09.12.10
Posted in Asia, Fraud, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Windows at 4:23 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Commonality found in intolerance or hatred of opposing views, competition
Credit: kremlin.ru, modified with permission.
Summary: Microsoft is “enabling tyranny” in Russia (to borrow words from the US Senate) by crushing political dissent and other humanitarian movements in the great country
DR. GLYN MOODY has just found a rather shocking new article from The New York Times, which is unlikely to sensationalise or exaggerate because it’s subjected to a lot of scrutiny. Moody labels Microsoft “Enemy of Human Rights in Russia” because of this article.
As a little bit of background, consider the relationship between Microsoft and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian spy fiasco which we mentioned many times in July [1, 2], Microsoft’s handing out of Windows source code to the KGB equivalent, and the fact that Microsoft is attacking GNU/Linux adoption in Russian schools [1, 2] (more links at the bottom of this post show the nefarious means used).
For quite a few years now there have been known stories of Russian authorities selecting politically-active victims (usually journalists) and using Microsoft to crack down on them, eventually locking them up in some prison. Microsoft also did this in Kyrgyzstan [1, 2], as reported earlier this year.
Watch what Microsoft is doing in Russia:
Instead, the group fell victim to one of the authorities’ newest tactics for quelling dissent: confiscating computers under the pretext of searching for pirated Microsoft software.
Across Russia, the security services have carried out dozens of similar raids against outspoken advocacy groups or opposition newspapers in recent years. Security officials say the inquiries reflect their concern about software piracy, which is rampant in Russia. Yet they rarely if ever carry out raids against advocacy groups or news organizations that back the government.
As the ploy grows common, the authorities are receiving key assistance from an unexpected partner: Microsoft itself. In politically tinged inquiries across Russia, lawyers retained by Microsoft have staunchly backed the police.
[...]
Given the suspicions that these investigations are politically motivated, the police and prosecutors have turned to Microsoft to lend weight to their cases. In southwestern Russia, the Interior Ministry declared in an official document that its investigation of a human rights advocate for software piracy was begun “based on an application” from a lawyer for Microsoft.
In another city, Samara, the police seized computers from two opposition newspapers, with the support of a different Microsoft lawyer. “Without the participation of Microsoft, these criminal cases against human rights defenders and journalists would simply not be able to occur,” said the editor of the newspapers, Sergey Kurt-Adzhiyev.
They are even framing them if they do everything in the most prudent of ways. They use Microsoft as a weapon of criminalisation regardless of reality and Microsoft is by all means an active collaborator:
They said they told the officers that they were mistaken, pulling out receipts and original Microsoft packaging to prove that the software was not pirated. The police did not appear to take that into consideration. A supervising officer issued a report on the spot saying that illegal software had been uncovered.
Before the raid, the environmentalists said their computers were affixed with Microsoft’s “Certificate of Authenticity” stickers that attested to the software’s legality. But as the computers were being hauled away, they noticed something odd: the stickers were gone.
In all, 12 computers were confiscated. The group’s Web site was disabled, its finances left in disarray, its plans disclosed to the authorities.
As Moody stresses, this helps show that Free software is crucial to one’s national freedom, not just individual freedom:
Of course, there’s a simple solution to all this: use free software. With that, no stickers are needed, and so there’s no way the authorities can frame you for using it. Indeed, given free software’s greater security, I can’t really understand why human rights groups aren’t routinely installing it anyway. Let’s hope they learn from these awful experiences and switch soon – not least for Lake Baikal’s sake.
Microsoft was recently accused in the US senate of “enabling tyranny” in China [1, 2]. Add Russia and Kyrgyzstan to this list. █
Related posts:
Permalink
Send this to a friend
09.03.10
Posted in Deception, Fraud, Google, Microsoft, Security at 7:16 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Edelman hides its frauds under ‘umbrella’ entities like “Grassroots Enterprise”
Summary: Edelman’s anti-Google campaign seems to be nymshifting and chances are increasing that Microsoft is funding it, given its prior business with Edelman (e.g. laptop bribes)
EDELMAN seems to have just taken over Grassroots Enterprise (it’s the exact opposite of grassroots), unless it was the PR agency behind it all along. Techrights has a special page about Edelman, one of the world’s nastiest entities of its kind. It’s hired to destroy worker unions, to crush opposition, and even to bribe bloggers on Microsoft's behalf. Edelman’s Grassroots Enterprise is by all indications also the entity behind “Inside Google”, which is a separately-located highly ridiculous blog of ‘Consumer’ ‘Watchdog’ (it’s neither a watchdog nor an entity for consumers). To clarify again, it’s not a rights group, it’s well-funded and well-oiled AstroTurfing machine working for clients who order some Web site designs and a team to pretend it is something else and fill the press with rubbish about the client’s competition. We covered this before and showed the connections. We also filed formal a complaint to the FTC about Edelman.
“It’s hired to destroy worker unions, to crush opposition, and even to bribe bloggers on Microsoft’s behalf.”Here is what we love the most about this AstroTurfer; to make it look credible they now have the option to send in donations. We feel sorry for the suckers who give away money to one of the Earth’s filthiest scum, but then again, there is a sucker born every minute. Wired Magazine is the latest sucker to have fallen for this AstroTurfer. Better informed chaps should let Wired editors know they have been duped by an AstroTurfing group (part of a network of professional AstroTurfers). This one is smearing Google. It’s its only goal, but it’s called ‘Consumer’ ‘Watchdog’ (which sounds a lot broader).
