11.09.09

Links 09/11/2009: Zenwalk Core 6.2 Released, Firefox Turns 5

Posted in News Roundup at 8:55 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Interview with Paul Mackerras of IBM

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More Proof That NASSCOM Should be Dismantled

Posted in Bill Gates, Microsoft, Patents, Vista 7, Windows at 1:23 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: NASSCOM shills Vista 7, proving that all this money that comes in does in fact serve commercial interests

NASSCOM has made it a little more official that it is corrupt, and that it is a semi-official shill for Microsoft and for Bill [1, 2]. How many incidents that it take before people realise that NASSCOM is an opponent of India’s national sovereignty? No matter the many problems of Vista 7 (never mind the fact that it is proprietary), NASSCOM is now shilling Vista 7 and even selling it under the disguise of “NGO” (like all those NGOs which Microsoft may have bribed for OOXML pressure).

Anivar shows us this press release:

NASSCOM Foundation facilitates free access to Microsoft Windows 7 for NGOs across India

NASSCOM Foundation, the CSR arm of NASSCOM, India’s premier IT industry body, has been at the forefront of technology enablement for NGOs across the country.

In another landmark move, NASSCOM Foundation has come together with TechSoup Global, USA to announce the availability of Windows 7, the latest version of Microsoft Windows OS, for distribution to Indian NGOs. This technology donation is available to registered and qualified NGOs on www.BiGTech.in.

As Anivar puts is, “NASSCOM’s Non Profit Foundation Using Non-profit status to market windows 7. NASSCOM is a Microsoft ally always , as we [have] seen on [the] OOXML issue.”

“NASSCOM foundation is the non profit trust by NASCOM and they are doing this in the name of corporate social responsibility.”
      –AnivarHe again emphasises: “NASSCOM foundation is the non profit trust by NASCOM and they are doing this in the name of corporate social responsibility. Look at http://www.bigtech.in/ , special website setup for Windows 7 donation.”

“That’s sick,” says another Indian reader of ours about what NASSCOM is doing here. “Do write about it,” he urged, “those guys in NASSCOM keep supporting non free software and Microsoft; Ambassadors of Uncle Sam.”

Anivar adds: “I think it is a way to use channelise money used for CSR No-Profit work to Microsoft . This may be the meaning of Bill gate’s quote “Focus on Poverty alleviation with profitability”.”

That’s what the Gates Foundation is all about — making a lot of money (mostly using patents) while pretending to solve problems in the world.

Just days ago we caught Bill Gates paying NPR to interview and glorify him and his wife (and his patent business). Down at the bottom we find:

And by way of full disclosure, we should note that NPR receives support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

That’s not so priceless then. We wrote about this interview a while ago, noting that there were also Microsoft genes inside NPR (former employees just joining). It’s not unusual for the Gates Foundation to do this kind of marketing, e.g. pay publications to seed articles praising it and spreading PR very widely. It makes the notion of charity look rather gross sometimes, and it’s truly a shame for real ones. █

Related posts:

• Why India Should Embargo Microsoft Now That It Brings More of the Live@Edu Ploy and Bribes
• Microsoft Hijacks Maharashtra’s Education, to Teach Many Children How to Smoke Windows
• Microsoft Wants More Control of Indian Government, US Space Programs
• More RAND and Hostility Towards Standards, Courtesy of Microsoft

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Patents Roundup: Supreme Court Paywalls Raised as Bilski (Re)Starts, Microsoft Patent Lawsuits, EU Community Patent

Posted in Courtroom, Europe, Free/Libre Software, Intellectual Monopoly, Law, Microsoft, Patents at 12:42 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Just a grouping of patent news of relevance to Free(dom) software

TODAY is an important day. The Supreme Court is hearing the Bilski case, which may finally end software patents in the United States. Pointing to this page from Practising Law Institute, President of the FFII writes: “300USD for the audio recording of Bilski, everything is good to make money in the US“

Land of the fee? It is the same story with PACER as a service/plug-in called RECAP had its writer chased by the FBI (Wired Magazine broke the story); gratis access to court documents was at one stage named as a risk to national security. Maybe they meant financial security of some national oligarch.

