02.20.11
Posted in Europe, Microsoft, Search at 8:26 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg
with former Microsoft evangelist (source: Robert Scoble)
Summary: “Parliament wants to dump Microsoft Silverlight” according to Computer Weekly (UK), more Facebook-Microsoft integration is reported
According to this article from Mark Ballard, the UK continues walking away from Silver Lie. This time it’s the parliament:
Saying you can only watch Parliamentary debates on the internet if you have a computer compatible with Microsoft is like saying you can only enter the House of Lords if you shop on Savile Row.
The Parliamentary Information Communication and Technology Office (PICT) has therefore stalled its rollout of Silverlight, Microsoft’s latest multimedia technology, while it considers if there is a better way.
PICT’s reports on the matter, which we are publishing here today, reveal why PICT is reviewing its relationship with Microsoft. It is seeking to increase public participation in the democratic process, and break the limitations that proprietary software and broadcast licences place on Parliament’s use of its own recordings.
In less fortunate news, the partly Microsoft-funded Facebook (Microsoft tried to buy the whole company) not only supports or promotes OOXML and B0ng; it now also increases its sharing of personal data with Microsoft, but there’s a snag:
Unfortunately, it’s only available for Windows and IE right now. Microsoft says the approach for the new version was “make the stuff you do every day online easier,” hence the integration with Facebook, search and email. One notable difference in the new version is that the search box is smack in the center of the toolbar. Search history, suggestions and deep links are all marked distinctly in the box (by color) to help users search faster.
“The better to track what you do, my dears, and what Google does, I assume,” wrote Groklaw about it. Yes, IE/B0ng/Microsoft also sniffs people’s usage of Google [1, 2, 3]; it’s spyware. █
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02.16.11
Posted in Europe, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Search, Windows at 3:18 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Microsoft is bribing schoolteachers to recommend B0ng (Microsoft’s Google scraper); pro-Microsoft decision at the German Foreign Office “smells like bribery” says a developer, Mirco “MacSlow” Müller
“Microsoft pays teachers to promote Bing to their students,” writes a reader of ours who links to this new page. Bribes for search market share (buying the market rather than earning it) are nothing new from Microsoft [1, 2], but this is an all-time low, adding to the Gates Foundation‘s intervention in education for its own selfish needs and bribing of professors (we made a mirror after the original report had vanished).
According to this new blog post about the German Foreign Office going back to Windows, there is again a suspicion of Microsoft bribes and its source is quite reliable:
This smells like bribery in action if you ask me.
[...]
From reading summaries on the real reasons, it apparently came down to drivers (for printers and scanners), which they probably bought at Lidl or Aldi (german discount-chains), instead of spending a minute or two on the web researching what devices are properly supported. Another issue was educating staff about different office-applications and making them deal with a slightly different UI-layout *rolling.eyes* WTF… after ten years they could not adapt to something new!? Who are they trying to kid?
This is leads to an terrifying conclusion. IT-staff and clerks working at our foreign offices are less computer literate than my parents and friends (all non-geeks). Or the other way around, people like my parents and friends could work at the foreign offices and help saving valuable tax-money. (ok this last paragraph is stretching it a bit far, but you get my point)
As we showed here before (linking to reports from the commercial press), Steve Ballmer tried to sort of bribe Munich after it had declared plans to move to GNU/Linux [1, 2]. At Microsoft, “bribe” is not a dirty word (although it typically gets euphemised); history teaches that it’s just a business strategy. See our EDGI pages (leaked Microsoft documents). █
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02.13.11
Posted in Google, Microsoft, Patents, Search at 6:23 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Google responds to MPEG-LA’s call for arms and Microsoft depends on Google which it daemonises in an attempt to distract from its own mischief
OVER the past year we wrote many posts about WebM and MPEG-LA, most recently in relation to Nokia's malicious past role, namely backing MPEG-LA, and this patent troll’s call for patents to extort/sue Google with. It is widely publicised by now [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. Miguel de Icaza tells Microsoft Florian: “They made a “call for patents” because they have not found anything that WebM infringes.”