To those who are new to the world of AstroTurfing we recommend this page. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
08.30.10
Posted in Apple, Asia, Fraud, Hardware at 6:46 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Apple’s main business in China is still child labour
Summary: Singapore corruption case has an Apple manager arrested, China rejects Apple, and another hypePod meltdown is reported in Japan
APPLE may be doing just fine in the West, but in the far east it’s another matter altogether. Last week we wrote about serious problems that Apple was having and a fortnight ago we summarised bad Apple publicity from last month, culminating in fraud. More details have begun to surface in this case, which Singapore’s anti-corruption bureau says nothing about for the time being:
Singapore’s Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) declined to say whether it has opened an investigation following allegations of an elaborate kickback scheme that involved an Apple employee and at least six Apple suppliers, including three Singaporean companies.
Apple is trying to distance itself from this man (how convenient a policy to adopt after the act) and this arrested Apple manager pleads not guilty (who wouldn’t?).
Monday, a former Apple manager pleaded not guilty to federal charges of wire fraud and conspiracy. Paul Shim Devine was arrested last week after officials discovered he received more than $1 million in kickbacks from certain Apple suppliers in Asia in exchange for information that enabled them to beat their competition and win Apple contracts.
[...]
In addition to the federal charges, Devine also faces a civil racketeering lawsuit filed by Apple. Although there’s no indication how Apple was alerted to the scheme, the story says the company began investigating in April when it found e-mails and other communications between Devine and the suppliers on his company-issued laptop.
Here is some more coverage about it [1, 2]. It’s newer than the links we gave before.
On we move from Singapore to China, which Apple has a lot in common with, especially the censorship as we showed a week ago (Apple continues to throw third-party software out of the App Store). It turns out that Apple can only ever succeed in its niche, which is rich people in rich countries. hypePhone “tanks in China,” based on this report.
THE HOPE that Apple could flog its products in the massive Chinese market at the same high prices that it gets away with in western countries has proven fruitless.
It’s not surprising. These gadgets which are made by Chinese people are overpriced. It’s because the California-based company likes to triple or quadruple the originally spent cost in order to elevate margins. Some rich people don’t care about price tags. They choose by brands and labels.
Censorship of application is not the only problem at Apple though; the company is said to be suffocating an entire product right now [1, 2, 3]. “Apple has decided to shut down the Quattro Wireless mobile ad network that it bought in January for $275 million,” says one report. hypeAd (sounds like hypePad) is Apple’s way to go and some Quattro clients are likely to suffer from it:
Apple sent a letter to current Quattro clients this week announcing that the mobile advertising network will be shut down effective September 30. From that point forward, Apple will focus its mobile advertising efforts exclusively on the iAd platform.
Can advertisers trust Apple, which cannot even manage transactions on hypeTunes [1, 2]. One of those two news headlines says: “Apple Can’t Stop Ongoing ITunes Charge Scam”
Why should people trust Apple with advertising-related transactions then?
As one last example of Apple’s dishonesty and “damage control”, after a long time of denying the problem with hypePods exploding there are new requirements in Japan that Apple should issues warnings. The thing about these warnings though, they don’t actually solve the problem, they only predict it. “iPod meltdown strands Tokyo commuters,” says this article from 2 weeks ago (that’s right after Apple was forced to post warnings).
Apple’s iPod flame-out woes continue. The latest victims: Tokyo commuters.
On Friday, Reuters reports, smoke from what turned out to be a self-immolating iPod caused passengers to alert transit officials on a commuter-train line, who quickly shut down the system.
“When a member of staff went to investigate inside the train,” a rail spokesman told Reuters, “a passenger came over showing him that the iPod she was listening to had burst apart.” There were no reports of injuries, and after an eight-minute delay, the system was restarted.
Who would have thought that just posting warnings about Apple’s products being defective would not resolve the issue? All that Apple sells is a ticket into a club of hype and elitism. If the Chinese can ignore Apple’s products, so can everyone else.
Apple as a replacement for Microsoft is not progress; Free software is progress, it’s a paradigm shift.█
“We have to let go of the notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose.”
–Steve Jobs
Permalink
Send this to a friend
08.16.10
Posted in Apple, Dell, Fraud, GNU/Linux, Hardware, HP, Microsoft, Windows at 8:58 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Photo by JD Lasica
Summary: Microsoft loses its power struggle in the Free/open source community and the OEM channel; One of our readers opines that Microsoft may have been responsible for Hurd’s departure from HP
MICROSOFT is going through some tough times (unless one minds the PR). Fortunately, Microsoft is collapsing as even attempts to “embrace and extend” the free/libre competition bite the dust [1, 2, 3] and Microsoft Gavin spins it too weakly for Microsoft. “Microsoft has reportedly refused to comment officially on the changes,” he writes and “[r]eading between the lines, it would seem that Microsoft’s push for Microsoft-versions of dynamic languages has fallen victim to overall budget cuts and changing priorities.”
