Hello, Microsoft Calling
,----[ Quote ]
| Do they really? Now I'm asking myself, how does this Microsoft employee come
| to be calling my place of business? I certainly don't post my company phone
| number on the Boycott Microsoft site.
|
| Simple really -- he's noticed that the Boycott Microsoft directory is set up
| as a subdirectory to another web site. "Ah-ha," he's probably thinking, "this
| account belongs to a business. I'll bet some employee of this company is
| camping out on this account without the boss knowing about it!" So he follows
| the directory backwards, finds the company phone number, and calls asking for
| the webmaster.
|
| [...]
|
| At first, this entire incident made me furious. How on earth could this be
| any of Microsoft's business? And what astonishing insolence to call a place
| of business with the confidence that, on Microsoft's tip-off, we would take
| some sort of action against one of our employees. Good Lord, who do these
| people think they are?
|
| Does this kind of petty harassment of critics constitute official Microsoft
| policy? That's doubtful. But would an employee of any other company even
| consider taking unilateral action to silence a critic by tattling to his
| boss? Official policy or not, this employee thought it was the right thing to
| do, and that alone is telling.
|
| So in retrospect, infuriating as this incident was, I did learn something
| useful about the corporate culture at Microsoft. Unfortunately, it confirmed
| my worst suspicions: intimidating, meddlesome and arrogant activities in the
| service of the company are entirely legitimate.
`----
http://www.vcnet.com/bms/features/mscalling.shtml
The thuggery must be in Microsoft's DNA.
Recent:
A Microsoft Slur in the OOXML Saga -- Did I Tell You or Did I Tell You? -
Updated
,----[ Quote ]
| Remember I told you I've noticed that people who don't support Microsoft's
| agenda end up the victim of smear campaigns?
|
| The New Zealand Open Source Society is reporting that an employee at
| Microsoft New Zealand recently sent an email to one of the technical bodies
| advising an NB involved in the OOXML ISO process, smearing a man's
| reputation, Matthew Holloway, apparently to undermine his technical input
| which was critical of OOXML.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080318151252279
Tim Bray: Life Is Complicated
,----[ Quote ]
| Those with long memories might suggest a parallel between Rick’s position and
| mine when in 1997, I was sitting on the XML Working Group and co-editing the
| spec, on a pro bono basis as an indie consultant. Netscape hired me to
| represent their interests, and when I announced this, controversy ensued.
| Which is a nice way of saying that Microsoft went berserk; tried
| unsuccessfully to get me fired as co-editor, and then launched a vicious,
| deeply personal extended attack in which they tried to destroy my career and
| took lethal action against a small struggling company because my wife worked
| there. It was a sideshow of a sideshow of the great campaign to bury Netscape
| and I’m sure the executives have forgotten; but I haven’t.
`----
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2007/01/24/Mixup
Microsoft wins Open XML vote, frowns at Indian panel
,----[ Quote ]
| Industry experts said they were "unhappy" with the Microsoft which has almost
| accused the committee of being packed with "open document format (ODF)
| supporters".
|
| "I am very upset and uncomfortable with such complaints. In fact, the
| chairperson of the committee (LITD 15) offered to step down over the
| allegation," D.B. Phatak, professor at IIT Mumbai, told DNA Money.
|
| IIT Mumbai is a member of LITD 15, and Phatak was part of the deliberations
| that have been taking place within IIT on the issue.
|
| Phatak said a Microsoft official was asked if it would withdraw the
| complaint, but the company refused as the "complaint was made by some higher
| officer in Microsoft".
|
| Jaijit Bhattacharya, country director of government strategy for Sun
| Microsystems India, a company that has been at loggerheads with Microsoft for
| years, talks in a similar vein.
|
| "I am surprised that such allegations are made against India's top academic
| and government institutions … such allegations lack credibility,'
| Bhattacharya said. Venkatesh Hariharan, co-founder Open Source Foundation of
| India said, "I am just amazed and shocked at the depths to which Microsoft is
| willing to descend."
|
| He said Microsoft's complaint is a "great disservice to the committee, its
| chairperson and the BIS".
`----
http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=14636329
How to Royally Annoy National Bodies
,----[ Quote ]
| Guide to future monopolists on how to alienate yourself from National Bodies:
|
| 1. Waste NBs time in reviewing monstrous draft specifications
| 2. Claim that these specs can do everything for anyone by standardising
| marketing material
| 3. If you don't get your way at a certain level, lobby the superior above.
| Dont stop! Go all the way to the head of the nation if you think you can!
| 4. Leak press stories to journalists to pressure Ministries to make a
| decision. Quick!
| 5. Try to shut down TCs if actual technical work is done revealing issues
| with your plan
| 6. Question Question Question everything (process, fairness, the system,
| members) when things dont go your way
| 7. Otherwise create another TC with friendly experts
| 8. If the NB allows new members just by paying membership fees, encourage
| your business partners to join with marketing funds. Stack-stack-stack it
| high!
| 9. Stalk decision makers, even if it means traveling around the globe with
| them
| 10. Refuse changes in the spec especially if it breaks your product which
| you released prior
| 11. Have private interviews with TC members in the guise of funding for
| their new projects/research grants/interoperability initiatives and
| conveniently talk about their position on your spec.
| 12. Get your Business Partners to write in form letters. Some don't even
| bother to change the templates
| 13. Attend TC meetings uninvited by fabricating business cards
| 14. Send Lawyers in to Technical Committee meetings who prefer not to
| engage in "high-school" debates
| 15. Make rude and inaccurate statements against TC members in public
`----
http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/03/how-to-royally.html
Related:
Q&A: Former Mass. CIO feels 'bittersweet pride' after battles with Microsoft,
legislature
,----[ Quote ]
| As CIO of Massachusetts from February to November last year, Louis
| Gutierrez had to endure most of the brunt of Microsoft Corp.'s political
| wrath over a state policy calling for the adoption of the Open Document
| Format for Office Applications, or ODF -- a rival to the software vendor's
| Office Open XML file format.
`----
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012760&source=rss_news50
,----[ Quote ]
| Quinn: Almost to a person, to anybody involved or who knows about
| the ODF issue, they attributed the story to Microsoft, right, wrong
| or otherwise. Senator Pacheco may be a bully but I do not believe he
| is disingenious and would stoop to such a tactic. Senator Pacheco and
| Secretary Galvin's office remain very heavily influenced by the
| Microsoft money and its lobbyist machine, as witnessed by their
| playbook and words, in my opinion.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060119232859729
,----[ Quote ]
| "Ideally, use of the competing technology becomes associated with mental
| deficiency, as in, "he believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and OS/2."
| Just keep rubbing it in, via the press, analysts, newsgroups, whatever. Make
| the complete failure of the competition's technology part of the mythology of
| the computer industry. We want to place selection pressure on those companies
| and individuals that show a genetic weakness for competitors' technologies,
| to make the industry increasingly resistant to such unhealthy strains, over
| time."
`----
--- Microsoft, internal document
http://www.groklaw.net/pdf/Comes-3096.pdf
|
|
