Bonum Certa Men Certa

More on 'Microsoft Agents' Pushing for OOXML (and What Digg.com Teaches Us About Them)

"MSFTers dust of the same FUD year in and year out. Each time it's trotted out, it's taken as the gospel truth by the media which appears to some how equate repetition with validity. That's the same crowd that can't assign appropriate weights to statements from broad industry consortium and a say-for-pay consulting firm."

--ItsSnakeOil, Digg user, 2 days ago



After posting about 14,000 comments in Digg.com I no longer take that Web site seriously. The site has changed a lot over the course of the past year. I may be the most prolific commenter there (among approximately 2 million registered users), but various abusive stalkers turned the site into a sordid chaos.

“They occupy a variety of popular sites covering technology.”It is very clear that those very same abusive characters have been doing the same thing for one decade or more, even before Digg was born and even back in the OS/2 days. Their names and monikers have remained identical and a bit of studying nets lots more evidence. They occupy a variety of popular sites covering technology. Particularly, they occupy Linux forums, which makes it a case of intrusion (also trolling). It's all simultaneous. They want influence and they systematically spread myths.

The names of the poster make it a fact, not a suspicion. They even admit this when questioned. Whether Microsoft pays these people and whether they work for Microsoft business partners is a totally separate question, so before the "paranoid" word comes up, it is worth clarifying this (more on a related subject is to come soon, but as a separate post).

The other day we mentioned a couple of Web sites, a slanderous blog and a family of recurring usernames that are used to assault ODF and praise OOXML. We may now have an update. One of these users, who for a fact runs the "ooxmlhoaxes" Web site, has posted the following link the other day.

The house inspector

robweird.wordpress.com — An amusing satirical story comparing the inspection of a house to the standardization process of OpenDocument

Submitted: 1 day 21 hr ago

Submitter: Multivac1


As you can see, this link is to a blog dedicated to personal attacks on Rob Weir, an IBM employee. It was posted by the user who runs "ooxmlhoaxes", which suggests that there is a connection, unless it is the same person.

After some bit of investigation, it turned out that hAl might not, after all, be the same person as Multivac1 or the person -- whoever it may be -- that runs the slanderous blog. They might be coordinating some things as a group, but there are separate individuals involved.

“A little quick experiment seemed to reveal that the slanderous blog might be managed by a person who works via zombies PCs or a proxy, indicating need for anonymity and obfuscation of digital traces. ”A little quick experiment seemed to reveal that the slanderous blog might be managed by a person who works via zombies PCs or a proxy, indicating need for anonymity and obfuscation of digital traces. Why be so afraid of promoting Microsoft's agenda? This sounded familiar, even without quick tests.

Attacks on ODF (or a case of defending OOXML) seem common in Slashdot, USENET and other such places especially when the poster is either anonymous and/or uses a known honeypot (as documented in sites whose purpose is to track of such IP addresses).

There are those who go by full names (pseudo-nyms are a possibility though). Examples include a person who goes by the name "Tim Smith" (or username harlowmonkeys, sometimes harlow-monkeys), seemingly a Microsoft partner in business. Included in the messages are endless personal attacks against myself, not just ODF. Seemingly from the UK (he denies this after obsessive stalking by him, which went on for months before polite warnings were sent), he keeps very active in anti-ODF and pro-OOXML in USENET and in Digg. Example from days ago:

There are some more details about personal attacks at Digg specifically in my personal blog if you are curious, as well as in some updates here, but again, BoycottNovell is not a personal site, so let's not make it so.

To Microsoft, the week of the BRM has billions of dollars in stake and -- rather questionably without a doubt -- Microsoft's survival as well, based on what some analysts seem to suggest. As the following article explains very clearly, Microsoft could lose entire nations without an ISO.

If the ISO does not approve the OOXML format, Microsoft might be forced to rethink its strategy around document formats if it wants government IT contracts


To repeat a recently-cited comment from Slashdot:

How 'Firm' Would You Stand For 20 Billion A Year?



I believe Microsoft made 5 billion in revenue from having customers worldwide locked into their proprietary office document format.

The vendor lockin from Office makes up almost half the company's yearly revenue.

Microsoft would cease to exist as we know it if the office document lockin revenue went away to an open format.

Fight? LOL! This is the type of sh*t Microsoft execs live for.

Fake grassroots efforts. Standards body subversion. Paid for media shills. Shame studies. Mysterious compatibility problems with the competition.

All in a days work.


