Microsoft's leafy corporate campus in Redmond, Washington, is beginning to look like the streets of New York, London and just about everywhere else: Wherever you go, white headphones dangle from peoples' ears.

To the growing frustration and annoyance of Microsoft's management, Apple Computer's iPod is wildly popular among Microsoft's workers.

"About 80 percent of Microsoft employees who have a portable music player have an iPod," said one source, a high-level manager who asked to remain anonymous. "It's pretty staggering."

The source estimated 80 percent of Microsoft employees have a music player -- that translates to 16,000 iPod users among the 25,000 who work at or near Microsoft's corporate campus. "This irks the management team no end," said the source.

So popular is the iPod, executives are increasingly sending out memos frowning on its use.

Of course, Microsoft's software is used by dozens of competing music players from manufacturers like Creative Technology, Rio and Sony. Its Windows Media Audio, or WMA, format is supported by several online music stores, including Napster, Musicmatch and Wal-Mart. Microsoft's PlaysForSure program markets this choice as a boon for consumers.

Nonetheless, Apple's iPod commands 65 percent of the portable player market, and its online iTunes Music Store 70 percent of online music sales, according to Apple.

"These guys are really quite scared," said the source of Microsoft's management. "It shows how their backs are against the wall.... Even though it's Microsoft, no one is interested in what we have to offer, even our own employees."

So concerned is management, owning an iPod at Microsoft is beginning to become impolitic, the manager said. Employees are hiding their iPods by swapping the telltale white headphones for a less conspicuous pair.

"Some people are a bit concerned about being traitors, not supporting the company," he said. "They're a bit stealth about it."

How "stealth" varies from division to division. At the company's Macintosh Business Unit, which publishes a wide range of software for the Mac, owning an iPod is almost de rigueur.

But at the Windows Digital Media Group, which is charged with software for portable players and the WMA format, using an iPod is not a good career move.

"In the media group they all smoke the company dope on that one," the manager said.

Mary Jo Foley, editor of Microsoft Watch, said she had no knowledge of the iPod's popularity on Microsoft's campus, but has noticed a lot of iPod chatter among Microsoft's legions of bloggers.

"I have seen lots of Softies blog about it," she wrote in an e-mail.

Microsoftie Chris Anderson, for example, just blogged about buying himself an iPod, three days after buying his wife one.

"I couldn't resist anymore," he wrote. "The industrial design on the iPod is absolutely amazing. The usability of the device is light-years beyond anything else I've seen."

Robert Scoble, who calls himself the "Microsoft Geek Blogger" and is one of the company's most widely read and vocal mouthpieces, sometimes appears obsessed with the iPod.

He recently penned an open letter to Bill Gates about how to build an iPod-killer (first thing: start a blog). "Even I want an iPod," he confessed.

The Microsoft manager said he's heard from several executives who dutifully bought Microsoft-powered players, tried them, failed to get them working, and returned them in favor of an iPod. He went through the same experience, he said.

He had no idea if Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, own iPods -- he's never seen what gadgets they use. "I've never seen either of them with any device, but I only see them in meetings," he said.

"There are frequent communications within the company about why it's a bad choice," the manager said. "So many people have chosen the iPod, executives feel they should send out memos about it."

For example, an internal e-mail circular sent to several senior managers in mid-December talked about iPod shipments to Apple's nearby store in Bellevue.

The e-mail said: "FWIW, the gal at the Bellevue Square Apple Store said that they are getting in two shipments of 200 iPods every day to keep up with this week's demand, and are nearly constantly selling out."

The note prompted a curt reply from Dave Fester, general manager of the Windows Digital Media division, who wrote the group: "I sure hope Microsoft employees are not buying iPods. We have great alternatives. Check out [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Fifteen minutes later, the manager responded: "I don't know what I was thinking. I'm sure that Microsoft employees are not buying iPods, or Macs or PlayStations."

In 2003, Fester stirred up considerable controversy claiming Apple is locking in consumers with proprietary file formats, despite Microsoft's long history of using the same tactic.

As for hiding his own iPod use, the manager said he flaunts his iPod, despite the constant comments -- and occasional arguments -- it prompts.

"I don't really care if it pisses them off," he said. "I'll argue why they're doing it wrong. If you want me to stop using it, give me a product that works and is as easy to use."

Neither Apple nor Microsoft responded to requests for comment.

