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____/ nessuno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on Monday 06 October 2008 23:54 : \____
> <Quote>
> Microsoft lobby plafform "Voices for Innovation", which is managed by
> APCO (a well-known lobby firm in Brussels of which Microsoft is a
> client), has sent an alert to their corporate members asking them to
> lobby against a parliamentary resolution led by Rocard-Cotigny-Geremek-
> Geremek, which is asking to migrate the European Parliament systems to
> FLOSS, and to give some funds for R&D of FLOSS in Europe.
> </Quote>
>
>
http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-91367/microsoft-platform-lobbies-against-european-parliament-resolution-on-open-source-software
>
> Postscript:
>
> Turns out Microsoft owns the VoicesforInnovation domain. And, of
> course, they own the word "Innovation".
>
> <Quote>
> Earlier, we had a News Picks item on VoicesforInnovation.org, a
> lobbying organization pushing what seemed to me to be a Microsoft
> agenda in Europe. Sean Daly noticed that the domain name belongs to
> guess who? -- Microsoft. Go to betterwhois.com and search for
> yourself. Here's what you will find:
>
> Domain ID:D117910110-LROR
> Domain Name:VOICESFORINNOVATION.ORG
> Created On:06-Mar-2006 23:49:37 UTC
> Last Updated On:14-Nov-2007 00:21:24 UTC
> Expiration Date:06-Mar-2009 23:49:37 UTC
> Sponsoring Registrar:Tucows Inc. (R11-LROR)
> Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
> Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
> Registrant ID:tukvECSsFENx3T2h
> Registrant Name:Microsoft Corporation
> Registrant Organization:Microsoft Corporation
> </Quote>
>
> http://www.groklaw.net/
>
> Why doesn't DFS just tell his bosses in Redmond that Linux is crap and
> they have nothing to be afraid of? After all, he's documented
> thousands and thousands of cases of people who tried Linux and hated
> it, who are happy once again now that they've bought Vista! Why does
> Microsoft go to so much trouble to stop FOSS?
You know what they say: "Thugs will be thugs".
Microsoft is still the same bunch if thugs it has always been, unable to stop
playing dirty.
MICROSOFT CRIME HURT CONSUMERS
,----[ Quote ]
| You portrayed Microsoft crime only as providing low-cost superior goods in a
| way deemed harmful to competitors. Not true! Microsoft's crime was forcing
| computer manufacturers to pay a royalty for every computer sold, in order to
| ship Microsoft's MS-DOS...
`----
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=VP&p_theme=vp&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EAFF799E8C3F79E&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM
MS ‘Software Choice’ scheme a clever fraud
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft's new "Software Choice" campaign is all for your right to choose...
| as long as you choose Microsoft. It's too bad that Intel and the U.S.
| Government couldn't see through the rhetoric.
|
| Microsoft is worried about Peruvian Congressman Edgar Villanueva's proposal
| for his nation's government agencies to standardize on Free Software for
| their own internal use. But Villanueva makes an important point: everybody
| has to deal with the government. If a government uses proprietary software,
| its citizens will probably have to use the same software to communicate with
| it. A government web site that only supports Internet Explorer would lock
| citizens into that Microsoft product. In contrast, a government site using
| open standards and avoiding patented software would allow citizens to choose
| between many different kinds of software to access the site.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/08/09/ms_software_choice_scheme/
Newspaper exposes "Steve Barkto" as MS agent
,----[ Quote ]
| Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy
| From: jmur...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (John - Murphy)
| Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 18:49:10 GMT
| Local: Sun, Mar 20 1994 6:49 pm
| Subject: Newspaper exposes "Steve Barkto" as MS agent
|
| Sunday, March 20, the San Jose Mercury News published a front page
| article on the agent provocatour, alias, Steve Barkto. The article
| quotes William Zachmann as saying he tracked down Mr. "Barkto" on
| his Compuserve forum, after this new member made disparaging remarks
| about IBM, and in particular, OS/2.
|
| Mr. "Barkto" is not a major customer of IBM, but an employee or agent
| of Microsoft. The account which this mole used, was paid for by the
| good old folks at MS.
|
| I wrote an letter to Congressman Norm Mineta (D-San Jose) asking that
| the U.S. Dept. of Justice look into unfair trade practices of MS. In
| particular, the relationship between computer system manufactures,
| and MS.
|
| I wonder how many messages we get on this USENET and others, that
| originate from the corporate headquarters of Microsoft?
|
| John Murphy
| Commerical Brokers Insurance
| San Jose, CA
`----
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.os2.advocacy/browse_thread/thread/64f04547e2784c20/ec1a6610141fd9b6?lnk=st
How to Kill Linux
,----[ Quote ]
| While chatting over dinner with the executives of a middleware company during
| the recent RSA conference for encryption and security in San Francisco, I
| heard about a secret project. It concerned the development of a version of
| Linux that runs smoothly as a task under Windows. The project was completed
| and then shelved. Whether it will ever reemerge is doubtful, but it does
| offer some interesting possibilities and hints as to what Microsoft may be up
| to with MS-Linux.
|
| [...]
|
| If Microsoft actually produced an MS-Linux that was the standard Linux
| attached to the driver layer of Windows, giving users full Plug and Play
| (PnP) support of all their peripherals, nobody would buy any other Linux on
| the market. Well, except for the fact that Microsoft would be unable to
| produce such a product without allowing the other vendors access to the
| driver code as part of the open-source Linux license arrangement (GPL). You
| can be sure that Microsoft lawyers are studying this as closely as possible
| to see if there is any way they could market a dominant Linux distribution
| without killing themselves. So how could they do this?
|
| Open-source law is new and not completely tested. I'm certain that Microsoft
| got involved with the SCO versus Linux lawsuit partly to reach a better
| understanding of how to proceed.
`----
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,1768170,00.asp
Microsoft Trial -- Compaq Staff Feared Sabotage, Retaliation
,----[ Quote ]
| A Compaq Computer executive testified that personal-computer makers have no
| alternative to Microsoft's Windows operating system, while other employees of
| the Texas PC manufacturer described Microsoft as a monopoly capable of
| retaliatory practices and sabotage.
