11.09.08
Posted in Microsoft, Windows at 11:16 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
The keys are in the car
THE Gartner chaps make a living by selling out, according to Microsoft. But this post is not about the Partner Group [sic], which was covered here tirelessly in the past [1, 2, 3, 4]. This post is mostly about a recent story from Larry Dignan, who received a so-called “loaner laptop” [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. Who from? Notice the environment he’s in.
See a theme here? Microsoft wants you to upgrade really bad. The problem: PCs are lasting much longer than expected and companies see no reason to get on the upgrade bandwagon. Indeed, I recently got a loaner laptop and the default settings were XP with IE6. I had forgotten what IE6 even looked like.
[...]
Here in Orlando the Microsoft upgrade question is a burning issue. Later today, Gartner analyst Michael Silver, who just a few months ago noted Windows would collapse under its own weight, tackles the issue. The question: Which version of Windows and Office do you use and for how long?
Silver’s presentation this go round is a little more constructive on Vista, but you can argue either way. Microsoft wants you to think about the risks of not upgrading. Customers want Microsoft to think about the savings involved with not moving up to Vista and the latest office.
For those who don’t know Michael Silver, here is a place to start. In order for Larry Dignan to remain clean from brainwash, distance needs to be kept from SIlver and Co. They are Microsoft marketers in suits. █
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Posted in Microsoft, Vista 7, Windows at 10:41 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
FOR several weeks now, over at the IRC channel, I have been complaining that someone called Yardena Arar, who never ever appears in IDG, yet suddenly she shows up with weird articles that look like commercials for Microsoft.
Realising the importance of headlines and summarising it as “A big fix for Vista,” Arar and Harry McCracken have published a joint advertisement coverage for the next iteration of Vista, which they reviewed on their gifts from Microsoft. The disclosures portion gives some numbers.
Along with several dozen other reviewers and analysts, we got our first real look at the OS, preinstalled on loaner notebooks, over the weekend at a workshop on the eve of the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference.
There are no disclosures everywhere one goes. So, although we can never obtain the names of these dozens of people, we gradually accumulate intelligence and we make a plea to readers who can help expand it. What we have so far is:
The article from Arar and McCracken was spread all over the many domains of IDC/IDG (see list of Web sites here). It appears in so many sites that are owned by IDG and I could find about 10. Even TechWorld, which turns out to be theirs, has a copy of it. They even put as a permanent review page. Same in “PC Advisor”, which sounds formal and reliable to an innocent errant reader.
IDG even had this ‘exported’ (sold) to other sites (and networks) like itbusiness.ca.
Microsoft and its cronies are still seeding the Web with their gifted-for disinformation, which is based on high-specced and optimised machines, accommodated by pro-Microsoft bias. Be careful out there. █
“I’ve been thinking long and hard about this, and the only conclusion I can come to is that this is ethically indistinguishable from bribery. Even if no quid-pro-quo is formally required, the gift creates a social obligation of reciprocity. This is best explained in Cialdini’s book Influence (a summary is here). The blogger will feel some obligation to return the favor to Microsoft.”
–Former Microsoft manager
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Posted in Microsoft, Vista 7, Windows at 10:21 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
THIS post is part of a series of posts. Previous items in this series are:
Wilson Rothman (of Gizmodo) has taken a good look at Vista 7 [sic] and the following bit was an eye opener.
The feature will only work on Windows 7, so to test it I’d need a second loaner unit.
Second one? So there’s a first one, but the post says nothing about it. Where is the disclosure? This post enjoyed large readership and was even mirrored (or scraped). It made the front page of Digg.com to boast about Vista 7. Wouldn’t Microsoft be ecstatic?
As yet, we have hardly alluded to Munchkins in blog comments about Vista 7, but they do appear to exist. They also promote Windows Vista.
One reader of ours, Goblin, wrote in IDG Blogs:
If you check out the Microsoft Watch site, you will see just how impartial Mr Da Co$ta is.
Of course I believe its a bribe. Afterall if the package was any good people would be lining up for a demo disk to install on their machines, instead of waiting with begging bowls saying “please sir can I have some more?”
Mr Da Co$ta has quiet a repution for pro MS posting, matched only by his ability to avoid difficult MS related questions. “is generally positive” is a very general term isnt it Mr Da Co$ta?
Here is the Microsoft Watch page which Goblin is referring to. That site is filled with Microsoft employees and sympathisers and this includes the editor, who admits to being a fan of Microsoft’s guerrilla marketing.
