02.19.10
Posted in Apple, Bill Gates, Microsoft, Patents at 3:15 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Patent thug Nathan Myhrvold turns out to have over 1,000 patent proxies with which to potentially attack and extort those who do not pay “protection money”; he also spent over $1 million lobbying his government
THE New York Times has published this report about Microsoft's patent troll Nathan Myhrvold, who is backed by his colleague Bill Gates, his former employer Microsoft, and even Apple. He already terrorises the industry using patents that it spent literally billions of dollars acquiring (not actually working to invent anything of substance).
“Yes, Intellectual Ventures uses “attack dogs” to fight its battles and this way it gets to pretend that it is not a patent aggressor.”According to the new report, “Intellectual Ventures spent more than $1 million on lobbying last year,” says the president of the FFII. That’s a lot of money to be spent changing the law in favour of a patent troll. Moreover, says the same person, “Up to 1,110 shell companies (ProxyTrolls) and affiliated entities appear to be linked to Intellectual Ventures.”
Yes, Intellectual Ventures uses “attack dogs” to fight its battles and this way it gets to pretend that it is not a patent aggressor. Microsoft uses similar strategies when it sues Google and even GNU/Linux vendors.
Here is what TechDirt had to say about the report from the New York Times:
Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures Using Over 1,000 Shell Companies To Hide Patent Shakedown
It’s no secret that we think Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures is a dangerous, innovation harming monstrosity. The company used a bait and switch scheme to get a bunch of big tech companies to fund it, not realizing that they were then going to be targets of his shakedown system. Basically, IV buys up (or in some cases, applies for) tons of patents, and then demands huge cash outlays from those same companies (often hundreds of millions of dollars) for a combined promise not to sue over those patents and (here’s the sneaky bit) a bit of a pyramid scheme, where those in early supposedly get a cut of later deals. Of course, to just talk to IV requires strict NDAs, so the details of these deals are kept under wraps and only leaked out anonymously. But the hundreds of millions of dollars going towards this sort of trolling behavior, rather than any actual innovation in the marketplace can be seen on various financial filings (you can’t hide hundreds of millions of dollars in payments that easily).
As a reader of ours pointed out some days ago, people like Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold are exploiting the press for self glorification. They are what’s sometimes known as “attention whores” (Myhrvold talks about cooking/cuisine and Gates pretends to save the world that he loots). BoingBoing is falling for the PR charade just as before, so it is essentially joining national propaganda. It defends people who in reality deserve to be sent to prison, just like Rick Berman with his fake charities routine. Those who do not know Berman ought to read that post before they read anything about the Gates Foundation, which is a classic example akin to those pseudo-charities that Berman sets up. Here is Berman’s latest attack on society, which he disguises under an Orwellian name like HumaneWatch.org.
Front group man extraordinaire Rick Berman and his attack group, the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), have launched a new Web site, HumaneWatch.org, to harass the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the country’s largest animal welfare organization. In pursuing its mission of stopping animal cruelty, HSUS has apparently run afoul of some large, wealthy business interests, and now it is getting some major pushback.
Microsoft uses the same strategy by urging its front groups to create fake movements and Web sites that claim to represent small businesses or citizens’ interests. It’s all about creating proxies, just like Intellectual Ventures which has many ‘satellites’ (like the mafia).
Speaking of patent harvesters, there is another new one called RPX. Microsoft is a member and Intel has just joined too.
Intel is diving into a patent pool in hopes of avoiding future troll attacks.
The chip maker has signed on with RPX, a patent aggregation startup whose members pay steep annual fees to help shield themselves from royalty demands and litigation costs of patent trolls.
That’s nonsense. Patent trolls have no products, so RPX offers no defense against them. It’s just another pool of huge companies which create a sort of cartel or coalition that transitions patent law into multi-player protectionism. Why is it again that the mainstream media is casting the biggest and most treasonous patent trolls as national heroes? █
“In the fall of 1982, Pam Edstrom [of Waggener Edstrom], a diminutive woman with piercing blue eyes, was recruited by Microsoft. [...] In modern-day business, flacks were responsible not only for avoiding bad press, but for spinning the good. [...] Hanson and Edstrom would spin a whole new image for Gates himself. They would tap the best and worst of Chairman Bill, changing his clothes, his voice, and his allegiances, driving him to become not just the boss, but, essentially, the company mascot—a sort of high-technology Colonel Sanders.”
