Great Moments in Photoshop History: Microsoft Edition

(NY Post, click to enlarge)

Memo to the geniuses at Microsoft: When you start Photoshopping heads, make sure you check the rest of the body parts.

Apparently, Polish business executives won't buy products if the advertisements feature African-Americans.

That appeared to be the assertion software giant Microsoft put forth when it served up a doctored display ad on the Polish version of the company's Web site.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant was red-faced yesterday after consumers noticed that the company replaced an African-American man featured in the US version of its ad with the head of a white man for the Polish version.

The US ad, meant to showcase Microsoft's business IT software, features a politically correct ethnic mix of a white woman, black man, and Asian man seated around a conference table. In the Polish ad, however, the head of a white man replaces the black man.

Some online commentators suggested that Poland's predominately white population might have been a factor in doctoring the image. Indeed, the largest non-white group in Poland is the Vietnamese, which account for around 3 percent of the country's 38 million citizens.

If the ad's designers were more adept at Photoshop, however, perhaps no one would have noticed. But the software geniuses forgot to swap out the black man's hand, which is clearly visible in the ad resting on the conference table.

Moving to quickly squash the racially charged kerfuffle, Microsoft apologized and said that it was "looking into the details of the situation."

Perhaps Bill Gates will soon be visiting the White House for a beer. Furthermore, how much longer until the race pimps shake Microsoft down?

Famous Obama Fan Plans to Move Jobs Overseas

He was all for the porkulus plan back in December. However, now his company is looking to move jobs overseas is they're going to get whacked by more taxes.

Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steven Ballmer said the world’s largest software company would move some employees offshore if Congress enacts President Barack Obama’s plans to impose higher taxes on U.S. companies’ foreign profits.

“It makes U.S. jobs more expensive,” Ballmer said in an interview. “We’re better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S. as opposed to keeping them inside the U.S.”

Obama on May 4 proposed outlawing or restricting about $190 billion in tax breaks for offshore companies over the next decade. Such business groups as the National Foreign Trade Council, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable have denounced the proposed overhaul.

U.S. tax rules let companies defer paying corporate rates as high as 35 percent on most types of foreign profits as long as that money remains invested overseas. Obama says he wants to end such incentives to keep foreign profits tax-deferred so that companies would invest them in the U.S.

Microsoft reported an overall effective tax rate of 26 percent for 2008 in its last annual report. “Our effective tax rates are less than the statutory tax rate due to foreign earnings taxed at lower rates,” the report said.

Speaking of disappearing jobs, the unemployment rate is now up to 9.4%. I guess those lofty claims from Barack Obama about saving jobs was BS.

Spellcheck Smears Obama

Maybe they can add this one to the ludicrous Obama Smears website.

For a guy who wants to be President, he's got incredibly thin skin.

For months, Barack Obama's campaign has repeatedly tried to swat away references to Barack "Osama," the mutating of the candidate's name into the similar-sounding moniker of the world's most-wanted terrorist.

One mix-up, with potentially vast effect, gained wide currency this week: The spell-checker in Microsoft's Hotmail e-mail software recommends users replace the word "Obama" with "Osama."

The glitch, which a Microsoft spokeswoman said the company is trying to fix, was brought to light by Minnesota political adman Bill Hillsman, who said the e-mail wrinkle "opens a whole can of worms again that the Obama campaign desperately wants to stamp out" - including the misconception that the candidate is a closet Muslim.

Hotmail has an estimated 260 million users worldwide.

Microsoft spokeswoman Melissa Lawson called it a mistake.

I just ran spellcheck in my Blogger application and possible replacements for Obama were ABM, IBM and AMA. Sadly, no Osama.

For the record, and people seem to conveniently forget this while trying to portray this guy as a victim, it was Senator Ted Kennedy who first made reference to "Osama Obama" when he flubbed his lines three years ago.

These people really have to stop being so damn whiny and sensitive. Maybe they can use George W. Bush as a role model. Nobody has even been more maligned and ridiculed while in office and do we ever see him sniveling and crying over it? No, we don't.

My advice to Obama: Grow a pair and man up.

Morning coffee sample

National database of problem teachers

The database itself is seriously lacking in information, such as what offense the teacher was punished for or which school they teach at or taught at, at the time of the offense. Basically all it contains is names, date of birth , and state.

Think your car has OnStar™? Not so fast.

Which brings me to the new cars that have this system called Sync™ which is produced by Microsoft®. Do you really want a Microsoft® product in your car?

Don't forget to visit the Norad Tracks Santa website for updates on the jolly man in a red suit and his travels this year. At least he doesn't have to put up with the TSA.