03.16.09

Links 16/03/2009: Cloudera Debuts, OpenOffice.org 3.0.x Approaches 50 Million Downloads

Posted in News Roundup at 8:15 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day

Gabriella Coleman, an anthropologist, explains Free Software culture 13 (2004)

Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.

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India Moves to Free Software, So Microsoft Fights Back with Gentle Bribes and Partners

Posted in Asia, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Windows at 3:46 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Political parties in the country embrace FOSS, but Microsoft carries on with EDGI, gifts, and dumping of software

BEFORE we begin this long post, here is a must-read background story to those who are not aware of Microsoft's abuses against the Indian people. This is part of Microsoft’s EDGI in India [1, 2].

Moreover, as we shall see later, Microsoft is assisted by corruptible professors. We already know that Microsoft is bribing professors to merely mention Microsoft software while at the same time bullying professors who do not agree with Microsoft’s agenda. This happens even in India (we are still seeing such stories) where it appears to have bribed many local charities (for advancement of agenda).

How low can one stoop? Well, having somehow sneaked a Windows mail server (as in Exchange Server) into the prime minister’s office, it turns out that it led to tremendous trouble. As with any platform that’s a petri dish to crackers, the prime minister’s office too had its server infected by viruses for several months.

E-mail system of the Prime Minister’s Office was under the grip of a computer virus for three months last year forcing officials to replace the software.

The technical glitch plagued the e-mail communication system of the PMO, which was based on the Microsoft Outlook Express, from February to April in 2008.

Although the extent of damage was uncertain, the PMO said that most of the e-mails addressed to it were not received.

This article from the Times of India wrongly calls it a “computer virus”. It’s really a Windows virus. Computers don’t have viruses. They are commodity hardware.

The good news (the fallout) is that as a result of this incident the prime minister’s office — or PMO — will be moving to GNU/Linux.

Just read it this morning in TOI at page 7. PM Office has migrated to Linux based mailing solution. Its a great achievent for the Open Source Community in India.

Here goes the complete report

BUGGED Virus gripped PMO’s email for 3 months New Delhi: Email system of the Prime Minister’s Office was under the grip of a computer virus for three months last year forcing officials to replace the software. The technical glitch plagued the email communication system of the PMO, which was based on the Microsoft Outlook Express, from February to April in 2008.

But this is just a prelude to more good news.

“This article from the Times of India wrongly calls it a “computer virus”. It’s really a Windows virus.”Someone from Red Hat has just told us that “major Indian political parties support open source and open standards.” Here is the relevant page and the vision of The Bharatiya Janata Party [PDF]. According to the person who sent this to us, this document “makes extensive reference to open source as an integral part of their IT plans. This was unveiled on Saturday, 14th March, 2009, by LK Advani who is their candidate for prime minister, if the BJP comes to power.

“The CPI(M), another major national party has been a long time supporter of free and open source software:

1. We advocate usage of free software at all levels
2. CPI(M) for free and open source software

“Even in the Congress, the other major national party in India, Prithviraj Chavan who is currently a minister in the Prime Minister’s Office had advocated the use of open source in India in a TV interview which was conducted immediately after your party came to power in 2004.

“What this means is that there is a broad consensus emerging around open source and open standards in a market that consists of a billion plus people. The next five years are going to be very, very interesting!”

LinuxToday has a report about this too. In short:

Indian prime minister-in-waiting and Opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani of the BJP has come out with a stand that is seen to strongly favour Free Software and Open Source, released here today. While politicians are known to be lavish with pre-poll promises, Open Source campaigners were upbeat over the development.

Even Glyn Moody has just covered it.

Microsoft Fights Back with “Addiction” Ware

“They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.”

–Bill Gates

A few days ago we found out that an entity called IDG Ventures, which is not related to another IDG that’s in Microsoft’s pocket [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], is helping Microsoft “addict” children and startups.

IDG Ventures, Microsoft India partners to aid startups

Bangalore: In a bid to provide to aid the technology startups, IDG Ventures India and Microsoft India partnered to give access to Microsoft suite and funding of up to Rs.25 crore by IDG Ventures. Under the program Early Stage Funding Program, Microsoft will offer suite at no upfront cost under the company’s BizSpark program and IDG Ventures will invest up to Rs.100 crore in startups.

This was also covered in LiveMint.

Another person from India (not affiliated with any company) has sent us information about more of the plot which Microsoft organised to fight back against Free software adoption across the country.

