07.20.09
Posted in Bill Gates, Deception, Finance, Microsoft at 2:59 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: The Gates Foundation starts funding an enterprise of sports shops
TO MR. GATES’ credit, his portfolio is very prolific. Using his supposedly-philanthropic foundation, he maintains pharmaceutical patent investments [1, 2], tobacco investments, investments in alcoholic beverages, petroleum investments, investments in experimental and controversial crops, and even investments in news/media, which of course loves thanking Gates for all that money. Glamourising this Rockefeller-esque publicity stunt is part of this gratitude and to make matters ever more optimal, Gates need not even pay tax; being such a major investor even in governments, politicians can in turn be persuaded to buy from Microsoft and have this dependence/lock-in cascade down to businesses and homes.
“In some professionals’ view, the Gates Foundation acts as a tax-exempt investment vehicle…”The above may seem like a mouthful, but the extensive evidence is all there and Gates Foundation critics — although silenced or ignored for suspicion of “jealousy” for the most — do exist and the press recognises some that are highly renowned (see The Hindu and the New York Times for example). In some professionals’ view, the Gates Foundation acts as a tax-exempt investment vehicle, where medical drugs (“charity”) are used to make returns in the form of American pharmaceutical patents Gates invests billions in. It as well may be seen as a long-term investment.
And in light of all this, we present the latest news about the Gates Foundation, which is now investing in a chain of sports shops.
The purchase is not the first by Gates in a small British retailer. In May 2008, he took a small stake in Carpetright.
More here:
The Microsoft tycoon made the acquisition through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the philanthropic organisation created to “help all people lead healthy, productive lives”.
How can this be spun as philanthropy? Are sports inherently about goodwill? This is just plain commerce (investment in a “retailer” as Murdoch’s press puts it).
More information can be found in:
- Gates raises stake in JJB Sports
- Microsoft’s Gates builds JJB stake
Is there something that we miss in this analysis? █
“My background is finance and accounting. As a socially conscious venture capitalist and philanthropist, I have a very good understanding of wealth management and philanthropy. I started my career in 1967 with the IRS as a specialist in taxation covering many areas of the tax law including the so-called legal loopholes to charitable giving. […] 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.”
The Gates and Buffet Foundation Shell Game
“Gates’ gimmick of becoming a philantropist repeats the Rockefeller scam almost one to one a century later.”
–Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation
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Posted in America, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Windows at 2:20 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“The danger is that Microsoft is using strategic monopolistic pricing in the education market, with the government’s assistance, to turn our state university systems into private workforce training programs for Microsoft.”
–Nathan Newman
Summary: Innocence, greed or ignorance of politicians get exploited by Microsoft, which turns more citizens into Microsoft customers
“Elevate America” is a Microsoft programme we remarked on before [1, 2, 3], so we will not go into that again. But we are seeing more of the same in Iowa right now. Governor Chet Culve plays along with Microsoft’s attempt to achieve state-funded/assisted Microsoft indoctrination.
Gov. Chet Culver and officials from Microsoft Corp. have reached an agreement calling for the company to provide more than 5,000 vouchers to help Iowa workers upgrade their technology skills.
This is just a drop in the bucket.
The Redmond, Wash.-based company will provide 5,700 vouchers to Iowa Workforce Development as part of a national effort to provide free or low-cost training to up to 2 million people during the next three years.
Microsoft also uses this to market itself as a friend of education. We covered this one week ago and here is the corresponding Microsoft press release:
In an effort to help higher education institutions support economic stimulus efforts and work-force development strategies, Microsoft Corp. has committed up to $50 million in higher education resources, training and certifications through the Microsoft Education Alliance Program agreement. As part of the agreement, the company will provide resources and tools for short-term work-force training and higher education enhancements.
Will people be taught GNU/Linux with these funds? It’s a rhetorical question of course. The above is self-serving PR and self-serving ‘donation’.
According to another new press release, Microsoft is exploiting the UN to play along with the same type of plot.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Microsoft Corp. today announced a joint task force to help higher education institutions worldwide meet the growing challenge of supporting economic stimulus efforts and work-force development strategies.
Bill Gates and the UN met last year. █
Protests in India that used Boycott Novell’s banners
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Kernel, Microsoft, Search, Virtualisation, Xen at 2:03 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Even the yellow press misses the historical record of Icahn’s role
According to news reports, Microsoft and Yahoo! are still talking.
The talks between the two have been continuing off and on since earlier this year, after Carol Bartz, Yahoo’s new chief executive, responded to Microsoft’s repeated overtures for discussions.
Reuters shows that one prominent advocate of a deal is one whom we suspected and considered to be a Microsoft "proxy fighter" that the press spoke about (the press openly spoke about “proxy fight” over Yahoo!).
