__/ [ William Poaster ] on Tuesday 23 January 2007 11:52 \__
> On Tue, 23 Jan 2007 02:08:56 +0000, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>> __/ [ Jerry McBride ] on Monday 22 January 2007 23:10 \__
>>
>>> Damian O'Leary wrote:
>>>
>>>> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> __/ [ John Bailo ] on Monday 22 January 2007 19:24 \__
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm trying to guess the total budget Microsoft has been spending to
>>>>>> discredit COLA.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It's got to be at least 3 salaries...and a lot of hourly if
>>>>>> flatfish+++ is billing them.
>>>>>
>>>>> Whatever he gets paid, it's a waste of money. His lousy posts bring
>>>>> nothing but laughter. Sure, they slow me down a little because I
>>>>> quickly glance at them...
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> Roy, I believe you mean well with your spam and your gay approach to
>>>> Linux. However, you do realise that it is YOU (also known as Mark kent)
>>>> who is a laughing stock?
>>>>
>>>> Nobody but your alter.ego Mark Kent reads your tripe. This is clear
>>>> from the answers your boring and repetitive posts generate.
>>>>
>>>> You need to get a life.
>>>
>>> ANOTHER MICROSOFT PUPPET!!!! PLONK!! And it feels good to do it...
>>
>> I have been struggling recently when it comes to following COLA, mailing
>> lists, E-mail and other stuff (my job included). So, I have added trolls
>> which were on the verge, so to speak (usually a mental killfile), to the
>> actual killfile. Some of them don't even get filtered in the newsreader.
>> They get wiped at server level, which speeds things up. Bandwidth and
>> number of messages to store goes down... leafnode has a high retention
>> with over 50,000 messages at the moment, which is why the current server
>> beats the University's one and increases productivity.
>
> That's one of the great things about Leafnode, IMHO, that it wipes the
> trolls etc, at server level. :-)
There's more of them showing up nowadays. you just know Vista is coming. It
means the filters have to devour some extra CPU cycle and lower the
bandwidth.
All that noise is no coincidence, IMHO. I have been speaking to PJ recently
and she finally advised that I speak to a solicitor. I finally did this
afternoon. He's willing to listen to my case. He has prior experience
with Microsoft --- conviction for libel. This one isn't just about me... it's
about a company whose actions are inexcusable. As you may be aware,
there are companies whose interests conflict with the increasing
adoption of Open Source software. There is an historical record which
shows that these companies are willing to pay ordinary people in order
to subvert the truth (or balance it, as they would put it). I am citing
a few examples below (maybe not for you, but for random people who read
this).
This one is from yesterday:
An interesting offer: get paid to contribute to Wikipedia
,----[ Quote ]
| So I was a little surprised to receive email a couple of days ago
| from Microsoft saying they wanted to contract someone independent
| but friendly (me) for a couple of days to provide more balance on
| Wikipedia concerning ODF/OOXML. I am hardly the poster boy of
| Microsoft partisanship! Apparently they are frustrated at the
| amount of spin from some ODF stakeholders on Wikipedia and blogs.
`----
http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2007/01/an_interesting_offer.html
Here are some older ones:
FTC Moves to Unmask Word-of-Mouth Marketing
,----[ Quote ]
| The Federal Trade Commission yesterday said that companies engaging
| in word-of-mouth marketing, in which people are compensated to
| promote products to their peers, must disclose those relationships.
|
| [...]
|
| Word-of-mouth marketing can take any form of peer-to-peer communication,
| such as a post on a Web blog, a MySpace.com page for a movie character,
| or the comments of a stranger on a bus.
|
| As the practice has taken hold over the past several years, however,
| some advocacy groups have questioned whether marketers are using such
| tactics to dupe consumers into believing they are getting unbiased
| information.
`----
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/11/AR2006121101389.html?nav=hcmodule
,----[ 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
Guest Post by Tony Healy: Microsoft sprung
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft and PR firm Edelman have been sprung in an embarrasing
| pseudo astroturf operation intended to promote the forthcoming
| operating system Vista.
`----
http://larvatusprodeo.net/2007/01/02/guest-post-by-tony-healy-microsoft-sprung/
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 ]
| 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
--
~~ Best wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | GPL'd 3-D Reversi: http://othellomaster.com
http://Schestowitz.com | Open Prospects ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
Tasks: 112 total, 1 running, 111 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
http://iuron.com - knowledge engine, not a search engine
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