“They organize something called bootcamp. The software molester is trying to molest education now. In that boot camp they train (brainwash) students [and] provide them costly food and hotel suits (as bribe) […] [...] pre-grease tomorrow’s gov and business leaders. Lots of groups try to be good to tomorrow’s leaders, but the Microsoft case doesn’t inspire confidence in me.

“I got a lot of pictorial evidence about how Microsoft is cheating engineering college students,” wrote our source. Here are the pictures that he sent us.

[Picture removed at the request of the author]
Camp organised by Microsoft India

[Picture removed at the request of the author]
Guys and girls at this Microsoft camp

[Picture removed at the request of the author]
Part of the Microsoft-sponsored tour

[Picture removed at the request of the author]
Microsoft-sponsored tour

[Picture removed at the request of the author]
Microsoft-sponsored tour

[Picture removed at the request of the author]
The luxury hotel where Microsoft put these students

[Picture removed at the request of the author]
The train whose costs Microsoft covered

Here are the crude remarks sent later to accompany these photos:

Microsoft Bootcamp details

Microsoft runs something called “Microsoft campus club” in most of the famous engineering colleges in India (not only from Tamilnadu, there are participants from other states too ). The students of corresponding colleges are chosen to take care of this club, Microsoft calls these students as “Microsoft student partners” (shortly MSP).

They use these students to teach (brainwash/addict) other students with Microsoft’s technologies like Dot net, etc.

1. These students mostly act as a ambassador of Microsoft in colleges
2. They motivate students to take part in competitions like http://www.goalivechallenge.com/ (Web design contest by Microsoft, the only technology allowed is ASP.NET and Silverlight)
3. They distribute free copies of Windows, if the academic institution has a academic alliance license (colleges have to pay 2laks to get this license… just heard from someone, not sure)
4. Setting up Microsoft ELMS (details below)
5. Recruiting the next MSP

About bootcamp: (Recently in Hyderabad, Andra pradesh)

It’s a camp for these MSP’s

Microsoft pleases/bribes the MSP’s by providing them free copies of their DVDs, t-shirts, lots of small gifts… they take them to tour (like picnic see picture)
They make the students to stay in luxury hotels (see pictures) and a lot more.

The main objective of this club is to get them addicted, get the education system in their control.

It’s too bad… see how many students are getting cheated.

[...]

I haven’t included any pictures that could show individual MSP’s face for their privacy

This informant “wonders why they are doing this in India [and] also wonders if it only happens in India.” But another readers of ours, who studies in the United States says that “there are professors at my school that push Silverlight [...] these are older professors [...] they use the excuse that it’s what employers want these days (Silverlight, Adobe Flex, etc [...] I don’t know if I told you but they teach VB.NET at this place too. [...] I have a friend that’s convinced that ASP.NET is the way to go [and] considers other stuff “toys” [...] they also teach C# [...] information science majors must take a year of VB.NET based programming.”

“They wrote cheques for $200 to people who just dropped names of Microsoft products publicly.”Look back at the beginning of this post where we referred to solid proof that Microsoft had bribed professors even just to mention Microsoft software. They wrote cheques for $200 to people who just dropped names of Microsoft products publicly. It seems to be similar in parts of Europe.

Going back to India, it ought to be added that they also exploit schools for their “addiction” that’s directed squarely at students. We have this leaked letter about Microsoft ELMS, which is how Microsoft achieves a lot of the above.

Again it’s worth stressing: For those who think it’s an India-only issue, well… it’s not. Just looking a few days back at the news, we find similar stunts happening in Thailand. It’s worth remembering dirty tricks that Microsoft was pulling in Thailand because there are some large adoptions/deployments there of OpenOffice.org. Let’s not forget the OOXML irregularities in Thailand and Microsoft’s EDGI over there [1, 2]. Well, right now Thailand is being further manipulated by a Microsoft top executive who visits the prime minister. Microsoft is trying to extend an “e-Learning project” by another 5 years.

The commitments discussed with the prime minister included a five-year extension of the Partner e-Learning project, a re-training project involving 2 million unemployed workers in Thailand, and a three-year joint research and development project with the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec).

All these sudden “extensions” are very reminiscent of what we find in Finland. Informed citizens must not let them get away with it. █

“As a supplicant to government, you cannot afford to bulls’t! Government reserves that right for itself.”