“Harassing Google (and Android/Linux) has grown to be a Microsoft habit or a hobby.”Stephen Shankland from CNET quotes Google’s official response: “MPEG LA has alluded to a VP8 pool since WebM launched–this is nothing new. The Web succeeds with open, community-developed innovation, and the WebM Project brings the same principles to Web video. The vast majority of the industry supports free and open development, and we’re in the process of forming a broad coalition of hardware and software companies who commit to not assert any IP claims against WebM. We are firmly committed to the project and establishing an open codec for HTML5 video.” The same statement can be found in other articles too.
One of MPEG-LA’s biggest backers is Microsoft of course. The embarrassing situation involving Microsoft’s B0ng as a spy and scraper [1, 2] of Google, which led to much bogus debate, definitely shows who’s fighting for progress in some areas and who is harming society. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has published the new essay “Lies, damned lies and search engines” where he addresses the issue:
Bad Microsoft! Bad! No biscuit for you!
If Microsoft were a dog, I’d be scolding it for its latest foolishness. It turns out that rather than searching the Internet on its own, it’s been riding the coattails of Google. This isn’t just a theory. Google set up a clever trap, and Microsoft’s search engineers fell right into it.
Harassing Google (and Android/Linux) has grown to be a Microsoft habit or a hobby. It’s rather striking however. Even Microsoft cannot help use Google and Linux internally, so Microsoft in some sense depends on their existence. █
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02.07.11
Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Patents, Search at 12:39 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Photo by Tduk Alex Lozupone
Summary: Groklaw responds to some of Microsoft’s latest attacks on software freedom and anti-competitive practices, especially where Google is concerned
Microsoft is poisoning Google just like it generally poisons the Free/open source software (FOSS) community, using software patents and more. In relation to the article “Microsoft tries undoing Chrome’s H.264 omission,” Groklaw writes: “How do we translate this? That they want to attack VP8 with patents they dig up somehow and thus try to shove forward their own patent-encumbered offering or at least get paid no matter what?”
“[T]hey want to attack VP8 with patents they dig up somehow and thus try to shove forward their own patent-encumbered offering or at least get paid no matter what?”
–Pamela Jones, GroklawWell, Groklaw seems to have taken great interest in this (so have we [1, 2]), especially given patent litigation against Google as of late, especially from Microsoft and allies of Microsoft. Groklaw also writes a response to spin from Dean Hachamovitch from Microsoft (IE team). “How would a promise from Microsoft alone do any good,” Groklaw asks. “Read the history of JPEG if you think that any of Microsoft’s suggestions would guarantee that no idiot will show up with a patent granted by the crazed USPTO and start suing people, no matter what anyone does. Software patents are the problem, and there is no solution other than to get rid of them. And “reasonable licensing terms” are unreasonable in that it breaks the openness of the Internet. Microsoft would like to pretend that the GPL doesn’t matter, and that the big proprietary guys can just ignore it and turn the Internet into a proprietized, closed environment that you can’t enter and enjoy unless you pay. And I don’t think you can claim to be “agnostic” if your solutions enforce acceptance of H.264 by one method or another.”
While Google makes advances, Microsoft is in search of a new cash cow or common carrier and search may be one such carrier because of advertising. To Microsoft, all that’s left now are patents and cheating because nothing else has worked after years of billions in spendings down the drain. Recently we found out that Bing is ripping off Google search results [1, 2]. Groklaw covered many articles about it (a true fixation), along with commentary. This whole affair helps shatter Microsoft’s cases against Google (by proxy) — cases that claim Google’s results are unfair or not “neutral”. “So if we were to read that some entity filed a complaint against Google with some regulatory body,” writes Groklaw, “demanding that Google reveal its algorithms as one form of relief, and we learn that Microsoft is behind the entity in the shadows somewhere, what might that tell us?
“So I guess it’s official. Google’s algorithms are better than Bing’s. At least Microsoft seems to think so. Say, is this some kind of copyright violation? Trade dress? Violation of your privacy? Hmm. Deep thoughts begin…”
“So I guess it’s official. Google’s algorithms are better than Bing’s.”
–Pamela Jones, GroklawIt also turned out that Microsoft was tracking users who use Google. Nice, eh? So it’s not just a Google ripoff but also a privacy violation. “And speaking for myself,” writes Groklaw, “I don’t want my search data shared with anybody. But even if I did, I wouldn’t want them used to copy off of Google’s paper, so to speak.”
