez, do you expect us to go spend our precious non-drinking time researching your product too before we part with our limited cash supply? Only those who intended to buy it anyway will benefit atm (i.e. geeks who researched it, or those with new computers without Office on it at all). Sell your product (not overly, but smartly and in context with uni students) - the new UI is a good starting point because we're superficial creatures (admit it); if it looks good we're more likely to take a second look.
• What's do I have to do to win the competition? Having a competition is a start, especially one that taps into our new social communication mediums, but ambigiuity lets it down. Just include the two phrases, and it'll be judged on the creativity of the story - story on what? Not getting caught cheating? Be more specific, or get us to answer a question, e.g. What was the biggest scam you've gotten away with? I reckon creating a social site where users can submit their best stories then getting that rated would work better, but its nice that they're trying new things, just that they're not pulling it off right. The 'highest supporting comments' thing is just screaming out for solicited blog comment spamming...
• Email signatures? Which uni student actually uses email signatures? Hell, I'll bet half don't even know what it is and how to set one! Email's old and tedious anyway, especially given Windows Live Messenger now has offline IM too. The only time I use email is to submit an assignment, or sending it to a group member. Get with the game -  how about providing blog widgets and images, like you did with the Imagine Cup and various other conferences? I reckon more of us know how to get a blog widget/image up on their myspace than setting an email sig.
• Does anyone actually know about this promotion? What's being done to promote it? I know because I read Microsoft blogs, but I can assure you the average uni student doesn't. I know the promotion's still new, and runs til May, so I'm not sure what your plans are yet. But here's one - you've already got a student partner network, use it! (speaking of which, I wonder who the Monash Clayton one is this year...) Sponsor bbqs, stick up posters, give them stickers to place around uni, give students stickers to stick on their laptops (preferably with witty messages/comics), give out trial version CDs... Of course we hate blatent and pushy advertising, but that doesn't mean you don't sell your product at all; they're two extremes and a compromise needs to be found.

It remains to be seen how good this promotion is, but personally, in its current state, its worse than cheating. The site is worse than if the promotion company decided to cheat themselves and copy the various other uni promotional campaigns out there that have worked. The offer itself is good, and better value for money than the Home & Student edition (which retails for 250 bucks, and less Publisher, Access, Outlook, InfoPath and Groove, but you get 3 non-commercial licences). It's really not that hard promoting it, and there are plenty of uni students out there willing to give you ideas. Just give us a shout.

I know I've been bashing Microsoft recently, but they seriously need to wake up and get their marketing act together (among other things). It's not as bad as the politically-incorrect WhatsWrongWithU.com, but it can be so much better, and hence more effective. Put it this way, and I'm not saying Microsoft should copy directly, but would marketing-genius Apple ever do this?

P.S. Yes, this counts as an entry into their competition, but I doubt they'll pick it
P.P.S. The site's just begging to be parodied - I'm sure there's tons of variations available on the URL. I know www.itsworsethancheating.com.au is available for starters...

UPDATE: One of the points I made above is partially incorrect - see this update post for more.

Had a mate bring his brand-spanking new HP laptop, which came pre-loaded with Windows Vista. Most things worked, but one vital thing didn't - Windows Live Messenger. No amount of uninstalling or reinstalling was able to fix the problem, which was that apart from the first time, every subsequent time he signed in, it would crash.

He emailed the Windows Live support services, who told him to delete the registry keys at HKLU\Software\Microsoft\MSNMessenger and at HKLM\Software\Microsoft\MSNMessenger. That worked, for the next time he logged in, before it started crashing again.

Feeling stumped, they wanted more info, so they sent him a list of instructions. The instructions include getting a list of running tasks using the tasklist command in the command prompt. Silly thing was, they forgot to tell him he had to run command prompt as Administrator first (its a Vista thing, but been on Linux systems for ages). Come on, this is Microsoft here and I'm sure that info collecting email was a standard issue - you'd think they'd have updated their own stuff by now.

Anyway, so I took a look at it, too various stabs in the dark to no avail, before some googling helped. Thanks to the great guys over at the Whirlpool forums (something good actually came out of the crappy Telstra service outages a few years back ), it turned out that Java Runtime Environment (JRE) was the culprit, partly. I'll explain why in a sec.