–Famous quote, Anonymous

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Microsoft Wants War: Starts Blatantly Attacking Critics with Cowardly Attacks via Employers

Posted in Free/Libre Software, Microsoft at 2:53 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Microsoft’s Latest Smear Campaigns Against FOSS Proponents

Summary: National Microsoft CEO attacks critic, contacts boss too (part of a pattern)

IF you write critically about Microsoft, then Microsoft may be ‘kind’ enough to contact your boss and try to get you in trouble (maybe even fired). We know this from a couple of new victims, whose names and nationalities we keep off the record so as to not aggravate it further.

“One person suspects that Vivek Kundra may be the latest case of high-level retribution.”The first story story is that a national manager of Microsoft has threatened, personally, a critic of the company’s policies and attacked the person through the employer. We have actually heard a similar story from 2 people in the past week, but not in both cases was a Microsoft manager (local CEO) directly involved.

Having written critically about Microsoft, writes one person to us, “this got me in a world of shit… but it was worth it. Or I hope it was. It remains to be seen.

“The CEO of Microsoft [country name omitted] called me up on [...] and had a very long talk with me about how naughty I was. The first fifteen minutes he was all, “this is lies!” .. then he slowly changed the tone to “you shouldn’t underestimate what good we’ve done” [...] and then, at the end of it, I managed to pin him to the wall, and he kind of backed off after that.

“And then [he] called my boss.”

Remember Peter Quinn? One person suspects that Vivek Kundra may be the latest case of high-level retribution. “This looks like it might be worse retribution than what happened to Peter Quinn,” wrote a reader to us one hour ago. But in this particular case, no proof exists.

Anyway, this would be typical Microsoft behaviour. For details, see for example:

• Microsoft Smear Campaigns in India: Watch and Be Disgusted
• OOXML Defeated Easily in India; Microsoft in Hot Water in New Zealand Over Smear Campaign
• “If you Can’t Deny the Truth, Run a Smear Campaign” (Updated)
• Bullying, Intimidation and Smears, Courtesy of Microsoft
• Microsoft Launches “Get the Facts”-esque Smear Campaign Against ODF and OOXML’s Critics
• Smear Campaign Against Boycott Novell (Updated)

More examples (external links):

• Windows DRM: A Response to the Disinformation (Peter Gutmann)
• Life Is Complicated (Tim Bray)
• Intimidation (Pamela Jones)
• Ethics (Pamela Jones)
• A Microsoft Slur in the OOXML Saga — Did I Tell You or Did I Tell You? (Mathew Holloway)
• Microsoft Says Worker Wrote Smear of Rival

There is another incident we had reported to us, but the details are too sensitive and would lead to a risk of exposure.

What is Microsoft so scared of? Well surely, as one reader explains, “here’s some old news, but maybe worth bringing up again. Deploying FOSS, would be the functional equivalent of a major double-digit billion dollar economic stimulus plan:

• Linux Kernel Worth $1.4 Billion
• Open source Linux worth billions, Microsoft warned
• Estimating the Total Development Cost of a Linux Distribution

“In the case of Fedora, it would be the equivalent of $ 11 billion USD,” says the reader. This is a lot of money and Microsoft is set to lose the most. But for Microsoft to turn to personal attacks against critics is utterly disgusting. And it’s part of a long, ongoing pattern. █

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LF Video of the Day: I’m (GNU)/Linux

Posted in GNU/Linux, Kernel, Marketing, Videos at 11:24 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Direct link

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Microsoft Struck by More XBox 360 Lawsuits, Xbox 360 Elite Might be Taken off the Shelves

Posted in Courtroom, Hardware, Microsoft, Patents, Rumour at 8:37 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Patent lawsuits against XBox 360; another Red Ring of Death PR disaster; exit of Xbox 360 Elite is already rumoured

THINGS JUST AREN’T working particularly well for Microsoft these days, no matter which division.

Microsoft’s XBox 360 got itself under a shower of lawsuits in recent months (e.g. [1, 2]). Deliberate neglect did not help the cause, but the latest XBox lawsuit are actually to do with games and with patents. Microsoft is being sued by PalTalk Holdings, which seems like patent troll.

Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, should pay a New York company $90 million for using its inventions in the Xbox video-game system, a lawyer told a federal jury yesterday.

PalTalk Holdings Inc. says Halo games and the Xbox console on which they are played infringe two patents for inventions developed by MPath Interactive Inc. PalTalk bought the patents for less than $200,000, Microsoft lawyer David Pritikin said.

Separately, there is also a settlement of this case.

Microsoft Corp. said Thursday it settled a patent-infringement suit in which a New York company was demanding $90 million in royalties on the Xbox video game system.