Jose X has told us about the following AP article, which is filled with quotes from Microsoft:

“Technology companies care about this case because it will define what you can and cannot get a patent on,” said Emery Simon, counselor to the Business Software Alliance, which represents large technology companies including Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. “The scope of patentability could have ramifications for the path that technology takes.”

[...]

At this point, there is no firm consensus on what the test for patentability should be. IBM Corp. says an invention should be eligible if it makes a “technological contribution.” Microsoft says an invention should be eligible if it has physical properties or produces a result in the physical world.

Under both tests, the companies say, software would make the cut and the Bilski risk-hedging application would not.

Indeed, Horacio Gutierrez, deputy general counsel for Microsoft, said the Supreme Court would actually help the technology industry by blocking a patent in this case — sending a strong signal that the government must hold patent applications to high standards.

In preparation for another round of In Re Bilski, Ciaran O’Riordan from the FSF wrote this article on abandoning software patents [via ]. He has managed to put it in a good place (Patently-O) which ensures it won’t be an exercise of preaching to the choir. At Groklaw, Pamela Jones says: “I’ve heard that at least one Supreme Court justice reads Patently O.”

On Monday, November 9th, the Supreme Court will hear the case of Bilski’s business method patent. Being the first review of patentable subject matter since 1981, this decision could make the rules for decades to come. The court will review the 2008 ruling of the CAFC which created the “particular machine or transformation” test. This test, depending on who’s reading it, could significantly narrow the scope for patenting software ideas.

The Supreme Court isn’t obliged to rule on the patentability of software ideas. Bilski’s patent is a business method patent, not a software patent. So why might the court make a broad ruling which would cover software? For people who are already aware of the legal arguments, I’d like to offer a review of the socio-economic arguments for abandoning software patents.

The SFLC has this new page with highlights of the briefs and SD Times says something reasonable.

Recently we managed to show that Microsoft had amassed over 50 patent infringement cases against it (pending). Well, Law.com has this update about one of them.

Court Transfers Part of Patent Case Involving Microsoft to Texas

[...]

A Delaware federal judge’s transfer of part of a patent infringement case involving software giant Microsoft Corp. to the Eastern District of Texas is the latest example of the federal courts’ shifting approach to patent litigation venue battles. The decision is also notable in that the Eastern District of Texas, known as a plaintiff-friendly venue, has itself recently started to transfer cases to other venues in compliance with recent federal appellate decisions.

[...]

QuinStreet dragged Microsoft into the case in January 2008 with a third-party complaint asking the court to rule that Microsoft should reimburse QuinStreet for any damages awarded to Parallel Networks. QuinStreet alleges that if it is infringing Parallel Networks’ patents, that is due to QuinStreet’s use of Microsoft’s Web server software for Web page generation.

Relocation to Texas is part of a recurring theme we began seeing not so long ago. Microsoft is losing a lot of money in these lawsuits and having fired many lawyers as part of budget cuts (down 15%), Microsoft is likely to fall under a heavy weight of software patent lawsuits. It will be more defenseless. Maybe it’s time for Microsoft to quit lobbying for this type of patents. Avistar is one of the many companies that have drained Microsoft’s legal budget [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9], so it is rather ironic that days ago it announced support for a Microsoft platform.

Some days ago we also wrote about TRIPS, which is a nasty new way of generating money from intellectual monopolies [1, 2, 3, 4]. TRIPS actually kills people and related to this we have some posts about gene patents. From Science Blogs:

Court Upholds Rights of Scientists and Patients to Challenge Gene Patents

[...]

“We hope this challenge is the beginning of the end to patents on genes, which limit scientific research, learning and the free flow of information,” said Chris Hansen, a staff attorney with the ACLU First Amendment Working Group. “No one should be able to patent a part of the human body.”

From Patent Baristas:

A federal district court said that the ACLU et al. suit challenging the patentability of gene patents can go forward. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), and a whole host of others have filed a lawsuit challenging patents on two human genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer claiming that the patents are illegal and restrict both scientific research and patients’ access to medical care, and that patents on human genes violate the First Amendment and patent law because genes are “products of nature.”

Axel H. Horns has this update on the Community patent, which can be viewed as a mechanism for banning Free software in Europe.

EU Community Patent: The Mill Goes On And On

[...]

