Speaking of getting fired for posting stuff about Microsoft during your off-hours (and with a segue like that, you know this isn't going anywhere good), it turns out that it's something of an epidemic these days. Faithful viewer John Gruver informs us that one Michael Hanscom of a blog called "eclecticism" recently posted a captioned photo of a few stacks of Power Mac G5s being delivered to Microsoft's loading dock, which just happens to be at the building where Mike works. Get it? Microsoft buying Macs. It's, like, ironic or something!

Well, okay, no it isn't, since Microsoft cranks out all sorts of software that isn't Windows, and we imagine it would be kinda tough to develop Office for the Mac without actually using a Mac at some point in the process. (Then again, our own impressions of Office occasionally make us think that Microsoft tried to do it anyway.) Still, it made for a cute picture. Bummer it cost Mike his job.

See, four days after he posted the photo, he described the consequences of having committed such a heinous and deviant act: his boss at MSCopy called him into his office and informed him that, because of the picture he had posted to his blog, Microsoft had decided that he was "no longer welcome on the Microsoft campus." Microsoft claims that the act of taking and posting that photo was a "security violation," and therefore Mike was summarily canned. Wow, isn't it a shame that Microsoft isn't that strict about security in its products?

Sure, you can argue that Apple would have done the same thing in similar circumstances, and you'd be right. But let's be perfectly frank, here-- does anyone really think that Microsoft fired this guy because of a "security violation"? What, they're really sensitive about unauthorized people seeing the last foot or so of the company's loading dock? Nuh-uh. Apple, sure; Steve's made it abundantly clear that any breach of company security is a capital offense, even if it's just telling someone what kind of coffee is served in the cafeteria. Microsoft? Well, let's put it this way: if Mike had snapped the same picture when Microsoft was taking delivery of three pallets of, say, Dell Precision workstations, would he still have gotten bounced? How about if it were three pallets of canned cling peaches? Would Microsoft possibly have cared? But show the company buying Macs-- especially right after Panther's release and Microsoft's admission that the next version of Windows is still three years away-- and bam, suddenly it's bye-bye cubicle.

Microsoft had every legal right to do what it did; we just question its motives, that's all. After all, if the company were really in the habit of firing everyone who ever violated security, given how many flaws are uncovered in its products every twelve seconds, the entire development and quality assurance divisions would be ghost towns with tumbleweeds rolling down the halls. (Actually, maybe the quality assurance division is empty; that'd explain a lot.) Meanwhile, have you noticed how much good press Panther is getting, including the Wall Street Journal's suggestion that "if security issues are important to you" and "you're tired of the virus wars," "you could just buy a Mac"?

Whatever. It turns out that Mike was just a temp and he's still signed on with his agency, so with any luck he won't wind up bankrupt and homeless just because he posted a photo of a bunch of Macs. The moral of the story? Don't poke an 800-pound gorilla just when it's starting to get nervous.