The problem was that Sun Java Runtime Environment Release 6 was incompatible with Windows Live Messenger 8.1. The first time you sign in to Windows Live Messenger, you're shown a screen welcoming you. That works fine. From then on though, instead of the welcome message, you get a cut-down version of your local MSN website. For Australia, that happened to be ninemsn, which also happened to be one of the few MSN sites around the world to utilise Java on its webpages (for statistic collection purposes). So because of the incompatibility, when Windows Live Messenger came to load that ninemsn page containing Java, it crashed.

Uninstalling Java fixed the problem, but then Windows Live Messenger complained that it was missing it. Reports say that installing the previous version of Java didn't work either.

The solution? Uninstall Windows Live Messenger 8.1, reinstall Java Runtime Environment Release 6, then download and install Windows Live Messenger 8.0 (that's right, not 8.1) which Microsoft has helpfully left up. Windows Live Messenger 8.1 apparently fixes Vista incompatibilities, but obviously not this one. Which is why before we go bashing Java (which is notorious for having buggy and slow runtime environments though getting better), its necessary to wonder whether Microsoft introduced the bug in version 8.1, or JRE Release 6 is incompatible with Vista.

It's worth noting too that the reason this problem doesn't seem to garner much attention globally is because the majority of worldwide MSN sites do not have a Java requirement, usually only a Flash one. For example, my friend also had a dummy MSN HK account, which worked perfectly fine (dumbfounding us originally). So, there's no indication when this will be resolved, which sucks because some of the 8.1 features are pretty cool, including the ability to carry your display picture around, no matter which computer you log on with.

<rant>

This 'bug', among other things makes me wonder about the preparation that went into Vista. Yes, it's a complex project, and yes it takes a monumental effort to complete something that tries to please everyone and anyone. But it seems that the effort was lost when it came to compatibility and communication with 3rd party vendors, with missing Vista drivers for many components, most prominently, Creative audio cards, and incompatible programs. Dell has delayed sending out their Vista upgrade CDs because of this too and so have other companies, pissing off customers. In fact, what shocks me is that Microsoft itself has incompatible products, e.g. Visual Studio 2005, whose Vista compatibility patch is still in beta testing - er hello, aren't developers vital to the success of Vista? (that said, on the few times that I've actually used VS2005 in my Vista RC1 version I haven't had any issues).

They haven't made the 'express upgrade' very express or easy either. Both Microsoft and the 3rd party vendors are guilty on this one. I have another mate who bought a Sony laptop earlier this year in HK, not pre-loaded with Vista. So I thought ok, to redeem that all I have to do is check out the HK VAIO site - confusing as all hell, and they don't seem to mention anything of the like. Ok, fine, Sony has flashy but non-updated, crap, sales-only websites. I thought maybe Microsoft could lead me to the right place via their global technology guarantee site. I get all the global links for claiming the upgrade if I bought a boxed version, but when I get to the OEM page, they redirect me to the Sony USA-only redemption site. What the fuck! We don't all live in the bloody states you know. Sony sucks big time too for stating the obvious, "Note: The Registration page is only for the United States." Tell me where to find the others goddamn it! I managed to find it in the end, but I can't find it anymore (it was a while ago) - the only mention I can see is this absolutely useless one on their crappy AP support site.

Sony's not alone either. Toshiba (my uncle's new laptop - its new laptop season methinks), while they didn't fair as badly - there was a clear link to the express upgrade on their Australian website, had a non-working site. It kept throwing up an 'unexpected error' message when I tried to confirm the quantity, then kicking me back not to the Australian Vista upgrade site, but the US one. For fucks sake! Get your head out of your arse and stop this US-centric nonsense! Its like the old days again, when websites forced you to enter in a US State and ZIP code to sign up, with no country field or a country field but still requires a US State and ZIP code. How fucking insulated or up-yourself can you be?

3rd parties power the Windows ecosystem - is it any wonder Vista isn't taking off as Microsoft predicted? Sure its a great product, and worth the upgrade, but when people's day-to-day apps aren't working, promised upgrades are a pain to apply for and if you do manage to apply its late, and software vendors are telling their customers not to upgrade as their products don't work yet, how can it possibly sell? I'm not sure who to point the finger at, because both Microsoft and 3rd party vendors are to blame. Microsoft just doesn't seem to be able to communicate and get things through to them, and vice-versa. I mean, its not like 3rd party vendors haven't been able to get their hands on Vista early enough - its had the biggest beta testing program of any version of Windows to date! And its not like a new version of Windows hasn't come out before.

