Summary: Assorted links about Microsoft influences

THE ERRATIC behaviour of Microsoft is well documented, but speaking of erratic, consider the following new article.

Microsoft Goons Break Up SQL Server Meeting

Analysis: When it deployed guards to interrupt a SQL Server presentation, Redmond stepped over the line with its overzealous security.

[...]

Last night I was giving a presentation to our local SQL Server user group at Microsoft in Irving, Texas. A few minutes into my presentation, a security guard bursts in, comes up right beside me, and shouts to the entire room, "Does anybody here work for Microsoft?"

[...]

It pissed me off to be shouted over so abruptly and that Microsoft doesn't train its security crew on how to address businesspeople in the building. It's kinda like when the Rolling Stones had the Hells Angels as their bodyguards. Simple, well-meaning fans were beat up, noses broken, and so on just because they wanted a brief interaction with the band. You can't do that kinda crap.

In addition to these "Microsoft Goons" (as the article calls them), there are also many "Microsoft Technical Evangelists, at least one of whom monitors this Web site (and last posted here some minutes ago). They are like Microsoft PR agents inside people's blogs, which leads to anger among other bloggers who indicate that this is a widespread phenomenon.

You see that picture of the comment he made on a FOSS blog? THAT'S HIS JOB! That's what a Microsoft Evangelist does. What a Microsoft Evangelist does is what the laws in the United States are rapidly starting to call "Cyber Harassment."

Speaking of "evangelists", look who is going to Amazon.

Former Microsoft Security Evangelist Steve Riley Heads to Amazon

[...]

Now former Microsoft security expert Steve Riley has announced on his personal blog and Twitter feed that he's joining Amazon to serve as an evangelist and strategist for Amazon's booming cloud services business.

Many other Microsoft people end up in leading roles at Amazon, which in turn adds Windows servers. This may be poor judgment on Amazon's part, or maybe an indication that the management is already quite Microsoft-saturated anyway.

Former Microsoft executive Bill Shaughnessy has just joined the board of Mixpo. He quit Microsoft last year, but his potential role in antitrust violations may forever be remembered. ⬆