Here is the source of Google’s allegation. “The live forum where Google’s Matt Cutts made his announcement about Bing copying Google’s results is still going on,” Groklaw calls it. “The link will take you there.”
Then, regarding the news headline “Microsoft’s Bing Uses Google Results – And Denies It,” Groklaw writes: “It should stop if only because now it’s been demonstrated that a competitor can skew your results into Never Never Land. It was a one-time experiment, to demonstrate the copying, but any search engine team now knows that copying isn’t reliable.”
“It was a one-time experiment, to demonstrate the copying, but any search engine team now knows that copying isn’t reliable.”
–Pamela Jones, GroklawMicrosoft started a fake controversy to distract from the fiasco. It’s truly pathetic. Groklaw responds: “And who made that happen? Seriously. How dirty does this get? And if I might ask the next logical questions, if Microsoft really believed Google manipulated search results, would it copy them? Maybe someone needs to investigate Microsoft for instigating specious investigations?”
Microsoft booster Harry McCracken (he got a free laptop from Microsoft) played along with the fake controversy as he called it a “squabble” in the headline. Groklaw responds with: “I wouldn’t call it a squabble, personally. I’d call it an ethical issue. And that’s why Microsoft can’t understand why people care, I suspect.”
Kym McNicholas pretty much agreed with Groklaw when she published “Microsoft’s Nonsense Response To Google” and claimed: “Google, this week, accused Microsoft of stealing its results. NBC Bay Area’s PressHere scheduled Google’s man behind search, Dr. Amit Singhal, to be on this week’s broadcast with host Scott McGrew. I was one of the guest interviewer’s along with Mashable’s co-editor Ben Parr. Singhal explained to us how he and his team discovered that Bing may be leveraging Google’s search results. Microsoft, whom McGrew says has failed to follow-up on scheduling an appearance on his show, instead decided to send him a taped response to Google’s accusations. It’s worth watching the show this Sunday at 9am PT on NBC Bay Area to hear that. If you prefer, here is the segment from the show, below…”
In one of the spin articles, titled “Microsoft says Google used click fraud to orchestrate Bing Sting,” the author says that “Microsoft is now accusing Google of using a form of click fraud to set up its Bing Sting, a stunt unveiled by the search giant at the Farsight 2011 tech conference in Silicon Valley.” Groklaw sarcastically replies with: “I see Microsoft is really, really sorry.”
Microsoft’s blame games are a classic and very familiar game. The accuser from Google, Matt Cutts, wrote about this in his blog:
I didn’t expect that Microsoft would deny the claims so strongly. Yusuf Mehdi’s post says “We do not copy results from any of our competitors. Period. Full stop.”
Given the strength of the “We do not copy Google’s results” statements, I think it’s fair to line up screenshots of the results on Google that later showed up on Bing…
Murdoch’s press has the rather deceiving headline “Search Engine Slap Fight: Microsoft Denies Cheating, Blames Google”. Microsoft says: “In simple terms, Google’s ‘experiment’ was rigged to manipulate Bing search results through a type of attack also known as click fraud. That’s right, the same type of attack employed by spammers on the web to trick consumers and produce bogus search results.”
“And Bing didn’t catch it,” writes Groklaw. “That’s the bottom line to me, that Bing didn’t realize that the results were ridiculous. That makes me not trust Bing. Full stop.”
All the above is another sign among many signs of decline at Microsoft. Katherine Noyes from IDG published the article “Cheating Accusations Highlight Microsoft’s Decline”. In it she wrote:
For those who missed it, Google apparently conducted a “sting” operation recently by rigging a few select searches to display specific pages in the search results in its own search engine. It then told 20 employees to run the searches on their computers using Internet Explorer with “Suggested Sites” and the Bing toolbar enabled. Lo and behold, after a few weeks the searches began producing the same results on Bing.
[...]
There’s no doubt Microsoft was once an innovative player. Whatever your preference in operating systems or office software suites, for example, there’s no denying that Microsoft made a number of smart and innovative moves to create its current position of market dominance in both arenas.
Since then, however, the company has been on the decline. In the mobile arena, for example, its performance has been too little, too late, as exemplified by the woefully inadequate Windows Phone 7. Rather than innovating on quality, the company now resorts to the industry equivalent of dirty pool.