With other words, the highly crucial question of the arrangement concerning translations – which might well be decisive for the fate of the entire project – is taken out of the main body of text on the Council Regulation on the Community Patent. As far as I can learn from earlier Documents, utilisation of machine translations is considered to be the joker of the day. The newly introduced Article 61 makes clear that if this approach should later turn to be unworkable, the language arrangement can be changed without unbundling the entire package of the EU Community patent project.

Microsoft uses its lobbying groups to promote the Community patent. █

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Reader’s Article: ARMageddon, Judgment Day for Non-Free Software.

Posted in Finance, GNU/Linux, Hardware, OLPC, Windows at 11:19 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: One person’s thoughts about the change dynamics which can help GNU/Linux

Brooke Crothers sees the Windows ARMageddon coming next year. He recognizes Microsoft’s inability or refusal to run on ARM and other mobile platforms as a detriment to Microsoft, not ARM. He also thinks that Intel is having a hard time competing without Microsoft desktop monopoly help and that the mobile revolution is undermining the once “outrageously successful” Wintel combination. While he understands that competition can squeeze Windows out of the market, he does not consider the global consequences of Microsoft’s criminal collusion to prop their margins up.

Windows Mobile is losing the last vestiges of its mojo–if it really had any to begin with–as the Droid and other phones based on the Android 2.0 operating system push the buzz meter needle into the red zone.. .. [many think that] Windows Mobile has now been relegated resolutely to has-been status. [Many quotes and a market survey showing Windows Mobile at less than 4% of the world market follow.]

Intel is chasing a fast-moving target. TI, and all the other ARM-based chip suppliers cited above, are slated to bring out dual-core designs that can hit speeds as high as 2GHz (think next-generation tablets and media pads).

Droid may not be the iPhone killer but rather the Windows Mobile slayer. Microsoft, of course, will always have the unassailable PC franchise. But, wait, isn’t Android coming to Netbooks next year? Maybe the real battle royal for Microsoft is yet to come.

Windows profits are already down by 50% but it’s going to get worse as margins collapse. TI and other companies have little to lose as the price of laptops and desktops falls to $100 because they were excluded from the high margin market by Wintel long ago. Today, their chips make picture frames and other gadgets that could be PDAs and tablet PCs with a small change in software and a touch screen. Because those computers can do everything users want, they will have little need for boxy desktops with Microsoft Windows. Windows won’t survive the transition as is because non free software can not survive in a world of computers that are cheap and just work. Their ecosystem requires periodic “refresh cycles,” planned obsolescence of high margin equipment and minimally modified software. Only the cooperative efforts of free software developers have a chance of providing complex and high quality software at PDA or calculator price points. A market move to free software on commodity hardware is long overdue and everyone but Microsoft and Intel will benefit.

“Instead of helping they conspired to destroy the OLPC project and foist intellectual monopoly treaties on everyone.”Collusion between Microsoft, Intel and others to thwart competition is really a story of global injustice. The rest of the world has much to gain from cheap computing, especially people in the developing world who have been unable to afford libraries, journals and other information vital to industry and the arts. Companies like Intel and Microsoft, that have brain drained the rest of the world for decades, know better than others what kind of talent is lost to knowledge barriers. Instead of helping they conspired to destroy the OLPC project and foist intellectual monopoly treaties on everyone. This preserved their margins for about five years but it delayed the era of universal access to knowledge and global sharing. Developed world money now wasted on refresh cycles should go to remaining competitive and the specific tasks that people want their computers to do. People in the developed world should also demand the freedom to share. Proper history will censor short sighted and greedy efforts to dominate a crucial part of cultural infrastructure and culture itself. █

Written by anonymous

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Just One Way (Among More) Microsoft Cheats in Vista 7 Number Games

Posted in Deception, Microsoft, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 11:01 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“Lies, damned lies, and statistics”

–Benjamin Disraeli/others

Summary: Microsoft lies about the impact of Vista 7 and finally we find out how

More evidence of the failures of Vista 7 continues to be uncovered. Acer says that computer sales are roughly flat despite Vista 7 and NPD just lies about it, as usual. According to this, “Vista sold more PCs than Windows 7 did.” That’s the headline even (CNN blogs).

