Believe it or not: Microsoft is hacking its own websites, according to Viral Tarpara, Microsoft IT Pro Evangelist. Well, hacking may not be the exact word to describe what the Redmond company is doing, but it does somehow explain the screeenshot provided toward the bottom of this article. Instead of the official Microsoft UK websites, visitors were greeted by the Live to Code page, complete with links to various subpages.

"This is what user's will be greeted by when they go to Microsoft UK's website. Is this a simple DNS muck up or is it part of some larger viral marketing campaign meant to show the softer, lighter, friendlier side of Microsoft? You decide. How much you want to bet that we paid the web designers like an asinine amount of money to design this. So what is Live to Code? Good question, may it has something to do with Code to Live," Tarpara suggested.

In fact, Live to Code is merely the second part of the full slogan, Code to Live - Live to Code, associated with a campaign featuring Steve Loethen and Josh Holmes, debuted in September 2007 in the United States. The last entry on the Code to Live - Live to Code campaign on Channel 9 is from May 2008, and it brings Josh Holmes face to face with the team from Yahoo that is building Yahoo Messenger for Windows Vista.

This however does not explain the Live to Code page where the index of the official Microsoft UK website was supposed to be, with the sole exception if Steve Loethen and Josh Holmes having crossed the pond in search for coders in the United Kingdom.

"Live to Code is a fundamental character or spirit that reflects a shared passion for coding found among developers across the world," reads an excerpt of the campaign's description. "It's about solving problems, not cutting corners. It's about finishing what you started. It's the reason you're not the only one working until 2 a.m. It's the common bonds and universal truths shared by developers, regardless of their platform. This is Live to Code."