Jason Perlow suggests breaking up the company and famous columnist Robert X. Cringley is having a go at Microsoft as well (he “seems to sort of use Mac, not sure that’s true,” says a reader of ours. “But the same points could be used for switching to Linux as well.”):
It’s kind of pathetic, really. Most of these arguments are premised on the notion that if you’ve already wasted most of your adult life using Windows, you’ll be more familiar with it than the Mac, so you might as well waste the rest of your adult life. Which is really the only reason why Microsoft continues to dominate desktop market share: It’s harder to switch than to stick with what you got, even if what you got sucks eggs.
Cringely (over at IDG/InfoWorld, so maybe not the original pseudonym’s owner, Mark Stephens) also says that “Microsoft needs more than a new slogan” and in IRC we’ve been having an interesting discussion with an employee of HP. We have already mentioned that at least one possible replacement for Hurd is from Microsoft. Two articles pointed this out and someone who claims to be from HP (nadege) told us: “Hurd was not a Microsoft Monkey. We should know the new CEO within 2 weeks”
HP's new software head was hired from Microsoft a few months ago, which means that he sits on the desk in executive meetings of HP. gnufreex writes: “I have theory about canning Hurd
“Yahoo was too independent company and they put Bartz. And SGI too. And HP of 90′.”
–gnufreexnadege says: “Not sure Hurd was fired due to Microsoft Retaliation : HP & Microsoft are partners, and HP promote a lot the Microsoft products”
“HP does promote Microsoft, but Microsoft doesn’t forgive competition,” gnufreex tells nadege. “Palm is competition”
nadege responds with: “HP promotes Microsoft due to a special relationship. However, HP is still an independent company. So I don’t think Microsoft will put its own CEO at HP”
“Yahoo was too independent company,” gnufreex tells nadege, “and they put Bartz. And SGI too. And HP of 90′. Read this http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=belluzzo&defid=3861632”
Someone seems to have coined the term “belluzzo” for Microsoft mole. To quote from Urban Dictionary:
Someone who acts against the interests of the organization he’s with, often in favor of some other organization he may be secretly working for instead – a mole.
[...]
Those acts – along with the reward from Microsfot – got him the nickname “the microsoft mole” (google “microsoft mole Belluzzo”) in those companies, and occaionally the term “a belluzzo” is used to describe someone who seems to be acting in the interest of a different company than the one he works for.
For details about Yahoo! entryism, see our Wiki. Earlier today we showed that Newsweek‘s outgoing Managing Editor now works for Microsoft (MSN). Bartz could be just another Belluzzo.
“Also note what they did to IBM’s OS/2, IBM was special partner too,” gnufreex adds. “When you are Microsoft competitor, you are on their hit list [...] That is exactly why they are firing him [...] I mean, not they are not firing him, they are setting the harassment case”
“HP has to be close to Microsoft,” nadege confesses, “otherwise Microsoft will favour Acer or Dell, and HP will lose its leadership. It’s tough to be a Microsoft Partner [...] And believe me : Customers (Companies and end users) want Microsoft products. They won’t accept any huge replacement of Windows.”
Chips B Malroy says: “they will on tablets [...] just look at the iPad”
nadege responds with: “Tablets, OK. Android will perform well” and gnufreex adds: “Yeah, and that is why Microsoft’s want Palm dead, and they need CEO who will kill it. [...] When I said they need CEO to kill Palm, I mean new HP CEO. Hurd didn’t want to kill his product just to please Microsoft, and now has to go. But then again, he is maybe just a rapist and deserves to be fired, and Microsoft has nothing to do with it”
IDG has a new article titled “Did HP Board Have Hidden Agenda in Removing Hurd?”
“New theories on why HP’s Mark Hurd was forced out,” says another headline.
HP has just been sued by a shareholder [1, 2] (shades of Yahoo!) and an aide is leaving along with Hurd. Well, guess who else is leaving? “Palm Prē design lead ejects from HP,” says this report from The Register.
Demi-disgraced HP chief exec Mark Hurd may have been the most-recent high-level exec to exit that company’s Palo Alto headquarters, but he’s not alone in his good-bye drive down US Highway 101.
Thanks to TechCrunch, we now learn that Peter Skillman, Palm’s now-former vice president of design — and the man who shepherded the design of the Palm Prē — has also bailed. An HP spokeswoman tells The Reg that his resignation came “about a month ago.”
Skillman’s departure is no small loss to HP. As the company expands beyond the security of the staid PC ‘n’ server ‘n’ printer markets and dips its toe into the turbulent ‘n’ trendy consumer products free-for-all, it’s going to need all the vision and design expertise it can get.
That cannot be good, can it? Hurd’s ‘Delilah’ says she is sorry and gnufreex writes: “I think Microsoft set him up [...] Because of his Linux related acquisitions [...] I think Microsoft want HP to kill Palm [...] some new Beluzzo might replace him [...] HP Enterpirse Software division (HP-UX and VMS) already got Microsoftie at helm”
The full IRC logs are available to see these claims in sequence. This theory says that they ‘pull a Bartz’ on HP, but evidence is not sufficient.