–Pam’s daughter
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Posted in Bill Gates, Deception, Finance, Microsoft at 12:24 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“Gates has created a huge blood-buying operation that only cares about money, not about people.”
–AIDS organisation manager, December 2009 (New York Times)
Summary: Undoing some Orwellian deception from the mainstream media and spokespeople of the Gates family/foundation
THE MEDIA is so full of spin that it can really be sickening sometimes. It’s the usual glorification of the rich, pretending that they only cater for the poor and that they save our planet. It is a soothing illusion that keeps society ticking along, but just because something keeps us ticking along does not make it true; one could, for example, believe in fridge-sized diamonds being buried in one’s back yard, but just because it makes that someone feel happy doesn’t make it improper to burst the bubble and call it “nonsense”.
“ClimateProgress.org is openly critical about the latest PR charade from Gates (at TED).”We previously wrote quite a lot about the Gates influence in governments (mostly Bill Gates with his father). We provided a lot of external references, including those which explain how the Gates family uses the foundation to escape taxation, just like Microsoft [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9].
In exchange for these favours (concessions), Gates needs to show the world that he offers something in return, even if it is something imaginary such as access to patents that he invests billions of dollars in. It’s business as usual. Here is Gates hiring another man to whom he will pay more than President Obama is paid. There are already criticisms of it:
At least a quarter of a million to half a million Africans could be provided health care with what is spent on that single salary.
But the stronger criticism comes from those who speak about Gates' suggestion that we should do nothing about global warming for the time being. Who wouldn’t love the idea of just doing nothing and carrying on with lavish lifestyles of consumerism and spendings? Well, ClimateProgress.org is openly critical about the latest PR charade from Gates (at TED). “Bill Gates is wrong about “energy miracles”,” says the headline.
Yes, Bill Gates keeps diminishing the value of aggressive action now, which is just plain suicidal. We need both massive technology deployment now and much more innovation. But the former is the sine qua non for having any chance to preserve a livable climate. Ironically, the former is also the key to the latter, something Gates himself used to argue. Strangely, Gates strongly praises Gore’s book even though its main thrust is directly at odds with Gates’.
So for all those who were led to believe (possibly by the mainstream media) that Gates works towards curbing global warming, more careful attention should be paid to the actual voices that are being suppressed. This is not the first time that we see Gates slammed for his approach to climate change and a few hours ago we posted daily links that include the following:
- Think-tanks take oil money and use it to fund climate deniers
An orchestrated campaign is being waged against climate change science to undermine public acceptance of man-made global warming, environment experts claimed last night.
The attack against scientists supportive of the idea of man-made climate change has grown in ferocity since the leak of thousands of documents on the subject from the University of East Anglia (UEA) on the eve of the Copenhagen climate summit last December.
Free-market, anti-climate change think-tanks such as the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in the US and the International Policy Network in the UK have received grants totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds from the multinational energy company ExxonMobil. Both organisations have funded international seminars pulling together climate change deniers from across the globe.
- Oil Money Funds Climate Deniers and Attacks on Climate Scientists
The multinational energy company ExxonMobil has given hundreds of thousands of British pounds in grants to free-market, anti-climate change think-tanks to wage a coordinated, orchestrated campaign against climate change science, and undermine public acceptance of the idea that global warming has a man-made component.
- Oil-Funded Gov Joins with Oil-Funded Front Group to Appeal Greenhouse Gas Regs
Although it seems a bit like a dog-bites-man story, the New York Times reported that Texas Governor and 2012 presidential aspirant Rick Perry (R-TX) has joined with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) in challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to regulate carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. As the Center for Media and Democracy has documented on our SourceWatch site, CEI has been well-funded by Exxon and other oil companies, and is one of the main U.S. corporate front groups fighting efforts to address global warming and regulate the industry that feeds it funding. But, the courts are now stacked in Perry’s favor, as noted below.
- The “AB 32 Implementation Group”: A Wolf in Green Clothing
Since then, a coalition with the helpful-sounding name the “AB 32 Implementation Group” has appeared, claiming to represent green businesses and a broad section of California interests focused on global warming regulations. The Implementation Group’s Web site features photos of white clouds and flowers, and the organization is being managed by a big public relations firm, Woodward & McDowell. In truth, the Group actually represents 22 of California’s biggest carbon polluters (as ranked by the California Air Resources Board), and, according to environmentalists and lawmakers, is engaged in a steady campaign to undermine the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.
