Microsoft has once again been hoist by its own petard. They briefly had up their own take on the Apple "I switched" ads for the Macintosh, which had someone who switched from a Mac to Windows XP bragging about how wonderful XP was, though strangely, she didn't describe anything in particular you could do with XP which you couldn't just as easily do with a Macintosh.

More strangely, unlike the Apple ads, the Microsoft version omitted the name of the person who switched. For reasons which became obvious once the Associated Press tracked her down --- she works for Microsoft's PR firm.

So how, you may wonder, did the AP uncover the "switcher's" identity, even though there was no hint of it in the text of the ad? By looking at the hidden identifiers which Microsoft's programs squirt all over every file they touch, like dogs marking out their territory.

Do you trust your secrets to Microsoft products?