____/ [H]omer on Friday 09 November 2007 22:31 : \____
> As both Roy and Mike have already reported, it looks like 11,000 of the
> 17,000 Mandriva laptops will in fact *remain* Mandrvia laptops, despite
> Microsoft's bribery attempts. The important detail that has so far been
> omitted, is that this bribery has now been confirmed:
>
> .----
> | Mba-Uzoukwu wrote that Microsoft is still negotiating an agreement
> | that would give TSC US$400,000 (£190,323) for marketing activities
> | around the Classmate PCs when those computers are converted to
> | Windows.
> `----
>
>
http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/government-law/public-sector/news/index.cfm?newsid=6124&pn=2
>
> "Marketing activities"?
>
> I wonder where I've heard that one before:
>
> .----
> | IDG in Sweden is reporting the contents of a leaked Microsoft memo
> | sent to Microsoft partners there, telling them to join the Swedish
> | Institute of Standards and vote yes on OOXML. As you know, 20+
> | newly registered Microsoft partner companies did so, thus switching
> | the expected No vote to Yes at the last minute. It says Microsoft's
> | representative Klas Hammar acknowledges the memo was sent, but says
> | it should not have been.
> |
> | It costs money to join SIS, registration of around $150 and an
> | additional $1,150 or so to get to vote, so Microsoft is reported to
> | have told partners in the memo that companies that paid the fee and
> | voted appropriately would receive "marketing support"
> | (”marknadsbidrag”) and "additional support in the form of Microsoft
> | resources" (”extra stöd i form av Microsoftresurser”)
> `----
>
> http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20070829070630660
>
> Well, well, well ... so "Marketing" is Microsoft's codeword for bribe
> money. Now we know.
>
> Of course the Swedish vote was overturned, so Microsoft failed, just as
> they have in Nigeria:
>
> .----
> | Now, however, a government agency funding 11,000 of the PCs has
> | overruled the supplier. Nigeria's Universal Service Provision Fund
> | (USPF) wants to keep Mandriva Linux on the Classmate PCs, said an
> | official who identified himself as the programme manager for USPF's
> | Classmate PCs project.
> `----
>
>
http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/government-law/public-sector/news/index.cfm?newsid=6124
>
> One wonders what might have happened to provoke this U-turn. Perhaps the
> USPF read François Bancilhon's (Mandriva CEO) Open Letter to Ballmer:
>
> .----
> | Wow! I’m impressed, Steve! What have you done to these guys to make
> | them change their mind like this? It’s quite clear to me, and it
> | will be to everyone. How do you call what you just did Steve? There
> | is various names for it, I’m sure you know them.
> `----
>
> http://blog.mandriva.com/2007/10/31/an-open-letter-to-steve-ballmer/
>
> Then again, maybe this is just the Microsoft Mafia "tying up loose ends"
> to avoid exposure of something even nastier:
>
> Questions abound on firing of Microsoft's CIO
>
> .----
> | In addition to the question of what corporate policy now-former
> | Microsoft Corp. CIO Stuart Scott violated to lead to his
> | termination by the company on Monday, many other unknowns remain.
> |
> | For instance, why didn't Microsoft and Scott work out some sort of
> | face-saving departure? Was Microsoft tougher on Scott than it might
> | have been on someone else because he was CIO? And what career paths
> | remain open to the 40-something Scott?
> |
> | One thing is for certain: Scott's firing has become unusually
> | public, even though the termination was disclosed in an internal
> | memo and Microsoft didn't formally announce it to the outside world
> | or specify what internal policy he had violated.
> |
> | [...]
> |
> | On the other hand, CIOs are not only in charge of ensuring that key
> | IT systems stay up all of the time; they also have access to many
> | of a company's deepest secrets.
> `----
>
>
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9045958
>
> Which of Microsoft's "deepest secrets" did Stuart Scott know, or was
> about to discover, that made his departure so necessary?
>
> Could this be the source of all those leaked memos.
Cool. I want to grab some of these references for possible future use. Good
finds. Caught with them [sic] pants down again...
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | "Web 2.0 is everything that can be spammed" --Unknown
http://Schestowitz.com | Free as in Free Beer | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
Load average (/proc/loadavg): 1.91 1.59 1.86 2/132 1227
http://iuron.com - semantic search engine project initiative
|
|