Financial terms weren’t disclosed, Microsoft spokesman David Bowermaster said, adding that it was an “amicable agreement.” The settlement cuts short a trial that started this week over the suit, filed by closely held PalTalk Holdings Inc.

Further details in:

• Microsoft Settles Lawsuit Over Halo 3
• Microsoft Settles $90m Lawsuit
• Microsoft Settles $90 Million Patent Case

There is also the following new report: Patent Lawsuit Against Nintendo, Microsoft To Begin In Tyler

The trial for a patent infringement lawsuit filed against Nintendo and Microsoft will begin in Tyler on Tuesday.

This one comes from Fenner Investments, which seems like another Texas-based patent troll.

XBox has already lost Microsoft several billions and the lawsuits above will help not at all. Right now, Microsoft and XBox face yet another public relations disaster.

Woman struggles to prove to Microsoft’s Xbox service agents that Nome, Alaska, exists

[...]

Kim Galleher’s nightmare may be coming to an end. The Nome, Alaska, mother has been trying since mid-February to get Microsoft to send her a shipping box so she could return her 13-year-old son’s Xbox 360, which died of the Red Ring of Death in the depths of winter when going outside to play wasn’t really an option.

Microsoft almost denies the existence of a town that accommodates thousands of people. What should they expect to happen as a result? Backlash.

Dear Microsoft: ‘We exist.’ Sincerely, Nome.

The Seattle Times describes the nightmare of a Nome mother trying to get Microsoft to acknowledge that she can, in fact, receive shipping.

At issue: Trying to get the company to replace her son’s broken Xbox 360 after it died from the infamous “red ring of death.” (I just had to do the same thing this winter.)

In other news, now that we are seeing many Microsoft products getting axed (latest example just days ago), a rumour emerges which suggests Xbox 360 Elite will be killed by Microsoft too.

Another gaming rumor: Citing the usual unnamed sources, tech website Fudzilla is claiming Microsoft (MSFT) may soon stop offering its $400 Xbox 360 Elite, the super-premium version of its Xbox game console. Sales of the $300 Xbox 360 Pro and $200 no-online play Xbox 360 Arcade would continue.

This is also covered here (“Microsoft Refuses Comment on Rumors of Ceasing Production of Xbox 360 Elite”). Fudzilla is usually right, about Microsoft layoffs for example [1, 2].

Microsoft seems to be going nowhere — and pretty fast at that. █

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Microsoft, a Notorious Tax Evader, Takes Money from Taxpayers to Help Its Own Business (Updated)

Posted in Finance, GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 7:58 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Money is being stolen from the public in order to fund projects that are beneficial to Microsoft, which increasingly experiences financial difficulties

Microsoft’s tax evasion around the world is a topic that we previously summarised right here. Almost no other company is equally notorious for taxation irregularities — an issue that’s rather consistent across the board. So how does it feel to know that this year’s public looting (more commonly known as “bailout” or — more euphemistically — “stimulus”) will go to a tax-evading monopoly abuser? That is precisely what’s likely to happen pretty soon, according to Bloomberg.

Microsoft Corp., which has $20 billion of cash in the bank, is among the first in the Puget Sound area to benefit from the investment in roads and bridges through President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan.

Local planners allotted $11 million of $214 million awarded to the region to help pay for a highway overpass in Redmond, Washington, connecting one part of Microsoft’s wooded campus with another. The world’s largest software maker will contribute almost half of the $36.5 million cost. Other federal and local money will pay the rest.

Here is the more concise summary from Slashdot:

‘Bridge to Microsoft’ Gets Federal Stimulus Funds

“Among the first to benefit from the investment in roads and bridges through Obama’s stimulus plan is Microsoft, which has $20B in the bank. Local planners have allotted $11M to help pay for a highway overpass to connect one part of Microsoft’s wooded campus with another. Microsoft will contribute almost half of the $36.5M cost; other federal and local money will pay the rest. ‘Steve Ballmer or Bill Gates could finance this out of pocket change,’ griped Steve Ellis of the Taxpayers for Common Sense. ‘Subsidizing an overpass to one of the richest companies in the country certainly isn’t going to be the best use of our precious dollars.’ Ellis called the project ‘a bridge to Microsoft,’ alluding to Alaska’s infamous ‘Bridge to Nowhere’.”

Lest we forget that Microsoft lobbied for the bailout and Steve Ballmer got personally involved in this. Microsoft is approaching debt [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] and it has been having financial problems for quite a while (with a recent investors backlash).

A few days ago we wrote about Microsoft’s prospects being further disregarded by Morgan Stanley and here is a report on the subject, which happens to come from the so-called “Wintel press”.

