"It was an interesting situation, talking about the power of the Quantum Flow Processor to people without their clothes on,"  Doug Webster, director of service-provider marketing is quoted as saying in today's IDG News Serivce story. Webster was talking about Cisco big launch of its ASR 1000 router, an event in which Cisco left no marketing stone unturned, apparently. The event was accompanied by a Facebook group, a product demonstration in Second Life, as well as the Santa, Easter Bunny and Cupid video teasers we mentioned last month. Cisco's prerecorded launch event, which was repeated four times in 20 hours to reach people in different time zones, featured about half an hour of presentations by Chambers, other Cisco executives and customers. About 7,000 people participated, Webster said.

The Facebook group, "Cisco Support Group for Uber User Internet Addicts," had about 550 members worldwide by Wednesday afternoon - the day after the announcement - though a good chunk of them identified themselves as Cisco employees. The group's page also directs visitors to Edge Quest, which may or may not be the world's first routing video game, writes the IDG News Serivce. Tony Bates, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Service Provider Group, appears in sunglasses as Network Commander Bates and warns players: "The future of the worldwide network is relying on you." Then they fly a sleek spacecraft, the back end of which looks surprisingly similar to an ASR1000.

However, there were serious technical questions from event participants, including a question about whether the product supported multiple full BGP, and why the product sounded so loud. Cisco's response: yes, and "The noise may be enhanced due to the sensitive nature of the microphones used for the filming."

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