The disinformation thing is rampant at all levels, that is why I don’t watch TV, read newspapers or magazines. Or pay attention to any information that is likely to be manufactured or censored.

Goblin asked you if Andre, the guy who first posted a comment here, is the same Andre Da Costa that posts all the time at MS Watch, has a site that reads like a “just the facts” site ( adacosta.spaces.live.com) writes revues at amazon for MS software and its competitors, and posts articles for the MS MVP that runs the ActiveWin site, and supposedly live in Jamaica. He is a very very busy poster for MS on the web.

Most likely you may not know. But any information you might have on the this MS Shill would be appreciated, if you have any. And yes, its obvious that Andre does think he is one of the good guys. But we know how confusing life is these days, and how twisted logic come become, to the point of who is the good guys.

It’s not news, it’s concrete evidence. The same argument was made about this post from early in the month.

We all know that Microsoft is doing this, but lacking hard evidence, it may prove difficult to make a solid case to people who are new to this or journalists who must be careful about what they write. Having the evidence at hand makes all the difference in the world.

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/0B47485921D44083CC2574110068B1B6

Sadly for Microsoft, Gray was roundly outclassed by the open source proponents who quickly revealed the substantial holes in his understanding and reasoning, and Standards NZ saw his involvement as disingenuous. To make it worse, however, Microsoft subsequently sent a letter to various participants in the process (later released to the open source proponents) which attempted to discredit one of the open source people, attacking him personally (and without basis in fact).

Thankfully, Standards NZ saw through this approach as well, and in the end, it appeared from my somewhat detached perspective that Microsoft utterly burned their bridges with their unethical behaviour, e.g. attempts at character assassination. Despite taking out full-page ads in all the major NZ daily newspapers (talk about old school) to support their cause (ironically, playing to kiwi’s sense of national identity in protecting “their data”…), Standards NZ voted resoundingly “NO” on OOXML.

Microsoft have always been a corporation prone to unethical behaviour if it will increase the bottom line. They will continue to be until such time as the market recognises their behaviour and shuns their products. Remember: “with Microsoft technologies, rather than working in the cloud, you’re living under one”.

“This is massive news, even bigger than the exposure of the “(Vendor) Recommends Windows” paid advertising cover-up.

“In many (personal) ways, this has been the worst year of my life; it’d be nice to think I could salvage something positive from it, and this news looks like it could be it. Finally … not only the inside scoop on the profoundly unethical ways in which Microsoft “competes”, but even an *admission* from their erstwhile *chief evangelist* that these methods were indeed diabolically wrong (update: and still are).

“Better archive that whole blog, ‘cos I have a feeling Microsoft is about to develop a very sensitive trigger-finger.”

That’s interesting. I checked M. Plamondon’s blog and apparently he started doing this 2 months ago. In particular, check out this comment, posted on 13 Dec., at the bottom of this post:

“The name seems familiar somehow. <sarcasm>I wonder who he means by “BoycottBoy”.</sarcasm>

“It’s amusing that Michaels seems to think that Microsoft’s platform evangelism practices don’t affect him because he was/is a Sun professional and Microsoft’s platform evangelism is primarily aimed at FOSS. The latter may be true now, but it wasn’t “back in the day”. Sun was also one of a long list of Microsoft victims. I used to be a Sun system administrator in the early ’90′s and a whole department of the company where I worked had Sun workstations set up to do CAD/CAM work. If they have gone the way of the market, then I’m sure the Sun workstations would have been replaced with white box systems running Windows. Sun has just managed to survive, but Microsoft has had a rather negative effect on their profitability. Between Linux and Windows, Unix has practically disappeared. A few years ago, Sun was even forced to make its AMD64 hardware certified to run Windows. Even earlier than that, they supported Linux on their AMD64 hardware. If Sun had their preferences, I’m sure they would still want to be able to sell their hardware at high prices with Solaris as the sole supported operating system.”

“I’m sure that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Who’s left in the popular media that might pick up the story?

“Just be careful with information. It’s possible that they only pretend to come out of the cold. We have an in-house sales rep who is often snooping for info. He uses an act of trying to be helpful to first pump for information and second try to prevent things from getting done.

“The bottom line here seems that Microsoft is more a movement than a technology. So efforts to move forward with technology need to factor in neutralizing political and ideological interference from Microsoft people.”

Like I say, Ill give you the issue number and page tomorrow.

Jo, going off topic for a second can I ask, are you the same Jo Shields that challenged a GPL violation some months ago? (It was mentioned in the “Linux Magazine”)

Was it? Got a link?

For reference, YES, that was me. It’s nice to be recognised for something positive.

Unless you’re a hit-man from Compro. Then it’s not so nice.

Or is it a coincidence of name?

Sorry then, I misinterpretted his post (can I make excuse of being tired???)

I took it as an attempt to justify the action by comparing it to other sinister practices in the world.

My mistake!
Best Wishes
Goblin.

I am wondering if the poster Andre is the famous Andre Da Costa from the threads of MS-Watch, the guy who could put a positive spin on the end of the world.

He says “Likewise no one cares about “corruption” in Nigeria. What you perceive as “dirty pratices” is probably not considered “dirty” in the US but a common “smart” marketing method.”

Er, Andre, I care about corruption in Nigeria, and just because something is happening elsewhere does that excuse the behaviour? What a silly argument. It is NOT a “smart” marketing method, unless your intention is to deceive/mislead or tell lies. If you are prepared to do that to sell your product then I suppose it is.

Andre most people take pride in their integrity, not sell it for a buck to pimp a product range.

Id be amazed if this wasnt Andre Da Costa. Thats trademark Costa propaganda and ideology there.