Microsoft shares fall on weaker PC growth outlook

[...]

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Holt expects PC unit sales to fall by 11 percent for calendar year 2009, down from his previous outlook of a 2 percent decline.

The large majority of Windows users are stuck with Windows XP. Given that fewer people are buying new PCs nowadays, the likelihood of upgrading to GNU/Linux is increased considerably. █

Updated: Coverage from the ‘Microsoft press’ (Seattle):

• Does the ‘Bridge to Microsoft’ deserve federal stimulus money
• Federal stimulus funds to accelerate construction on overpass connecting Microsoft campus

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Microsoft Grabs Washington’s Political System, Role Increased in DHS, Harvey Mudd College, VMware

Posted in Microsoft, Virtualisation, VMware at 7:20 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Washington’s commerce to be handled by a Microsoft person as Microsoft’s H-1B workers fiasco continues; DHS, Harvey Mudd College, and VMware/EMC influence noted

Microsoft’s former employees — including some from the executive/senior ranks — are still entering positions of political or corporate power where they can cause greater harm to society and promote Microsoft’s interests that are typically adverse to society’s. Microsoft’s Rogers Weed is the latest example:

Gov. Chris Gregoire has named former Microsoft Vice President Rogers Weed to lead Washington’s commerce activities.

She made the announcement Tuesday at a speech to business groups in Seattle. Gregoire says he’ll work to keep the companies and jobs Washington has and to bring new ones to the state.

The Seattle Times covered this too.

Washington needs to stake out its future even as it struggles to cope with a deepening national recession, Gov. Chris Gregoire said Tuesday, introducing a former Microsoft executive to run a newly named state Department of Commerce.

Later on we realise that Microsoft is using its positions to harm the interests of the entire country. With its cronies in charge of important chairs, Microsoft gets to do whatever it feels like and always as it pleases. In fact, it’s already hiring more cheap labour that it defrauded the States for.

Microsoft cut some H-1B workers but will hire more

Microsoft Corp. is letting H-1B workers go as part of its plan to lay off about 5,000 employees over 18 months, but the vendor will continue to hire visa holders as well, according to a letter that it sent to Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) last week.

We’ve already covered Microsoft’s intervention in the Department of Homeland Security and here is some more coverage, for future reference:

• Microsoft exec appointed to DHS post
• Microsoft exec appointed to DHS post (mirror/copy)
• Microsoft exec to join DHS as CIO nominee gets tangled in FBI raid
• Microsoft Executive Tapped For Top DHS Cyber Post

Interestingly enough, it’s a only the ‘Microsoft press’ where we could find coverage of this, namely CNET (with copy in CNN), BetaNews where Scott F. is still writing, and the Washington Post, which the Gates family keeps under its thumb. As the following article explains very briefly (it’s a potpourri of reports):

Phil Reitinger, who is the Chief Trustworthy Infrastructure Strategist in Redmond, late this week was appointed the nation’s new Cybersecurity Czar.

This came one day after his VP testified in congress about cyber terrorism, and within a week of the previous czar’s resignation. Rod Beckstrom claiming a turf struggle with the National Security Agency over Cybersecurity was too much to take.

Why is Microsoft allowed a place in the DHS anyway? Microsoft’s intentions of solving a problem that Microsoft itself created?

Another case of Microsoft influence will be Harvey Mudd College, whose President Maria Klawe joins Microsoft’s board of directors. This was covered in:

• Noted Canadian Joins Microsoft’s Board
• Microsoft names Maria Klawe to board of directors

Last but not least, Microsoft’s grip on VMware is tightening, thanks to its partner of the year, EMC. Vance reports:

If EMC does plan to sell off its controlling stake in VMware, the company is maintaining a spectacular poker face.

On Tuesday, EMC held its first broad strategy update in almost three years. The company’s chief executive, Joe Tucci, presided over the affair, more than half of which centered on the virtualization software sold by VMware.

[...]

Mr. Maritz, once a top executive at Microsoft, boasted that VMware has shifted towards building a virtual operating system that runs not just servers but also storage and networking gear.

For a bit of background on Microsoft’s role, confer [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. █

Screwing one’s way into rival territory

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Boycott Novell: Success

Posted in Boycott Novell, Microsoft, Novell at 6:32 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

From TechSpot:

It’s clear that Novell needed the cash, the company reported disappointing first-quarter earnings and a slide in its Linux business, but Microsoft’s motivation for the move seems unclear.

More here, regarding “motivation”.

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