In defense of both Windows and Microsoft Office, for example, Microsoft has long been one of the primary sources of FUD about competing free and open source alternatives. CEO Steve Ballmer notoriously has called Linux “a cancer,” for instance, and the company has made patently obvious that it fears competition from the open source contender.
More recently, Microsoft created an anti-OpenOffice.org video–still up on YouTube–that amounted to nothing more than a smear campaign against the competition.
Novell’s gift of patents to Microsoft is also mentioned. Fortunately, the CPTN deal is coming under regulatory fire* and we found only 2 articles about it, one of which from SCO booster and anti-Linux activist O’Gara. The other one came from The H and just like the FSF, Michael Tiemann from the OSI wrote a statement giving credit to the US Department of Justice: “The Open Source Initiative commends the US Department of Justice for taking this important step to promote innovation by issuing a second request and deepening the investigation of CPTN’s acquisition of Novell’s patents. As we have stated, the history is clear: patents have been—and are likely to be—used by CPTN and its members to create fear, uncertainty and doubt concerning open source software, raise competitors costs and threaten customers. We trust and hope that following a thorough investigation, the DoJ will impose whatever measures are necessary to ensure that CPTN does not harm the commercial open source development model or market competition.”
The closure of Kin Studio — just like the closure of other projects/units (see our list of dead products from Microsoft) — is not even denied or spun by Microsoft boosters, so Noyes’s assertion that there is a “Microsoft decline” seems to be acknowledged quite widely. Microsoft is just playing dirty now, so people need to watch and report misbehaviour. Google performed an experiment to catch Microsoft red-handed and it should be commended — not reprimanded — for it. █
_____
* The other part of the deal, which involved AttachMSFT [sic], was mentioned in Murdoch’s circles and the vulture fund was recently mentioned in Reuters which said: “Elliott Advisors has nearly 6 percent stake in Actelion”. It also said: “Elliott often takes on the role of an activist shareholder, and last year sought to buy business software company Novell (NOVL.O) after building an 8.5 percent stake in the company [ID:nSGE68E0IU].”
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02.02.11
Posted in Google, Microsoft, Search at 12:22 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Bong [sic] is being abandoned by its managers just when a major scandal hits the press and some believe that Google might sue Microsoft
The Bong [sic] scandal we wrote about last night (see links in the comments too) is very hotly debated right now, although not as hotly debated as Egypt. Simon Phipps says that based on Microsoft’s statement, “Bing admits to using Google data, spins it as no big deal” (“Bing Admits to Copying Google Results,” says LXNews). He also redents a message which says Microsoft got “caught with pants down, argues that waddling with pants pooled around legs is perfectly decent behavior” (what a graphical analogy). Microsoft could be sued by Google, some people think. Wired Magazine runs the headline “Google Catches Bing Copying; Microsoft Says ‘So What?’”
Google accused Microsoft Tuesday of copying its search results, an accusation to which Microsoft responded to with a blase, “So What?”
Google’s anti-webspam engineer Matt Cutts accused Microsoft on stage at a Bing-sponsored event of copying Google’s results by watching what people search for using the Internet Explorer 8 toolbar and click on at Google.com, and then mimicking those results on Bing.com.
Several Microsoft search executives have already moved to eBay and here falls another:
Microsoft casualties rise as eBay snags big Bing exec
[...]
Steve Ballmer, captain of the S.S. Microsoft, is working hard to assure the world that all is well with his mighty vessel. But with so many top officers jumping ship, it’s tough not to suspect that the hull is badly breached and the old girl is taking on water.
eBay is probably not going to receive the “Yahoo! treatment” as a consequence of all these defections because there is little that eBay can do to serve Microsoft, especially given its business model. █
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02.01.11
Posted in Google, Microsoft, Search at 3:50 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Google is peeling Microsoft’s ‘search/decision engine’ off
Summary: Google alleges that underneath Bong [sic] there is just a lot of scraping of Google search engine results pages (SERPs)
Microsoft copying others is not news at all. There are so many examples of it, some more blatant than others (not to mention many products that are simply rebadged “Microsoft” or get acquired by Microsoft). But the following new accusation suggests that Microsoft is simply ripping off Google not by copying what they do but by literally copying their output, their product, almost verbatim:
Google has run a sting operation that it says proves Bing has been watching what people search for on Google, the sites they select from Google’s results, then uses that information to improve Bing’s own search listings. Bing doesn’t deny this.