Another thing to remember about that Vista launch week is that it set a relatively low bar. Retail Vista sales were considerably below Microsoft’s forecast — almost 60% lower than sales of Windows XP during its first week in 2001.

The observation above is contradicted by Microsoft boosters like Eric Savitz at the moment. Yes, fans of Microsoft are relying on the lies of NPD. They try to create optimism. In order to understand how Microsoft cooks the numbers, see this discussion in IRC. To quote parts of it:

“This is the first time I have seen this stuff being advertised on a news site of any form,” Oiaohm writes, pointing to a new example from Ed Bott. “Microsoft normally does not advertise these cheap ways of software. It’s very much like sale numbers are really bad.”

MinceR responds with: “strange way of admitting that Windows NT 6.1 is horribly overpriced and nobody wants it”

Oiaohm then says: “The thing that really threw me was on the charity stuff, MinceR. We got a letter selling 12 dollar updates to inventory to get Windows 7. Then went to eopen and checked and all the licences we had were upgraded to support Windows 7 for nothing.”

I then argued that “it’s like counterfeiting. It wants people to take the most expensive route they can tolerate. Airlines do the same. As long as they don’t turn to competitors… see EDGI.”

“We got a letter selling 12 dollar updates to inventory to get Windows 7. Then went to eopen and checked and all the licences we had were upgraded to support Windows 7 for nothing.”
      –OiaohmMinceR tells Oiaohm: “you mean throwing their crap at random organizations and then claiming it’s “charity” and deducting it from their taxes?”

Oiaohm laughs and replies with: “They charge the charity normally like 22 dollars a seat for licences”

MinceR carries on: “oh, that’s the best part, when it isn’t even gratis”

Oiaohm says: “Then do a donation for the rest from RRP for the Tax Man [...] Yet the charity does not get to see any of that money. It’s the a true ripoff. It was odd this time around with the auto upgrade [...] I really think the 22 a seat would be a fair price. [...] Price of disk and shipping [...] Comes to about 15 [Australian] dollars in a lot of cases with handling. [...] And 7 dollars to bribe the sales person to bite [their tongue].”

MinceR concludes as follows: “strangely enough, Canonical manages to ship stuff that doesn’t suck nearly so much, gratis.”

People already talk about SP1 of Vista 7 [1, 2] due to technical problems in RTM. The previous post contains some examples. Well, even Microsoft has begun talking about SP1 just weeks after the formal release; it’s like Vista all over again. It was exactly the same at the time.

Microsoft has resorted to more AstroTurf-type marketing for Vista 7 in Australia. As for the management, it will be blaming the economy again for poor sales of Vista 7. Microsoft relied heavily on this operating system release, but it evidently failed, resulting in more layoffs (now confirmed).

Microsoft booster Paul Thurrott plays this “blame the economy” card; yes, Microsoft can try to just blame the economy rather than its own incompetence and public resentment that it earned by breaking the law so many times. Another article headline says “Microsoft Goes Back on Message: No Recovery in the Works”

Whose recovery? Microsoft’s? IBM, Red Hat, Apple and Google are actually doing quite well. Red Hat is hiring.

Some days ago when we posted an update about Microsoft layoffs we also showed that there was offshoring; Although Microsoft describes this latest round of layoffs as “global”, the Indian part of the company is hardly affected (whereas Microsoft UK suffers far more considerable losses).

Global software major Microsoft will slash hundreds of jobs globally as part of its effort to realign business activities.

The layoffs are expected to be across different locations and businesses. Sources said the number of possible lay-offs could be close to 800.

When contacted, a Microsoft India spokesperson said the impact on the company’s India headcount would be in single digits. The firm currently employs about 5,300 in the country.