`----
http://www.pcworld.com/article/7523/realnetworks_accuses_microsoft_of_sabotage.html
Judge's public critique of Microsoft raises questions
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft's "crime" was its hubris -- that is, an oversized pride that
| prevented the company from acknowledging that U.S. antitrust laws applied to
| it, Jackson told article author Ken Auletta.
`----
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/01/11/010111hnjackson.html
State AGs sabotaging Microsoft settlement
,----[ Quote ]
| A year ago February, Thomas Penfield Jackson, the trial court judge,
| appointed a distinguished jurist, Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of
| Appeals in Chicago, to mediate a settlement. With draconian penalties
| looming, Microsoft accepted demands by the Justice Department that included
| tough, continuing regulation of the company's marketing tactics. But the
| hard-line state Attorneys general -- notably those from California,
| Connecticut, Massachusetts and Iowa -- vetoed the deal, leading the
| frustrated mediator to point out in public that the "states do not have the
| resources to do more than free ride on federal antitrust litigation,
| complicating its resolution."
|
| Since then, an appellate court has rolled back most of the findings of legal
| liability that gave the government its leverage and instructed the trial
| court to create remedies that fit the "drastically altered" circumstances.
| Under prodding to settle from the newly appointed judge, Colleen Kollar-
| Kotelly, prosecutors worked out another deal that puts a lid on Microsoft's
| aggressive behavior -- albeit one less confining than the agreement
| California Attorney General Lockyer and company so righteously dismissed
| almost two years ago. A rump group of attorneys general have now declared
| that they will oppose the proposed settlement when Judge Kollar-Kotelly
| formally reviews it.
|
| Why are they asking the court to derail the settlement, effectively
| guaranteeing that the case won't be resolved for years?
`----
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/11/08/ED148465.DTL
MICROSOFT READY FOR FLOOD OF LAWSUITS
,----[ Quote ]
| Lawyers are opening the spigots on what is expected to be a flood of private
| lawsuits alleging that Microsoft Corp. used its control of the market to
| overcharge customers.
| In the wake of a federal judge's ruling that the software giant is a
| monopoly, class-action attorneys in California were expected to file one suit
| against Microsoft today in that state's courts.
| Last week in New Orleans, an attorney filed suit in federal court seeking to
| represent millions of Windows 98 owners nationwide, alleging that Microsoft
| used intimidation to reduce consumers' choices and force them to pay higher
| prices.
`----
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-24071902.html
Government Has the Edge So Far in U.S. vs. Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| Avadis Tevanian, an Apple Computer Inc. senior vice president, comes armed
| with allegations of blackmail, software sabotage and an illegal
| market-division attempt by Microsoft in multimedia software. The
| market-division charge could be especially damaging, because it echoes a core
| claim made by the Justice Department and 20 states in the broad antitrust
| lawsuits they filed in May.
`----
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB909949861267465000.html?mod=googlewsj
Apple: MS 'Sabotaged' QuickTime
,----[ Quote ]
| An Apple Computer executive questioned by a Microsoft lawyer on Wednesday
| stuck by his accusation that the software giant had "sabotaged" Apple's
| multimedia software.
`----
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1998/11/16058
RealNetworks Accuses Microsoft of Sabotage
,----[ Quote ]
| Highlight from Senate hearings: CEO Robert Glaser claims Windows Media Player
| intentionally disables RealNetworks product.
`----
http://www.pcworld.com/article/7523/realnetworks_accuses_microsoft_of_sabotage.html
Microsoft Accused of Sabotaging Witness's Computer Program
,----[ Quote ]
| Testifying as a Government witness, Dr. Felten said several computers on
| which Internet Explorer had been removed with his ''prototype removal
| program'' worked smoothly through the summer, even when used to visit a
| special Microsoft Web page for updates to Windows 98.
|
| But then in September, Dr. Felten testified, he gave Microsoft a copy of the
| source code for his removal program as part of a pretrial discovery request.
| After that, he said, ''Microsoft modified the software'' behind the company's
| update Web page ''to make it incompatible'' with computers that had been
| altered by his removal program.
`----
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E1DB143DF936A25751C1A96E958260
Industry group rips Microsoft's `extortion'
,----[ Quote ]
| A group of computer and telephone companies charged yesterday that Microsoft
| was using "extortion" in its battle with Netscape Communications Corp. for
| dominance in selling browsers for the World Wide Web.
`----
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=WT&p_theme=wt&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB0F2C3C420C39A&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM
Microsoft Accused of Trying To Get Away with Murder.
,----[ Quote ]
| Late Tuesday the unappeased states rushed breathlessly into court with the
| news that they had made the horrifying discovery that Microsoft was actually
| benefiting from its settlement with the Justice Department.
`----
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-25065106_ITM
Whistleblower settles after Microsoft SEC fraud claim
,----[ Quote ]
| He claimed to have been forced to resign in 1995 after reporting his
| suspicions about Microsoft bookkeeping to CFO Mike Brown and COO Bob Herbold.
|
| [...]
|
| But court records of the case show Pancerzewski had claimed he'd been ordered
| to destroy a consultant's report about potential tax liabilities in Europe,
| and that he'd found that Microsoft was controlling the level of reported
| income by switching money back and forth from reserves. Much simplified, this
| procedure involves putting money into reserves in good times, and
| transferring it back into reported income when times are hard. It's used to
| keep earnings apparently growing smoothly, and it is illegal, under SEC
| rules.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/01/09/whistleblower_settles_after_microsoft_sec/
Unauthorized biography of Steve Ballmer turns up little new
,----[ Quote ]
| A lengthy anecdote about accounting irregularities exposed by whistleblower
| Charles Pancerzewski concludes weakly, "Microsoft paid over $4 million to
| make Pancerzewski go away, an amount that presumably wouldn't be paid out
| without the Office of the President, the trio to which Ballmer belonged,
| signing off on it."
`----
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/86841_ballmer13.shtml
Microsoft's Accounting Under Scrutiny
,----[ Quote ]
| The company has still not made enough information public to provide analysts
| with detailed information on the profitability of its MSN Internet business,
| Mr. Galvin said, adding, ''There's still room for them to obfuscate.''
