Jim

I decided to check on DirectX 7 on the Microsoft download site. Hmm - still available for download, all 128 megs of it.

Hey! I can buy it for $8.95 or $12.50 airmailed to me! Cool - I click on the link to order it and what do I find? They want $9.95 and $13.50 to airmail.

Wait a second! I emailed them asking why the extra buck? The response a day after - We don't see the price error - where were you looking?

Well, let me get the URL for you... Wait a second.... Microsoft just raised the price on their site - $9.95 and $13.50... Well sir, you must have been wrong then.

It's the old 'We're never wrong' deal

Now, has anybody ordered the CD for the 8.95 or 12.50 that it used to be or remember that price being listed?

It might only be a buck, but think that if 100,000 people order it, that's a lot of extra cash!

Jim

Don't Fix Them

Microsoft announced that it is selling advertising space in the error messages that appear in Windows. Acknowledging for the first time that the average user of their operating system encounters error messages at least several times a day, Microsoft is trying to take financial advantage of the unavoidable opportunity to make an ad impression. "We estimate that throughout the world at any given moment several million people are getting a 'general protection fault' or 'illegal operation' warning. We will be able to generate significant revenue by including a short advertising message along with it," said Microsoft marketing director Nathan Mirror.

The Justice Department immediately indicated that they intend to investigate whether Microsoft is gaining an unfair advantage in reaching the public with this advertising by virtue of its semi monopolistic control over error messages.

-fel