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The European Union's obsession with legislation is usually taken as a sign of weakness - a foil to the pyrotechnic might of the US military machine. But take a closer look: The bureaucrats in Brussels have been busy creating a new political space that has the power to make the 21st century the European century. The EU's geographical expansion to 25 countries, which will grow to include a dozen smaller ones and maybe even Russia, is nothing compared with its increasing legal and moral reach. The 80,000 pages of laws the EU has developed since the common market was formed in 1957 - influencing everything from genetic labeling to human rights - have made Europe the world's first viral political space, spreading its authority in three innovative ways.

First, it spreads by stealth. Although the EU legislates up to half of its member states' laws, most of their trade, and many policy decisions - from agriculture to economics - it's practically invisible. Take Britain. There are no European courts, legislative chambers, or business regulations on display in London. Instead, just as a virus takes over a healthy cell, the EU operates through the shell of traditional political structures. The British House of Commons, British Law Courts, and British civil servants are still there, but they have all become covert agents of the EU. This is no accident. By creating common standards that are implemented through national institutions, Europe can take over the world without becoming a target for hostility. While every US company, embassy, and military base is a terrorist target, Europe's invisibility allows it to spread its influence without provocation. Put bluntly, even if there were people angry enough to want to fly planes into European buildings, there is no World Trade Center to target.

Second, the EU thrives on diversity. The former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once complained that Europe doesn't have a single telephone number. When there's a crisis, Americans don't know who to turn to as the authentic voice of opinion. This is because Europe possesses many centers of power. Even the splits between new and old, and the accidental good cop/bad cop routine played by Britain and France, can be seen as a sign of the EU's strength. The ultimate failure of diplomacy leading up to the war on Iraq shows that the EU is less powerful when it doesn't share a common vision of the world, but even so, the multi-headed nature of the union did force the US to take its case to the UN. The best way to understand how Europe functions is to look at a globally networked business like Visa. By sharing control widely, and by making it impossible for any single faction or institution to dominate, a networked business can combine its global presence with innovation and diversity to gain the kind of edge normally reserved for smaller entities. Visa, though it represents the largest single block of consumer spending power in the world ($362.4 trillion annually), is a skeletal organization with just a few thousand employees. The fact that Europe does not have one leader - but rather a network of centers of power united by common policies and goals - means that it can expand to accommodate ever-greater numbers of countries without collapsing, and continue to provide its members with the benefits of being the largest market in the world.

Third, Europe "syndicates" its legislation and values, often by threatening others with economic isolation. Many governments outside the continent have adopted Europe's regulations to get access to its market. Even US companies have been forced to follow European regulations in at least three spheres: M&A, GM foods, and data privacy. But this model of passive aggression has had its most dramatic effect in the EU's backyard. Consider some of the dangers faced by both Europe and the US: drug trafficking, large flows of migrants across hard-to-police borders, transnational criminal networks. Europe encourages political and economic reform by holding out the possibility of integration into the EU, and this strategy has had more success than the swift military interventions of the Monroe Doctrine. While the EU is deeply involved in Serbia's reconstruction and supports its desire to be "rehabilitated" as a European state, the US offers Colombia no such hope of integration through multilateral institutions or structural funds, only the temporary "assistance" of American military training missions and aid, and the raw freedom of the US market.

This new type of power means that Europe effects change from the inside out. By contrast, when the US engages other countries, it does so through the prism of geopolitics. Talks with Russia focus on nuclear weapons, NATO expansion, and civilian control of the military. Talks with Colombia look at the flow of drugs across its borders. Europeans start from the other end of the spectrum: What values underpin the state? What are its constitutional and regulatory frameworks? Turkey renounced the death penalty to further its chance of admission into the EU; Britain rescinded its ban on gays in the military; and Italy reformed its profligate economic ways to meet EU standards. Europe's obsession with legal frameworks means that it can completely transform the countries it comes into contact with, instead of just skimming the surface. The US might have changed the regime in Afghanistan, but Europe is changing all of Polish society, from its economic policies and property laws to its treatment of minorities and what gets served on the nation's tables.

The overblown rhetoric directed at the "American Empire" misses the fact that the US reach is shallow and narrow. The lonely superpower can bribe, bully, or impose its will almost anywhere in the world - but when its back is turned, its potency wanes. The strength of the EU, conversely, is broad and deep: Once sucked into its sphere of influence, countries are changed forever. Europe is a state of mind that cannot be contained by traditional boundaries.