Yahoo board member Icahn wants Microsoft deal
[...]
Icahn declined to comment on the state of any negotiations between Yahoo and Microsoft. He had tried to broker a partnership between the two companies last year, when talks on Microsoft’s $47.5 billion takeover bid for Yahoo fell apart.
“I’ve been a strong advocate of getting a search deal done with Microsoft,” Icahn, who owns about 5 percent of Yahoo and is a director on its board, told Reuters on Friday.
He also put friends of his on the board, so his influence there may be greater than 5%. For a bit of history also see:
There is nothing final or concrete to indicates a Yahoo!-Microsoft deal materialising, which would show sheer hypocrisy because Microsoft blocked a similar Yahoo!-Google deal. This would prove cheaper than a full acquisition, that’s for sure. Speaking of which, there is one writer with the opinion that Microsoft should buy Citrix.
Why Microsoft Should Finally Buy Citrix
I’ve written a good bit here about the various ways Microsoft and Citrix overlap in the hypervisor space, ranging from topics like shared code base through competition for the desktop space.
[...]
To be clear, I am not being critical of Microsoft technologies or business practices (as any long-time readers of my blog will undoubtedly know). I am suggesting that when compared on a chart, Citrix is closer today to where the market and VMware are going for virtual platforms, and if the goal is to compete with VMware for both enterprise and cloud virtual platforms then Microsoft could benefit in leaps and bounds by acquiring Citrix for both Xen and their networking products. Microsoft would get virtual platform, application, and networking tools that they don’t have today.
Microsoft might not need Xen all that much. Microsoft has just released a new Linux patch to advance Hyper-V. While it is commendable that Microsoft is no longer entirely allergic to the GPL(v2, not v3), it ought to be strongly emphasised that this is the latest example (amongst others) where Microsoft submits an open source patch from which Microsoft Windows or another part of the proprietary Microsoft stack is to gain. Prior such examples were beneficial to SQL Server, for example. I would be more delighted if Microsoft decided to rescind its patent threats, which it uses to suppress adoption of the very same kernel it purports to be contributing to. The accompanying press release is sign that Microsoft also uses this as a publicity stunt — selling people the impression it needs for all sorts of reasons. We shall write about this later. █
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Posted in Microsoft, Office Suites, Security, Windows at 1:23 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Fog computing
Summary: News and analysis about Microsoft’s re-announcement that it has a service-oriented Office suite
THIS story can be presented as a series of self-explanatory reports.
• Microsoft Cannibalizes Itself in Fight for Revenue
Microsoft (MSFT) Office is a cash cow that provides $15+ billion in revenue to the company. Thus far it‘s been more immune to open source competition than, say, Microsoft server and mobile phone operating systems, which compete with Linux and Android (and LiMo and Symbian) respectively.
• Microsoft Sacrifices Office to Save Windows
Apple’s OS X doesn’t pose as serious of a threat to Windows as Linux does. Apple and Microsoft can happily exist as long as Apple is content to skim the cream off the top and let Microsoft have the rest. Heck, Microsoft NEEDS Apple to not appear like a monopoly. Steve Ballmer and Steve Jobs probably play golf together and laugh at how people think they’re competitors.
• The Hidden Cost of Microsoft’s ‘Free’ Online Office Suite
Likewise with Office 2010 online, you can get some of it for free, but you still have to pay a premium if you actually want to make it useful. Free online Office 2010 is like getting four free tires without the car, and having to pay full price for the car (including the cost of the tires).
• Cisco Considers Taking on Microsoft’s Office Suite
Cisco Senior Vice President Doug Dennerline said on Tuesday his company may develop a service that would allow business users to create documents they could draft and share through its WebEx meeting and collaboration service.
• Microsoft Office users attacked by cybercriminals
Microsoft Corp warned that cybercriminals have attacked users of its Office software for Windows PCs, exploiting a programming flaw that the software giant has yet to repair.
The world’s largest software maker issued the warning Tuesday as it released patches to address nine other security holes in its software.
According to that last report from Reuters, “Microsoft Office users [are] attacked by cybercriminals” because Microsoft fails to patch its software on time. Moreover, Microsoft still relies on third parties to offer patches. █
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Posted in Microsoft, Security, Servers at 12:42 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Assorted links about Microsoft influences
THE ERRATIC behaviour of Microsoft is well documented, but speaking of erratic, consider the following new article.
Microsoft Goons Break Up SQL Server Meeting
Analysis: When it deployed guards to interrupt a SQL Server presentation, Redmond stepped over the line with its overzealous security.
[...]
Last night I was giving a presentation to our local SQL Server user group at Microsoft in Irving, Texas. A few minutes into my presentation, a security guard bursts in, comes up right beside me, and shouts to the entire room, “Does anybody here work for Microsoft?”
