p2pnet.net News:- What’s THE ‘vista’?

For the moment, the ultimate, lower case, is, of course, Earth seen from the edges of Space. And the ultimate, upper case, is, of course, the latest from Bill and the Boyz, and they’re using a viral marketing campaign to boost the latter by offering the former.

It’s also the latest in a clever and extremely expensive (only Billionaire Bill could afford it) mass on- and offline advertising effort to make rock-solid, cast-iron sure Microsoft maintains its position of king of the mountain. To achieve, that with all the rewards that’ll ultimately follow, no immediate expense is too much.

This element is called Vanishing Point.

A black envelope, “arrived in the mail today,” posted Todd Ogasawara on O’Reilly News on January 3. “The return address on the envelope is from LOKI with a One Microsoft Way (Redmond campus) address.

He went on, “The note instructed me to go to http://vanishingpointgame.com/. If you head there, you will see a countdown timer that probably hits zero as CES starts (or Bill Gates’ keynote starts). The solution to the cipher is on the web. So, you can hunt for it if you don’t have a key of your own (all the cipher’s are unique, btw).

“The solved cipher leads you to another web page with a list of US cities and dates (probably Vista events). OK, gotta go to try to solve my cipher now. I hope this viral marketing effort turns out to be more interesting than the Origami one for the Ultra Mobile PC launch last year ”

And all trails leading to Vanishing Point, a, “puzzle challenge spanning the world, with prizes that go beyond it,” says the site, explaining:

“Each week, twelve puzzles will be posted along with footage of an unusual real world event. Each puzzle consists of an online element and a real world element which must be combined to arrive at the correct answer. To join your fellow players and take part in a puzzle challenge spanning the planet, you can either show up at the physical location when a countdown hits zero, or check online to view recorded footage of the event.”

Viral is viral, natch, and, “You can earn ten (10) additional points each time your valid e-mail address is listed as the “Referring Party” during the registration process completed by another sweepstakes participant. Limit: Twenty (20) listings for two hundred (200) additional points. At the end of the campaign, each point you earn will get you a ticket into the sweepstakes where you can win any of these prizes.”

Number One? “The Rocketplane® XP Vehicle is a four-seat fighter-sized vehicle fitted with a delta wing and a V-tail which provide good flight characteristics both subsonically and supersonically,” says Microsoft.

It doesn’t say if you get to own it or merely ride in it, but it goes on, “The vehicle is powered by both turbojet engines and a rocket engine, enabling it to accelerate to speeds just over 3,500 feet per second (2,386 miles per hour) and reach altitudes in excess of 330,000 feet (100 kilometers) providing the sensation of weightlessness for three to four minutes!”

Wow!

Anyway, inside Todd’s black envelope was a note from the DESK OF LOKI (Enigma Director) and an, “odd looking 256MB USB flash drive” It held a text file note, a JPEG image with a graphical cipher key, and a short video from Loki.

Hmmmmm. Bill and the Boyz didn’t send us one. But then they didn’t send us a free laptop either

But why should they? After all, p2pnet still posts the posts without the rewards. heh

Slashdot it!

Also See:
O’Reilly News – Blog-savvy French set for cyberbattle in 2007 poll , January 9, 2006

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 at 12:33 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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