The above was said in response to Andre Da Costa from ActiveWin (pointing to his Microsoft-oriented Web site and his own Vista 7 review). It’s possible to also find Microsoft apologism all over the place. It’s amazing what people would do for money and Microsoft understand this very well. It explains it clearly in the following leaked document (click the image to open the PDF). █
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Posted in Microsoft, Vista 7, Windows at 9:55 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
THIS is part of a series of posts. For context, have a look at previous parts of this sage, such as:
What’s new then? Yes, you’ve guessed it, there’s another one. It is almost self explanatory and there are more important examples which would take a long time to explore and touch on, so let’s make this quick.
Here’s a look at the hardware that Microsoft is using to demonstrate their lastest pre-beta version of Windows 7. Journalist reviewers are loaned 1 of two models of laptop, the hard hitting, but feather weight Dell 1330 and a lenovo laptop with an SSD hard-drive (I don’t recall the model). That’s all I can say about the lenovo, since I wasn’t assigned that machine. My reviews will be based on the Dell.
More here.
I’m attending a good number of the conferences at PDC, and as part of the media, was loaned a laptop with a certain operating system to take back to the geek-lair. Check back at 9 am PST to find out some surprising new facts about the new Windows 7. I’m pretty excited about it and I think you should too.
Oh, and just a note, other than this loaner laptop, I receive zero compensation from Microsoft (or from any other entity), my regular job is covering my travel expenses to the conference, and I receive no advertising dollars from this website. I do this just for the heck of it, and I really think the GeekPI coverage is going to put the rest of those ‘tech’ blogs to shame.
Translation: I got a $2000 worth of schwag from a company that does not even manufacture it. But that’s all, I promise! No more than $2000!!
The only comment there says: “Thanks for this blog. I look forward to your “independent” coverage.”
Paul Thurrott wannabes? He too has been shilling for whatever is Windows related. Gosh, Microsoft is really destroying trust in the blogosphere. █
“I’ve been thinking long and hard about this, and the only conclusion I can come to is that this is ethically indistinguishable from bribery. Even if no quid-pro-quo is formally required, the gift creates a social obligation of reciprocity. This is best explained in Cialdini’s book Influence (a summary is here). The blogger will feel some obligation to return the favor to Microsoft.”
–Former Microsoft manager
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Posted in Microsoft, Vista 7, Windows at 9:38 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Up Microsoft’s Butt, or Just Wishful Thinking?
A familiar name and another familiar Microsoft booster. Ed Bott literally makes a living out of Windows books. Without Windows, Edward would be out on the street or taking GNU/Linux 101 courses, so no wonder he’s stubbornly defensive. Moreover, no wonder Microsoft gives him free gifts to maintain a relationship which keep his ZDNet blog emitting Microsoft PR.
Although he probably received his separately, Bott was among the recipients of these infamous laptops which we mentioned in:
Here is his fairy tale story.
Microsoft executives showed off the new Windows upgrade in a day-long series of demos on Sunday, doing their level best to impress a room full of journalists with a long list of new and improved features. At the end of the day, they loaned me a sleek new Lenovo X300 notebook running a recent build of the OS so that I could test Windows 7 for myself.
Ed Bott received a $2,000 gift from Microsoft. He has been writing nice things about the abusive monopolist and attacked the abuser’s critics for ages. Expect more of the same n the future.
Bott also defended similar Microsoft bribes the last time they happened. Here, have a look. Another journalist, Dan Warne, rebutted at the time.
# Dan Warne says:
I think that people who have the opportunity to get a free high-spec computer are going to find any way they can to paint it as -not- affecting their integrity.
In all my time as a tech journalist a software company has never given anyone a free computer. Sure, computer companies give out computers on long term loan, etc, but that’s not the same thing. It’s their product for a start (Microsoft doesn’t make computers) and they’re loaners, not keepers.
I don’t see this so much as reflecting badly on bloggers’ ethics, but rather reflecting badly on Microsoft’s ethics.
The offer should have been a loan. Microsoft shouldn’t have offered the option of keeping the computer, because that dramatically muddies the waters for everyone concerned – Microsoft, the bloggers and the readers.
Posted December 28, 2006 @ 1:11 am
# Dan Warne says:
(sorry, of course, that should have been: in all my time as a tech journalist, no software company _that I’m aware of_ has given anyone a free computer. I’m sure it _has_ happened.)
High points for Mr. Warne. Shame on Bott though. He was a useless source before (see the credibility index where he was always ranked “0″) and deep inside the bitbucket he stays. █
“I’ve been thinking long and hard about this, and the only conclusion I can come to is that this is ethically indistinguishable from bribery. Even if no quid-pro-quo is formally required, the gift creates a social obligation of reciprocity. This is best explained in Cialdini’s book Influence (a summary is here). The blogger will feel some obligation to return the favor to Microsoft.”