`----
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A03E1DC173DF932A35754C0A96F958260
Microsoft - Undeserving of Libertarian Praise
,----[ Quote ]
| One strategy that Microsoft has employed in the past is paying for the
| silence of people and companies. Charles Pancerzewski, formerly Microsoft's
| chief auditor, became aware of Microsoft's practice of carrying earnings from
| one accounting period into another, known as "managing earnings". This
| practice smoothes reported revenue streams, increases share value, and
| misleads employees and shareholders. In addition to being unethical, it's
| also illegal under U.S. Securities Law and violates Generally Accepted
| Accounting Practices (Fink). Mr. Pancerzewski claims he was forced to retire,
| for raising the issue of deferred earnings with Microsoft executives, thereby
| making plausible deniability more difficult for said executives. He has since
| sued Microsoft, who responded by settling out of court, but also sealing the
| records to prevent public disclosure (Fink).
`----
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/8/20/11034/3908
Microsoft Agrees To Refrain From Accounting Violations in SEC Settlement
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has agreed to refrain from accounting violations to settle federal
| regulators' allegations that it misrepresented its financial performance, the
| government announced Monday.
|
| Under a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the software
| giant neither admitted to nor denied wrongdoing. No fine was imposed.
|
| The SEC alleged that Microsoft's accounting practices from July 1994 through
| June 1998 caused its income to be substantially misstated.
`----
http://www.crn.com/it-channel/18819490
"Microsoft Tax," MSN Enters the Black Hole, New Names for NT
,----[ Quote ]
| The lawsuit, filed last year by Mukilteo City Councilman Charles
| Pancerzewski, alleges that he was forced to resign as Microsoft's general
| auditor in January 1996 after working for the company's internal auditing
| department for more than four years. The suit claims that a "significantly
| younger man" with little auditing experience was picked to replace
| Pancerzewski, who was finally forced out because he discovered Microsoft
| might have been violating government regulations. Once Pancerzewski left the
| company he was replaced by the younger man, who his attorneys believe
| was "less prone to raise issues of possible legal improprieties which could
| threaten or embarrass Microsoft or its management.
`----
http://www.msboycott.com/news/98_06_22.shtml
SEC Investigating Microsoft Practices -- Earnings Manipulated, Former Employee
Contends
,----[ Quote]
| "The CFO to whom Charlie was reporting his concerns about illegality was the
| biggest advocate for the very illegality that was going on," Vial argued in
| court a year ago.
`----
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19990701&slug=2969514
Microsoft Buys Into Brazil With $126M Globo Stake.
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp. made its first equity foray into the Latin American cable
| industry last week, buying a $126 million stake in Globo Cabo S.A., Brazil's
| leading MSO.
|
| The investment in Globo Cabo is the latest in a series of buys this year that
| has seen Microsoft plunge full-force into cable. It deepened its U.S. cable
| presence in May when it agreed to invest $5 billion in AT&T Corp., following
| a $1 billion investment in Comcast Corp. in 1997.
`----
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb4895/is_199908/ai_n17988823
Soft Treatment in Business Press
,----[ Quote ]
| Here, only the headlines of the newspaper articles really disagree. You
| actually have to do some research (about 5 minutes worth) to find
| web-retrievable documentation that absolutely refutes Microsoft's orwellian
| revision of NT 5.0/Windows 2000 release schedule.
|
| This time, I have to say that the Business Editor didn't slip up. The
| Bloomberg News wire service slipped up by not checking what it had previously
| run on the topic, and by not checking rather easy to find citations on the
| topic.
`----
http://www.inlumineconsulting.com:8080/website/ms.treatment.html
ITxpo: Reaction to Gates shows paradox
,----[ Quote ]
| Repeatedly pushed by Gartner Group analyst Scott Winkler regarding criticisms
| that Microsoft doesn't do anything innovative but merely takes existing
| technologies and ideas and puts them, quite successfully, into its own
| business model, Gates seemed evasive. Winkler asked Gates to list specific
| innovations and when the Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer said
| that his company was the first to separate operating system development from
| hardware development, Winkler cut him off.
|
| "You didn't innovate that," the analyst said, noting that Microsoft obtained
| DOS externally.
`----
http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?981014.wcitgates.htm
Crushed by Microsoft: What I learned
,----[ Quote ]
| Then Microsoft came along.
|
| By the middle of 1994, Microsoft wanted real-time 3D software for its push
| into the PC consumer entertainment space. Privately, it began courting all
| three British companies. As head of U.S. operations for Argonaut, I was
| thrilled when--after a very positive meeting in Redmond, Washington--we were
| lead to believe that Microsoft had chosen to license and promote our
| technology over the others. Someone close to the negotiations even told me
| to "crack open the champagne."
|
| The euphoria that resulted lasted about a week. Through the grapevine, we
| learned that Microsoft had decided to license the software of our competitor,
| Rendermorphics, and, worse still, was going to purchase the entire company.
`----
http://web.archive.org/web/19990117034339/http://www.news.com/Perspectives/Soapbox/rs12_30_97a.html
,----[ Quote ]
| Was I fired from Microsoft?
|
| Yes, I was indeed escorted from my building Tuesday afternoon June 24th
| around 12:15 in the afternoon, roughly four years and six months after
| joining the collective.
|
| Why?
|
| So many answers to this. The straw that broke the camels back was indeed a
| piece of email I sent to Bill and Paul challenging the competency of the
| management in charge of Microsoft's 3D technology. This might fall under the
| broader category of being an insufferable bastard, but it was indeed a piece
| of email that did it. To be clear I don't believe Bill or Paul gave my
| execution order. They're very reasonable guys whom I have enormous respect
| for. It was a layer to middle managers on the thread between myself and these
| guys who made the decision based largely on how stung they were probably
| feeling from my choice of verbiage. Suffice it to say that I did some
| extremely outrageous things in my time, which tended to cause people to have
| very polarized opinions of my performance.
|
| 3D vs. OGL
|
| As many of you know, my last stand was in the area of 3D. For the record; In
| my opinion John Carmack is a God, and has my complete respect. The longer
| I've known him, the more he has impressed me. In theory John is absolutely
| right about OGL, but in practice it will never be for reasons that have
| little to do with technical purity, and a lot to do with cold market forces,
| politics, and NDA's.
|
| I have to say it will be nice to look at the industry again through my own
| eyes when the Borg implant scars have healed. I'm hoping things will seem
| simpler now to me to.
|
| Who am I?
|
| I was originally hired by Microsoft as their Publishing technology
| evangelist. The position of "Game Evangelist" was created for me a year and a
| half after joining the company, because I wanted very badly to pioneer
| some "New" technology frontier, and I have always loved games. The "dream" of
| DirectX was originally had by three evangelists in Microsoft's Developer
| Relations Group who all wanted to make great technology. The other two, who's
| names I won't associate with this posting, left DRG to build DirectX. They
| shipped versions 1-3, before the technology was re-orged to another group as
| part of the great "internet" refocusing that happened several months ago. I
| stayed in DRG to carry the message.
