[Mind the second bit.]
A Pre-BRM Miscellany
,----[ Quote ]
| I'll be attending the BRM as part of the US delegation, leaving for Geneva a
| week from today. I am awed by the security apparatus which is being rolled
| out to ensure the integrity of the open standards process. Photo ID
| requirements, badged access to the meeting room, prohibitions against cameras
| and recording devices, no observers, no press. Truly, this is what open
| standards are all about.
|
| Our delegation has been warned that there will be a dangerous group of
| agitators at the event and we may need to walk past them to get to the
| meeting room, and we should not lend our support in any fashion to this
| event, which includes such known disruptive elements as Vint Cerf, Håkon Wium
| Lie, Bob Sutor, and Andy Updegrove. Eyes front, do not look to the left, do
| not look to the right.
|
| I'm certainly impressed that JTC1 is taking the BRM process so seriously, and
| everyone is so concerned with the integrity of the process. But I must wonder
| where all this attention was when NB's were reporting to JTC1 that OOXML was
| too large to review under Fast Track procedures? Where was the concern when
| NB's were objecting that the proposal contradicted numerous international
| standards? Where were the precautions when committees were being stuffed, and
| new NB's were joining JTC1 only days before the ballot ended? Who was
| watching out for the integrity of the process then? Why is an OFE panel
| discussion on "Standards and the Future of the Internet - the role of open
| standards, standards development and standards organisations for innovation
| and healthy marketplaces” by international experts on the subject a threat to
| the international standards system, but no one in JTC1 even blinks when
| Côte-d'Ivoire joins JTC1 as a P-member three days before the end of a 6-month
| standardization process and vote "Yes" without comments on a 6,000 page
| proposal?
|
| [...]
|
| Google searches for "ODF" and "OpenDocument" or even "noooxml" are now
| returning sponsored links with phrases like "Learn the truth about the
| standard for interoperability" that lead you to a pro-OOXML petition on
| Microsoft's faux OOXML community site. For example, try this query.
|
| Let's see if I understand how this pay-per-click system works. Every time I
| click these sponsored links, money gets transferred out of some pro-OOXML
| supporter's bank account and is sent to Google? These seems the expensive
| route to go, but there is some logic to it. A look at Google Trends shows
| that Google queries for "ODF" far outnumber queries for "OOXML".
|
| On the other side, at the real <NO>OOXML petition, the count stands at 82,422
| signatures. Apparently they did not need to trick people into visiting their
| web site.
`----
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2008/02/pre-brm-miscellany.html
It carries on discussing other points too. Corruption. Thy name is Microsoft.
Related:
,----[ Quotes with annotation ]
| "(Microsoft manager:) I don't like the fact that the report show us losing
| on TCO on webservers. I don't like the fact that the report show us losing
| on availability (windows was down more than linux). And I don't like the
| fact that the reports says nothing new is coming with windows .net server."
|
| [...]
|
| "I don't like it to be public on the doc that we sponsored it because I
| don't think the outcome is as favorable as we had hoped. I just don't like
| competitors using it as ammo against us. It is easier if it doesn't mention
| that we sponsored it."
`----
http://slated.antitrust.org/www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/9000/PX09695.pdf
Reviewing a Microsoft anti-Linux case study
,----[ Quote ]
| The answer is that neither Linux nor Solaris nor any other Unix variant is
| mentioned in this report; Microsoft simply hung an anti-Linux label on a
| very carefully worded story about a pair of committed Microsoft partners,
| HP and Accenture, getting together with Microsoft to sell rather simple
| technology to a willing customer - whose employers, I think, should be
| seriously embarrassed.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Murphy/index.php?p=739
Microsoft's 'Get The Facts' Linux Site Replaced
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has decided to axe its "Get The Facts" site, instead replacing it
| with a less corrosive "Compare" page that compares Windows and Linux in a
| less confrontational way.
`----
http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsofts_Get_The_Facts_Linux_Site_Replaced/1187900795#c945286
|
|