It’s almost a symbolic reduction. This way they can call it “global” when in fact they just gradually reduce the wages of workers. US senator Charles Grassley protested against this [1, 2, 3, 4] to no avail. Microsoft is laying off across the US, sometimes without announcing it. █

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Jerry Seinfeld Dumps Vista, Some Users Prefer Vista Over Vista 7 Because of Incompatibility

Posted in Apple, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 9:42 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Running back to Vista

Photo by Alan Light

Summary: Some people dissatisfied with the “downgrade” from Vista to Vista 7; even Vista cameo Jerry Seinfeld allegedly abandons Windows

VERY recent examples of Microsoft incompatibilities in Vista 7 include [1, 2]. An informant of ours, Eruaran, wrote to us last night: “You should see the emails I’m looking at right now [...] Windows 7 [is] not working with Dlink or Netgear wireless cards [...] “Netgear & Dlink standard wireless network card doesn’t work with window 7. Expect the new WN-type but cost more” [...] “TP Link standard wireless card worked!” [...] reply from head office: “D-Link DWA-520 works natively with Win 7″ [...] reply: “The DWA-510 & WG311 both 54Mbps cards didn’t work. Need to work out to get the 54Mbps works with Window 7 then.” [...] As a side note, Netgear wireless cards work with popular Linux distros without the user needing to do anything.”

We are appending other new examples as footnotes/appendices (e.g. one person who escaped from Vista 7 back to Vista and also explores GNU/Linux at the moment). We recently showed that more people were learning about GNU/Linux because of Vista 7. According to the headline of the following news article, “Windows 7 upgrade problems vex users”

Much of the talk about Windows 7 now seems to revolve around problems encountered while installing the operating system. Moving to Windows 7 hasn’t been as easy for the users as it initially seemed.

iPhone syncing can be real trouble in Vista 7, as noted a few days ago. There is no solution yet and Intel too is investigating. What a disaster.

“If we determine this to be a problem specific to Windows 7, we will post an update on the Microsoft Answers site,” Microsoft told The Register.

Jerry Seinfeld Jumps Ship

Since Microsoft’s very own Vista symbol is now spotted with his Mac, he may not have to worry much about iPhone compatibility. The Mac sites are loving it.

Seinfeld takes Microsoft’s $10 million for Windows ads, then goes right back to Apple Mac

[...]

“But that measly amount bought only one year of his loyalty — and he’s legally free to defect to the competition,” Shen reports. “The funnyman is currently appearing on TV sitting behind a conspicuously placed MacBook Pro. He showed up with his Mac a week ago on an episode of the HBO comedy series ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm,’ where he and series star Larry David are shown putting together a ‘Seinfeld’ reunion program.”

It has already been pointed out that Mac popularity continues to increase despite Vista 7. The same goes for GNU/Linux, but it is not possible to measure because Free software does not sell actual PCs that can be quantified (unlike phones). █

From: philo <philo@privacy.net>  (“dis” organization)
Date: Saturday 07 Nov 2009 10:19:50
Groups: comp.os.linux.advocacy

As I’ve mentioned here before I do a lot of operating system evaluations… So I feel obligated to keep current with what Microsoft is doing.

A few weeks back I did a Win 7 install and compared to Vista… it looked pretty good.

Yesterday, the system did not boot… the OS was just starting to load and I got a 0xC00000e9  error.

I posted on the one Win 7 group I could find… but in 24 hours not one of the Windows people could even guess at the  problem… so that’s why I’ve posted here.

I’ve noticed quite a few here with excellent technical knowledge of all operating systems.

I attempted to repair the install… but booting with the Win7 DVD gave no such option.

Oh well, the system was simply for evaluation…
I deleted the two partitions on the drive and performed a clean install…
and darn…got the same error.

The machine has removable drive kits, and there is no problem with any of the other operating systems I run, but I did all the normal hardware tests…

The diagnostic on the HD did re-allocate a few sectors… but otherwise all H/W perfect.

So I tried a different hard drive with a different caddy and did another fresh install and still got the same error!

sheesh

I was going to give up…
but then had the idea to try an install on the existing partition (not take the “format” option)
and let the installer archive the original Win7 install

Now it’s working.

What the heck is it with Win 7 ?