As a result of the apparent monitoring, Bing’s relevancy is potentially improving (or getting worse) on the back of Google’s own work. Google likens it to the digital equivalent of Bing leaning over during an exam and copying off of Google’s test.
“I’ve spent my career in pursuit of a good search engine,” says Amit Singhal, a Google Fellow who oversees the search engine’s ranking algorithm. “I’ve got no problem with a competitor developing an innovative algorithm. But copying is not innovation, in my book.”
Giving Microsoft the benefit of the doubt for the time being, Tech Radar asks, “Is Bing copying Google’s search results?”
Bing has come under fire after Google claims that the Microsoft-owned search engine has been plagiarising Google’s own search results.
Google has been running a ‘sting operation’ to try and catch Bing in the act of copying Google’s search results and thinks it has succeeded.
Laurel says: “If Bing wins the market and Google goes under, THEN what do they do if Google isn’t around to copy?”
5 years ago, Steve Jobs said that Microsoft “spend[s] over five billion dollars on research and development and all they seem to do is copy Google and Apple.” He probably did not mean “copy” in the sense that we see above. Assuming the allegations turn out to be truthful, Microsoft has gone way too far in this case. It has turned Yahoo! search into a Bong [sic] skin, which is in turn just a front end to Google, at least on the face of it. No shame, eh? And speaking of Yahoo!, Microsoft blames Vista Phony 7 [sic] failure on this marionette it got. And if that’s not bad enough, watch what Microsoft adds to its allegedly scraped-from-Google search results: it adds anti-features to them, essentially introducing more surveillance and spying on users, then bragging about it:
Researchers from the University of Washington and Microsoft Research have found that cursor movements and cursor hovers can detect the relevance of a search result and whether a user may abandon the search.
Whose results are these anyway? Is Bong [sic] just a massive ripoff of Google? And if so, why ever use Bong? To be tracked by Microsoft, even at the level of mousing? By the way, Microsoft makes no computer mice, it just sticks its logo/brand on some. Skin indeed! █
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01.28.11
Posted in Microsoft, Search at 1:33 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: A news report about Yahoo says that “Yahoo will no longer have to spend money on developing new search technology.”
AS we have shown here before, Yahoo’s CEO is a former ally of Microsoft and a lot of former Microsoft executives took positions of power inside Yahoo. Now, this new report identified yesterday suggests that Yahoo! as a search engine might soon be history as Microsoft grabs its userbase globally, not just in north America. “The not-so-bright spots were led by a -12% drop in quarterly revenue and the announcement of additional job cuts at the company,” quotes a reader, adding: “Yahoo’s transition to combining its search-advertising business with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) gets the blame for the revenue drop. Company executives predict though that the move will save money in the long run because Yahoo will no longer have to spend money on developing new search technology.”
Mind the part which says “Yahoo will no longer have to spend money on developing new search technology.”
“She will never pull out of the deal with MS to use Bing which killing Yahoo.”
–ChipsThis suggests that they will be channeling everyone to Bong [sic] sooner or later, just like Facebook and other ‘sock-puppets’ of Microsoft. “And there you have,” said one reader, “MS deal with Yahoo gets the blame. But Yahoo’s CEO, a second runner up to Ballmer in most incompetent CEO, is like a Trojan MS employee.”
“Yahoo is a Bing skin,” Ryan alleged.
“Yahoo wasn’t always a Bìng skin, though,” MinceR insisted, “they existed before Microsoft went all “me too” on the Internet” (and may soon get all of Yahoo’s hard-earned search traffic).
“Carol is running Yahoo into the ground,” said Chips. “She will never pull out of the deal with MS to use Bing which killing Yahoo. To do so would be to Yahoo’s benefit, but would probably lose her the job. Which like Ballmer, she is going to lose anyway in time. Carol is just another Trojan.” █
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01.20.11
Posted in Deception, Microsoft, Search at 12:40 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Rogue site harms people’s computers by installing “a toolbar and chang[ing] their search provider and home page to Bing.”
