Mercury News writer accuses Microsoft of Bribery
http://www.1pstart.com/mercury-news-writer-accuses-microsoft-of-bribery/
Video: Dean and Nooch demo Halo 3
,----[ Quote ]
| And the duo discuss the approximately $800 press kit that showed up in the
| mail for Dean - a giant, personalized duffel bag filled with Halo 3 schwag.
`----
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2007/09/video_dean_and_nooch_demo_halo_3.html
Related:
Getting a Vaio [with Vista, from Microsoft]
,----[ 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/
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
Microsoft Sent A Free Laptop With Windows Vista
,----[ Quote ]
| I'm not sure how I was selected to be one of the people receiving this
| (I'm assuming there are others, but I haven't come across any yet).
| It could be that they are reaching out to bloggers who are Mac users
| (I switched to a Mac back when OS X came out) or it might just be that
| people I know who work for Microsoft or other influential bloggers
| recommended me
`----
http://laughingsquid.com/microsoft-sent-a-free-laptop-with-windows-vista/
Windows Live OneCare competition
,----[ Quote ]
| How to enter:
|
| You have from now until 25th December to post on your own blog about
| why you'd like Santa to visit you, and then tag it with "Windows Live
| OneCare Competition". Only posts appearing on this technorati page or
| that trackback to this post will be considered as entries. From
| these we'll select 5 winners at random.
`----
http://liveside.net/blogs/main/archive/2006/12/20/windows-live-onecare-competition.aspx
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
,----[ Quote ]
| Long before it employed bloggers to do the job for it, Microsoft hired
| sympathetic members of the public to make its case in online forums,
| posing as disinterested citizens. Things got much more professional as
| the antitrust trial unfurled. After hiring DCI in the late 1990s,
| Microsoft created two new trade groups, the Association for Competitive
| Technology (ACT), and the Americans for Technology Leadership (ALT),
| and marshaled campaigns such as "Freedom to Innovate" - encouraging
| Windows users the chance to make spontaneous gestures of support for
| Chairman Bill.
|
| These weren't always too successful. A campaign in 2001 to petition 17
| state's Attorney Generals - who had pooled resources to bring their
| own antitrust action against Microsoft - resulted in supportive letters
| being written by dead people.
|
| And the astroturf taint continues today.
|
| Most recently, a spoof video portraying Al Gore as a Penguin was reported
| to have originated from a computer registered to the DCI Group, although
| the lobby group said it did not fund or approve the video.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/14/google_lobby/
,----[ 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
,----[ Quote ]
| Could there be more bad news? Of course! Even Paul Thurrott isn't
| impressed with the Zune, calling its pricing strategy the "makings of
| a disaster." Misery! Not only has the Zune suffered a horrific wreck of
| a product introduction, but Annie Wilkes is at the foot of the bed saying
| she doesn't approve of how things are going.
|
| If your number one fan is sending you hate mail, you have a problem.
| So what's with all the Zune related web sites carefully repeating the
| same talking points? It's called astroturfing.
|
| Instead of inspiring actual interest in a grassroots fashion, Microsoft
| has resorted to spreading fake grass, crafting each site to suggestt
| he appearance of something other than the advertisement it is.
|
| This is similar to the scam Microsoft pulled with its own imitation of
| Apple's Switchers ad campaign. Titled "Confessions of a Mac to PC
| Convert," the ad portrayed a professionally dressed woman complaining
| about her Mac, but ended up being a canned picture pulled from stock
| photography and voiced by a professional writer.
|
| Similarly, Greenpeace staffers have assigned to post astroturf comments
| on websites saying "I'm a Mac user and gosh darn it I think that
| Greenpeace is alright with all their concern about the ecology!" More
| on that scam later!
|
| One would expect a certain level of interest and excitement out of
| Microsoft's own users, but that isn't really happening. Nearly every
| Zune site on the web is carefully stepping around the piles of problems
| to spend a lot of time on Microsoft supplied bullet points, including
| the "celebration of music," the slightly larger or at least
| stretched display, and how wireless DRM sharing is such a
| brilliant idea.
`----
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/9F60D74A-0E27-4F5F-B88D-835974628809.html
Poland votes yes on OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| Several protests were sent already to PKN and TC 182 on behalf of: Free and
| Open Source Foundation, TC 171 members, Google Poland, IBM Poland, but I
| really doubt they will make the difference in Polish vote among ISO. The
| whole process was planned to the last minute so that there is not enough time
| to protest or make any changes. Although it is not as clear situation of
| vote-buying as in Sweden, it strikes me as something from typical Microsoft
| lobbying portfolio.
`----
http://wanted.eu.org/en/computers/microsoft/poland_votes_yes_on_ooxml
MSOOXML: What Happened in Hungary
,----[ Quote ]
| If you can't do the math, I think the bottom line is, it's looking like
| Microsoft won't let the world say no to OOXML. It couldn't ram it through the
| usual process, with the folks who understand the tech, even with some very
| odd technical committee chairperson goings on. This is the standard that
| couldn't win on merit, in short.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070902123701843
Updates of Sorts and Things to Watch Out For.
