An oral history of LinuxCabal (video)
,----[ Quote ]
| In today's world of corporatized GNU/Linux and FOSS, it's easy to forget that
| Linux was originally "marketed" by decidedly non-mainstream people, many of
| whom are now ignored or forgotten.
`----
http://www.linux.com/feature/124064
Speaking of CABAL (it's just an acronym by the way):
Web, crackdowns weakening Mafia's grip
,----[ Quote ]
| When it came down to business, Cosa Nostra could always count on fear. No
| more. In a rebellion shaking the Sicilian Mafia to its centuries-old roots,
| businesses are joining forces in refusing to submit to demands for protection
| money called "pizzo."
`----
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080113/ap_on_hi_te/italy_defying_the_mafia
It's true. There is also a Mafia in Redmond whose many crimes (e.g. OOXML,
briberies in Nigeria and elsewhere, inside trading, financial frauds, patent
extortion) are exposed thanks to the Web. It's killing it softly.
Yesterday:
Microsoft will turn Chile abstention into a Yes?
,----[ Quote ]
| Despite the 217 comments tabled by Chile in September, the Microsoft puppets
| are well active in the Committee and will vote this Tuesday to turn the vote
| of the country from an abstention to a Yes. You can expect more of those
| things happening until the end of March.
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-35106/microsoft-will-turn-chile-abstention-into-a-yes
Related:
Microsoft accused of stacking ISO committee
,----[ Quote
| In a memo sent following his last meeting as head of the working group on
| WG1, which is handling Microsoft’s application to make the Word format an ISO
| standard as ECMA 376, outgoing Governor Martin Bryan (above), an expert on
| SGML and XML, accused the company of stacking his group.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=1777
Dysfunctional ISO - Courtesy of Microsoft
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2007/12/dysfunctional-iso-courtesy-of-microsoft.html
Corrupt countries were more likely to support the OOXML document format
,----[ Quote ]
| Is this just a random coincidence? The median of the CPI index of the above
| mentioned 70 countries is 3.95. Of the most corrupted half (CPI index less
| than 3.95) 23 or 77% voted for approval (approval or approval with comments)
| and 7 or 23% for disapproval; 5 abstained. Of the least corrupted half (CPI
| index more than 3.95) 13 or 54% voted for approval and 11 or 46% voted for
| disapproval; 11 abstained - see the table below.
`----
http://www.effi.org/blog/kai-2007-09-05.en.html
Microsoft accused of more OOXML standards fiddling
,----[ Quote ]
| However the 11 new countries are refusing to say how they will vote. These
| include Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Ecuador, Jamaica, Lebanon, Malta, Pakistan,
| Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela. Most people seem to think
| that these have been put there by Vole to make sure the standard gets pushed
| through.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=42106
|
|
