“On the Internet, these forces which he refers to are almost always anonymous (arbitrary name/pseudonym). It is a case of isomorphism (nymshifting) -- and often enough they use Web proxies to cover their traces.”Smear campaigns are secretly run against individuals that make Microsoft a little bit nervous. Approximately a year ago, a journalist was accidentally sent a dossier which Microsoft had collected about him for a long time. Microsoft spies on people. It collects intelligence, by its own admission. Further, the journalist argued openly that whenever he writes about Microsoft, many forces are quietly aligned against him. On the Internet, these forces which he refers to are almost always anonymous (arbitrary name/pseudonym). It is a case of isomorphism (nymshifting) -- and often enough they use Web proxies to cover their traces.
The title of this post contains a variation -- in terms of names -- of what seems to be one single individual who assaulted Groklaw with endless anti-ODF comments (before getting banned and then defended by Doug "OOXML is a Simple Matter of Commercial Interests!" Mahugh). That anonymous, pseudonymous character also started a blog called OoxmlHoaxes where IBM is attacked. Very mysterious. How does Doug know that person who has no public identity? Why is his/her blog being cited by anti-ODF and pro-OOXML posters in USENET? Using another new identity, "hAl", the same person appears to be striking in other pro-ODF blogs as well, including ours. The messages are typically anti-ODF rather than defensive of OOXML, which is the issue at hand.
"How can we confirm that this is the same entity," you ask? Based on the person's postings, which are consistent. You can see the same message carried under different names from one site to another in a matter of minutes. All the messages appear to be the same person. Is this a "job application for OOXML evangelism", to use a phrase that recently described the Burton Group's involvement? If so, why is it anonymous?
We have inquired to see what other ODF volunteers can make of it. Here is one response that was received promptly:
Does OOXML meet the accessibility needs of "persons with different abilities"? The ODF Alliance posted an Issue Brief, ODF's Benchmark for Accessibility that discusses these questions.
Comments
Great
2008-02-17 14:27:46
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6171831/index.html
By: James Yu and Sarju Shah - Posted on Wednesday, June 13, 2007
It's been more than six months since we published our first Xbox 360 versus PlayStation 3 graphics comparison feature. Games on both systems looked great, but the Xbox 360 games had more polish. We found that the Xbox 360 edged out the PlayStation 3 with higher-resolution textures and better lighting. The result of the first comparison wasn't surprising--the Xbox 360 had been available for a year and developers were already cranking out second-generation games, while the PlayStation 3 had just arrived in retail with its first-generation games. We decided to check on a few games released in recent months to see if the PlayStation 3 has caught up to or overtaken the Xbox 360...
http://center.spoke.com/info/p86uUAU/JamesYu
James Yu Program Manager Microsoft Corporation 1 Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052-8300 http://www.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx
So now we have people working for Redmond writing reviews of Xbox 2 Vs. Playstation 2
One more example of Microsoft funds the FUD spreading....
Roy Schestowitz
2008-02-17 15:50:29
http://slated.org/linux_still_doesnt_make_it_on_desktop_is_pure_fud
John Drinkwater
2008-02-17 18:54:21
Roy Schestowitz
2008-02-17 23:06:05
Roy Schestowitz
2008-02-18 01:42:24
He left a homepage link on some of his posts, such as:
http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2007/04/04/breaking-free-of-the-politics.aspx#2045280
http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2007/03/09/florida-house-of-reps-leveraging-openxml.aspx#1860227
These lead back to: http://anyinternet.spaces.live.com/
Could that be his photograph? That looks like a possibility based on the IPs.
He is also the main ODF-critic on Wikipedia. His user page is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:HAl
It is interesting that he declares himself as a "beginning" XML coder". He sure makes a lot of noise for a beginner.
I was found someplace that his real name was "Albert". That would make his "hAl" moniker an example of Microsoft's variable naming conventions, where variable names are prefixed with "h" if they are a handle, like hWnd, hCursor, etc.
Based on his IP address he appears to be connecting from Amsterdam. If it's consistent enough, then no proxies are involved, I suppose.
The anonymity remains a tad mysterious, but there you go.
Yesterday, in USENET, the usual ODF critics and OOXML lobbyists defended Rick Jeliffe's payment from Microsoft, which has me suspecting that they get paid/compensated in one way or another, as well.