[...]
It pissed me off to be shouted over so abruptly and that Microsoft doesn’t train its security crew on how to address businesspeople in the building. It’s kinda like when the Rolling Stones had the Hells Angels as their bodyguards. Simple, well-meaning fans were beat up, noses broken, and so on just because they wanted a brief interaction with the band. You can’t do that kinda crap.
In addition to these “Microsoft Goons” (as the article calls them), there are also many "Microsoft Technical Evangelists, at least one of whom monitors this Web site (and last posted here some minutes ago). They are like Microsoft PR agents inside people’s blogs, which leads to anger among other bloggers who indicate that this is a widespread phenomenon.
You see that picture of the comment he made on a FOSS blog? THAT’S HIS JOB! That’s what a Microsoft Evangelist does. What a Microsoft Evangelist does is what the laws in the United States are rapidly starting to call “Cyber Harassment.”
Speaking of “evangelists”, look who is going to Amazon.
Former Microsoft Security Evangelist Steve Riley Heads to Amazon
[...]
Now former Microsoft security expert Steve Riley has announced on his personal blog and Twitter feed that he’s joining Amazon to serve as an evangelist and strategist for Amazon’s booming cloud services business.
Many other Microsoft people end up in leading roles at Amazon, which in turn adds Windows servers. This may be poor judgment on Amazon’s part, or maybe an indication that the management is already quite Microsoft-saturated anyway.
Former Microsoft executive Bill Shaughnessy has just joined the board of Mixpo. He quit Microsoft last year, but his potential role in antitrust violations may forever be remembered. █
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Posted in Deception, Microsoft, Office Suites, Open XML, OpenDocument at 11:31 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: More ODF FUD from Microsoft or its apparent affiliates
THE same familiar people, such as hAl for example, carry on tilting Wikipedia in Microsoft’s direction, using daemonisation of ODF with sentences like: “This means that standard conforming ODF spreadsheet files exist that are currently not compatible.” This seems like another tag-team act with Ghettoblaster, who is doing the very same thing, so they are playing a game of patience against volunteers who remove the nonsense. Ghettoblaster is also citing Microsoft folks to add more FUD to the ODF article which is later used for whisper campaigns.
In addition, we found the following eye-popping bit about OpenDocument format:
Ability to open and save the latest Microsoft Excel Open Document format (.xlsx) to My Reports on the dashboard.
Is .xlsx “Open Document format” now? Or is it the mere outcome of deception? █
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Posted in Free/Libre Software, Law, Microsoft, Mono, Novell at 11:09 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Free as in Freedom, with Microsoft’s conditions that are not enforceable by law
THE MONO-NONO WEB site has just published this long post which explores the impact of Mono on the term “Free software”, assuming Mono qualifies as “Free software” in the first place.
The question then becomes: Do you think that the licensing of the software, when combined with the patent assurances Microsoft has given are sufficient to meet all the requirements of the Four Freedoms? Of the Debian Free Software Guidelines?
Think on that in great detail and see what answer you come up with – think on it first trusting Microsoft to do the “right” thing, and once again assuming Microsoft will do the “wrong” thing. Can software be conditionally Free, depending on the intention of Microsoft? It is a sort of Schrödinger’s Freedom – how Free the software is depends on how Microsoft decides to act!
Perhaps you think that the assurances of the ECMA/ISO standard and the Community Promise are sufficient when combined with the licensing terms to consider Mono Free Software. I do not think that is an unreasonable conclusion. Now, read Microsoft’s Moonlight Covenant, and see if you get the same answer about Moonlight.
This matter is becoming important because code which falls outside Microsoft’s Community Promise will make it into GNU/Linux distributions [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] if Banshee’s vision is realised. Mono and Moonlight are persistently being promoted by Novell’s PR people, so it is by all means a strategic focus for Novell. █
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Posted in Apple, Vista 7, Windows at 10:46 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Very scarce adoption predicted based on very scarce response rate, which is biased
LAST week we wrote about a survey which suggested a poor adoption expectancy for Windows 7. The following article, titled “94% of companies will pass on Windows 7 upgrade until late 2010,” gives good interpretation of what was found (or what was not found) by the survey.
The poll is a relatively small sample of all the companies out there, still it is 5% of those companies contacted. And to have 94% of them say they would not upgrade until sometime late in 2010 is really something! I think that’s more telling than the 60% who, today, say they won’t upgrade at all — as those mindsets could change given a successful migration, for example. But some are already anticipating the upcoming problems before they occur and have simply said “No, not before the end of 2010″.
There is also this new essay called “Microsoft Myopia Leads to Revisionist History.” It is mostly an Apple versus Microsoft angle, though. █
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