–Former Microsoft manager
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Posted in Microsoft, Vista 7, Windows at 9:18 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
THIS is part of a series of posts. For context, see:
To repeat what we wrote earlier, it’s another laptops giveaway bonanza, designed and intended to seed a media blitz which has Vista 7 reviewed under unrealistic conditions, as well as with the expectation that journalists will repay for this $2,000 gift. According to IDG News Service, literally “several dozen of reviewers and analysts” received this schwag from Microsoft. The company gave it away under the disguise which is “loan” (no obligation to return it). It has been called “permanently loaned” in some places.
Next up we have LaptopMag, which got bribed by Microsoft.
The sample system Microsoft loaned us, a Lenovo ThinkPad X300 with Windows 7 pre-beta installed, boots very quickly, but to see the boot time difference, we’re looking forward to trying both Vista and Windows 7 on a few different systems to see how things compare.
Avram Piltch at Laptop Magazine received a $2,000 gift from Microsoft. Expect him to write nice things about Windows (or Vista 7) in the future.
Avram even did some blogging about it. This wasn’t a one-shot gig.
It’s one thing to sit through lots of demos, but quite another to go hands on with a pre-beta build of Windows 7 on a laptop. This Lenovo ThinkPad X300 came complete with a high-speed SSD and 4GB of RAM. We spent a few hours playing with the new OS so we could offer initial impressions. We also tooka few minutes to do a screen-capture video that shows some of our favorite features.
Since Microsoft is not a laptop manufacturer, it cannot claim to have given its product away as a ‘free sample’. That would be the equivalent of a car radio specialist handing out free cars for reviewers of a radio. Ferrari anyone? █
“I’ve been thinking long and hard about this, and the only conclusion I can come to is that this is ethically indistinguishable from bribery. Even if no quid-pro-quo is formally required, the gift creates a social obligation of reciprocity. This is best explained in Cialdini’s book Influence (a summary is here). The blogger will feel some obligation to return the favor to Microsoft.”
–Former Microsoft manager
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Posted in Microsoft, Vista 7, Windows at 8:51 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
WE were never particularly fond of eWeek. They also happen to have employed this one guy as a reporter, who is now a Microsoft employee. He used to spread a lot of FUD in eWeek.
For background relating to this post, see:
Next up we have another sellout, this one coming from eWeek. The only thing going to his credit is a disclosure**, but he is no longer trustworthy.
In the day and a half I’ve spent using Windows 7 on a Microsoft-provided Dell XPS M1330 machine preinstalled with Build 6801 of the OS, I’ve found its polish and performance a world away from the first Longhorn build I tried out at PDC 2003. At this point, Windows 7 feels more like a second beta or an early release candidate than a developer conference sneak peek.
Jason Brooks was already quite defensive of Microsoft at times, although he sometimes covered GNU/Linux too. Having received a $2000 gift from Microsoft, expect him to say sympathetic things about Windows in the future. What a waste of reputation. As the banner as the bottom states, “discredited by Microsoft.” █
“I’ve been thinking long and hard about this, and the only conclusion I can come to is that this is ethically indistinguishable from bribery. Even if no quid-pro-quo is formally required, the gift creates a social obligation of reciprocity. This is best explained in Cialdini’s book Influence (a summary is here). The blogger will feel some obligation to return the favor to Microsoft.”
–Former Microsoft manager
____
** We are unable to spot many of the bribed reviewers who wrote nothing to provide evidence.
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Posted in Microsoft, Vista 7, Windows at 8:34 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
THIS is part of a series of posts. For context, see:
The previous post explained why Tim Anderson had lost his credibility as a reporter. It’s about that laptop giveaway. Now we can add Harry McCracken to the same bucket. He even included an exclamation point in the headline of his pseudo-review, “Windows 7 First Impressions: Hey, This Looks Pretty Good!”
A few disclosures about the discussion of specific Windows 7 features that follows: So far, I’ve used Windows 7 for only a few hours, and only in preinstalled form on a Dell laptop loaned to me by Microsoft.
[...]
But for what it’s worth, W7 loads quickly and feels pretty darn zippy on the Dell notebook Microsoft loaned me, which is unencumbered by third-party adware and junkware.
He wrote about it some more, so it wasn’t a one-time thing. There are very few people out there who can tell the world about Vista 7 (well, based on hands-on experience) and many of them are bribed.
Harry McCracken received a $2,000 gift from Microsoft. Expect him to publish nice things about Microsoft and/or Windows in the future. █
“I’ve been thinking long and hard about this, and the only conclusion I can come to is that this is ethically indistinguishable from bribery. Even if no quid-pro-quo is formally required, the gift creates a social obligation of reciprocity. This is best explained in Cialdini’s book Influence (a summary is here). The blogger will feel some obligation to return the favor to Microsoft.”
–Former Microsoft manager
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