Microsoft thinks you are a redundant dinosaur if you haven't yet switched to Office 2003. They won't say it out loud, but that's the message they send with their latest marketing campaign for the productivity suite.

It's always nice when your vendor tells you he appreciates your business in such a clear way.

It reminds me of an advertising campaign that a cable company once ran. They showed people that looked their dumbest with the accompanying text asking the reader: "Or do you want to keep progress out?" Of course this made me run to the phone. Not to order their broadband internet or VoIP telephone service, but to tell them that I hate them too. And that I don't appreciate it when people say I'm stupid, especially when those people don't know me.

So, dear Microsoft, why don't you come over? Then you can learn that I don't need XML in my word documents. I don't need to build connections between my enterprise applications and Excel or Word. And even if I would want to, there are other ways that don't include your overpriced Office 2003.

Or maybe you mean to say that you think your product is too advanced and overpriced for me. Are you trying to tell me that I should take a look at OpenOffice? Now that's the smartest thing you've said in a long time.