Microsoft™ Professional White Background 365 Essentials RT Edge Edition®

August 15, 2016 7:11 AM

Microsoft Branding Generator [warning: autoplaying audio]
posted by overeducated_alligator (15 comments total)

It's funny because it's true
posted by aubilenon at 7:20 AM on August 15, 2016

[fake]
posted by Foci for Analysis at 7:23 AM on August 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

Fun fact about this website:

It appears that the branding is randomly generated but the list was actually made by asking old people to read real Microsoft product names and then recall that same name only sixty seconds later.
posted by Talez at 7:26 AM on August 15, 2016 [8 favorites]

attention people pretending to work: super-loud autoplaying music alert
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:27 AM on August 15, 2016 [5 favorites]

I am simultaneously disappointed and pleased that sometimes it comes up with real Microsoft™ product names.
posted by aubilenon at 7:33 AM on August 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

I knew we were in a proper dystopian future the first time I saw the product name "office 365."

at least we get one day off every leap year, I guess...
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 7:50 AM on August 15, 2016 [4 favorites]

Due to how Office 365 manages the calendar, your leap year's day off is November 31.
posted by ardgedee at 8:13 AM on August 15, 2016 [5 favorites]

They missed a trick by not calling it Lorem Redmond.
posted by acb at 8:26 AM on August 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

Heh. Reminded of the excellent 2005 era Microsoft iPod branding parody.
posted by sarcas at 9:12 AM on August 15, 2016 [3 favorites]

Now entering the 9th year of Anil Dash wondering how long we're going to keep bringing up the professional white background thing.
posted by maxsparber at 10:17 AM on August 15, 2016 [2 favorites]

When I worked at Microsoft I had to persuade them that "Personal Release" wasn't a good label for a product if it doesn't vibrate, and that "Bugger" was not a great name for a bug-tracking app. I'm not making those up. Also there was a guy working there called "Randy Rotter". Look him up on LinkedIn if you don't believe me.
posted by w0mbat at 4:31 PM on August 15, 2016 [2 favorites]

I wouldn't look at a site that behaved like that for more than a second and a half.
posted by carping demon at 4:36 PM on August 15, 2016

"Bugger" was not a great name for a bug-tracking app.

Fun fact: "Bugger" was the actual name of an internal bug-tracking tool that worked with our internal bug databases. Due to the alternate meaning in certain locales, it had an option to censor its name from its own user interface.
posted by 0xFCAF at 5:53 PM on August 15, 2016

Talez: "asking old people to read real Microsoft product names and then recall that same name only sixty seconds later."

Could we maybe avoid making this kind of joke? It's gross to a lot of older folks who don't have memory impairments and would prefer not to be insulted, and I would imagine it's distressing to anyone with any familiarity with dementia related illnesses. At a minimum, it's in poor taste.
posted by langtonsant at 2:41 AM on August 16, 2016

Mod note: added "autoplaying audio" warning.
posted by taz (staff) at 3:52 AM on August 16, 2016