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How about a musical interlude while we wait for the outcome of Microsoft's Yahoo deliberations? One a capella group competing in this weekend's Harmony Sweepstakes National Finals in California has an unusual requirement for membership: It's made up entirely of Microsoft employees. The group, known as the Baudboys, performed yesterday during lunch on the Redmond campus. I took video of the performance, and here's one of the songs they sang, starting with a spoof of Apple's Mac ads and transitioning to a sendup of fanatical video gamers.

Here are the words, in case they're difficult to hear on the video. (The video-game song is an adaptation of one by a group called Tripod.)

Mac: Hi, I'm a Mac
PC: And I'm a PC
Mac: Hey, so PC, who are all these people?
PC: That's just my new music software.
Mac: Music, huh? That's great, PC. I thought music was my thing, though.
PC: Well, maybe, but there are so few of you around, most people just prefer to use me.
Mac: Alright, well, you probably had to get some extra hardware, install a bunch of updated drivers, right?
PC: No, actually, it all worked right out of the box.
Mac: [Coughs.] Not likely.
PC: No, really, check it out.

Girl, you know we've had some special times together
Baby, tonight's a special night, because, baaaabby, gonna make you happy tonight
Oh, sugar, give my love to you. Oh, baby. Gonna make you feel so right
Spend some time with you, do the things you want me to, gonna make love
So get ready, ohhh, get ready, get ready for lovin' tonight. Oh, yeah

Before we get down to love, I just gotta finish this level
You see I've got a high score tonight, and I just wanna save my game.
Well, I'll be with you in a minute, sweet darlin', baby honey,
I love how you dance for me.
Can you move a little to the left, baby, I can't see the TV
Baby I can't wait till we start.
It's just that our save points are quite far apart
This game, baby
This bit's got a multi-player section, honey, maybe you can operate a turret with me
Would you like that baby?
Games give you hand-eye coordination,
and spacial intelligence together with map-reading skills

Turns the lights down just a little bit lower, baby
Turn the lights down low
It's just that it helps me feel like I'm in a spaceship
Gonna make some sweet, sweet love
Oooo, you look so great to me, baby, have you brushed your teeth yet?
Take your time, no hurry. It's just that I'm not tired. Are you tired?
I'll see you in the bed then. You might want to take a book, baby

You know I just can't stop thinking about you, baby
And the magic coins that I need to collect, yeah
You see I've got to find one more point of armor class
And then I can take on the robots of Zaigon B,
And then we can make loooove.

I think this Xbox is the best present I've ever got ... for you.

The lead singer for that song was Paul Eng -- who works, appropriately enough, as a test lead on the Xbox team. Other members are Elliot Lewis (musical director and baritone), Dynamics CRM software development lead; Dave McEwen (president and bass), content project manager for Developer and Platform Evangelism; Mark Adolph (bass/baritone), program manager in the Office Sustaining group; Owen Braun (tenor), Outlook program manager; Jonathan Schwartz (tenor), from the Windows Security team; Graham Sheldon (tenor and vocal percussion), a technical assistant in the search, portals and advertising engineering group; and Ric Lewis (tenor), Microsoft Access program manager.

The group, which dates to the early 1990s, takes its name from the measure of modem speeds. The Baudboys won the 2008 Harmony Sweepstakes Northwest competition in March.