In another of the web’s epidemic of viral videos, a beanie-wearing too-cool-for-a-haircut skater dude is pursued by what looks like a Japanese toy robot with helicopter blades sprouting from its stubby neck. When the flying bot catches up with the slacker it unaccountably does not chop off his worthless head, but instead delivers a text message. And by a series of unlikely events in transpires that the slacker in fact works for Microsoft Research, where the bot is being perfected.

The message behind the barely believable clip is that Microsoft is not the kind of place where you’ll slog in a grey cube while a hegemonic, money-grabbing corporate walrus squeezes the life out of your brain, as most slacker dudes might tend to assume, but a vibrant, happy place where you’ll get to play with cool toys.

Hmm. As messages go, Sneak finds helicopter-necked robots slightly more believable.

13 Mar 2007