Quick question for you all: does anyone else think it's a little creepy that there are Microsoft employees making their Wintels look like they're running Mac OS X? Yeah? Okay, so it's not just us. Good. Here's another question: do you also think it's a little bit funny? As in, "ha ha" funny, but maybe also a little funny-peculiar? Yes? Great! Okay, one last question: do you perhaps also find it just a teensy bit... arousing?

No? Oh. No, us neither. That would be, um, sick or something. Yeah.

For the six of you wondering what the heck we're talking about, we thank you for your uninformedness, which allows us to deftly change the subject by directing you to a Wired article that was forwarded to us by faithful viewer LissaAnn. Basically, some guy at Microsoft-- not the Mac Business Unit, which is obviously filled with Mac-using people, but Microsoft Proper in the heart of Windows country down Redmond way-- got bored during an eight-hour conference call. And we have to interject just for a second, here, and say: An eight-hour conference call?! What were they doing, waiting for Windows to finish installing?

Eight-hour conference call. Sheesh, even their meetings are bloatware.

But we digress. Anyway, yes, he got bored during an eight-hour conference call, and despite the fact that he's a "director of Windows platform evangelism," he decided to download and install a "variety of interface tweaks" that replicated Mac OS X's Dock, changed XP's icons, etc. so that his Sony VAIO reportedly now kindasorta looks like its running Mac OS X. Says he, "many of us used Macs since we were kids and never stopped, even if Windows paid the bills." Of course, if this is his idea of "Windows platform evangelism," the odds are pretty good that Windows won't be paying his bills for much longer. But hey, at least the guy has taste.

Now, none of this is to say that there aren't Mac users who, for one reason or another (say, mental illness or a bad drug trip), may have altered the Mac OS appearance to look more like Windows. But we're going to go waaaaay out on a limb, here, and assume that few, if any, of them are working for Apple. Meanwhile, Wired reports that there are apparently a ton of Mac fans riddled throughout Microsoft's ranks; while that fact might perhaps explain why Microsoft products often seem to include an unseemly level of "homage" to existing Apple products, it does indeed make us wonder why Microsoft isn't better at copying Apple's ease of use.

But back to probably-soon-to-be-ex-"director of Windows evangelism": apparently he told Wired that "his Mac OS transformation was testament to the adaptability of Windows XP." Says he, "it shows the flexibility of Windows and the ecosystem of skinning artists that we have. How is that for spin?" Well, even though he was kidding, we're going to have to say... "unconvincing." So we hope he's polishing up that ol' résumé. Whatever happens, he's clearly a sharp guy who knows what's good, so maybe Apple's hiring. If nothing else, maybe they have shorter conference calls.