Speaking of getting into Microsoft events, some buddies and I registered with Microsoft as OEM system builders when we were in high school. We would drive to Redmond and attend these events talking about various new hardware and software and would leave with bags full of swag and they had awesome Raffles giving away some expensive shiny new hardware, which we would win quite often shockingly.

We had finally heard about the Microsoft store on campus, and had heard about the super discounted software. Turned out you had to be an employee. We were crushed because retail copies of Win2k were expensive for high schoolers. So we sat out in front of the store with signs "will work for cheap Microsoft software." Finally this girl came by and asked what we were doing, she was an intern or a new hire or something like that not much older than us, still in college. She went into to store and came out with boxed copies of Win2k Workstation for $20 a pop for us. We were stoked and tried to give he some cash, but she was just happy to help us out.

Those were some good times. I wonder if stuff like that still happens today.