`----
http://www.bootnet.com/aliveandwell.html
Microsoft secretly paid for ads for Independent Institute
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft paid for newspaper ads claiming to represent the independent views
| of 240 academic experts who said the government's antitrust case against the
| software giant was hurting consumers.
|
| The story "Microsoft secretly paid for ads for Independent Institute"
| published September 18, 1999 at 5:30 AM is no longer available on CNET
| News.com.
`----
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1040-234780.html&tag=st.cn..
Windows Outstuffs Linux in Poll
,----[ Quote ]
| Linux users are accusing the Microsoft-affiliated news site of tampering with
| the results of an online poll. They believe that the numbers were altered to
| ensure that a Microsoft-made system was chosen as the winner.
|
| [...]
|
| Reichard also notes that at some point during the poll Linux "magically" lost
| votes. "At one point Linux had 37 percent of 37,000, which works out to just
| over 14,000 votes. But when the voting reached 205,000, the poll showed Linux
| had 6 percent, which is only about 12,000 votes."
`----
http://web.archive.org/web/20010204214800/http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,38845,00.html
.Net vote rigging illustrates importance of Web services
,----[ Quote ]
| By 21 December, more than two-thirds of the respondents (69.5 percent), said
| they planned to deliver some applications by Web services by the end of 2002,
| with a large majority of those (nearly half the total sample) planning to use
| Java. Only 21.5 percent said they planned to use Microsoft .Net -- less than
| the figure (23.5 percent) planning to use neither.
|
| But by the time the poll closed, on 5 January, the position had dramatically
| changed, with three quarters of voters claiming to be implementing .Net. This
| apparent sudden change of heart over the Christmas period appears to be the
| result of a concerted campaign within Microsoft.
|
| ZDNet UK logs reveal rather obvious vote rigging, and prove that it
| originated from within Microsoft:
|
| * A very high percentage of voters are from within the microsoft.com
| domain.
|
| * There is a very high incidence of people attempting to cast multiple
| votes, even though the poll script blocked out most attempts at multiple
| voting. The one that wins the prize made 228 attempts to vote. This
| person was from within the microsoft.com domain.
|
| * Several of the voters evidently followed a link contained in an email,
| the subject line of which ran: "PLEASE STOP AND VOTE FOR .NET!" We know
| this, because our logs include the Web address where visitors browsed
| from; when people click there from a Microsoft Exchange email message,
| Exchange helpfully gives us the subject line and username. The people who
| followed that link all had email addresses in the microsoft.com domain.
|
| * There is also clear evidence of automated voting, with scripts
| attempting to post multiple times.
`----
http://web.archive.org/web/20030207093330/http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2102244,00.html
MS struggles to discredit Linux
,----[ Quote ]
| What's cheaper than an OS you can buy outright once and install on every PC
| in your shop -- and upgrade cost-free for eternity to boot? Why, a slew of
| cheesy licenses for Microsoft Windows, 'Doze Division VP Brian Valentine
| claims in his latest cheerleading effort for his sales associates.
|
| That's right; a putatively independent analysis by 'we'll-conclude-anything'
| whores DH Brown is going to rip Linux a new one and find that Windows is
| actually cheaper. How Valentine knows this is anyone's guess. Perhaps he has
| a mole in the Brown organization as good as the one we have in his. Or
| perhaps MS simply paid for it. We don't know.
|
| It also appears that MS has bought off a number of Linux/Sun 'insiders' whose
| job it will be to explain to the sales team how to pitch the illusory
| advantages of Windows to unsuspecting IT managers. "Dumber people can run
| Windows" is the best advert I personally can come up with, though this is
| without the benefit of expensive analysts and turncoat 'insiders' to feed me
| intriguing tidbits.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/01/02/ms_struggles_to_discredit_linux/
IDC: Windows cheaper than Linux
,----[ Quote ]
| Research firm IDC, in a Microsoft-funded study, has reinforced a Microsoft
| argument that Linux is more expensive to administer than Windows, a factor
| that makes Windows less expensive overall in most server uses.
`----
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-975938.html
Microfraud?
,----[ Quote ]
| THE ALLEGATIONS WERE shocking: For years, Microsoft has systematically
| distorted its profit figures in an effort to consistently beat Wall Street
| expectations and keep its stock price steadily rising. The false reports
| would violate SEC regulations, and amount to outright fraud.
|
| More shocking was the source of the allegations: Microsoft's chief of
| internal audits, Charlie Pancerzewski, who reported directly to the company's
| chief financial officer.
|
| Most shocking of all was what happened to Pancerzewski when he reported the
| suspicious bookkeeping to his supervisors, Microsoft CFO Mike Brown and chief
| operating officer Bob Herbold, in the spring of 1995. Soon afterward,
| Pancerzewski—who for nearly five years had received stellar performance
| evaluations—received his first-ever unsatisfactory one, and was eventually
| forced to resign.
|
| Two months ago, Microsoft quietly settled a lawsuit containing these
| allegations, filed in 1997 by Pancerzewski under the Whistleblowers
| Protection Act. The auditor claimed he was wrongfully terminated after
| telling his supervisors that Microsoft might be breaking securities and tax
| laws. The lawsuit made its tortuous way through several rounds of pretrial
| motions until last fall, when US District Judge Carolyn Dimmick denied
| Microsoft's final plea for summary judgment, finding credible evidence that
| Microsoft may have violated SEC rules, as Pancerzewski alleged. Shortly
| thereafter, Microsoft and Pancerzewski settled out of court. Terms of the
| agreement were sealed, but one source who claims familiarity with the case
| says that Microsoft paid Pancerzewski $4 million.