It was only weeks ago (before Hurd left, followed by the Palm Prē design lead) that HP had filed for a WebOS tablet trademark. It has real potential, but after Hurd officially dumped Vista 7 in favour of WebOS we now learn that Vista 7 is back, almost at the same time that HP put a Microsoft executive (Veghte) in charge of software at HP. Could HP be putting back Windows after dumping Vista 7 from “Slate”? How come?
Last week we showed that there was crime at HP and additional coverage includes:
i. HP settles kickback complaint
ii. HP Takes Charge to Settle DOJ Kickbacks Case
HP allegedly paid more than $3 million to systems integrators between 2001 and 2006 in exchange for favorable treatment on government contracts, according to DOJ filings.
iii. HP pays to end kickback probe
HP is taking a two cents per share charge to end a Department of Justice investigation into bribery allegations.
Here’s more (not about the fraud/kickbacks):
-
As the many questions around Mark Hurd’s departure continue to go unanswered, a key aide to the former CEO has also abruptly resigned this week.
The mystery deepens. Caprice Fimbres McIlvaine, formerly head of internal communications at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and a top aide to ex-CEO Mark Hurd, has left the company, following her boss out the door three days after his departure. Her exit is significant because, according to two people with knowledge of her former role, McIlvaine was the key conduit in hiring Jodie Fisher, the actress-turned-corporate hostess/”marketing contractor” who later filed a sexual harassment suit against Hurd, setting in motion the chain of events that resulted in the CEO’s resignation on Aug. 6. McIlvaine resigned effective Aug. 9, HP confirmed Wednesday.
-
Why HP was wise to put director Marc Andreessen forward as the board’s spokesman on the Mark Hurd crisis.
The delightfully jarring aspect to Hewlett-Packard’s (HPQ) bombshell news and investor conference calls last Friday was the board member the venerable company put forward as its public face: Marc Andreessen, not so very long ago the enfant terrible of Silicon Valley.
-
Mark Hurd’s silly exit has little to do with HP’s real problems. As an executive there about a decade ago, I saw a company that was giving up its differentiating value in the name of operational savings, not realizing that by now the Golden Goose of creativity would find greener pastures. But surprisingly, the classic HP tradition of building a great place to do engineering that results in a flood of excellent creative products is being followed…
Back we go to Cringely (the original one) who wrote about “Stupid CEO Tricks” — a post wherein he mentioned Intel for showing that “to a certain extent crime does pay. ”
This week brought two other news events worthy of comment — Intel’s settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and Mark Hurd’s sudden departure as CEO from giant Hewlett-Packard.
The Intel story is almost as it is being presented in the trade and general press. Yes, Intel has promised in very specific ways to no longer be evil. No, Intel isn’t being made to give back the money it made as a result of being evil, so to a certain extent crime does pay. Of course some will say the money damages were in part covered by Intel’s recent $1.25 billion settlement with AMD, but the FTC also doesn’t generally impose fines. So if you happen to be guilty of anti-trust I guess it is better to be sued by the FTC than by the DoJ, which does impose fines.
Either way, Intel got away with something and the graphics chip makers in particular should be pissed.
We have already explained how Intel and Dell are teaching our kids that crime pays off. Here is more coverage about that, starting with older articles:
i. FTC gives itself an anti-trust extension as Intel deal eludes it
AN APPARENT FAILURE TO FIND agreement has led to the US Federal Trade Commission extending by two weeks the time it has to find a settlement with Intel.
ii. Red faced Dell fined for cooking the books
iii. Dell Settles with SEC for $100 Million
iv. Dell pays $100m to settle accounting fraud charges
v. Dell to Pay $100 Million to Settle SEC Case
vi. Dell proposes settlement in SEC investigation
vii. AMD gets an order from Dell
The relationship between Dell and AMD has been getting closer lately. Certainly in the days when Dell was an Intel-only shop this sort of deal would have been unthinkable.
viii. Chipmaker Intel settles FTC antitrust lawsuit
ix. FTC Settles Antitrust Complaint Against Intel
x. FTC settles anti-competition case with Intel
xi. FTC settles Intel lawsuit to ‘help consumers’
What is this case teaching our children? That a slap on the wrist is all one gets for abusing the market? Earlier today we showed that Apple too had been caught using kickbacks, so an Apple manager goes to jail (which is rare, they are usually just fined).
The original Cringely has one last post on the subject. “Too Big to Fail” is the title.
Everything about the Intel/FTC settlement screams of one thing — Microsoft. Redmond’s multi-year nightmare with the FTC, DoJ, and the attorneys-general of several dozen states wasn’t lost on Intel, which is a more rational company and doesn’t want a Microsoft-like anti-trust experience. Both companies are guilty and both are paying something for that guilt, but Intel clearly wants to avoid the decade of pain and distraction suffered by Microsoft.
[...]
Microsoft was paralyzed with the FTC breathing down its neck. Intel is not paralyzed.
Roughly $2 billion in payouts and Intel is a free bird — a rich free bird at that — having proved that crime does pay.
These settlements will effectively pay for themselves in two months at current Intel profit levels.
Had Microsoft been “paralyzed”, then its abuses would not carry on; but they do. █
“Fuck! It took you a year to figure that out!”
–Bill Gates
“That’s the dumbest fucking idea I’ve heard since I’ve been at Microsoft.”