Judge for yourself and decide how far Microsoft has been willing to go. Presented here were mainly facts.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Evidence Contradicting Microsoft's Non-Denying Denials and Expectation of Many Layoffs Soon
"Microsoft has had this constant drip of layoffs for months."
At Least 3 Richard Stallman Talks in Europe Confirmed So Far, Next Week in Rome There's Another
Dr. Stallman has not announced this yet
Rust is Eating Linux
That's a recipe for problems
Cindy Cohn (Executive Director of EFF) is a Millionaire, Earned Almost $30,000 Per Month Before Departing While the EFF Lost Money
EFF is "Big Business"
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 06, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, October 06, 2025
The "AI Revolution" is Going Very Well, Right?
money that does not exist and alleged potential that is pure fiction
Links 06/10/2025: Scam Altman Himself Admits He Runs a Scam Based on a Bubble, US Administration Adopts “War From Within” Narrative to Crush Opposition/Dissent
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Fake Ubuntu 'Articles' and Google News Helps People Who Plagiarise Phoronix Using LLMs
Michael Larabel can't possibly be happy about that
6,000 Pages/Articles a Year
Today in one month from now the site turns 19
When Things Become So Ubiquitous That They're Almost Nameless
The notion or the concept of software freedom isn't tied to any particular brand or project, so it should still resonate
IDG Seems to Have Abandoned Sandra Henry Stocker's UNIX/Linux Column
Unless we hear otherwise or see some update/s, this may mark another death blow from IDG
Gemini Links 06/10/2025: Winter Nights and "Virtue Signaling"
Links for the day
Links 06/10/2025: Scientific Awards and Typhoon Matmo
Links for the day
IP Kat Gone Bonkers, Pushing Slop in Patents (Likely Illegal, With Severe Consequences)
AstraZenecaKat: "Last time, this Kat covered some practical steps on how to ensure client confidentiality when using AI tools (IPKat)."
Links 06/10/2025: Grokipedia as Malicious Slop, US 'Martial Law' a "New Normal"
Links for the day
Fake Economics and Clown Computing Circuses
who's gonna pay for these scams?
Nobel Prize in Economics Does Not Exist, It's Propaganda From Sveriges Riksbank
"It is that time of the year when it is important to remind people that there are no Nobel Prizes for professional wrestling, astrology, or economics"
Non-Denying Denial From Microsoft (Again) Regarding the End of XBox Consoles
It's kind of hilarious that even the site chosen by Microsoft to relay its BS, based on past loyalty, isn't quite buying it
Bringing Back Lost Articles From the 1990s: Microsoft Products Leave Door Open to NSA
Nothing has changed since then
When the Slop Bubble Pops People Will Say Richard Stallman Was Right (Again)
What was once known as Computer Science turned into "IT"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 05, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, October 05, 2025
Links 06/10/2025: Science, Hardware, and Andrej Babis Making a Comeback
Links for the day
Links 05/10/2025: Slow News Day and Wondering About the Canada Post Walkout
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/10/2025: Telnet Debugging and The Programmer’s Brain
Links for the day
More Than "Just a Rumour": XBox Seems to Have Just Died
At this point, why would any studio out there target or partner with XBox?
How to Tell Your Community, Project or Company is Being Infiltrated by Saboteurs
How to identify nefarious social engineering
The Fortieth Birthday of the FSF Made Us Extremely Happy
It feels like the 'hacker community' is regrouping to discuss things and prepare for the next Big Challenge
Chat Control 2 Them, Not 2 U
Follow the advice of Dr. Patrick Breyer
Mozilla: Throw Away Your "Old" PC and Enable "Digital Rights Management (DRM)"
This is heading in a bad direction
Controlling Our Computing for Another Forty Years
40 years of freedom
Motivational Small Place to Run Large Sites
We deem this scenery motivational and inspiring
Techrights' Text Version (Daily Bulletin) Turns Five This Month
our plain-text bulletins are turning 5 this month
We'll Continue Covering the Moribund OSI and Other Dysfunctional if Not Hostile Institutions
Stefano Maffulli's departure is due to his defection and due to him failing the mission in pursuit of money (his salary)
Microsoft XBox is Dying as More Retailers Stop Stocking It and Massive Layoffs Planned Again
Microsoft is circling down the drain
Links 05/10/2025: Lufthansa Layoffs (4,000) and More Spotify Woes (Aside From Massive Debt)
Links for the day
The Free Software Foundation's Livestream Has Ended, Video/s Might be Online Next
I've asked whether they'll upload video of some of the event; I still wait for an answer
The Register MS Does Not Know the Difference Between Microsoft GitHub and GitLab
At the time of writing (October 5) the article from "Thu 2 Oct 2025" remains uncorrected
Linux and the Freedom Paradox
Linux is losing freedom if some external actors who only use Microsoft tools for development wrest control
"Bullshit Generators" (What RMS Calls LLMs) and Fake Images Already Target the FSF
Why does Google News promote fake articles about the FSF while omitting all the real ones?
Software Patents as a Bubble
Don't invest resources in hype; if you detect a bubble, run away from it
Links 05/10/2025: Political Leftovers, Climate Change, and Security Incidents
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 04, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, October 04, 2025