`----
http://web.archive.org/web/20070308032343rn_2/www.seattleweekly.com/1999-01-06/news/microfraud.php
Microsoft "regrets" Mac-to-PC ad
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft, in the wake of an Apple Computer ad campaign to woo Windows users,
| briefly ran a similar ad of its own.
|
| An ad, titled "Confessions of a Mac to PC convert," was posted to Microsoft's
| Web site last week. The article purports to be a first-person account of a
| writer who decided to switch from an Apple Macintosh computer to a PC running
| Windows XP.
`----
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-961994.html?tag=fd_top_3
MS kills another clip-art fan rave
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has yanked another of its fraudulent user testimonials, in this
| case a fictitious twelve-year-old boy raving about a fictional homework
| assignment and the indespensable insights he received from MS Encarta
| Reference Library in preparing it.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/10/16/ms_kills_another_clipart_fan/
Investigators call on Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| The contracts, signed with companies such as Walt Disney, PointCast, and CNN,
| have received intense scrutiny from federal and state regulators, the Senate
| Judiciary Committee, and the European Commission. (CNET, publisher of
| NEWS.COM, also has signed a contract with Microsoft.)
`----
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-210063.html
OS/2 ISP Mailing List
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft employee's move against AOL backfires
| By Melanie Austria Farmer, Staff Writer, CNET News.com
| August 13, 1999, 9:00 a.m. PT
|
| A Microsoft programmer apparently masqueraded as an
| independent computer consultant in an effort to discredit
| America Online's tactics and behavior in its instant
| messaging battle with Microsoft, according to reports.
`----
http://web.archive.org/web/20040113095838/http://w3.hethmon.com/os2isp/1999/Aug/Msgs/l2w15889.html
MS targets Linux, Mac rivals with IIS astroturf
,----[ Quote ]
| In total, we're three-quarters of the way to collecting the full set, from
| various concerned correspondents, and were whimsically thinking of trading
| them with you. Can you swap us a Mac OS X vulnerability for a couple of PHP
| Engine Disable Source Viewing Vulnerabilities? We've lots of those... But
| most correspondents point out the first two on the list. And almost all such
| letters continue the theme: "It doesn't matter what system you are running,
| if you don't keep up to date you will be hit."
|
| Microsoft surely gave an honest answer yesterday, by tacitly accepting that
| IIS has a unique problem (or combination of problems), that they recognize
| it, and are taking steps to fix it with a rewrite. But we fear that this kind
| of Astroturf will continue for a while yet.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/09/26/ms_targets_linux_mac_rivals/
More Microsoft astroturfing?
,----[ Quote ]
| TCS’s articles have also complemented work being done by DCI. During
2000,
| Microsoft contracted with DCI to perform various services, among them
| generating “grassroots” letters opposing a breakup of Microsoft and
| launching Americans for Technology Leadership, an anti-breakup group
funded
| in part by Microsoft and run out of DCI’s office. Meanwhile, down the
hall,
| Tech Central Station went on the offensive, inaugurating
an “anti-trust”
| section that over the coming months would publish little except
defenses of
| Microsoft and attacks on the software maker’s corporate and
governmental
| antagonists, with occasional detours into the subject of lawsuit
reform.
| (Microsoft smartly plugged some of the articles on its own Web site.)
|
| (More on the fake letters here; another bit of Microsoft astroturf here.)
|
| With TCS pushing Microsoft’s agenda in one area, what do they publish about
| Open Source software, another strategic concern for Microsoft? To find out, I
| collected all the articles published in TCS on Open Source software and
| listed them in the table below.
`----
http://timlambert.org/2003/11/tcs/
Microsoft lobbying campaign backfires; even dead people write in support of
firm
,----[ Quote ]
| Letters purportedly written by at least two dead people landed on the desk of
| Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff earlier this year, imploring him to go
| easy on Microsoft for its conduct as a monopoly.
|
| The pleas, along with more than 100 others from Utah residents, are part of a
| carefully orchestrated nationwide campaign by the software giant that may be
| backfiring. Microsoft sought to create the impression of a surging
| grass-roots movement, aimed largely at the attorneys general of some of the
| 18 states that have joined the Justice Department in suing Microsoft.
|
| The Microsoft campaign goes to great lengths to create an impression that the
| letters are spontaneous expressions from ordinary people. Letters sent in the
| last month are on personalized stationery using different wording, color and
| typefaces, details that distinguish Microsoft's efforts from lobbying tactics
| that go on in politics every day.
`----
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20010823&slug=microlob23
Corn Farmers Against Google?
,----[ Quote ]
| Only if they're planting in AstroTurf
|
| [...]
|
| How do you know the organization, and the op-ed, weren't created by LawMedia
| Group at the behest of some well-funded clients? If they did their jobs
| right, you don't know.
|
| Some of them have left digital fingerprints here and there, though, says
| Declan McCullagh, in a blockbuster of a report exposing the intellectual
| whoredom offered for various important issues. Shortly after Microsoft hired
| LawMedia, for example, legislators, national agencies, and news outlets
| received pointed complaints from coalitions of farmers, rural voters, and
| geeky Latinos about how Google's advertising deal with Yahoo would wreck
| everything.
|
| [...]
|
| Don't call them a PR firm or a lobbying firm though, Law Media – which has a
| ton of lawyers working for them too—is a "public affairs firm" specializing
| in producing "remarkable coalitions" for anything one might need a coalition
| for.
`----
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/08/14/corn-farmers-against-google
China's Online Persuaders
,----[ Quote ]
| China's webspace is infamous for censorship, but increasingly, public
| relations firms there are helping their clients "manage" online
| conversations. China-based firms such as Daqi, Chinese Web Union and
| CIC "charge $500 - $25,000 monthly to monitor postings and squelch negative
| information or to create positive buzz," reports BusinessWeek.
