Thomas,

I'm sorry I hadn't replied earlier. I've been out of the country for three weeks and had to prepare for the time away...

I don't know what Tom is up to but he does show up at our user group.

I was just at the Toluca Lake Trader Joe's today. The store entrance is in a new location.

(MSFT's advertising) -- regarding .NET, not much has changed. The advertising message has gone from "It's revolutionary!!!" to "ASP.NET really sucks less than .ASP!" and has been like that for some time.

The Windows 2003 server advertising is interesting, especially as it relates to the .NET advertising. The IT people within the Windows 2003 server advertising are in exalted positions. Either you are looking up to them (because they are the tallest) or are heading up (in one case, an escalator). The point here is that in regards to Windows 2003 server, look "up" to your IT staff.

This message is completely opposite of the original .NET message. There, the message was literally "Look down on your IT staff!" because all the people in the advertising were in subservient positions. IOW, you, IT decision maker, buy into .NET because your IT staff is too dumb to do it for you.

Bill Anderson


>Thank you Bill;
>
>I have not seen you post for a while and enjoy your comments and analysis about Microsoft’s marketing methodology!
>
>By the way our daughter moved to Sherman Oaks, and members of my wife’s family are in North Hollywood and Burbank. One of these days while visiting I might bump into you at Trader Joe’s or Bob’s Big Boy.
>
>Do you know what Tom Rombouts is up to these days?
>
>Tom