Microsoft gives U.K. start-ups a helping hand
,----[ Quote ]
| The program is designed to "help fledgling businesses realize their potential
| and achieve success," he added. It includes technical support and guidance on
| Microsoft technologies and platforms including Silverlight--Microsoft's
| competitor to Adobe Systems' Flash--and its Live service, which also received
| a shot in the arm with the announcement of new services on Monday.
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6211004.html
Recent:
Will Microsoft's Katrina Goodwill Go Bad?
,----[ Quote
| The first benefit really goes to Microsoft and its reseller partners rather
| than to the larger group of small businesses seeking aid. What kind of
| hurricane relief is that?
`----
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/business_applications/will_microsofts_katrina_goodwill_go_bad.html?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535
http://tinyurl.com/2neepw
Related:
Dark cloud over good works of Gates Found
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gatesx07jan07,0,6827615.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Gates Foundation Revokes Pledge to Review Portfolio
,----[ Quote ]
| ...the Gates Foundation took down their public statement on this
| and replaced it with a significantly altered version which seems to
| say that investing responsibly would just be too complex for them
| and that they need to focus on their core mission: 'There are
| dozens of factors that could be considered, almost all of which
| are outside the foundation's areas of expertise. The issues
| involved are quite complex...
`----
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/12/1756212&from=rss
Gates sold 100,000 Univision shares-SEC filing
,----[ Quote ]
| The foundation said it sold its remaining stake in Univision,
| which is in the process of being acquired by private investors,
| for an average of $35.34 per share in open market transactions.
`----
http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?storyID=urn:newsmlreuters.com:20070105:MTFH49951_2007-01-05_22-11-13_N05298823&type=comktNews&rpc=44
http://tinyurl.com/yll88p
Bill Gates lends cash to buy newspapers
$350 million to MediaNews
,----[ Quote ]
| Gates involvement has been very behind the scenes. In fact many of
| those involved in the deal didn'teven know he was one of the investors.
| It was carried out through the Gates Foundation, the world's largest
| philanthropy outfit.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33849
,----[ Quote ]
| My background is finance and accounting....
|
| However, the Gates Buffet foundation grant is nothing more than a shell
| game in which control of assets for both Gates and Buffet remain the same.
|
| THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT THE ACCUMULATION OF WEALTH BY THESE TWO WILL BE
| MUCH MORE MASSIVE BECAUSE THEY WILL NO LONGER HAVE TO PAY ANY TAXES.
`----
http://www.mail-archive.com/futurew...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/msg03323.html
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.
|
| [...]
|
| For instance, Microsoft's PAC spent $1.7 million in the 2006 election
| cycle, but only a third of this went to federal candidates. What
| happened to the rest? It went to local campaigns, paid out a few
| thousand dollars at a time to groups like "Boal for Iowa House" in
| Ankeny, IA. It also funded other PACs like the "Associated Republicans
| of Texas" and the "Blue Dog Political Action Committee." No race is
| apparently too small to be funded; even Indiana State Representative
| Terri Austin of Anderson, IN got $500.
| Lobbyists
|
| But the real money isn't even given to the candidates directly. It
| goes to lobbyists, which can be safer investments since they stand no
| chance of losing at the polls. The complete-year figures from 2005
| show that Microsoft spent $8.7 million on lobbyist expenses. Almost
| a million dollars of that money went to Covington & Burling, a
| lobbying firm that also represents the National Football League and
| the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America. Microsoft's
| total spending on lobbying has risen substantially from the $4
| million it spent in 1998.
|
| [...]
|
| Where does it come from?
|
| Although some of this money comes from large employee donations,
| most of it does not. Take Microsoft, for instance; the Center for
| Responsive Politics says that the company received only $302,599
| from individual donors who gave more than $200 in this election
| cycle, only a small fraction of the $1.7 million actually spent.
| As is typical, much of this money came from the company's top
| brass, while the rest was made up of small contributions.
|
| The maximum individual contribution to a PAC is $5,000 a year.
| Melinda, whose occupation is listed in Federal Election Commission
| records as "homemaker," regularly contributes this amount, as does
| Bill. Steve Ballmer coughed up, too. Microsoft can use general
| company funds to support the PAC and its operations, but cannot
| give directly to candidates.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061110-8194.html
Linux to Microsoft: Let's Fight with Silverlight
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has spent the past few years trumpeting their "you are
| using patented code" with zero proof or real legal action, this
| is their ace in the hole. If Microsoft does manage to make sure
| that this Silverlight becomes the new standard for media rich web
| browsing, we are in real trouble.
