02.12.10
Latest Deception for Internet Explorer 8 and Vista 8
Lots of hot steam but no substance at all
Summary: Microsoft exploits children so as to pretend Internet Explorer 8 makes them secure/safe from exploiters; Huffington Post advertises Microsoft products that do not exist (vapourware)
Microsoft’s publicity stunts that exploit children are nothing new and the latest such stunt is a promotion of Internet Explorer 8. We wrote about this stunt in [1, 2] and Sirius does that too:
At a click of a button on Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 (and only on Microsoft Internet Explorer
a secret code is launched which reports an individual to a Government organisation called CEOPS which in turn accesses the Police databases.
[...]
Guilty until proven innocent must be the default position. Prove me wrong Microsoft, give your code to your competitors, Open Source it and we can all help save children.
People ought to pay attention to this recurrence/theme. Microsoft uses children even in order to sell Vista 7. British television channels are full of evidence and a parents television council has already complained. But now, to make matters even worse, Vista 8 vapourware is being promoted in the UK (Ziff Davis [1, 2, 3]) and in Microsoft’s new platform for shameless self-promotion, namely the Huffington Post [1, 2, 3, 4].
“Microsoft uses children even in order to sell Vista 7.”“Note that MS-Huffingtonpost is talking about Windows 8,” told us a reader a few hours ago. It seems like any time Bill wants news printed, he can count on his good friend Arianna. Of course if they are talking about Windows 8, that means 7 is as big a disaster as we thought.
“Also note the BLING search box – but that if you use the search box at the top of the page Google is the search engine. Maybe Bling isn’t capable of doing what HuffPost wants.”
This coverage is just more vapourware with no details, not even vague ones. A few days ago we showed Windows Mobile 7 relying on similar tricks (fake “leaks” and “sneak previews” for hype). Vista 7 is just the same as Vista in many ways (almost no progress made in 3 years of development) and by all early indications, Vista 8 will be pretty much the same. Many of the Windows managers have quit the company, so this key product lacks vision, direction, and leadership. █
“Well the initial impression is how much it [Windows 7] looks like Vista. Which I think is…uh…the thing I’m not supposed to say.”
–Microsoft Jack Schofield
David Gerard said,
February 12, 2010 at 8:29 pm
The HuffPost’s readers don’t appear to be that fooled. The comments are mostly “what is this shit? why are you running this?”
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
February 12th, 2010 at 8:45 pm
I reckon many of them use Macs, which in the US are more popular than GNU/Linux.
your_friend Reply:
February 13th, 2010 at 12:53 am
Are Macs more popular than GNU/Linux in the US? Macs may be more popular in the US and other rich countries than Macs are in developing nations but it would be a mistake to assume there are more Mac users than GNU/Linux users in the US. Because Macs can run GNU/Linux too, you never know what you will find behind the Apple logo.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
February 13th, 2010 at 4:41 am
True, I’m just being presumptuous.