–Bill Gates
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Apple, Fraud at 1:59 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: A look back at Apple’s recent blunders and the very latest news about an Apple kickback scheme
THE past month and a half been tough times for PR at Apple. Having spent a few hours last night catching up with news, we managed to fish some items that show Apple is far from perfect and at times excessively vain. Apple’s PR crisis culminates now that an Apple manager gets arrested for fraud. The items below are roughly chronologically sorted (also sorted by topic to an extent).
• Reading on Paper is Faster than iBooks on the iPad
• Councillor cancelled Ipad order
A CITY COUNCILLOR has cancelled her order for an Ipad after a public backlash over tax expenditure.
• Apple App Store and iTunes Accounts Hacked, Say Reports
A rogue Vietnamese developer called Thuat Nguyen reportedly hacked into iTunes accounts and gamed the Books category in the Apple App Store to artificially inflate the ratings and sales for his book apps. Both The Next Web and Engadget websites reported Sunday that Nguyen apps accounted for 42 of the top 50 books by revenue in the Books section of the iTunes App Store.
• Apple Responds on App Store Fraud
We reported earlier this week on a rogue developer who had apparently gamed the App Store in order to get 40 of his apps listed on the store’s top sales rankings. Following numerous developer and user complaints, Apple yanked the offending apps from the store, and now Engadget says it’s received a response from Apple regarding these shenanigans.
• Apple’s iPhone app fraud: Where were the app police?
You needn’t worry, though, iPhone users: Apple is keeping you safe from dangerous apps like Google Voice, Google Latitude, and MSNBC.com cartoonist Daryl Cagle’s Tiger Woods cartoon viewer. Anything that so much as implies the idea of a nipple certainly won’t get within 10 feet of Steve Jobs’ castle. And political satire? Well, you’re usually shielded from that, unless some guy has the audacity to win a Pulitzer Prize and generate lots of publicity over his rejection.
• Apple says 400 iTunes accounts hit with fraudulent purchases
Apple advised users who suspected fraudulent purchases were made to contact their bank and cancel the credit card in question.
• Apple bans ‘fraudulent’ developer from iTunes
At one point Mr Nguyen’s apps occupied 42 of the top 50 book apps sold.
• Apple Sues Over Power Adapter Knockoffs
Apple says in the filing that it has suffered “irreparable harm” from the sales and has requested that the court grant an order preventing any future infringement as well as monetary damages and litigation fees.
• R.I.P., Apple!
• iPhone 4 Complaints Mounting: A Rocky Rollout
Verizon mocked Apple and its new iPhone 4 in a New York Times ad this week. Promoting its flagship Droid X, Verizon’s ad states: “Most importantly, it comes with a double antenna design. The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like and use it just about anywhere to make calls.”
• Iphone 4 catches fire
DESIGNER OF SHINY TOYS Apple has burnt at least one fanboi with the Iphone 4 as a report has emerged that one of the devices caught fire, resulting in burns for the user.
• iPhone 4 ‘Bursts into Flames,’ Report Claims
• Consumer Reports Gives iPhone 4 a Thumbs Down
• New York senator asks Jobs for iPhone 4 answers
On Thursday, New York Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat, sent a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs asking him to offer iPhone 4 customers a clearly written explanation of the problem and make a commitment to fix it at no charge to users.
• San Mateo D.A. Withdraws Controversial Gizmodo iPhone Warrant
While the D.A.’s withdrawal of the April 23rd warrant is certainly a positive step, this likely isn’t the end of the matter. As EFF repeatedly noted at the time, the warrant-backed search of Chen’s home was illegal as it violated California Penal Code section 1524(g)’s prohibition against the issuance of warrants for “unpublished information obtained or prepared in gathering, receiving or processing of information for communication to the public.”
• Bumper and all, Consumer Reports still doesn’t recommend iPhone 4
Consumer Reports made headlines earlier this week for suggesting that iPhone 4 owners would get better phone reception if they put duct tape over the bottom left corner of the phone, where there was a “design flaw” in the antenna.
• Koreans saved from Iphone 4
SOUTH KOREA will not have to worry about a rash of people complaining about buying broken Iphone 4s this year.
The country is a little miffed that Steve Jobs does not think it is important enough to peddle his rubber band powered phone there.
• Apple Must Kill The iPhone 4 — The Sooner The Better
• Apple’s latest tech marvel: a piece of plastic (plus some rubber)
• Apple index of user stupidity is revealed
Apple is reporting that, in a quarter when it shipped a phone so broken that it required a rubber band to fix it, its profits shot through the roof.
• Apple iPhone 4 Bumper Giveaway Timeline Doesn’t Add Up
Apple launched the iPhone 4 Case Program app in the App Store a few days ago, and is expected to invest somewhere in the neighborhood of $175 million on the free bumper program aimed at reluctantly addressing reception issues with the iPhone 4. There is something that doesn’t add up, though, about the timing that makes the program seem like a bait-and-switch designed to brush the problem under the rug.
• Apple sued over hot iPad shutdowns
Apple’s iPad can shut down if it gets too hot, and Jacob Baltazar, Claudia Keller, and John Browning are as mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore.
