____/ 7 on Wednesday 19 December 2007 22:59 : \____
> nessuno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
>> On Dec 19, 2:12 pm, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> wrote:
>>> Received this by E-mail:
>>>
>>> http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0%402-651865,36-991097%4051-991...
>>>
>>> As you see, it's in French but it is short and sweet. It refers to an
>>> article published in the Swiss newspaper Le Temps on Monday (available
>>> for a
>>> payment of 2.50 Swiss francs.) But I find the Le Monde article
>>> sufficient and can offer a translation:
>>>
>>> 1,445: number of students in the world paid by Microsoft to
>>> promote favourable speech in their universities
>>>
>>> "How Microsoft has infiltrated the Swiss universities" was the
>>> title of the Monday Le Temps. The Genevean newspaper pointed to
>>> these students charged with "forging links with their peers and
>>> the professors" to improve the image of Bill Gates' firm in the
>>> universities. The program "Microsoft Student Partners" is not at
>>> all clandestine, it has an official Website at
>>> "http://student-partners.com";. It is no longer at all local: the
>>> 1,445 students at the service of Microsoft are active in 102
>>> countries. In France, more than 100 students carry the title MSP
>>> and correspond with the Microsoft teams during their whole time in
>>> school. These French students have actively participated in the
>>> launch of the Vista operating system, organising 87 conferences
>>> and stands, leading 17 training sessions and moderating 42 blogs.
>>>
>>
>> I wonder how much they pay them. This sounds like it is starting to
>> be some work (promoting Microsoft), most people wouldn't do it for
>> nothing.
>
>
> What would be more interesting is if some students tutored
> in Open Source got inside and blew the pants off from inside
> all the asstroturfing and gifts scams being operated through campus.
10 iPod vs. Zune Myths
,----[ 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 suggest
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| the 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
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | "Slashdot is standard-compliant... in Japan"
http://Schestowitz.com | GNU is Not UNIX | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
http://iuron.com - proposing a non-profit search engine
|
|
