Microsoft and Collective Illiteracy

It's getting worse.

I don't know who started it, but I am determined to end it.  I seek to end the continued demonstrations of collective illiteracy at Microsoft.

At first, it seemed isolated to the Microsoft-centric habit of starting sentences with "so".

Now, it has spread to using "ask" as a noun. 

Ask is not a noun.  It's a verb.  Don't believe me?  Look up "ask", there is no noun representation for "ask" (besides attributing to a person as an "asker"). 

I don't have an "ask" for you... I have a request.

While I would love to say this has been an isolated incident, I have noticed this becoming more and more pervasive.  During the general keynote at the recent Vista and Office launch events, I heard "ask" used as a noun at every single one of them.

At one of the launch events, I heard (during the general keynote, again, in front of thousands) someone commit both crimes at once:

"So, my ask of you here is that you fill out your evaluation forms."

GAAAHHHH!  Make it stop!