I don't remember much about the launch of Windows XP, but you'd think they would have learnt their lesson then. It just seems like Microsoft was just happy to get it out the door before crawling back into their little unrealistic but protected cocoon and start work on the next version of their aging cash cow, never to appear again until then.

And what's the net result for consumers? We lose the one OS out there that has the best community (online & offline) support and the widest fit across the spectrum of computer users. There is no viable alternative out there for most people who just want to get on with their lives - Linux still doesn't get the average user, and Mac OSX is still tied down to Macs only. If either picked up their game, the outcome could be very different.

</rant>

Microsoft just frustrates me so much sometimes. There's so much talent, so much potential, so much cool stuff in there waiting to be unleashed but they just seem to be unable to pull everything together and make it work, so the coolness and buzz just dies. The Zune's one example, as is the backwards HTML email support in Outlook 2007; there's many more. The only exception here I reckon is the Xbox team and ecosystem, who actually seem to listen and respond their customers and make their experience as good as they can make it. But for the rest of Microsoft, maybe they have lost their mojo...

Over at AustralianWiki, there's an attempt to get an updated list of Aussie startups going [via Filtered]. Its not a bad list, there's many there that I've never heard of though so its a good start.

Some don't really qualify as startups though, like Gamespot, and its missing Chinswing which I've mentioned here before, and also moob, a Sydney-oriented social network for the nightlife there, so I've added them.

Checking out some of the entries that I haven heard of:

• mecanbe sounds interesting and is relatively different to what's out there at the moment. It's a lifestyle goal management - essentially, you set goals and actions needed to achieve that goal, and it'll remind and ask you to rate your progress to keep you on track.
• 88 Miles, a time tracking web app, has a nice design and they seem to have a business model too, selling more advanced accounts. I really like the home page, which describes exactly what it does quickly, and lets you see its features at a glance easily too, without having to browse through a ton of pages.
• 3eep, an Australian sports social network. I like the design, and also the fact that it caters for different roles (supporter, player, manager etc.) and acknowledges that someone can be a player on one team, and a supporter for others. Its still a bit sparse at the moment, but given it only went live in beta mode yesterday, its a good start.
  
  I think if they can get some promotion happening not just online through widgets or links, but also at actual games (a nice banner draped on the sidelines maybe, or in the club rooms, or school matches) it could well take off. Sport after all, is mainly a physical world thing, not a virtual one (fantasy games aside). That said, I think their URLS could do woth some work - for example, for the Dockers, its http://www.3eep.com/teams/2-fremantle-dockers which although mostly meaningful (except the 2, which I assume is the team ID in the database) it's too long to remember. A URL like fremantle-dockers.3eep.com would be much better.

Talking about Australian web startups though, sukk, a local digg copy, seems to have dropped off the radar. Their website now returns an empty directory listing. Their blog has disappeared too. It was launched on September 5th 2006, which isn't that long ago. Maybe they're just upgrading, otherwise its RIP sukk, 2006-2007. If so, hopefully the guys behind it have moved on to newer, more exciting ventures now.

While on web apps, I'm not sure if I'm just old-fashioned, but I really don't fancy the idea of opening my web browser and navigating to the web app to use it. I much rather there be a shortcut on my desktop (or a keyboard shortcut), which when I double-click will load a small window, automatically log me in, and let me do what I need to do then either exit or minimise to the tray until I need it again. Web apps nowadays typically take up my entire screen, which is very annoying when I'm trying to do multiple things at once (I don't have a massive twin-24-inch monitor setup you know). For example, if I want to add in an item to my to-do list on RememberTheMilk (just randomly picked you, no offence, you guys do a great job), all I want is a small window showing my most important todo items, and a field to add a new one. Add a link to the full-blown interface and I'll use that if I need it.

Desktop widgets solve this to a certain extent, but using Yahoo's Widget Engine as an example, I still either have to minimise everything to find the widget I need, or I need to overlay everything with the Konspose (can't remember the new Yahoo name for that). Bookmarklets are a better solution, but they're still bounded by the web browser, which sucks because I don't live in a web browser (which is big backwards step in the evolution of the desktop anyway if it were considered one). All I want is a small window, just like any other desktop app goddamn it!