- Business group loses ‘green’ members in global-warming fight
An organization representing some of California’s biggest carbon polluters is working to alter the state’s global warming law, while claiming to represent several “green” environmental companies that have since left the coalition after learning of its recent actions.
The coalition, calling itself the AB 32 Implementation Group, says it represents a broad section of California interests focused on global warming regulations. The group, which is being managed by a large public relations firm, Woodward & McDowell, features photographs of white clouds and a field of flowers on its Web site.
As the above shows (collected for this one day alone), there is a lot of AstroTurfing going on to deny the obvious.
Question of Tax (Not Carbon Tax)
Now, returning to the issue of tax (which the Gates family mostly evades using its co-called ‘charitable foundation’), a former employee of Bill Gates has just accused Gates of being behind the representative who is willing to give Microsoft a $100 million annual tax cut. He also sort of accuses the Seattle Times of a conspiracy of silence (the Seattle Times constantly glorifies the Gates Foundation and says nothing about tax evasion).
In the midst of Washington State’s brief biennial legislative session to address the state’s pending insolvency from a $2.8 billion budget deficit, you might think that an estimated $1.27 billion tax dodge by Microsoft, the state’s most profitable company, and a proposed bill by Bill Gates’ own representative which would grant Microsoft a $100 million annual tax cut and likely amnesty from it’s unpaid taxes would warrant coverage in the state’s most successful newspaper, The Seattle Times.
[...]
I don’t understand why the paper won’t cover the issue though the Times has had a history of taking stances on the estate tax at odds with our community’s traditional centrist values. In 2000, the paper endorsed George Bush for President. This week, the paper complained that the Legislature’s proposed sales tax increase was enough to push the author to evade the sales tax by driving south to Oregon.
I know Seattle journalism is under strain. The failure of the print edition of the PI recently has hurt the city. But, it’s up to journalists to make their work relevant to readers. In choosing so far not to cover this issue, the Seattle Times is failing all of us. If you don’t cover issues that materially affect events in our region, then perhaps your business deserves to struggle financially.
Gates and Microsoft do not seem to care if their home state goes bankrupt, as long as they get to keep their own money and power.
As long as Washington State doesn’t go broke before 2017, we’ll eventually catch up to the damage done by HB3176. But, HB3176 may throw away a lot of cash (Microsoft’s tax debt) up front that the state could benefit from today.
Following up on yesterday’s post on Microsoft’s $100 million tax cut and potential tax amnesty, I’ve done a brief analysis of the impact of HB3176′s proposed changes to the royalty tax. Based on this analysis, the current royalty tax alone will generate more revenue for the state until 2017 when the combined increased revenue sources from HB3176 will catch up with the loss of the domicile-based royalty tax.
When even employees of Microsoft turn into its very worst enemies (as in the case of Reifman, who calls for the prosecution of Gates, Ballmer and others), then it’s clear that something is wrong. But Microsoft employees are not allowed to talk about it, sometimes even after they leave. █
“In Hanson and Edstrom’s view of the world, Gates should be Microsoft’s spokesman. Microsoft’s cofounder, Paul Allen, had resigned in 1983 after battling Hodgkin’s disease, and Gates fit the consummate developer image. Hanson sent around a gag order—no talking to the media. This was, to say the least, not a popular decision with Microsoft’s developers.”
–Barbarians Led by Bill Gates, a book composed
by the daughter of Microsoft’s PR mogul
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Posted in Bill Gates, Microsoft at 10:43 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: The IEEE is still helping Microsoft’s indoctrination of the young with proprietary software
A FEW weeks ago we showed that “American EDGI” was turning more and more citizens of the United States into a voluntary workforce or contributors to Microsoft’s monopoly, under the guise of “training” or “education” [1, 2]. It is not entirely by coincidence that Bill Gates is taking over the US education system [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11], but the integrity of the IEEE, for which I wrote academic papers, is also at stake right now (see more about Elsevier). It was two years ago that the IEEE joined forced with the Microsoft-corrupted ISO right after the huge scandals.
Now, according to this report, the IEEE continues to lend itself for Microsoft to imprison young people, turning them into Microsoft clients despite the obvious ethical problems.
The Redmond giant is teaming up with industry standards body the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) to give its student members gratis access to Microsoft development software, training, and job opportunities.