Included in the logs just posted is a story we only posted in daily links due to lack of time. The short story is that Microsoft is in the midst of another Bong [sic] scandal and shortly after it was revealed Microsoft retreated from it:
Is Facebook’s third largest advertiser really a site that tries to trick people into switching to Bing? Apparently not. Still, Bing’s not happy with the tactics and is ending its relationship with the publisher. The site, Make-My-Baby.com, now appears to have gone down. But earlier today, it was suggesting that people needed a plug-in to use it — one that would install a toolbar and change their search provider and home page to Bing. The site had allowed people to create baby characters….OK, I have some more answers from Bing. Make-My-Baby was an affiliate of Zugo….Bing also confirmed that it continues to have a relationship with Zugo. That also means that all the people who had their pages changed by Make-My-Baby will continue to get redirected to the benefit of both Zugo and Bing, as best I can tell, despite the fact that they were obtained in a way that Bing disagrees with.
Our readers did not all buy Microsoft’s story and to quote last night’s conversation about it:
| DaemonFC |
I guess they got sick of all the “Why doesn’t Last.FM work?” posts |
22:32 |
| oiaohm |
Don’t worry its normally only temp. MinceR |
22:33 |
| oiaohm |
First stage create more jobs than what is required. |
22:34 |
| oiaohm |
Second stage restruct the departments because they are too expensive. |
22:34 |
| oiaohm |
Third stage sacked too many todo the jobs. |
22:34 |
| oiaohm |
then return to first stage. |
22:35 |
| oiaohm |
This is kinda a never ending goverment cycle. |
22:35 |
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22:35 |
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22:35 |
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22:35 |
| –> TRT has joined this channel (~twitfolk@216.105.40.114). |
22:35 |
| oiaohm |
“first time the FCC has ever allowed discrimination on the Internet” Boy people have short memories. |
22:36 |
| oiaohm |
Computserv anyone. |
22:36 |
| MinceR |
CompuServe isn’t internet, afaik |
22:37 |
| oiaohm |
It was a wrapper over the internet that was used to restrict access. |
22:37 |
| –> twitter has joined this channel (~pbj@173-17-111-185.client.mchsi.com). |
22:40 |
| twitter |
Read Write web notices that a toolbar scam is part of Bing market share gain. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebooks_3rd_biggest_advertiser _is_a_bing_affilia.php |
22:41 |
| TechrightsBot-tr |
Title: Facebook’s 3rd Biggest Advertiser is (Allegedly) a Bing Affiliate Scam (With Updates) .::. Size~: 74.46 KB |
22:41 |
| twitter |
That and the forced default on cell phones, new computers inflicted with Windows, etc. |
22:42 |
| oiaohm |
twitter: Problem is I cannot see who is behind that. |
22:43 |
| MinceR |
duh |
22:44 |
| MinceR |
it’s m$ |
22:44 |
| twitter |
you really can’t tell where hundreds of thousands of dollars for a make_my_baby.com scam comes from? |
22:44 |
| MinceR |
they’re still struggling to get people to use bìng |
22:44 |
| twitter |
no one would put up that kind of money on their own. |
22:44 |
| twitter |
It had to come from Microsoft. |
22:44 |
| MinceR |
they used to pay people to make them use whatever bìng happened to be called at the time |
22:45 |
| MinceR |
this is a different approach to the same goal |
22:45 |
| oiaohm |
I have not looked close enough at that. |
22:45 |
| oiaohm |
to check if the 3rd biggest has hidden any other back doors. |
22:46 |
| twitter |
this one hides in the fine print and the usual “you need a plugin to do this” |
22:46 |
| oiaohm |
Exactly what else is in the plugin twitter |
22:46 |
| twitter |
they are obvious frauds, ohm. |
22:46 |
| oiaohm |
I know they are frauds |
22:46 |
| oiaohm |
But are they are bot net master as well. |
22:46 |
| twitter |
so there’s no telling what kind of malware they push |
22:47 |
| oiaohm |
Really the total mix of malware will give us a better clue who they are. |