I reckon this is a fundamental flaw with web apps these days - the web browser is simply not integrated well enough into the desktop. Maybe there's an idea for me to work on, some sort of desktop web 2.0 app launcher...

P.S. Unless you've been living under a rock for the last 20 or so hours, you would already know this, but holy moly - Melbourne Victory thrashed Adelaide United by 6 goals to none, with 5 by Socceroo Archie Thompson (who outdid his hat-trick prediction)! Didn't go to the match, but it would've been electric with the new record crowd (better than the Sydney vs. Melbourne match); my mates who went (shout out to J and Tam) had two words - twas' awesome. Google news coverage here.

Meanwhile, the Australian cricket world's not so happy after losing top spot on the one-day rankings, with South Africa now elevated to no. 1 status.

Forbes published an article on Branson last month, main point being - "Branson pledged all proceeds from Virgin Group's transportation divisions be donated to develop alternative fuel sources and alleviate global warming. His pledge amounts to about US$3 billion over ten years."

In typical Branson style, the announcement wasn't just big, it was BIG. Sure there's details that would mean that not all the proceeds would actually be donated, but nevertheless, that amount is huge. Its a big step for, as noted in the article, someone who is dependent on fossil fuels.

All this 'philanthropy' from big business leaders however, begs the question - why are they really doing this? No, not the answer that the PR people give, the real reason. This is one of the questions posed by the awesome must-see doco, The Corporation, recently released as a free torrent download. The doco analyses the corporation as a person, after all, that is effectively what it is legally. The debate is fairly well weighted on both sides, with some very interesting interviews.

Anyway, back to the point. Can big corporations really have such alturistic views? After all, their existence is really mainly for profit - there's no doubt that with shareholders behind them they have to deliver in that regard. With the shareholders in control, even if the founder or board have alturistic intentions, there's nothing much they can do. Shareholders often don't see the corporation as much of a living entity - its just one way to make money and that's it. A shareholder activist says in the film (paraphrased), "Who are the board to decide what's socially responsible?", and its quite right.

Ultimately however, corporation or not, I don't believe anyone is truly alturistic. People do it for the fame, the recognition, and possibly future financial/personal rewards. Corporations are the same, given they're really just giant puppets being controlled by a small group of people.

So you're saying alturism is bad then, and we should all go back to our instinctual selfish ways?

No, the world operates on 'alturism'. If everything was performed for their financial (perceived or not) cost, the world would be a diabolical mess. The world would be ruled by a handful of people, ultimately corrupted by greed. The rest of us would be in dire straits, our lives controlled to the second as scores of people line up (or trample) you for your position.

So-called 'alturism' is really just a game about someone willing to lower costs to help someone. Issue is, what is the remaining cost? That's never an easy question, and often can't be predicted until later. Realistically however, this is the way that the world advances. Who knows? Maybe its really just a game of leapfrog - on a global scale, people are already predicting the power of China, India etc., so called 3rd-world countries not so long ago (of course, they still have a long way to go).

Back to Branson's pledge - as evil as his intentions maybe, it still is a step in the right direction. It underscores the power of publishing, the power of being able to spread the word, the power that we have in our hands. We may not be able to pull it off ourselves, but we can influence those in power, and compromise on the solution.

The role of social responsibility of corporations is still muddy, but the power of the people is now greater than ever, and maybe we, as a global community, can help forge the path.

Ok, rant over (if it doesn't make sense, its the heat - its 35 degrees as I write this, and its nearly 9 at night!).

Its interesting to note that the google guys are now 'in' with the big business community, after only a very, very short period in comparison. Now can they keep their 'don't be evil' mantra true?

P.S. I went and saw Casino Royale today, (was shocked originally when 007 drove a Ford Focus equivalent) and all the blatant product placement aside (including Branson's Virgin Atlantic), I swear I saw Branson in a quick pan when Bond was going through the detectors at Miami International Airport. Anyone back me up?

UPDATE (16/12/2006): A couple of mates have confirmed that - yes Branson was in the film. Geez, the guy loves his attention, and now he's forever in the giant 007 franchise. I love the guy, but maybe, just maybe, he's seeking too much attention for his own good. After all however, Branson is synonymous with Virgin - I wonder what'll happen to Virgin when Branson retires/passes away...