Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> Why we still hate Microsoft
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| Chief counsel Brad Smith was in full-on schmooze mode during OSBC, at the
>| same time the company was bragging on twisting the arms of the Czechs over
>| OOXML. Oh, and they?re still certain Linux violates its patents.
I'm fairly certain that merely existing is now violating someone's patent.
The patent system is the government sanctioned platform of the 3rd
millenium robber baron.
>|
>| Ironically, if Microsoft were really ?good? to the open source movement, our
>| readers think, its market threat to open source would only increase.
> `----
>
> http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2199
>
> Not a day goes by and...
>
> What Really Happened at the BRM for OOXML and Who Attended - Updates on Results
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| We count 20 direct Microsoft participants:
>|
>| 1 BELGIUM Mr. Bruno SCHRODER MICROSOFT
>| 2 BRAZIL Mr. Fernando GEBARA Microsoft Brazil
>| 3 CANADA Mr. Paul COTTON Microsoft Canada
>| 4 COTE D'IVOIRE * Mr. Wemba OPOTA MICROSOFT West and central Africa
>| 5 CZECH REPUBLIC Mr. ?tepán BECHYNSKÝ Microsoft Czech Republic, Ltd
>| 6 DENMARK Mr. Jasper Hedegaard BOJSEN Microsoft Denmark
>| 7 FINLAND Mr. Kimmo BERGIUS Microsoft Ltd
>| 8 GERMANY Mr. Mario WENDT Microsoft Deutschland GmbH
>| 9 ISRAEL Mr. Shmuel YAIR Microsoft
>| 10 ITALY Ing. Andrea VALBONI Microsoft Italy
>| 11 JAPAN Mr. Naoki ISHIZAKA Microsoft
>| 12 KENYA Mr. Emmanuel BIRECH Microsoft East Africa
>| 13 NEW ZEALAND Mr. Brett ROBERTS Microsoft New Zealand
>| 14 NORWAY Mr. Shahzad Rana Microsoft Norge AS
>| 15 PORTUGAL * Prof. Miguel Sales DIAS MICROSOFT Portugal
>| 16 SWITZERLAND Mr. Marc HOLITSCHER Microsoft Schweiz GmbH
>| 17 UNITED STATES Mr. Doug MAHUGH Microsoft Corporation
>| 18 Ecma International Mr. Brian JONES Microsoft
>| 19 Ecma International * Mr. Jean PAOLI Microsoft Corporation
>| 20 Assistant to Project Editor Mr. Tristan DAVIS Microsoft
>|
>| Is that normal? I doubt it, but if it is, could someone do something about
>| it? How can employees of a company go against the folks that pay them, even
>| if they privately think the format is junk? Some might, but they'd surely not
>| be employees after that. Now might you get why the Czech Republic waxed
>| poetic about how wonderful the BRM was?
>|
>| [...]
>|
>| Update 2: France will vote No, according to this journalist's sources...
>|
>|
>| [...]
>|
>| But isn't it good to see how many are refusing to do so? Consider the
>| pressure, the threats, the stacking the deck, evidently some promises too,
>| not to mention the confusing and ever changing rules, and it's remarkable.
>| And yet all around the world, people have the courage and the integrity to
>| say No.
> `----
>
> http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080328090328998http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080328090328998
>
>
> Related:
>
> EU Initiates Investigation Against Microsoft OOXML Push
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| But with Steve Ballmer taking over as CEO, there was supposed to be a kinder,
>| gentler Microsoft - one that would play nicely with its competitors. When
>| antitrust regulators in turn challenged this new Microsoft, it issued not
>| challenges to fight to the end to prove that it had done nothing illegal, but
>| statements promising to "cooperate fully."
>|
>| But at the same time, Microsoft is still a tough competitor. As Microsoft's
>| Director of Corporate Standards Jason Matusow famously warned at his blog
>| last year:
>|
>| Make no mistake; all parties are looking at the full picture to find
>| strategies that will result in the outcome they desire. Provided - of
>| course - that they do so within the context of the rules that apply to
>| the process, this is exactly what one should expect to happen. It is
>| going to be a very interesting next few months.
>|
>| Indeed, the months that followed proved to be interesting indeed. Microsoft
>| said that some of its employees became over zealous, most flagrantly in
>| Sweden, where marketing assists were promised to several business partners as
>| incentives to join the national standards committee and vote for OOXM.