Here is the page from the IEEE, but it gets worse. It’s not just passive. The IEEE was previously accused of sending bulk mail to promote Microsoft products. The original post/reference that we had in mind had vanished, but we have a full copy (as there is none in the Web Archive):
Monday, July 21, 2008
IEEE wants its students to be slaves
Below is a message I just got from IEEE. I was a student member of IEEE and office bearer of my college’s IEEE chapter. But I didnt renew my membership with several reasons including disagreement on such a great amount of knowledge being locked up behind their online digital library. Now, This is a message inviting me back to join IEEE offering non-free software from M$ for gratis.This has been shown as an attractive offer in the mail, But i feel it as a confirmation message not to join IEEE ever after.
May be this is the way that M$ and co sees as their next step for survival,to make the next generation to be technically dependent on their system. Once the coming generation too is locked up to their system as the ones are now, they can have a few more years to remain in power. By that time they can try all the country laws and organisational ethics having their profit motive philosophy as universal truth. It is very interesting to see these companies advertising their philosophy using the words “sharing” and “collaboration” the very same thing that they prohibit in a global scale!. If you want to give the next generation, atleast the freedoms that you can exercise now, Resist these measures to make these restricting systems to be the fundamental custom. The way m$ deals software is not the way it should be. With these guys continuing with their efforts, the best thing any father can do to his child is to make him free from any slavery and enable him to control his computer and preventing the computer controlling him. Total rejection of non-free software system is the way out for that. Best Wishes
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: <XXXXXXX>
Date: Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 8:16 PM
Subject: IEEE Student Members Get Free Software from Microsoft
To: xxxxxxx
IEEE The world’s leading professional association
for the advancement of technology
Get Free Software From Microsoft:
Renew Your IEEE Student Membership Today!
Dear Shyam K,
IEEE Student Members are now taking advantage of a new member benefit: free Microsoft development tools, operating systems, and server software. IEEE and Microsoft (MSDNAA) have partnered to offer this special member benefit to active IEEE Student Members worldwide.
To qualify you must be an active student with a graduation date of 2009 or later.
How do I get started?
* Renew your 2008 IEEE Student membership online today. (USD$30 for students in the US and Canada and USD$25 for all other students).
* Within 8 days of your renewal and payment being processed and accepted, a separate e-mail (from elms_support@e-academy.com) with your user account and login information will be sent to the e-mail address on your IEEE record. Please make sure you provide your e-mail address during registration as that is the only way you will receive information about the offer.
* Use the login information you receive in the e-mail. Then you will be able to download your FREE Microsoft software.
One software license per student membership is allowed each year of active IEEE student or graduate student membership. License terms also require that software use is for educational and research purposes only. Students can obtain this software including updates to the latest versions as long as they are active IEEE Student members.
Over 50 Available titles to choose from:
* Vista Business Edition
* Visual Studio Team System – Microsoft’s “top of the line” professional development tool!
* Expression Web Designer
* Project 2007
* Visio 2007
* Windows Server 2003
* Check out the complete list of software available
Don’t delay. Begin the process for your Free software today!
Best regards,
Laura J. Durrett
Manager – Student Services
IEEE Member and Geographic Activities Department
———–Mail Ends———–
Here is the exhaustive list of chains used for slavery.
Access 2003,Access 2003 (Español),Access 2007,Compute Cluster Pack,Compute Cluster Pack SDK,Exchange Server 2007 Enterprise Edition,Exchange Server 2007 Standard Edition,Expression Blend,Expression Studio,Expression Web,InfoPath 2003,InfoPath 2003 Toolkit for Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005,InfoPath 2007,ISA Server 2006 Enterprise Edition,MapPoint 2004 European Edition – Setup Disk (1/2),MapPoint 2004 European Edition – Run Disk (2/2),MapPoint 2004 North America – Setup Disk (1/2),MapPoint 2004 North America – Run Disk (2/2),MELL – Developer Edition for MSDNAA,MSDN Library – April 2007 (DVD),MSDN Library – May 2660 – CD1,MSDN Library – May 2660 – CD2,MSDN Library – May 2660 – CD3,Office Groove 2007,Office Groove Server 2007,Office SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise,Office SharePoint Server 2007 Standard,OneNote 2003,OneNote 2007,Project Professional 2003,Project Professional 2007,Project Server 2003,SharePoint Designer 2007,SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition – 32-bit – CD1,SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition – 32-bit – CD2,SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition – 64-bit Extended – CD1,SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition – 64-bit Extended – CD2,SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition – 64-bit Extended – DVD,SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition – 64-bit Itanium – DVD,SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition – 32-bit -0 DVD,Virtual PC 2004,Visio for Enterprise Architects,Visio Professional 2003 (Español),Visio Professional 2007,Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition,Visual C# 2005 Express Edition,Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition,Visual J# .NET,Visual j# 2005 Express Edition,Visual SourceSafe 6.0d,Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional – Full Install,Visual Studio .NET 2005 Professional – Full Install,Visual Studio .NET 2002 – ISO Image – CD1 (Español),Visual Studio .NET 2002 – ISO Image – CD2 (Español),Visual Studio .NET 2002 – ISO Image – CD3 (Español),Visual Studio .NET 2002 – ISO Image – CD4 (Español),Visual Studio .NET 2002 – ISO Image – CD5 (Español),Visual Studio .NET 2002 (Full) (Español),Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition CD1,Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition CD2,Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition CD1,Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition CD2,Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server Trial Edition,Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite – CD1,Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite – CD2,Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite – CD3,Visual Studio 2005 Team Test Load Agent Beta 2,Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System,Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition (x86 and x64 WoW) – DVD,Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition,Windows Embedded CE 6.0 DVD,Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition,Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition – 64 Bit,Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition (Español),Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition,Windows Server 2003 Web Edition,Windows Services for UNIX 3.0,Windows Vista Business 64bit DVD,Windows Vista Business CD1,Windows Vista Business CD2,Windows Vista Business CD3,Windows Vista Business CD4,Windows Vista Business CD5,Windows Vista Business DVD,Windows XP Embedded,Windows XP Professional (Single User),Windows XP Professional (Single User) 64bit Edition,Windows XP Professional (Single User) ISO Image (Español),Windows XP Professional (Single User) ISO Image (Japanese),Windows XP Professional with SP1a (Single User) ISO Image,Windows XP Professional with SP2 (Single User) ISO Image
Why does the IEEE not distance itself from corrupt entities? Earlier this month, when Microsoft used the British Library in a similar way, Dana Blankenhorn said that Microsoft was exploiting reputable establishments in attempts to elevate its own brand. The IEEE should know better than that. █
“Here’s the type of guy I want, I don’t care if he knows anything about computers. I need a guy who really understands branding.”
–Bill Gates
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Posted in Bill Gates, Microsoft at 5:23 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Memorable Microsoft incident, in their own words
Here is one page (among 245 pages) from the book “Barbarians Led by Bill Gates”, written by somewhat of a Microsoft insider.
Slightly disgusted that he had just joined a company [Microsoft] that was shipping defective software, Eller decided to take matters into his own hands. After researching graphics journals and spending nearly two weeks on this complicated problem, Eller finally hacked out a solution and wrote the new flood-fill algorithm. Though it was painfully slow and crawled across the screen, it did enable BASIC to correctly flood-fill.
Eller called his boss into his office once again. Whitten was less than thrilled. He had authorized the work, but Eller had spent two weeks on the flood-fill, ignoring the translator he was supposed to be writing. Undaunted, Eller set out to let others in on the flaw he had discovered and how he had fixed it. He pulled in any random developer he could find. He even pulled in Chairman Gates, whose office was just down the hall.
“Bill, check this out,” Eller said, pointing to his computer screen. “I mean . . . who was the jerk who wrote this brain-dead piece of shit?”
Gates stared at the screen.
“See, now that’s what I call a design flaw,” Eller said. “Now check out my new version. Pretty cool, eh?”
Gates nodded, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
“Does it work with really complicated things?” Gates asked.
“Sure,” Eller told him. He proceeded to draw a complicated object and flood-fill it.
“See? It works perfectly.”
“Can you prove that this works all the time?”
“Uhh, well umm, kind of,” Eller said. “I mean, I know it always works, but I’m a mathematician. The word ‘prove’ conjures up really ugly ideas.”
Gates told Eller his program was nice, then turned and walked back to his office.
After Gates left, Whitten walked into Eller’s office. He had heard the entire conversation.
“Do you know who wrote the original flood-fill algorithm?” he said, shaking his head.
“Ahhh, nope,” Eller replied. “I don’t believe I do.” Whitten paused, rubbed his finger on his left temple, and shook his head again.
“Bill wrote it,” he said. “Bill was the jerk who wrote this brain-dead piece of shit.”
Not so bright after all, eh? █
“In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of their operating systems.”
–Bill Gates
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02.18.10
Posted in Apple, Bill Gates, Deception, DRM, Microsoft at 5:56 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“Hey, Steve, just because you broke into Xerox’s store before I did and took the TV doesn’t mean I can’t go in later and steal the stereo.”