,----[ Quote ]
| While there may have been the Enrons, Haliburtons, and other companies that
| members of We Are Change have to deal with, there are two main
| companies/groups that we have to deal with:
|
| * Microsoft
| * The Business Software Alliance
|
| It’s a symbiotic relationship of sorts between the two. One is supposed to
| make sure that users have shelled out an arm and a leg for their copies of
| software, yet it is used by the other to blackmail these same users. For now
| though, let us focus on the Redmond, Washington software company. In Michael
| Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, there was a brief clip that allegedly showed a
| meeting of many companies who were talking about Iraq (second invasion of… at
| least it was implied to me anyway), and one of the names dropped: Microsoft.
`----
http://nixedblog.thenixedreport.com/?p=57
Gates Foundation's 'dirty secret'
,----[ Quote ]
| Mr Gates personal ideological view is that knowledge should be treated
| as property, and that the owners should always seek monopoly-rents
| (royalties) and he's said to direct the Gates foundation to mirror
| this ideology, harming the very people he is trying to help.
|
| [...]
|
| In my ideal world, we could turn Gates ideology into honest
| philanthropy, but I'm skeptical that a man who became the richest
| man on the planet via societal misinformation around the nature of
| knowledge is going to turn around any time soon.
`----
http://p2pnet.net/story/10944
US politicians go to bat for Microsoft
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/26/microsoft_eu_political_lobbying/
Report Says Nonprofits Sold Influence to Abramoff
,----[ Quote ]
| E-mails released by the committee show that Abramoff, often
| with the knowledge of the groups' leaders, exploited the tax-exempt
| status and leveraged the stature of the organizations to build
| support among conservatives for legislation or government action
| sought by clients including Microsoft Corp., mutual fund company
| DH2 Inc., Primedia Inc.'s Channel One Network, and Brown-Forman,
| maker of Jack Daniel's whiskey.
`----
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101200889.html
http://tinyurl.com/y2rbpu
Politicians in Microsoft's Pocket
,----[ Quote ]
| Continuing on the theme of which politicians are receiving money from
| who. Here is a list of candidates who took money from MSFT.
`----
http://www.fonz.net/blog/archives/2007/06/04/politicians-in-microsofts-pocket/
Politics and tech companies: follow the money
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft took first place with $651,100 given out, while
| Hewlett-Packard gave only $185,550, and Gateway gave a paltry
| $2,000. Microsoft's donations certainly illustrate well the true
| size of the company and the extent of its political concerns.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061110-8194.html
Microsoft Finds Legal Defender in Justice Dept.
,----[ Quote ]
| Nearly a decade after the government began its landmark effort to break
| up Microsoft, the Bush administration has sharply changed course by
| repeatedly defending the company both in the United States and abroad
| against accusations of anticompetitive conduct, including the recent
| rejection of a complaint by Google.
|
| [...]
|
| In the most striking recent example of the policy shift, the top
| antitrust official at the Justice Department last month urged state
| prosecutors to reject a confidential antitrust complaint filed by
| Google that is tied to a consent decree that monitors Microsoft's
| behavior. Google has accused Microsoft of designing its latest
| operating system, Vista, to discourage the use of Google's desktop
| search program, lawyers involved in the case said.
`----
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/business/10microsoft.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Microsoft trying to derail Google/DoubleClick deal by lobbying congress
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has hired lobbying firm Patton Boggs LLC to do work on "competitive
| issues surrounding Google/DoubleClick [sic] merger."
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070816-microsoft-spends-40000-to-lobby-congress-about-googledoubleclick-merger.html
Microsoft's 'Men in Black' kill Florida open standards legislation
,----[ Quote
| It was just a bit of text advocating open data formats that was slipped into
| a Florida State Senate bill at the last minute with no fanfare, but within
| 24 hours three Microsoft-paid lobbyists, all wearing black suits, were
| pressuring members of the Senate Committee on Governmental Operations
| (COGO) to remove the words they didn't like from Senate bill 1974.
`----
http://enterprise.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/04/16/2019244&from=rss
Bill Gates to address Senate panel
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is scheduled to descend on Capitol Hill
| next week to pepper a U.S. Senate committee with his suggestions for
| boosting American competitiveness.
`----
http://news.com.com/2061-10796_3-6163930.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news
Changing the Report, After the Vote
http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/01/commission
CompTIA [Microsoft LOBBYISY]: IE voted 'most influential' tech product
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft and CompTIA have traditionally been closely aligned, particularly
| in the fight against open-source software--both are key members of the
| Initiative for Software Choice, which frequently takes an anti-open-source
| stance. Earlier this year,
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6199876.html
Clearing up anti-GPL3 FUD
,----[ Quote ]
| Some of the bad publicity about GPL3 is deliberate. A particularly
| bad article by Dan Lyons of Forbes magazine painted an offensive
| picture of GPL3 and Richard Stallman, even accusing Stallman of
| having sex with flowers (!!!) after Lyons failed to comprehend
| a scientific joke.
`----
http://technocrat.net/d/2007/3/22/16651/
Perens Lashes Out at Claims GPL 3 Brings Legal Risks
,----[ Quote ]
| "Let's make it clear that [ACT] is Microsoft's lobbying front and
| that they are going to paint as negative a picture as they can,"
| Perens told eWEEK in an interview.
|
| "Obviously, GPL software is displacing Microsoft enough to have
| them concerned, and it's doing it at customers who are important
| to them. A lawyer's job is to scare the other side if they can--because
| they know it's cheaper than winning a case in court," he said.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2112267,00.asp
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