`----
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7451
Now Hiring - Astroturfer, apply at Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| Evidently, a "Senior Marketing Manager" has the responsibility of:
|
| * "assisting in defining and driving core marketing initiatives – most
| specifically online & offline community-building"
| * "further the dialogue on the value of the Microsoft platform to open
| source audiences"
| * "be a cornerstone for a global thought leadership website and will be
| regularly featured in industry press around the world"
| * "act as a visible external evangelist for Microsoft"
|
| Wow! That's all direct quotes from the job description. It is so blatant, I'm
| beginning to wonder if it's some kind of joke. Particularly the 'evangelist'
| line.
|
| Kind of like the famous Halloween documents, this posting really tips
| Microsoft's hand and shows us exactly what they're thinking. After all the
| smoke and mirrors over the deals with Linux distros Suse, Linspire, Xandross,
| and Turbo Linux, this shows that those distros were in fact acquired in order
| to be killed. It's not Linux that Microsoft wants, it's the customers.
`----
http://penguinpetes.com/b2evo/index.php?title=now_hiring_astroturfer_apply_at_microsof&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
Microsoft Pays $200 for Mentioning Its Tools
,----[ Quote ]
| If you're a professor and you mention Microsoft programming tools in a
| scholarly presentation -- in fact, even if you just use the tools --
| Microsoft will send you a check for $200.
`----
http://chronicle.com/data/articles.dir/art-44.dir/issue-33.dir/33a03001.htm
The Best Enthusiasm Money Can Buy
,----[ Quote ]
| We might think that spending several hundreds of millions of dollars every
| year on commercial speech would be just about enough to allow any company
| to "tell its story" to the public. But we would not be Microsoft, who the Los
| Angeles Times revealed was gearing up a multi-million dollar public relations
| campaign which included planting ersatz letters to the editor in major
| national newspapers. The goal: to create the appearance, if not the reality,
| of "grassroots" support for the company.
|
| "Spontaneous" testimonials penned by hired guns may not be an entirely novel
| idea in the surreal world of public relations, but Microsoft's response to
| having been caught in the act of committing such a crass act was certainly
| uncommon. At first, the company denied their intentions to actually implement
| such a plan. Then, a few days later, company spokespersons announced a new
| spin: Microsoft has a perfect right to engage in public opinion manipulation
| campaigns, if that's what it takes to "tell its story."
|
| Now, what exactly was that story, again?
`----
http://www.vcnet.com/bms/departments/dirtytricks.shtml
Microsoft pays star writers to recite slogan
,----[ Quote ]
| The stodgy old media industry has a rule that newspaper reporters, and TV
| news hosts, shouldn't trade on their public trust to endorse products.
`----
http://valleywag.com/tech/federated-media/microsoft-pays-star-writers-to-recite-slogan-271485.php
Malik, Arrington and Battelle: X-22, come in [to Microsoft]
,----[ Quote ]
| What would possess a collection of online publishers and venture capitalists
| to pimp a Microsoft advertising slogan?
|
| Valleywag today reported about a site tied to a Microsoft ad campaign
| where the likes of Michael Arrington, Om Malik and others seemingly
| lend their support to the "people-ready" catchphrase.
|
| I sent e-mails both to Arrington and Malik and--surprise,
| surprise--heard nothing back. (Obviously, they are not yet
| sufficiently "Coop-ready.") Microsoft was still checking for me into
| whether money exchanged hands. But even if not a single shekel exchanged
| hands, I must wonder about the absence of common sense. Why would
| ostensibly independent voices come across as Microsoft shills? If
| they were hoping for a free dinner with Bill Gates, there are
| smarter ways to go about it.
`----
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9733995-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
,----[ Quote ]
| "The main thing I'm pissed off about right now is that they pulled all the
| ads, which mean we're taking a revenue hit. We're running a business here,
| and have payroll to make. We run ads to make that payroll. Those ads have now
| been pulled."
|
| Microsoft once again corrupts confidence in the blogsphere. They
| turn 'citizen journalists' to marketing people in disguise.
`----
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9734034-7.html?tag=head
How's the Reception at [Microsoft's] Channel 9?
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates emphasized the importance of blogging in a
| May 2004 speech during the company's annual CEO summit. But Gates doesn't
| blog; same for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
|
| [...]
|
| Many Microsoft employees do blog, reportedly more than 4,000 of them.
| The number of employee bloggers was comparatively quite small, about
| 300, before the launch of Channel 9 and the success of Scoble's blog.
|
| Last year could be called year of the blog at Microsoft. Employee
| blogrolls swelled and Microsoft bloggers disseminated lots of
| vital information about the company. Increasingly, employee
| bloggers are becoming Microsoft's primary evangelists. They are
| certainly a group over which the company can exact some control
| and which can spin information to Microsoft's advantage.
`----
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/developer/hows_the_reception_at_channel_9.html?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535
Is Seven Renegade, Guerrilla Marketer or Fake?
,----[ Quote ]
| Some kudos for Microsoft: If Seven is a sanctioned guerrilla marketer, he or
| she has been too long waiting to blog. Microsoft, you need to get some good
| leaks out there to generate buzz. Please, let's see more of this. Be
| aggressive, take marketing risks. A blog such as this is worth millions of
| dollars in advertising, if it delivers the goods (meaning details) and
| generates buzz.
`----
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/operating_systems/is_seven_renegade_guerrilla_marketer_or_fake.html?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535
Recidivist M$ Up to New Tricks
,----[ Quote ]
| Unleash the Astro-Turfers!
|
| Already on Apple oriented developer mailing lists one can see the
| astro-turfing has begun. A really amateurish attempt by 'Mac Developer' (no
| one uses a stupid handle like that) turned up today.
`----
http://rixstep.com/1/20071004,00.shtml
Meet Thomas Brooks. He's a viral marketer for Microsoft.