From: ceed <cdposter-usenet@yahoo.com>  (Individual.NET)
Date: Sunday 08 Nov 2009 14:24:05
Groups: comp.os.linux.advocacy

Hi,

Yesterday I sat down to update two computers: One is my friends HP laptop.  He wanted Windows 7. The other is my ASUS laptop. I wanted a Koala. To be  a good polite friend I did his Windows 7 upgrade first. I had to run the  install twice. It halted around lunch so I do not know exactly what  happened because I was not there.  It simply would not proceed. So I  started over. This time it went fine, but his multimedia buttons didn’t  work. He couldn’t launch programs from them like he used to. Major  crisis.  Also, he had some version of the .Net framework installed which  caused some other programs (he said he couldn’t live without) not to work.  I found a complicated fix for that, but by that time I got started he had  decided he wanted Vista back since his multimedia buttons didn’t work.  Also this .Net issue freaked him out and he realized during all this that  he would need an updated license for his AV to have it work with 7 It was  $50. He didn’t like having to pay. So back to Vista we went. As a Linux  user for over 10 years I am amazed how long a clean Vista install took. It  must have been almost 90 minutes? And then all the updates and HP crap I  had to install! Finally I had to install all his malware protection and  move all his files back over. Yikes!

So finally I got around to the Koala sometime late in the afternoon.  Took  35 minutes to install. I kept my old /home partition so I was expecting  some config troubles for a few apps. Didin’t happen. Then I did a bunch of  updates the Koala wanted. It was *many* updates indeed! But I like to do  those before I check everything out. To be fair, I have never been able to  get all the multimedia buttons to work with Linux on this laptop. They  didn’t all work now either. I do not use them anyway, but Karmic Koala  added another one to the working category: The launch of preferred media  player. It opens the “wrong” media player  though, but that was easily  fixed. I had some problems with wireless (always been my sore spot in  
Linux). The connection came up and worked, but during heavy loads the it  suddenly died and I had to reboot to get it back. Slowed the updates down  a lot. I figured that one out though. It had to do with some advanced DNS  service option on my D-Linux router which the wireless driver on my laptop  interpreted as trouble and shut down.  It took a little time to figure it  out: I had to disable this service on my router. To be honest I do not  even know what it does, so maybe it’s not a major loss?  Everything else  works. I added the Skype beta from their site and it works much better  than before. I do not know if that is Karmic or Skype being improved.  Prolly both. Since all my stuff was stored on the /home partition there  were no moving files around from back-ups and such. I was done.

All in all, I spent 7 hours on Windows 7 update (that must be why it is  called Windows 7?) and all I got was a clean Vista install (and a friend  who is going to “look into” this Linux thing). I spent almost 2 hours  total on the Karmic Koala update, and I’m typing happily from it now. My  friend called and told me his fresh Vista install “is great”. His computer  runs much faster since all the malware and his messed up registry got  wiped during this process. He told me that unless he does Linux next time  he has decided to reinstall his current version of Windows every time I  update my Ubuntu laptop. I think he should do Linux, but the clean install  of Windows “Whatever” every six months is not a bad idea. It’s like  starting over and keeps you on a relatively smoothly running Windows   systems for a few months.

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Microsoft Buys More Students

Posted in America, Deception, Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 8:55 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Microsoft keeps universities on a short leash, uses euphemisms like “Elevate America” to digitally imprison the population

Dubious moves from Microsoft are all well calculated. As we showed last week, Boston University fell under more of Microsoft’s shadow and it is not just universities in the United States that appoint Microsoft executives to sit on the board [1, 2]. Here is another new report about Microsoft’s source of influence in Boston University.

Microsoft executive Andrea L. Taylor didn’t start tallying the number of her family members who graduated from Boston University until shortly after she was appointed to the school’s board of trustees.

This seems like part of a recent trend. Last year we wrote about Burgum's departure from Microsoft. It happened about 2 years ago and here he is invited to serve as president of North Dakota State University.

Former Microsoft Corp. vice president Doug Burgum says he’s been urged to apply to be president of North Dakota State University.

Burgum, who is an NDSU alumnus, says he’s not interested in the job but he’s also not ruling it out.

He is not ruling it out, either. What would happen if Microsoft executives started to control more academic institutions? Would Free software even be allowed or simply frowned upon?

Also in the news from several days ago we find Microsoft executive (and lobbyist [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]) lobbying a little in the University of Washington. “College tour” is what CrunchGear calls it and even in Japan we are seeing that Microsoft uses money to affect direction at universities.

Microsoft is looking to expand ties with Japanese universities and has unveiled a multi-million dollar long-term plan to deepen its research roots in the country.

