Bonum Certa Men Certa

Entryism Threats From Bill Gates and His Successor (Now in HP's Board)

Ray Ozzie at Web 2.0 Conference



Summary: Ozzie enters HP's board and Gates' minions are seen around privatisation attempts in the United States

Recently, the head of Office was leaving Microsoft following some other high-tier departures. This is looking bad for Microsoft, which waved a bunch of meaningless nonsense to distract journalists (see this breakdown of the nonsense).



Noting a worrisome development, iophk says "So much for the HP Chromebooks," citing this entry of a Microsoft mole into HP's board. There have been other moles entering HP from Microsoft, as we covered here before. What this will do to Linux/Android we just don't know yet, but it can't be good. This is the guy who was supposed to be Gates' successor [1, 2, 3, 4]. Speaking of Gates, mind this post from last week. Will Hill says:

CEO Behind Lac-Mégantic Derailment was Bill Gates Business Partner



This is what happens when plutocrats call the shots. Edward Arnold Burkhardt had the right technical background but seems to have fallen in with the wrong kinds of people. His background includes an impressive array of trade apprenticeships and management training. Then come the money men like Gates who basically took over the world through leveraged buyouts with Wisconsin Central. Then things started to go horribly wrong, he was kicked out and started Rail World

WC has all the hallmarks of a Gates manipulation. Government, regulatory manipulation for private gain, marketing over safety, screwed employees and screwed investors. Notice the favorable Gates/Wall Street press coverage, wild stock rides, world domination and the ultimate greedy fight to kick out the guy who knew what he was doing.

Burkhardt was instrumental in partnering with the former Chief Financial Officer of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, Thomas F. Power Jr., to lead a group of investors who established one of the first post-deregulation regional railroads in the United States, the Wisconsin Central Ltd. ... Burkhardt was regarded as something of a railroad rebel for his entrepreneurial, productivity-driven leadership approach at WC.[4] The WC management plan included non-union employees and an absence of work rules, and it stressed marketing and customer service.[4] The company became profitable within six months of starting operations and went public in 1991 which was the beginning of a "six-year run (on its stock price) that saw its value increase more than 15-fold" ... Burkhardt led WCLX to become one of the first significant international rail industry investors by leveraging the holding company to invest in railroad acquisitions and/or government privatizations and/or partnerships. [US, New Zealand, Canada, 90% of UK rail freight, Australia and Tasmania]


Remember that beautiful film about the downsides of UK rail privatization, The Navigators? That was WC management.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Navigators_%28film%29

by the mid-1990s the safety record at WC began to be scrutinized more closely, particularly following the disastrous Weyauwega, Wisconsin derailment in March 1996. ... Burkhardt favored investment for the long term whereas Powers favored cutting expenses; this reportedly led to frequent clashes between the two executives and culminated in a July 7, 1999 special meeting of the WCLX board of directors in which Burkhardt was asked to resign. Upon leaving WC/WCLX, Burkhardt was paid a severance of $1.3 million up front as well as $1.3 million in monthly installments over three years and WCLX's rights in a project to privatize the Estonian Railway (Eesti Raudtee). Burkhardt still held 3.5 million shares in WC/WCLX (over 7%) and launched a bitter proxy battle to attempt to regain control of the corporation, however, he was ultimately unsuccessful in swaying the company's largest shareholders: Bill Gates, Southeastern Asset Management of Memphis, Tennessee and the State of Wisconsin Investment Board.

Burkhardt went on to start Rail World, Inc., the company responsible for the recent derailment disaster. Bill Gates might owns stock in competitor, Canadian National Rail and I do not know if he financed Rail World. This time Burkhardt chased deregulation and privatization in the former Soviet territories. Management style, regardless of which plutocrat is calling the shots, was much the same.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Burkhardt#Wisconsin_Central http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-16/bill-gates-retakes-world-s-richest-title-from-carlos-slim.html http://www.forbes.com/sites/gurufocus/2013/02/14/latest-picks-from-bill-gates-foundation-buys-ko-pg-wmt-sells-costco-csx/

Burkhardt has done the expedient and blamed his employee but it rings hollow. Company policy, from the start, was all about cutting corners. Since the accident everything that happened has be described as "routine" and "company procedure".

Burkhardt laid the blame for the crash on his own engineer for failing to properly apply hand brakes on the rail cars when they were parked in nearby Nantes. He said his company’s inspection indicated the brakes were applied on the locomotives, but not on the rail cars.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-10/rail-world-ceo-says-quebec-train-brakes-not-set-properly.html

How very Microsoft to blame a rogue employee.


Profit by privatisation is always a smart business model of the greedy, Gates is also trying that in education, as we last showed yesterday.

Recent Techrights' Posts

BetaNews, Inc. Became a Spam Operation/Web Site, LLM Spew (Slop) for SEO Disguised as "Articles"
Published 5 minutes ago by Brian Fagioli...
WordPress is for the 'Old Web'; the New Web Necessitates Static Pages
There are purely practical reasons to move away from WordPress and the likes of it
Biggest Debt Leap in Years, More Than Half a Trillion Dollars in Just One Month
We remind people (almost every year) that it's also "buynothingday"
Golden Dawn(ald) and What GAFAM Means to Liberal Techies
In one single screenshot
It's Morbid to Talk About Living People as If They're Dead
What happens to LLM slop when Brian Fagioli dies?
Silicon Valley and GAFAM Were Never Liberal
spineless CEOs and founders aren't against Trump
ChromeOS and GNU/Linux Growing in Spain (Almost 10% Now)
Whether this persists next month and next year will certainly matter
 