,----[ Quote ]
| It's unfortunate that paid blogging is becoming all the more prevalent in
| communities like 1UP. And it's not just the blogs or reviews, it's also the
| message boards. Microsoft, for instance, also has a person (or people?) who
| is paid to post on some of the popular gaming boards (and no, Jeff Bell
| wasn't part of that plan). But it's not just Microsoft -- I know of a few
| other game publishers who pay users to blog. They don't necessarily require
| bloggers to say positive things about their products, but it's certainly
| implied with the paychecks.
|
| What bums me out about all this viral stuff is that, to some extent, you
| don't know who to trust anymore. There was a time when, if you no longer
| believed in what the professional editors where saying, you could at least
| count on your fellow gamers for honest opinions. Not anymore. In a sense,
| perhaps that helps elevate the importance of the professional word once
| again, which I suppose is a good thing for us. But I'm still not happy about
| it.
`----
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8281416&publicUserId=4561231
,----[ Quote ]
| In 2001, the Los Angeles Times accused Microsoft of astroturfing
| when hundreds of similar letters were sent to newspapers voicing
| disagreement with the United States Department of Justice and its
| antitrust suit against Microsoft. The letters, prepared by Americans
| for Technology Leadership, had in some cases been mailed from
| deceased citizens or nonexistent addresses.
`----
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing
Microsoft Using YouTube To Promote Vista & Live, Leaves Comments Open
,----[ Quote ]
| The more interesting aspect is that Microsoft would use the Google owned
| YouTube for such as promotion; it certainly demonstrates just how powerful
| the market position of YouTube has become over the last 2 years that
| Microsoft would use it to promote their products.
`----
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/30/microsoft-using-youtube-to-promote-vista-live-leaves-comments-open/
http://tinyurl.com/2ghzzm
Notable examples of viral marketing
,----[ Quote ]
| # ilovebees.com - viral marketing for Halo 2
| # Hotmail, promoted largely by links at the bottoms of emails sent by
| its users, is the classic viral marketing example
| # Microsoft's Origami Project campaign
| # Microsoft's Xbox 360 campaign, called OurColony
`----
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing
MSN Is Spamming The Blogosphere
,----[ Quote ]
| Mr. Youth LLC is a marketing firm and lists MSN as a customer. Their
| website is here: http://www.mryouth.com/ Their phone number is
| (212) 779-8700.
|
| I've talked to a couple of other bloggers who said they are receiving
| similar comments on their blogs. This pisses me off because MSN/Mr.
| Youth should 1) be more upfront about their true identity, and 2)
| provide a real e-mail address so that I can request they take my
| blog off their marketing campaign.
`----
http://www.scott-o-rama.com/2006/12/06/msn-is-spamming-the-blogosphere/
,----[ Quote ]
| "Some years back, Microsoft practiced a lot of dirty tricks using
| online mavens to go into forums and create Web sites extolling the virtues
| of Windows over OS/2. They were dubbed the Microsoft Munchkins, and it
| was obvious who they were and what they were up to. But their numbers
| and energy (and they way they joined forces with nonaligned dummies who
| liked to pile on) proved too much for IBM marketers, and Windows wont
| he operating-system war through fifth-column tactics"
|
| Mr Dvorak wonders if Microsoft is today using reverse-dirty-tricks
| to promote the Xbox 360: pay people to create Web sites that slam the
| gaming computer in order to provoke a barrage of defenders.
`----
http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/gizmos/2005/11/2_grassroots_an.html
Microsoft really loves Bloggers !!!
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft regularly flies customers and industry experts to its
| campus in Washington to listen to the feedback given by those
| people.The company invites dozens of key customers and partners
| to the event,where they spend brainstorming as a group.But as of
| late, Microsoft has changed it's strategy and the company is
| making extensive use of blogs to get direct customer feedback.
|
| Within a year,more than 1000 Microsoft employee blogs featured
| developers and product managers talking directly to customers every
| day, instead of once a year.Microsoft employees read dozens of
| blogs every day to see how customers react to Microsoft products
| and services. In fact,Microsoft employees have taken a bigger leap
| and even contribute to other's blogs in the expanding space of
| Blogosphere.
`----
http://thoughtsprevail.blogspot.com/2007/03/microsoft-really-loves-bloggers.html
Microsoft Traps and Hunts for Bloggers in India !!
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has announced the "Microsoft BlogStars" contest, to Hunts
| for Developer Bloggers in India. After feeling the power and increase of
| the Bloggers community in India, Microsoft tries to trap and hunt Bloggers
| in India to buildup the blogging community, for writing blog posts
| supporting towards Microsoft Technologies.
`----
http://i5bala.blogspot.com/2006/10/microsoft-traps-and-hunts-for-bloggers.html
Seattle Area Bloggers Needed for Microsoft User Research Study
,----[ Quote ]
| For your participation, we'll give you your choice of retail
| software and hardware from our extensive list. Current titles
| include the latest Xbox, Xbox 360, and PC games, keyboards,
| Microsoft Office, Windows, productivity software and much more.
`----
http://blogs.msdn.com/usability_recruiting/archive/2007/01/05/seattle-area-bloggers-needed-for-microsoft-user-research-study.aspx
Bloggers meet Mr. Bill (Gates)
,----[ Quote ]
| That meeting is to help Web developers understand how to "unlock new
| revenue opportunities" through technology and content, which could
| include podcasts and blogs. The Microsoft sessions wraps up with a
| one-hour q-and-a up with Bill Gates.
`----
http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7BD18F3BC9%2DF59E%2D4DB4%2DB978%2DD4651079E274%7D&source=blq%2Fyhoo&dist=yhoo&siteid=yhoo
http://tinyurl.com/yjaseg
Bribing Bloggers
,----[ Quote ]
| This is the most frustrating thing about the practice of giving
| bloggers free stuff: it pisses in the well, reducing the credibility
| of all blogs. I'm upset that people trust me less because of the
| behavior of other bloggers. Don't even get me started about PayPerPost.
|
| [...]
|
| Do not, under any circumstances, consider upgrading an XP system to
| Vista... even if it's fairly new and even if it's Vista Supremo
| Premium Ultra-Capable.
`----
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/12/28.html
Microsoft's Laptop Giveaway Becoming PR Disaster?