–Bill Gates, Microsoft
Summary: Steve Jobs to help glorify himself as departure may be imminent
APPLE is failing to innovate in recent years. What have they got? The atrocious iPad [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]? It may soon join this new list of “top 10 worst Apple products of all time” as it is already harshly criticised for its risky DRM experiments:
Apple is dusting off FairPlay – the digital rights management used by iTunes – to protect electronic copies of books sold to iPad users.
Apple sells overpriced computers for no defensible reason. Recent surveys showed Mac hardware to be defective hardware, more so than non-Apple PCs, so Apple responds with extended warranties, not improved quality of components (Apple hardware, just like most hardware, is made in China and then badged with the Apple logo).
But anyway, what we found most curious are these many articles about a New York Times report.
Steve Jobs has put himself on a par with Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin in anointing the man he would like to write his official biography. Maybe.
That’s not good. People writing (or assisting the writing of) their own biography, as opposed to autobiography? Dangerous territories there. Let’s learn our lessons from Gates and his foundation, which is being used for monopolisation and self glorification more than anything else. Neither Apple nor Microsoft brought us the GUI for example, yet they claim credit for far too many things. Those two companies brought proprietary software to people’s desktops, including all sorts of malicious features like DRM and remote kill switches. The last thing the world needs is to have these people rewrite history. As Richard Stallman stated in his BBC piece, “Gates may be gone, but the walls and bars of proprietary software he helped create remain, for now. Dismantling them is up to us.” █
“Remala was tired of working on languages and was ready for a new challenge. Gates gave him one: develop a graphics-based windowing shell just like VisiOn, only better.
“Remala and McCabe studied Xerox PARC’s Star system, which Gates had purchased for Microsoft to reverse engineer. The $15,000 Star system had one of the most innovative interfaces available at the time. Icons of familiar objects like desktop folders, documents, and in-baskets decorated the screen.”
–Barbarians Led by Bill Gates, a book composed
by the daughter of Microsoft’s PR mogul
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02.17.10
Posted in Antitrust, Bill Gates, Courtroom, Hardware, Microsoft at 4:49 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“Our friends up north [Microsoft] spend over five billion dollars on research and development and all they seem to do is copy Google and Apple.”
–Steve Jobs, 2006
Summary: A look at some old quotes and court material shows that Microsoft not only failed to innovate but that it also chose to attack progress rather than embrace it and attempt to compete on/with it
YESTERDAY we wrote about Microsoft's attempts to portray itself as innovative after a former vice president had slammed the company for lack of innovation. People like Mary Jo Foley and Gavin Clarke go on with their Microsoft-boosting articles about “innovation”. It’s just a lot of spin, that’s what it really is.
The PR campaign of Bill Gates is currently trying to portray the man as an innovator, as opposed to what he has really been for decades: a plagiarist, a pillager, a violator of the law, and suppressor of innovation. GatesKeepers says:
After years of stifling innovation at Microsoft, why is it assumed that Bill Gates is competent to lead innovation worldwide?
This really requires some nerve. Oracle’s Larry Ellison, a friend of Steve Jobs, says that Microsoft’s business strategy is to “copy the product that others innovate, put them into Windows so they can’t be unplugged, and then give it away for free.” Sybase Chairman Mitchell Kertzman said that “Microsoft’s claims of succeeding through innovation are a complete fraud. Their only innovation has been in inventing predatory business practices. Other than that, they have been perhaps the greatest borrowers in the history of the software industry.”
Robert Pogson has this new post about how Microsoft hindered innovation, based on a Comes vs Microsoft exhibit:
Isn’t that interesting? While M$ was telling the world it was innovative, it was looking at ways to stifle the competition and to sell consumers stuff they did not need. Note that M$ felt pressure from sub $1000 PCs in 1997. How must they be sweating with PCs at $100-$300 and M$ have raised prices again? Well, the higher-priced units are not selling. The lower-priced units are having to cut prices to compete. That means the cash cow is drying up. Do you really need a quad-core CPU and video card that can do 200 frames per second 3D? Do you see competition in the market or do you see OEMs, Intel and M$ colluding to keep prices high? This year, OEMs will be under a lot of pressure to dump M$ because ARM will sell and do it all without the OEMs and without M$. To keep moving units, OEMs will have to cut prices. Hardware is already at rock-bottom, so the cut will have to come in software. Good-bye M$. Hello GNU/Linux.