Links 12/11/2024: A Lot of Censorship and SWNS at 50
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/11/2024: Invidious Down and YouTube Addiction
Links for the day
Links 12/11/2024: Hey Hi (AI) Failures and COP29 Fakers
Links for the day
Latest Rumours of Red Hat Layoffs
Rumours or gossip is how almost everything starts
Windows Falling to All-Time Lows and Microsoft Has Nothing to Replace It With
It's mostly Android (Linux) replacing Windows
Cybershow Has a New 81-Minute Episode on Digital Sovereignty and International Cyber-Relations
it is a high-quality show
Activism in the Digital Realm Can Never (and Must Never) Rely on GAFAM
This simply means that tech activists must completely abandon any hopes of finding allies in Google or IBM or whatever...
IBM CEO Says Donald Trump as President-Elect is Good for IBM in New Interview With CNBC
most unprincipled CEO ever?
GNU/Linux Up to 6.1% in Finland (Almost 9% If One Counts ChromeOS Too)
Home of Linux (the kernel)
BetaNews Has Become a SPAM/Slop Factory, Brian Fagioli Publishes Fake 'Articles'
everything is now suspect in BetaNews
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 11, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, November 11, 2024
Free Software and Love of Nature
It's not a coincidence that many Free software activists are also lovers of nature
Windows and 'The Desktop' Floundering
Microsoft should be extremely worried
WordPress is Bad for the Planet (Even If Many Still Use It)
the costs nobody wishes to talk about
Gemini Links 11/11/2024: Closed Systems and Verify You Are Human To Continue
Links for the day
Running Twitter at a Loss and Then Profiting From Trumpism
How very liberal of Jack Dorsey, the greedy "Liberal" who only prioritised money
Microsoft, Which Benefits From Donald Trump, is Normalising Donald Trump
Some people still wrongly believe that Microsoft is left-leaning
When You Upload Talks of Richard Stallman to Proprietary YouTube
Also: notice they work to abolish the word "whitelisted"
Free Software is Probably a Lot Healthier for You
Does Free software help people live longer and/or live better for longer?
Sweden: ChromeOS + GNU/Linux at 17%, an All-Time High
According to statCounter
Windows Collapsed to Only 12% of the Operating Systems Market in India, Says statCounter
Windows falls to 64% on desktops/laptops in India, dips to 12% overall
Links 11/11/2024: Mastodon Year 2 in Review, Freshworks Laying Off 13% of Staff
Links for the day
[Video] Daniel Pocock Warning About Someone Like Elon Musk Buying and Misusing Twitter Almost 7 Years Ago
Daniel Pocock spoke about Facebook and Twitter while attending the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland
[Meme] It Takes Only Words to Destroy Malicious People and Pathological Liars
Trying to silence us is foolish. Boasting about this in public is worse than foolish; it's a legal liability.
Dead Blog ('Hoisted By His Own Petard')
The saying "people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" is also applicable here
Debian Voters Clearly Supportive of Richard Stallman (Founder of GNU/Linux), But Debian Leaders Keep Giving Voting Rights to Microsoft Staff
It can be seen that the pro-Stallman positions are dominant
WordPress is Unfit for Purpose in 2024
The Web itself changed a lot and the majority of Web traffic is pure junk
[Meme] Remember That Microsoft and Trump Already Have a "Targets List"
Microsoft loves Trump bailouts
Service Notice: IRC Downtimes RESOLVED
We believe we've solved this entirely (or hope so), but it may take another week to know for sure
Linux 'Not Inclusive' 6.12 (Trumpism Inside Linux Foundation Affirmed)
They can make a codename for this release: Linux 'Not Inclusive' 6.12
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is Dead. Cause of Death: Microsoft Bribes.
At the core, Linux Foundation and OSI adopted lies as a business model
Joan Meyer correctly linked Gideon Cody raid on Marion County Record to Kristallnacht
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Trans People Misused to Attack a Project or Developer Who Has Nothing to Do With Them
And why that truly hurts all trans people
Our 18+ Years of Freedom-Fighting
We always fight back
Gemini Links 11/11/2024: Men Losing Grip and "You're Relaxing Wrong"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, November 10, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, November 10, 2024
Nobody Knows What's in Our Fridge! Wow, Spooky!
Freedom means you can also purchase things anonymously
Freedom Must Always Be Fought For (All the Time)
Ridicule of "freedom fighters" in the digital realm is typically orchestrated by dictators or wannabes.
Gemini Links 10/11/2024: Taking Jokes and Writing Dense Assembly
Links for the day
Links 10/11/2024: Meaning of Life and iPhone ‘Inactivity Reboot’
Links for the day
Links 10/11/2024: Microsoft Adds Surveillance to Notepad and Paint, TikTok Shutdown Order
Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/11/2024: Scrawlspace and California
Links for the day
Links 10/11/2024: Politics, Economics, and Ticketmaster Issues
Links for the day
Linux Foundation: We've Shut Down the Mailing Lists and Fired Everyone at Linux.com So We Can Spend Money Buying Puff Pieces and Paying Clickfraud/Spammers
deeply rogue
The 'Other' Bruce... on Openwashing at OSI (and Not Bruce Perens, the OSI's Co-founder)
Openwashing people (connected to Microsoft) already do "open weights"
Gemini Links 10/11/2024: A Writer's Block, VIM Tips and Tricks
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 09, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, November 09, 2024
[Meme] Linux Foundation Cuts
money is spent by the million on highly dubious things
Politics Becoming Way Too 'Toxic'
'Toxic' political discourse ought to be covered, but reducing the toxicity of coverage itself (e.g. inaccurately covering things to incite "the left" and "the right") is still challenging
"Paperless Office" (Incompatible With the Law) as a Threat to Workers' Health at the EPO, Europe's Second-Largest Institution and Largest Patent Office
"Software Ergonomics need to be brought back to the agenda at a high level!"