mikerowesoft -v- mikerosoft
p2pnet’s palacial headquarters are on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. To our immediate left is Vancouver on the Canadian mainland, and to our immediate right is Siberia.
People often confuse us with the two other Vancouvers – the one on the mainland, and the other in Washington State over in the US of A.
However, neither has anything to do with us and in fact, we’re almost an independent nation in our own right.
So we were pretty interested when Mike Rowe’s mikerowesoft.com hit the CyberWaves. That’s because he’s in Victoria – about 75 minutes south of us.
Mike’s life has changed remarkably and as we virtually speak, he’s auctioning the ‘book’ of the epic on eBay with the bidding at $560 ($US, that is : ) with about two-and-a-half days to go.
As Mike puts it in his blurb, “This is your chance to own a piece of Internet history. This is the book shown on TV, Internet, magazines and talked about on the radio and seen by millions of people world-wide.”
But that m—-soft.com isn’t the only m—-soft.com.
There’s also Mike Rouleau’s www.mikerosoft.com . And guess what? This Mike is also in British Columbia, over in Burnaby on the mainland.
And guess what again? His was, “the domain name behind it all,” Rouleau says. “This started the Microsoft MIKEROWESOFT row.”
Right now he’s got it stashed away here where you’ll read, “This is a private domain registered and maintained by Mike Rouleau Software Inc. This is a non-profit making organization. It didn’t start out that way. No siree …”
He too, had a missive from Smart & Biggar, microsoft.com’s Canadian lawyers.
And guess what again? Now this Mike’s ‘book’ is also on eBay. As we write, it’s at US $310.00. But there’s eight days to go, so who knows?
In the meanwhile, for people who are seriously interested collecting paper linked to the saga, Rouleau’s Smart & Biggar book has, potentially, more value than Rowe’s Smart & Biggar book because Rouleau’s was in hand before the other Mike’s Smart & Biggar book.
Are you following this?
“I registered this domain in 1997 as an extension of a once-registered company called Mike Rouleau Software Inc,” says Rouleau. “That’s what I did for a living – software. At the time, Microsoft was still pushing Windows on those green and amber monochrome screens and running under DOS 2.11. I noted the similarity in the name with amusement.
“In 1997, I registered mikerosoft.com as a shortened form of MIKEROULEAUSOFTWARE.COM, I suppose in a like fashion to how Microsoft selected their name. A shortened form of ‘microcomputer software’ as the full name is hideous to type. Again, I noticed with amusement the similarity in names.
“In 1998, I used my freshly unboxed copy of Front Page 98 (MS Trademarked product) to build a parody website as a ‘STUDENT’ exercise. This is the page that started Microsoft hunting down all of these other MIKEROSOFT and MikeRowesoft websites and delivering letters.
“Mine started in November 2003.”
Rouleau’s mikerosoft.com has been at its temporary home, “since the software giant had it’s lawyers ‘Smart & Biggar’ intimidate me. The page had not changed in all that time. No one ever returned to it because there are no active links on it and it obviously is an amateurish unfinished piece of HTM”.
In case you want your very own Smart & Biggar book without going through the same painful process as the two Mikes, p2pnet.net has done a little advanced research for you.
www.mycrosoft.com, www.mycrowsoft.com and www.mikrosoft.com could be sites, but they seem to be parked, or something. Maybe the owners are hoping to be sued? Or has m—-soft.com grabbed them before anyone else could?
But m—-soft.com is available …
Get it while it’s going : )
(p2pnet original)
June 25th, 2007 at 12:31 pm