Microsoft finally understands how much we love irony

It took an ancient, nearly obliterated society and a looming apocolypse, but perhaps Microsoft is finally starting to get it. The company, once the dominant force in the web browser market after wiping out Netscape, is starting to get its act back together. Between ancient forces and challenges from Firefox and Chrome, the company has started to understand human nature. We may not believe the world will end tomorrow and we may not believe Internet Explorer 10 is actually good, but we can all agree that we love irony.

To that end, the Redmond, Wash,-based company has been on a roll of sorts recently. It launched a website with the ironic name "browser you loved to hate" and even launched a video depicting an IE-hater in action. Now the new kinder, gentler Microsoft meets tomorrow's impending doom with a bit more humor.

The company launched two image ads for Internet Explorer 10 using the hashtag #themayanswereright. You can search for it on Twitter and, unlike Microsoft's previous Twitter campaign -- #DroidRage -- this one appears to be doing pretty well, or at least not failing badly.

Sure the ads may not get a huge amount of traction, but at least these things indicate that Microsoft may finally be starting to get it after years of being called words like "stodgy" and, in many cases, much worse. As the saying goes, "if you can't laugh at yourself, life's gonna seem a whole lot longer than you like." At least in this case I don't have to use the one about old dogs and new tricks.

Editor: And if the world ends tomorrow, Microsoft will have the satisfaction of being right. Not that anyone will be around to appreciate it.