22:47 |
| twitter |
just like there’s no telling what Microsoft sends back to themselves via Vista and Windows 7 encrypted communications |
22:48 |
| twitter |
It’s someone who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote Bing. They might also be a bot herder but that is irrelevant and the Bing issue is proved. |
22:49 |
| <– abeNd-org has left this server (Quit: Leaving.). |
22:49 |
| twitter |
Microsoft disowned them, as they do all of their scape goats. |
22:49 |
| DaemonFC |
Compuserve was an AOL-type service, walled garden |
22:50 |
| DaemonFC |
they both added internet access later |
22:50 |
| DaemonFC |
then AOL bought Compuserve |
22:50 |
| DaemonFC |
for a while, the Compuserve browser was based on Gecko, not IE/Trident |
22:50 |
| DaemonFC |
I think it went back to IE though |
22:50 |
| DaemonFC |
there was a beta version of AOL that used Gecko |
22:51 |
| oiaohm |
AOL netscape |
22:51 |
| twitter |
Microsoft Software, so bad the company has to pay people to use it. |
22:51 |
| DaemonFC |
no, the AOL client |
22:51 |
| DaemonFC |
there was a beta you had to be invited to |
22:51 |
| DaemonFC |
it used Gecko as the AOL browser’s renderer |
22:51 |
| twitter |
AOL bought Netscape, it was unnatural for them to not use the browser. |
22:52 |
| oiaohm |
When AOL bought netscape they did a hybred. |
22:52 |
| oiaohm |
Gecko trident |
22:52 |
| DaemonFC |
they never really used Netscape much |
22:52 |
| oiaohm |
In the AOL browser and in netscape |
22:52 |
| oiaohm |
What was basically the same thing. |
22:52 |
| twitter |
It was gone in the blink of an eye, then they fired the developers. |
22:52 |
| DaemonFC |
the Windows version uses IE/Trident and the Mac version uses Webkit |
22:53 |
| DaemonFC |
way back when, they used their own rendering engine though |
22:53 |
| twitter |
DaemonFC, uses AOL on Mac? Wow! |
22:53 |
| MinceR |
lol |
22:53 |
| DaemonFC |
yes, it has Topspeed Technology to make my 56k modem go VROOM |
22:54 |
| DaemonFC |
uh huh |
22:54 |
| DaemonFC |
 |
22:54 |
| MinceR |
that can’t be good for the modem :> |
22:54 |
| twitter |
zzzzoooooommmmmm |
22:54 |
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22:54 |
| twitter |
have fun with the Bing news. That search engine is not going anywhere soon. |
22:55 |
| <– twitter has left this channel. |
22:55 |
| * DaemonFC throws a Winmodem at Mincer |
22:55 |
| * MinceR parries it with a BFS |
22:55 |
| [Notice] -TRIdentica to #techrights- [boycottnovell/@boycottnovell] Another Software Company’s CEO (Named Steve) Expected to Leave http://is.gd/oyxBuS #microsoft #ballmer #xbox #kin |
22:57 |
| [Notice] -TRIdentica to #techrights- [schestowitz/@schestowitz] Another Software Company’s CEO (Named Steve) Expected to Leave http://is.gd/oyxBuS #microsoft #ballmer #xbox #kin #vista |
22:57 |
| TechrightsBot-tr |
Title: Another Software Company’s CEO (Named Steve) Expected to Leave | Techrights .::. Size~: 94.89 KB |
22:57 |
| oiaohm |
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTAwNQ I guess you have both seen this. |
22:57 |
| TechrightsBot-tr |
Title: Another Software Company’s CEO (Named Steve) Expected to Leave | Techrights .::. Size~: 94.89 KB |
22:57 |
| TechrightsBot-tr |
Title: [Phoronix] ULatencyD Enters The Linux World .::. Size~: 16.74 KB |
22:57 |
| MinceR |
oh, according to “How Does This Work?”, it could be independent of m$ |
22:57 |
| MinceR |
since it benefits Zugo as well |
22:58 |
| MinceR |
via affiliate commissions |
22:58 |
| oiaohm |
MinceR: link |
22:58 |
| MinceR |
same article |
22:59 |
| MinceR |
( http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebooks_3rd_biggest _advertiser_is_a_bing_affilia.php ) |
22:59 |
| TechrightsBot-tr |
Title: Facebook’s 3rd Biggest Advertiser is (Allegedly) a Bing Affiliate Scam (With Updates) .::. Size~: 74.46 KB |
22:59 |
| MinceR |
there’s a sidebar titled “How Does This Work?” on that page |
23:00 |
So what do you think? Innocent or damage control? █
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