`----
http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2547&Itemid=449
Microsoft's Silverlight Biased and Doomed
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is undoubtedly making progress in the browser and operating
| system platform struggle, but since their new Web technology can't be
| viewed and created by everyone, they still have a long way to go.
`----
http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2545&Itemid=449
Why Microsoft Silverlight Will Fail.
,----[ Quote ]
| My main reasons (And please, correct me if I am wrong):
|
| * No IDE for me - The development path is currently platform
| specific to Windows. Not even an open compiler or server side
| compiler for Linux is available. Use Expression Blend on my
| Mac? Not happening.
|
| * No plug in for Linux - Even Adobe has managed to deliver it's
| modern plugin to Linux users. I only use Linux as a server
| platform, but with Ubuntu, etc making inroads on the desktop,
| it's nice to have it as an option.
|
| [...]
`----
http://visualrinse.com/2007/04/16/why-microsoft-silverlight-will-fail/
Microsoft's Silverlight and Adobe's Apollo: Web-Killer 2.0
,----[ Quote ]
| Now some may be wondering why so many people, myself included, have such
| violent negative reactions to these attempts to improve the user experience
| of the World Wide Web. After all, I wrote a report at Forrester about seven
| years ago called the X Internet that claimed that the Web needed to be more
| interactive. So what's wrong with a extensions and developer tools to make
| it all easier? Well, other than attempting to sidestep important
| collaborative efforts like World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web
| Standards Project, these proprietary browser extensions break the utility
| of the World Wide Web in important ways.
|
| [...]
|
| It's nice to know that despite changes in interfaces and software
| technology, Microsoft's strategy for the Internet hasn't changed.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/070507/34657_id.html?.v=19
Audience abandons Microsoft's MIX 07 keynote
,----[ Quote ]
| He said that when Microsoft and other companies create communities
| around their technology, it's usually accidental, not created by
| any ad placed strategically on a web page or in a game.
|
| "The Xbox community existed, but the Microsoft ads [in games and
| on Xbox Live] then got moved around quite by accident, not by
| design," Rasala said. "It's unclear that many companies can
| replicate that pattern by design."
|
| After Bach's keynote, it was difficult to find attendees in
| the hall that did not work for Microsoft. Nine out of 10
| attendees approached for comment after his talk were from
| the company.
`----
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=9217
Silverlight is about The Microsoft Web.
,----[ Quote ]
| Sorry, but I have to say something very rude. You clearly don't know
| what you're talking about. That is Microsoft PR talking. Can you say
| "credibility loss".
|
| Silverlight is about The Microsoft Web
|
| Silverlight is not about the World Wide Web. It's about The Microsoft
| Web. It's about getting fools to rally around Microsoft. After all of
| this time and experience with Microsoft, anybody with half a brain
| will be smart enough to avoid doing that. The last thing you want to
| be is dependent on Microsoft and set yourself up to be a DIRECT
| competitor with "Microsoft Cloud Services" down the road. Dumb.
| Foolish. Stupid. Smart investors won't invest one dime in your
| company and might even short your stock.
|
| Remember, it's Microsoft's cloud. Microsoft is not investing in
| huge datacenters all around the world for no reason. And, Microsoft
| will do whatever it takes, including operating that new online
| services business at a huge loss, to starve off any smaller
| competitor that foolishly chose to develop on the Silverlight
| platform. Microsoft sold $44 BILLION and cleared $18 BILLION
| profit last year. How many billions did you make last year?
`----
http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-11406-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=33334&messageID=613757
Microsoft's Silverlight Promises to Disrupt Linux Web Users
,----[ Quote ]
| Just as it seemed that Linux users (especially 64-bit users) would
| finally be able to enjoy streaming content with a minimum of
| hassle, Microsoft's new Silverlight software promises to throw a
| wrench in the works. Because of sites like Google Video and
| Youtube, Flash video has become a common means of streaming
| multimedia over the Internet.
`----
http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry1418.html
Microsoft's 'Everywhere' excludes Linux
,----[ Quote ]
| This browser add-on enables rendering of WPF content, but
| "Everywhere" doesn't include Linux.
`----
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/7794/53/
ECIS Accuses Microsoft of Plotting HTML Hijack
,----[ Quote ]
| An industry coalition that has represented competitors of Microsoft
| in European markets before the European Commission stepped up its
| public relations offensive this morning, this time accusing
| Microsoft of scheming to upset HTML's place in the fabric of
| the Internet with XAML, an XML-based layout lexicon forn
| etwork applications.
`----
http://www.betanews.com/article/ECIS_Accuses_Microsoft_of_Plotting_HTML_Hijack/1169824569
|
|