TTG_elitboy wrote The European Union's obsession with legislation is usually taken as a sign of weakness - a foil to the pyrotechnic might of the US military machine. But take a closer look: The bureaucrats in Brussels have been busy creating a new political space that has the power to make the 21st century the European century. The EU's geographical expansion to 25 countries, which will grow to include a dozen smaller ones and maybe even Russia, is nothing compared with its increasing legal and moral reach. The 80,000 pages of laws the EU has developed since the common market was formed in 1957 - influencing everything from genetic labeling to human rights - have made Europe the world's first viral political space, spreading its authority in three innovative ways.

First, it spreads by stealth. Although the EU legislates up to half of its member states' laws, most of their trade, and many policy decisions - from agriculture to economics - it's practically invisible. Take Britain. There are no European courts, legislative chambers, or business regulations on display in London. Instead, just as a virus takes over a healthy cell, the EU operates through the shell of traditional political structures. The British House of Commons, British Law Courts, and British civil servants are still there, but they have all become covert agents of the EU. This is no accident. By creating common standards that are implemented through national institutions, Europe can take over the world without becoming a target for hostility. While every US company, embassy, and military base is a terrorist target, Europe's invisibility allows it to spread its influence without provocation. Put bluntly, even if there were people angry enough to want to fly planes into European buildings, there is no World Trade Center to target.

Second, the EU thrives on diversity. The former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once complained that Europe doesn't have a single telephone number. When there's a crisis, Americans don't know who to turn to as the authentic voice of opinion. This is because Europe possesses many centers of power. Even the splits between new and old, and the accidental good cop/bad cop routine played by Britain and France, can be seen as a sign of the EU's strength. The ultimate failure of diplomacy leading up to the war on Iraq shows that the EU is less powerful when it doesn't share a common vision of the world, but even so, the multi-headed nature of the union did force the US to take its case to the UN. The best way to understand how Europe functions is to look at a globally networked business like Visa. By sharing control widely, and by making it impossible for any single faction or institution to dominate, a networked business can combine its global presence with innovation and diversity to gain the kind of edge normally reserved for smaller entities. Visa, though it represents the largest single block of consumer spending power in the world ($362.4 trillion annually), is a skeletal organization with just a few thousand employees. The fact that Europe does not have one leader - but rather a network of centers of power united by common policies and goals - means that it can expand to accommodate ever-greater numbers of countries without collapsing, and continue to provide its members with the benefits of being the largest market in the world.

Third, Europe "syndicates" its legislation and values, often by threatening others with economic isolation. Many governments outside the continent have adopted Europe's regulations to get access to its market. Even US companies have been forced to follow European regulations in at least three spheres: M&A, GM foods, and data privacy. But this model of passive aggression has had its most dramatic effect in the EU's backyard. Consider some of the dangers faced by both Europe and the US: drug trafficking, large flows of migrants across hard-to-police borders, transnational criminal networks. Europe encourages political and economic reform by holding out the possibility of integration into the EU, and this strategy has had more success than the swift military interventions of the Monroe Doctrine. While the EU is deeply involved in Serbia's reconstruction and supports its desire to be "rehabilitated" as a European state, the US offers Colombia no such hope of integration through multilateral institutions or structural funds, only the temporary "assistance" of American military training missions and aid, and the raw freedom of the US market.

This new type of power means that Europe effects change from the inside out. By contrast, when the US engages other countries, it does so through the prism of geopolitics. Talks with Russia focus on nuclear weapons, NATO expansion, and civilian control of the military. Talks with Colombia look at the flow of drugs across its borders. Europeans start from the other end of the spectrum: What values underpin the state? What are its constitutional and regulatory frameworks? Turkey renounced the death penalty to further its chance of admission into the EU; Britain rescinded its ban on gays in the military; and Italy reformed its profligate economic ways to meet EU standards. Europe's obsession with legal frameworks means that it can completely transform the countries it comes into contact with, instead of just skimming the surface. The US might have changed the regime in Afghanistan, but Europe is changing all of Polish society, from its economic policies and property laws to its treatment of minorities and what gets served on the nation's tables.

The overblown rhetoric directed at the "American Empire" misses the fact that the US reach is shallow and narrow. The lonely superpower can bribe, bully, or impose its will almost anywhere in the world - but when its back is turned, its potency wanes. The strength of the EU, conversely, is broad and deep: Once sucked into its sphere of influence, countries are changed forever. Europe is a state of mind that cannot be contained by traditional boundaries.

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