Business basically buys no-OS PCs in bulk and writes disc images to them or uses thin client technology. They really have no need for the M$ tax to raise their cost of acquisition. Businesses compete. If the competition adopts GNU/Linux and thin clients, others will follow. It’s happening.
The post above contains an exhibit which illustrates that without doubt, Microsoft is hindering progress in order to protect its interests. Pogson has another new post where he includes a Comes vs Microsoft exhibit, this time about NetPC which Microsoft attacked with the help of Gartner.
They were a little ahead of their time because Java was new and networks and servers dragged but people still call thin clients dumb terminals because of the FUD spread by M$ and its partners. You can see part of the story in these summaries of M$’s campaigns about the time of Lose ‘98. That is a document produced as evidence in Comes v M$ and it shows that not only did the NC have a few problems of its own, M$ actively connived with its partners to dig a hole and bury the NC. I will use that document in a grade 9 class outlining the history of the PC. The students will be using network computers/thin clients so they will know FUD when they see it. These are not dumb terminals or Java-based thin clients but regular X terminals showing the pictures and sending the clicks to a powerful machine built four years after the FUD campaign. The NC works.
There is also an HTML version of the exhibit/s. █
“Microsoft, a rather new corporation, may not have matured to the position where it understands how it should act with respect to the public interest and the ethics of the marketplace.”
–U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin
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02.15.10
Posted in Bill Gates, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Vista 7, Windows at 9:36 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“It’s easier for our software to compete with Linux when there’s piracy than when there’s not.”
–Bill Gates
Summary: News coverage with statements and observations that confirm simple truths (as opposed to spin from the “mainstream” media)
THIS ISSUE has already been covered in a previous post, but the following articles contain parts (the quoted snippets) which confirm what Bill Gates said a few years ago:
• Your Windows 7 PC Will Call Home To Ensure It’s Piracy-Free
Of course, if you’re really unhappy about this, you don’t have to use Microsoft products. I would like to take this opportunity to remind people that for the most part, we have a free choice as to what software we run. Not happy with Windows? Run Linux.
• Best Do Something About That RC Copy Of Windows 7 Soon
So best do something about it before the end of this month. And if you’d rather not fork out the cash for Windows 7, you could always try a version of Linux…
• Windows update causes Windows XP to freak out”
So yeah, let’s all move to Linux. Someone tell Scott.
The Register calls this Vista 7 antifeature “nagware” and longtime Microsoft apologist Alex Zaharov-Reutt pokes fun with phrases like “Linux lovers a Windows-bashing field day” and “causing Mac and Linux fans to snigger…”
The Inquirer went along with the headline “You don’t own your computer, Microsoft does”
Well, actually, with GNU/Linux you do own your computer.
It’s the same when it comes to last week’s BSoDs, which we wrote about in [1, 2]:
• Windows XP patch fiasco gets even crazier, Microsoft now scrambling for solutions
If you ever needed a reason to go Linux, here you go. The noise surrounding this patently obscure Windows XP bug / patch fiasco has just reached a fever pitch, and now we’ve got engineers within Redmond scratching their heads, too.
More information can be found in ZDNet and The Register. Regarding Microsoft’s suggestion, Groklaw writes: “Microsoft says to boot up with the installation CD, but since when do they provide those any more? If you have a netbook without a CD drive, now what do you do?”
There are those who blame rootkits, but when 32% or more of the machines are being infected despite having anti-virus software installed, then how is that not Microsoft’s fault? Either way, Microsoft pulled the patches — an urgent move which only leaves Windows PCs more vulnerable (unpatched).
To summarise, Microsoft’s pressure on more users is only helping GNU/Linux, so the principal so-called ‘pirate’ here is Microsoft. It bullies innocent users and it still takes its code from other developers, illegally [1, 2, 3]. █
“Stolen’s a strong word. it’s copyrighted content that the owner wasn’t paid for.”
–Bill Gates
“Hey, Steve, just because you broke into Xerox’s store before I did and took the TV doesn’t mean I can’t go in later and steal the stereo.”
–Bill Gates
“In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of their operating systems.”
–Bill Gates
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Posted in Bill Gates, Boycott Novell, Deception, Microsoft, Patents at 6:19 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: The “mainstream” press glorifies the same people who are looting society at large
A FEW months ago we explained that those who speak out against crime are subjected to personal abuse. We live in a society that rewards bystanders. We have covered examples where Microsoft and Bill Gates were seen paying to buy the media and to do reputation laundering, even for crime/criminals. It’s not something that’s unique to Microsoft though. To borrow a recent example from entertainment, after Chris Brown had been beating up his famous girlfriend he hired a PR firm to spin the incident. That’s just how the rich people work; they hire large teams of people whose sole job is to manage the public image of their clients.
