Microsoft is well known for it's brilliant ( Windows 95 - start it up ) and not so brilliant ( Zune - random pink zune ) marketing strategies. But, I have to give them a thumbs up on this one, PowerTogether. A thumbs up only because I got myself a free copy of Vista Business and Office 2007, other than that it was really stupid, a waste of my time and a waste of thier money ( a retail value of $898 ).

PowerTogether is Microsoft's way of marketing which shows how thier new operating system, Microsoft Vista will work with Microsoft Office 2007. I'm sure there was additional marketing strategy to show off their Office Live Meeting software, because you were required to download the plug in for media play just to view the web cast.

I was told by a colleague of mine that this site existed and that upon signing up you get a free version of Vista. I get really excited when I hear the word "free". So, I immediately hopped over to the website and tried to sign up. I guess I wasn't the only one who knew about it at that moment. The site was bogged down, the pages took forever to load and when I finally got to the part to submit my information I was returned a server error. At this point in time I thought all my hopes for free software were gone.

Back to the main PowerTogether page I returned. It was now that I was able to take it all in. There was a version of Microsoft Office 2007 that was given away also. Unfortunately, I had the same results as signing up for Vista. Being that I was at work, I decided it was in my best interest just to blow it off till I got home.

That evening, when I was able to do my own personal browsing on the wonderful world wide web, I had a terrible spout of short-term-memory-loss. PieceTogether.com, no that wasn't it. PlayedTogether.com, damn. PartnerTogether.com, fuck. I should really start writing shit down. So I had to wait till the next morning when I could ask my friend what the site was.

I logged into powertogether.com, picked Windows Vista as my software, made it to the first page, second page, submit. I'm in now what? At this point I had to select 3 web cast I was willing to watch within the next 30 days. I picked the ones that best suited my interest and got my confirmation email. Just for shits and giggles I tried signing up for Office 2007. Success.

So now I have to watch 6 videos about Microsoft's software. Over the next few days my blog entries will consist of brief overviews and comments about the web cast that I got myself involved with.

To be honest with you. I played them all already. Minimized in my taskbar with the volume all the way down. Right now both copies of Microsoft Vista Business and Office 2007 should be getting packed up and on the way to my house. That's not really interesting to blog about so I'm going back, watching them again, taking notes and reporting back to you.