• Apple ditches video evidence
Apple has expunged videos of competing cellphones exhibiting comparative reception problems, perhaps hoping that if it can just stop talking about the problem then everyone will forget it happened.
• Amazon, Apple E-book Deals Attract State Antitrust Scrutiny
In letters to the lawyers of both Apple and Amazon, Blumenthal noted that while MFNs are not “per se illegal” under current antitrust laws, they are not entirely legal either. He requested counsel from both companies to meet with him to discuss the inquiry.
• Report: Android outsells iPhone this year
• Your IPhone May Be Spying on You
And you thought those iPhone 4 signal problems were bad — at last week’s Black Hat conference, a San Francisco firm called Lookout Mobile Security revealed that third-party smartphone apps are stealing user information and (literally) phoning home with it. And by “home,” I mean China.
• Tech consultancy confirms general smartphone grip issue, but finds iPhone 4 especially vulnerable
Independent testing by PA Consulting supports Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ claim that most smartphones have antenna weaknesses, but finds the iPhone 4 does not perform as well in this regard as certain BlackBerry and HTC models.
• Browser-Based iPhone Jailbreak ‘Scary,’ ‘Beautiful’ — Researcher
• Apple will investigate Iphone 4 jailbreaking security flaw
RUBBER BAND SELLER Apple has said it will investigate a major security vulnerability in its Iphone OS software that allows hackers to gain complete access to Iphones and Ipads.
The Iphone Dev Team showed off the hack to great effect earlier this week with the Jailbreakme ‘application’. The site, which allowed users to jailbreak Iphone OS devices including the Iphone 4 and the Ipad, simply required users to visit a single website.
• French watchdog warns of iPhone hacker glitch
• Germany warns about Apple’s insecurity
THE GERMAN REPUBLIC has had it with Apple shipping out gear with dodgy security and has issued a statement warning Apple Iphone 4 users that the company’s trademark rubber band is not protection against viruses.
The Federal Office for Information Security (FOIS), which has already claimed the scalp of Internet Explorer in Europe by suggesting that people use Firefox instead, has said that several versions of Apple’s Iphone, Ipad, and Ipod Touch have potentially serious security problems.
• Iphone 4 man falls on his sword
• Apple iPhone exec falls on sword
Don’t, however, jump to the conclusion that Mark Papermaster is a victim of the iPhone 4 “antennagate” debacle. Remember, in his press conference of July 16 — an event from which Papermaster was conspicuouly absent — CEO Steve Jobs assured us all that “There is no antennagate.”
• Apple iPhone boss leaves company
The Apple executive who oversaw development of the troubled iPhone 4 is leaving the company.
• iPhone 4 antenna mess jolts buyer satisfaction rating
• EC probes Apple for anti-competitive antics
The New York Post reports that the European Commission is working with its US equivalent, the FTC, to see if the practice of banning companies from iOS on the basis of their ability to compete with Apple (or its mates) is anti-competitive.
• Apple offers to replace burning Ipod Nanos
The cappuccino company rarely admits that any of its products have faults, with the recent Iphone 4 antenna issue being one of the most recent in a long line of denials. However with the Japanese government wading in on this, Jobs’ Mob must have felt compelled to do something useful and forgo the usual round of blaming its customers and releasing magical software fixes that do nothing.
• Apple Manager Arrested Over $1 Million in Kickbacks
Global supply manager Paul Shin Devine was charged with accepting $1 million in kickbacks from half a dozen Asian suppliers of iPhone and iPod accessories in a federal indictment and a civil suit, the San Jose Mercury News reported. Devine allegedly was paid for sharing confidential Apple information with contractors that helped them win Apple business on favorable terms, the paper said.
• Apple Kickback Scheme: Don’t Let This Happen to You
The Wall Street Journal reports that Paul Shin Devine is facing both a federal grand jury indictment and a civil suit from Apple following an investigation which implicates Devine for leaking confidential information to key suppliers to enable them to negotiate better contracts with Apple. In exchange, the Apple suppliers made payments to various bank accounts set up in the names of Devine and his wife according to the indictment.
Permalink
Send this to a friend
08.09.10
Posted in Apple, Fraud, GNU/Linux, HP, Microsoft at 5:28 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: HP’s CEO leaves amidst a new fraud scandal; Microsoft’s executives named among possible replacements and Microsoft’s own frauds are revisited
Microsoft’s financial situation is a matter of insincerity, for many reasons that we covered before. Adding to Microsoft’s problems we recently saw a downgrade, which we mentioned in [1, 2]. Here is the AP coverage of that:
Shares of Microsoft Corp. ( MSFT – news – people ) edged lower after Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry downgraded the software giant in part due to increased competition from Apple ( AAPL – news – people )’s Macs to its Windows operating system.
Apple has managed to grab a lucrative niche of the rich people’s market. It hardly means that Apple can ever attain dominance. As for Microsoft, it is being sandwiched by GNU/Linux and Apple while its shares are 10% within 52-week low, according to this financial news site:
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares closed the day at $25.37, which means they are now just 10.41% away from its 52-week low, is this finally the bottom for MSFT?
“Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Stock Flounders,” says another report and one last report bears the headline “Crash In Hindsight: Microsoft Currently 8.50% Below its May 6th Crash Low of $27.91 (MSFT)”; Based on this report, there are Microsoft layoffs/cuts in support and consulting.