“Unethical,” you say?
Well, that’s just reality. The rich can afford to reshape public opinion, whereas the poor gets to be daemonised by the rich (who have means of power). We know for a fact that Microsoft is doing this with PR agencies since decades ago. This affects various Web sites and overall, this changes how people perceive the company and its co-founder.
“He [Bill Gates] acted like a spoiled kid, which is what he was.”
–Ed Roberts, Gates’ employer at MITS in the 1970′s (Atlanta Journal-Costitution, 04-27-97)
That’s not the Bill Gates who the average person knows. This is the same guy who relies on vaccines propaganda from the likes of CNN, who are still treating the man like he is more quote-worthy than professors of economics and energy experts speaking about their own field that they master. This is not a coincidence and it is simple to explain if one looks at the flow of funds in the media. Rich people can acquire a “parent of the world” status, even if it gets assigned to one who committed crime to get where he got, since a very young age in fact. This is to do with concern about what happened to computing.
Anyway, today’s post was kindly contributed by a reader who explains how Microsoft's patent troll from Intellectual Ventures (which Bill Gates invested heavily in) is being glorified in the press. He asks: “Are Microsoft astroturfers invading BoingBoing and other popular sites? Why are they promoting Intellectual Ventures and Bill Gates?”
Here is an exploration of these questions:
Microsoft Cranks Up the Astroturf?
Patent troll scores full media spectrum self promotion and ordinarily clueful sites take the bait.
Are Microsoft astroturfers invading BoingBoing and other popular tech sites with material that flies in the face of community belief and philosophy? I was disturbed to see the promotion of Intellectual Ventures and Bill Gates at BoingBoing recently. Several sites that should know better have acted as part of a pro patent propaganda blitz.
Before the specifics, consider the “mind control” advice given by Microsoft’s training manual [2]
Mind Control: To control mental output you have to control mental input. Take control of the channels by which developers receive information, then they can only think about the things you tell them. Thus, you control mindshare!
People writing stories about anything connected to Microsoft should ask themselves what Wired reporter Fred Vogelstein did, “should I be embarrassed at being co-opted by their spin machine?” With that, here’s the news.
Oh no, not that again and now it’s everywhere! Remember the working prototype of a not so great idea Dr. Lowell Wood and other Star Wars scientists had for zapping mosquitoes [2]? Well OK, it’s a common fantasy many people have had before. Now design of the invention is being credited to patent troll Nathan Myhrvold. The Dorvak article is one of a trio of glorifying reviews in places that are ordinarily more clueful. BoingBoing and Slashdot also took the bait. These follow the usual Microsoft full spectrum news coverage by the New York Times, CNet and other habitual shills. Boingboing has the special distinction of rejecting my comment linking to a google search of Boycott Novell for Intellectual Ventures.
The problem is not that the device is silly, or that so many reporters have been conned into reporting it, it’s that a company so detrimental to technology and rule of law is promoted as an innovator. Five minutes of thought is all it takes to dismiss this silly “invention.” No machine is smart enough to avoid blinding people by reflections and over the horizon misses. Nor is such an expensive and power hungry cover for a one or two hundred foot range practical mosquito control, especially for developing nations that need electricity for basic things like refrigeration, water purification and hospitals. Boycott Novell has covered Intellectual Ventures, so you would think other reporters could too. Current US patent law is detrimental to all technical endeavors, including medicine, but Intellectual Ventures and Microsoft profit from stagnation and are working to make laws worse around the world.
Incidental or not, the same reporter who fawned over IV at BoingBoing also fawns over Bill Gate’s new vacuous talk at TED. Last year Bill Gates, unleashed a jar of live mosquitoes on the audience at TED. He also has a jar this year but the talk was about nuclear power at a clueless 100,000 foot level. It is good that Mr. Gates is talking about the problem of global warming, even if it is in a foolish and self aggrandizing manner, but real scientists have warned about the problem much longer and have more appropriate solutions, like agricultural sequestering. [2]. Regardless of wealth and power, Mr Gates is a convicted felon, anti-trust, and should not be looked to for advice. Clue to reporter, you have been spun, see above for the damage.
Thoughts welcome. █
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