,----[ Quote ]
| This thing is starting to feel like a PR disaster. Bloggers are
| starting to smell blood and this thing very well may begin to
| turn into yet another episode of bloggers gone wild.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/061228/23174_id.html?.v=1
Bribing Bloggers
,----[ Quote ]
| It's a bribe. Period. You say nice things about us, you get nice
| things from us. Heck, just say neutral things about us-we'll give
| you a killer new laptop and we know that you'll be inclined to say
| better things about us.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2077596,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03129TX1K0000616
Getting a Vaio [with Vista, from Microsoft, even in March 2007]
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Belgium rang me yesterday (I don?t think they realised it
| was a public holiday here!).
|
| [...]
|
| The phone call yesterday was to confirm my address - the laptop (a
| Sony Vaio - dunno which model or spec yet) is en route with Vista
| Ultimate and Office Ultimate pre-installed.
`----
http://www.tomrafteryit.net/getting-a-vaio/
INQhack survives Vistability test in Volesville
,----[ Quote ]
| The Vole (Microsoft) supposedly invited The INQ over for tea because
| we are notorious "Microsoft doubters" - and we were accompanied by
| other supposed Vole doubters such as the folk from lifehacker and
| a very nice man from Slashdot, as well as some Microsoft MvPs.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36312
Microsoft desperately wants my love -- and yours
,----[ Quote ]
| I spent December seventh, eighth, and ninth in Seattle as Microsoft's
| guest. Microsoft flew me there from Florida at its expense, put me up
| in a nice hotel, provided decent food, and comped me and four other
| invitees to this "special conference" with presentations about the
| marvels of Vista and other recent or upcoming Microsoft products. They
| didn't quite play the old Beatles song "Love Me Do" in the background,
| but it was the event's unstated theme.
`----
http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/12/12/085222
Microsoft funding bankrupt Live Search experiment with porn spam
,----[ Quote ]
| Dear reader, please tell me: what do you think of a search engine that steals
| (bandwidth and AdSense revenue), lies, spams away, and is not clever enough
| to stop their criminal activities when they’re caught?
|
| Recently a Live Search rep whined in an interview because so many robots.txt
| files out there block their crawler...
`----
http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/microsoft-live-search-the-downfall-of-a-tiny-search-engine/
Microsoft’s Club Live fiasco
,----[ Quote ]
| People were using the macro on more than 3 games at a time, on more than 2
| accounts at a time, why Microsoft didn’t pick up on the fact that in the
| first few days some people had accumulated enough for 3 Zunes each is beyond
| us. Some were lucky, others, not so much.
|
| [...]
|
| So far no one has been banned from using their accounts, which they needed to
| sign up, probably because they did not break any laws, or probably because
| Microsoft didn’t want that hassle and liked their new found traffic.
`----
http://www.blogthe.net/2007/07/16/microsofts-club-live-fiasco/
Bots Helped To Boost Microsoft Live Search Gains
,----[ Quote ]
| In a blog post, Compete analyst Steve Willis attributed Microsoft's
| search gains to prizes awarded to users participating in Live Search
| Club, which features games that post queries to Microsoft's search
| engine.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft is essentially being DDoSed by thousands of people hundreds
| of times per minute, but they are mistaking this rise in traffic for
| people actually using Live Search."
`----
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201001092
EU cracks down on fake blogger astroturfing
,----[ Quote ]
| But back to the web, and with sneaky marketing campaigns likely to be more
| effective than upfront marketing campaigns, what is stopping companies from
| simply risking it and continuing existing practices?
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/03/eu_flogging_ban/
Is MS Preening in Public Posts?
,----[ Quote ]
| The author of the email, posted on ZDNet in a Talkback forum on the Microsoft
| antitrust trial, claimed her name was Michelle Bradley and that she
| had "retired" from Microsoft last week.
|
| "A verbal memo [no email allowed] was passed around the MS campus encouraging
| MS employee's to post to ZDNet articles like this one," the email said.
|
| "The theme is 'Microsoft is responsible for all good things in computerdom.'
| The government has no right to prevent MS from doing anything. Period.
| The 'memo' suggests we use fictional names and state and to identify
| ourselves as students," the author claimed.
`----
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1999/02/17745
Microsoft shills on the attack again
,----[ Quote ]
| "The real wonder is that there is any users left who buy the grist that comes
| out of the shill mill. It would seem to me that Microsoft has been so fully
| discredited that their methods and minions would also be suspect.
|
| The Microsoft Anti-Trust trial painted them fully as the Enron of the
| Information Industry, with Gartner playing the role of Andersen. How Gartner
| escapes the destructive and discrediting taint of Chairman Bill's own special
| breed of Enronitis is beyond me. Enron collapsed because the investors
| (users) discovered the scam. Andersen kept the scam going long after the jig
| was up.
|
| Will someone please explain to me how what Gartner does is any different?"
`----
http://www.linux.com/feed/23148
Microsoft has no shame? (shills)
,----[ Quote ]
| Reading reddit today, I come across this reddit user who is apparently a
| Microsoft shill. I honestly can't think of any other explanation except that
| Microsoft is paying him/her: this user posts lots of comments, all are
| pro-Microsoft, and every single one of Microsoft's products gets praised at
| every opportunity. He/she also puts down all competing products, and has
| apparently no opinions about any other topic than areas in which Microsoft
| competes (it's nice that you can see all past comments).
|
| I've seen XBOX fanboys and Windows fanboys, so I don't automatically assume
| anyone who likes a Microsoft product is a shill. But all of their products?
| Windows, IE, SQL Server, Silverlight, IIS, etc. etc.?
|
| Has Microsoft no shame? This is, frankly, pretty disgraceful. I hope I'm
| wrong here, perhaps someone can explain this?
`----
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=688293
,----[ Quote ]
| For instance, Microsoft, the world’s most valuable company, declared a profit
| of $4.5 billion in 1998; when the cost of options awarded that year, plus the
| change in the value of outstanding options, is deducted, the firm made a loss
| of $18 billion, according to Smithers.
`----
http://etheridge.ca/articles/economist-options.html
And that's just a tiny fraction...
- --
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | Play Othello: http://othellomaster.com
http://Schestowitz.com | Free as in Free Beer | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
Load average (/proc/loadavg): 2.08 2.31 1.63 3/223 9388
http://iuron.com - semantic search engine project initiative
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