Going some years into the past, a Macs-oriented Web site (which recently started praising GNU/Linux at Apple’s expense) speaks about “Microsoft the Ultimate Pyramid Scheme” (thanks to Tobin for the pointer).
According to an article at the Register, MS Website Trumpets ‘Pyramid’ Company, Microsoft has been featuring a case study about GoldQuest, a pyramid scheme company!
This, of course, is not Microsoft’s fault. Companies that use Windows to generate funds through pyramid schemes do not have to tell Redmond what they are up to any more than purveyors of spyware, adware, viruses, Trojan horses, networks of zombie computers belching up personal information to Mafia lords, spammers, or anyone else has to. These things manifestly do not have anything to do with Microsoft per se, any more than . . . some other analogy that I was thinking of but forgot.
Any way, the point of this article (and I do have a point) is that Microsoft itself is a kind of pyramid scheme.
In your classic pyramid scheme, you sell something of limited value and tell the seller that they can make money by selling the same valueless thing to friends for the same price less a minor finder’s fee. The “mark” is told that as more people join the pyramid, more money trickles down the pyramid to him through the finder’s fees, eventually making him rich with very little effort.
In the Microsoft version, the “mark” (an IT guy) is told that if they use Windows, they’ll be more compatible and more productive. Further, if they convince 10 users in their company to use Windows, then all the additional savings will be passed on to the IT department, which can hire more people to take care of the additional computers.
Here is the cited article:
MS website trumpets ‘pyramid’ company
A case study on Microsoft.com is unwittingly promoting a company which has been accused of operating a pyramid scheme targetting people in south-east Asia and Africa.
This page on Microsoft’s website explains how Hong Kong-based GoldQuest International Ltd made big savings by moving to Windows Server 2003. The page proudly trumpets GoldQuest’s achievements and “500,000 active customers in 120 countries”.
“GoldQuest has grown into a ecommerce powerhouse, generating 70 per cent of its $200m annual turnover online,” the page gushes. Microsoft claims it has saved the company $82,000 a year in IT costs and helped it increase revenue by $10m a year.
Wow. That’s quite an embarrassment, more so than LSE as a “case study” (LSE eventually dumped Windows and went with GNU/Linux instead [1, 2, 3, 4]).
This whole discussion came about in IRC last night. Tobin sought information about Microsoft as a pyramid scheme (like many in the stock market) and Chips B Malroy wondered “what the resignation of the HP CEO will mean with WebOS? Will the next CEO go back to windows?”
For those who have not heard yet, there is fraud claimed at HP, not just Microsoft. Here are some articles from the news:
-
It’s obvious there’s more to this story than we know and the two people who really know the truth, Fisher and Hurd, aren’t talking.
-
Mark Hurd, the man credited with reinvigorating Hewlett-Packard Co., resigned as chief executive of the technology giant after an investigation of his relationship with a female contractor found he violated the company’s business standards.
H-P said Friday that Mr. Hurd, 53 years old, didn’t violate the company’s policy regarding sexual-harassment but submitted inaccurate expense reports that were intended to conceal what the company said was a “close personal relationship” with the woman.
-
Mark Hurd, CEO of HP is resigning on the heels of sexual harassment charges by a former HP contractor. The company’s investigation concluded that there was no sexual harassment violation, however it did find that Hurd violated HP’s “Standards of Business Conduct.” Hurd said it was a “painful decision” and vaguely acknowledged that he displayed a lack of character.
-
-
As per the latest disclosure made by the largest computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ), the tech major has agreed to settle a lawsuit in principle imposed against it by the Department Of Justice (DOJ).
[...]
This lawsuit dates back to the year 2007, when Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) first initiated this lawsuit, and the Government agency with others to form a combined lawsuit against the three tech majors namely, HP, Sun Microsystems and Accenture.
-
Steve Elop, chief of Microsoft’s business division, which handles MS Office. He was formerly chief operating officer of No. 2 networking company Juniper Networks. Known as a no-nonsense taskmaster, Elop is a veteran in the technology industry, having served in senior positions at Adobe Systems and Macromedia.
-
It is reported that HP will look for suitable candidates to the likes of companies such as Apple, Oracle and Microsoft.
Notice the possibility that HP will hire a new CEO from Microsoft (there is a temporary replacement that is a lady, which is interesting after the previous CEO’s scandals). We may have already seen the effects of HP hiring a Vice President from Microsoft to become software head. The other interesting thing is, maybe now that companies like HP reveal fraud, so will Microsoft (again). Dell and Intel were in the midst of such a blunder just weeks ago. █
“There is such an overvaluation of technology stocks that it is absurd. I would include our stock in that category. It is bad for the long-term worth of the economy.”
–Steve Ballmer
Permalink
Send this to a friend
08.03.10
Posted in Bill Gates, Finance, Fraud, Microsoft, Steve Ballmer at 2:46 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Some of the Gates Foundation’s lesser-known investments are named
IT HAS been a whole month since we last caught up with the Gates Foundation. In the next few posts we’ll report on our findings from the month of July. For the uninitiated, Gates is creating new monopolies, having left Steve Ballmer to run Microsoft (even if investors hate him). “Only Bill Gates Can Fire His BFF Steve Ballmer,” claims Business Insider. Gates publicly supported Ballmer a few months ago.