> `----
>
> http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20080208082501776
>
>
> EU Commission Investigating Microsoft's MSOOXML Push
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| I hope they think to investigate the smear campaigns that seem to always
>| happen to anyone on the other side from Microsoft. What happened to Peter
>| Quinn was by no means unique.
> `----
>
> http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080208151410252
>
>
> 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
>
>
> How to Royally Annoy National Bodies
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| Guide to future monopolists on how to alienate yourself from National Bodies:
>|
>| 1. Waste NBs time in reviewing monstrous draft specifications
>| 2. Claim that these specs can do everything for anyone by standardising
>| marketing material
>| 3. If you don't get your way at a certain level, lobby the superior above.
>| Dont stop! Go all the way to the head of the nation if you think you can!
>| 4. Leak press stories to journalists to pressure Ministries to make a
>| decision. Quick!
>| 5. Try to shut down TCs if actual technical work is done revealing issues
>| with your plan
>| 6. Question Question Question everything (process, fairness, the system,
>| members) when things dont go your way
>| 7. Otherwise create another TC with friendly experts
>| 8. If the NB allows new members just by paying membership fees, encourage
>| your business partners to join with marketing funds. Stack-stack-stack it
>| high!
>| 9. Stalk decision makers, even if it means traveling around the globe with
>| them
>| 10. Refuse changes in the spec especially if it breaks your product which
>| you released prior
>| 11. Have private interviews with TC members in the guise of funding for
>| their new projects/research grants/interoperability initiatives and
>| conveniently talk about their position on your spec.
>| 12. Get your Business Partners to write in form letters. Some don't even
>| bother to change the templates
>| 13. Attend TC meetings uninvited by fabricating business cards
>| 14. Send Lawyers in to Technical Committee meetings who prefer not to
>| engage in "high-school" debates
>| 15. Make rude and inaccurate statements against TC members in public
> `----
>
> http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/03/how-to-royally.html
>
>
> A Microsoft Slur in the OOXML Saga -- Did I Tell You or Did I Tell You? -
> Updated
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| Remember I told you I've noticed that people who don't support Microsoft's
>| agenda end up the victim of smear campaigns?
>|
>| The New Zealand Open Source Society is reporting that an employee at
>| Microsoft New Zealand recently sent an email to one of the technical bodies
>| advising an NB involved in the OOXML ISO process, smearing a man's
>| reputation, Matthew Holloway, apparently to undermine his technical input
>| which was critical of OOXML.
> `----
>
> http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080318151252279
>
>
> Tim Bray: Life Is Complicated
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| Those with long memories might suggest a parallel between Rick?s position and
>| mine when in 1997, I was sitting on the XML Working Group and co-editing the
>| spec, on a pro bono basis as an indie consultant. Netscape hired me to
>| represent their interests, and when I announced this, controversy ensued.
>| Which is a nice way of saying that Microsoft went berserk; tried
>| unsuccessfully to get me fired as co-editor, and then launched a vicious,
>| deeply personal extended attack in which they tried to destroy my career and
>| took lethal action against a small struggling company because my wife worked
>| there. It was a sideshow of a sideshow of the great campaign to bury Netscape
>| and I?m sure the executives have forgotten; but I haven?t.
> `----
>
> http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2007/01/24/Mixup
>
>
> Q&A: Former Mass. CIO feels 'bittersweet pride' after battles with Microsoft,
> legislature
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| As CIO of Massachusetts from February to November last year, Louis
>| Gutierrez had to endure most of the brunt of Microsoft Corp.'s political
>| wrath over a state policy calling for the adoption of the Open Document
>| Format for Office Applications, or ODF -- a rival to the software vendor's
>| Office Open XML file format.
> `----
>
> http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012760&source=rss_news50
>
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| Quinn: Almost to a person, to anybody involved or who knows about
>| the ODF issue, they attributed the story to Microsoft, right, wrong
>| or otherwise. Senator Pacheco may be a bully but I do not believe he
>| is disingenious and would stoop to such a tactic. Senator Pacheco and
>| Secretary Galvin's office remain very heavily influenced by the
>| Microsoft money and its lobbyist machine, as witnessed by their
>| playbook and words, in my opinion.
> `----
>
> http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060119232859729
--
| mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| Open platforms prevent vendor lock-in. Own your Own services! |
|
|
