08.01.10
Catching up With Microsoft
Summary: Steve Ballmer unrest and the Microsoft spy are just few among many items we’ll cover this/next week
DUE to a variety of reasons (mainly vacation), we have fallen behind Microsoft news for 4 weeks. In the coming days we will make up for it by catching up with news as old as 4 weeks. We will try to avoid repetition and the goal is to cover all ground which needs to be covered. We finally caught up with GNU/Linux news a week ago and with Free/open source news a few days ago.
On the subject of Steve Ballmer we wrote in recent posts such as:
- Steve Ballmer at Risk of Being Thrown Out, Bill Gates Still Makes the News Due to Fraud
- Microsoft’s #1 Cash Cow Doesn’t Sell Well Anymore, Steve Ballmer Pressured to Leave
Ballmer has been pushed out by some angry investors for quite some time (last year even, based on investors who contacted us). Here is some new coverage of interest:
• Report: Brewing Exec Revolt against Microsoft’s Ballmer
• Are the knives out for Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer?
• Are Microsoft Execs In Open Revolt?
To quote: “But after 30 years, some of Ballmer’s fellow execs are rising against him, says Peter Lauria at the Daily Beast, finding him to be the biggest misfit in a company of misfits.”
Microsoft Nick is citing/quoting Rob Enderle to defend Ballmer.
Spy Case
We covered this before [1, 2], but for future reference, here are more links about the subject.
• Reports: alleged 12th Russian spy worked at Microsoft
• Russian agent had job at Microsoft
• Redmond man with possible link to Russian spy ring deported
• Microsoft Says 12th Alleged Russian Spy Was Employee
Microsoft acknowledges:
• Microsoft Says Alleged Russian Spy Was Employee
• Russian spy worked for Microsoft
• Update: Russian Spy Worked at Microsoft
• No. 12 in Russian Spy Ring Worked at Microsoft
He was a software tester, but probably got no access to customers’/users’ data.
• Microsoft: Deported Russian didn’t compromise company’s security
A Redmond, Wash., man who was deported to his native Russia on Tuesday as part of an investigation into a large spy ring didn’t compromise company security in the nine months he worked for Microsoft as an entry-level software tester, a Microsoft spokesman said Wednesday.
• Russian spy works for Microsoft
• Microsoft Confirms Twelfth Spy Worked As Software Tester
• Microsoft entangled in Russian spy scandal
• Russian spy works for Microsoft
• Alleged Russian Spy Worked at Microsoft
• Microsoft’s Russian Spy Was Greasy, Foreign, and Loved Snickers
• Russian Agent Alexey Karetnikov Had Job at Microsoft
• Suspected spy was Microsoft employee
It’s a little out of date, but the next few posts will cover areas we have not explored yet. █
lightpriest said,
August 1, 2010 at 4:12 pm
It’s not like someone from the inside of the company could compromise their unsecured products more then they are
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
August 1st, 2010 at 4:36 pm
This has already happened apparently.
“I heard some of the people working on Windows XP, were arrested, accused of working a terrorist organization and accused of trying to put in a back door. Now, this means, if you are using non-free software, you have be scared that the company, that is the developer put in a back door, and you also have to be scared that some developers secretly put in a back door, that even the company doesn’t know about. The point is, that because you can’t get the source code, study it and change it, you are helpless either way.”
–Richard Stallman