Seemed a good idea at the time...

Red faces at Microsoft. They tried to do their own version of Apple's very effective Switch campaign - a series of ads where users explain why they moved from Windows systems to Macs. Trouble was, the Microsoft "switcher" was a freelance writer paid to come up with the words - and her picture was, in fact, taken from a stock photography library (as discovered by the Slashdot community). Nothing too surprising, since all this comes from a corporation already found guilty in the courts of far more serious anti-competitive behaviour over a number of years. But it's mildly funny, given Microsoft's official line towards Apple is supposed to be reasonably friendly. Microsoft has pulled the ad, but Google's cache still has a copy. Wired News has the full story. And Mac blogger John Gruber has come up with some interesting information on how the stunt was uncovered.