Steve Ballmer is not getting tossed from his perch as CEO of Microsoft so long as he has the full support of Bill Gates, according to a former Microsoft employee we spoke with.
As we explained back in June, Bill Gates still works for Microsoft, but he has diversified his investments. Currently he invests in companies like BP [1, 2, 3] and this new report tells us: “Stocks That Buffett and Gates Own: The CocaCola Company, Wal-Mart Stores, Costco Wholesale Corp. Exxon Mobil Corp., M&T Bank Corp., Republic Services”
The Gates Foundation acts as an investment vehicle which need not pay taxes. This must be attractive to Buffett. Here are some lesser-known holdings of the foundation, mentioned in light of Wells Fargo fraud allegations:
The International Bank Activities Reform Commission is charging Wells Fargo, partly owned by Warren Buffet and the Gates Foundation with fraud in their global involvement with the mortgage morass which continues impacting the global economy.
Why is the Gates Foundation investing in banks? Don’t public bailouts support these “too big to fail” banks? Last year we explained how the World Bank helps Bill Gates and Microsoft colonise Africa. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
07.27.10
Posted in Bill Gates, Dell, Finance, Fraud, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Search at 5:42 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: A look at some of Microsoft’s latest bribes which are not a legal offence and some of the criminal acts of Microsoft and Bill Gates’ Corbis
WHEN IT COMES to Microsoft, there ought to be a distinction between “bribery” in the legal sense and “bribery” in the more metaphorical sense. Microsoft does both. Many mainstream publications accused Microsoft of “bribery” or attempted bribery when it decided to simply buy some customers rather than earn any [1, 2, 3]. Having failed to achieve much with this strategy (billions are being lost in the process), Microsoft is rebranding the same efforts and marketing them differently, this time characterising them as “charitable”. Yes, it’s like charitable bribery. George Orwell would love it!
Well, there’s a catch. In order to enable the $3 donation, users must set Bing as their default search engine.
It’s self evident. Microsoft is becoming rather scummy. But it’s marketed as a “charitable” endeavour, so how dare we criticise it? There are other miserable new attempts to crush Google’s cash cow (because Google also competes against Windows and Office, which are Microsoft’s cash cows).
“Rather sad when a company has to buy users of Bing and developers for Phone 7, don’t you think?”
–Pamela Jones, GroklawAccording to Microsoft Nick, Microsoft is now offering another type of bribe for potential Windows phones developers. We gave several other examples last month. Groklaw says: “Rather sad when a company has to buy users of Bing and developers for Phone 7, don’t you think?” Groklaw also gives this example where Microsoft uses its employees to artificially inflate numbers.
Why can’t Microsoft attempt to earn customers and developers without bribing them? It’s a rhetorical question actually. How can Microsoft justify laying off more employees this month [1, 2]? Must it give their wages to people whom it tries to lure in?
Now we move on to some more serious charges where “bribery” means bribery in the legal sense. That’s where prosecution and jail sentence happen to those who are not affluent enough to bail themselves out (or bribe officials). Last week we wrote about the Bill Gates-owned Corbis scandal [1, 2], which came to light [1, 2] at a time when corruption in Intel and Dell also came to light. Yesterday we wrote about it again [1, 2] (also the day before that), owing to the fact that Dell fraud teaches us something about its attitude towards GNU/Linux. As the SEC put it in its press release:
Christopher Conte, Associate Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, added, “Dell manipulated its accounting over an extended period to project financial results that the company wished it had achieved, but could not. Dell was only able to meet Wall Street targets consistently during this period by breaking the rules. The financial results that public companies communicate to the investing public must reflect reality.”
It seems likely that Microsoft is doing the same thing and a few months ago we wrote about the Pequot case. Coverage about this can be found in:
According to this new report, the SEC does one thing right by giving “$1 million reward for information in Pequot insider trading case”:
The money goes to Glen Kaiser and Karen Kaiser of Southbury, Conn. She’s the ex-wife of David Zilkha, a former Microsoft Corp. employee who had accepted a job at Pequot.
The SEC in general has decided to reward whistleblowers, which is the right thing to do.
The soon-to-be-signed financial reform package creates a new whistleblower program with potentially huge cash rewards for individuals who provide information about securities law violations to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
As a reminder, $4 million went to the Microsoft employee who exposed financial fraud inside the company and produced/shared documents as evidence. With the SEC’s new rules in place, how long will it take for another person who works for Microsoft to report Microsoft fraud? Microsoft paid its former CFO millions of dollars to keep quiet. █
“One strategy that Microsoft has employed in the past is paying for the silence of people and companies. Charles Pancerzewski, formerly Microsoft’s chief auditor, became aware of Microsoft’s practice of carrying earnings from one accounting period into another, known as “managing earnings”. This practice smoothes reported revenue streams, increases share value, and misleads employees and shareholders. In addition to being unethical, it’s also illegal under U.S. Securities Law and violates Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (Fink).
–2002 story about Charles Pancerzewski, Microsoft
Permalink
Send this to a friend
« Previous Page — « Previous entries « Previous Page · Next Page » Next entries » — Next Page »