The press coverage of this says nothing about the impact on students and staff. They seemingly don’t matter. The article above is also using Bill Gates’ name, whose PR has turned him from a villain to a villain whose newer offences people no longer understand.

But anyway, the most major sellout in academia has just happened in Missouri, whose governor gave up and surrendered to Microsoft, under the guise of “education”. He is roughly number seven in the list.

The state of Missouri and Microsoft Corp. are teaming up on a program that Gov. Jay Nixon says will provide thousands of Missourians with free access to e-learning and certification programs from Microsoft.

[...]

Nixon was in St. Louis on Monday to announce that Missouri is among the first seven states participating in Microsoft Elevate America.

This programme is what we call "American EDGI". It is harmful to people, who will be paying a tax to Microsoft over the long run (Microsoft’s business is based on a rent, which only a monopoly can afford to sustain). Not that the Microsoft press will tell the downside of this…

Microsoft is preoccupied with a lot of lock-in these days (marketed as “help to the poor”), WebsiteSpark being just one example.

We are finding mostly poor coverage that does not tell the story about such terrible deals and their impact on young people. Why are journalists trying to make it seem like a positive thing that children are being sold to a convicted monopolist that treats them like drug addicts? Bill Gates is quoted as saying: “They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.”

“Outside the US, Microsoft is also trying to do this in Brazil, which is one of few countries that move schools to GNU/Linux.”That’s just what Microsoft is doing to Missourians right now, with kind help from Gov. Jay Nixon. Those “unwashed masses” Microsoft folks love referring to when ridiculing GNU/Linux (“not ready for desktop” nonsense) are supposed to think that hard working Microsoft executives think passionately in some Redmond cellar how to “elevate” Americans and patriotically save their country; in reality, this is just a bunch of marketing scams intended to boost profits for the company and prevent consumers (demeaning term for “people”) from turning to Free substitutes like Firefox and GNU/Linux.

Outside the US, Microsoft is also trying to do this in Brazil [1, 2], which is one of few countries that move schools to GNU/Linux. Microsoft is even issuing a press release to announce its plans for Brazil’s education (event), which it is hoping to change of course.

According to other news, Microsoft is trying to push even more lock-in into education, turning it from “education” to “training” or “indoctrination”. As if Live@edu was not bad enough, Microsoft wants to also introduce SharePoint using that former Trojan horse.

We previously wrote about Microsoft and Edelman and now we find this in the news:

Some companies are helping. In May, the Edelman public relations firm rolled out an interactive desktop system that trains employees in social networking online — at their own pace.

“In our industry, it’s quite critical today,” said Laura Smith, managing director of U.S. human resources at Edelman in the District. Those who advance in hands-on use of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are elevated to another rank in the training system.

“We’re tying this to promotions,” she said.

Microsoft, through its Elevate America program, is offering free technical training and certification online to as many as 2 million Americans over the next three years.

When they talk about “free technical training” what they mean to say is that they will spend money turning some of the most fragile people to Windows and Office users. It’s about creating more paying clients, thus doing the very opposite of the stated goal. █

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Google Disrupts Microsoft Cash Cows

Posted in Antitrust, DRM, Europe, GNU/Linux, Google, Hardware, Microsoft at 7:44 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Google takes business away from Microsoft, antitrust comes into play, and Xbox users are banned

Google is useful in the sense that it weakens a company that's attacking GNU/Linux. And Microsoft is suffering indeed. As one consulting firm put it last week, “Cloud computing threatens Microsoft business model.”

BusinessWeek has this new article titled “Turbulence on the Way to the Cloud”

British newspaper publisher Telegraph Media switched from Microsoft Outlook to Gmail and is rolling out other Google Apps.

There are other stories just like that in the past week’s news. For instance:

i. Is Microsoft a dinosaur to Google’s mammal?

However (and this is a really big however), Google’s products are maturing at an incredible pace, perhaps because they eat their own dogfood and run their own enterprise on Google technologies. Here’s the real question you have to ask yourself: Is it worth investing in a Microsoft ecosystem now? Or does Microsoft need to fundamentally shift directions if it hopes to keep attracting new customers in a world that is increasingly turning to the Web for everything it does?

ii. Students prefer Google to Microsoft

Google is the world’s most attractive employer, followed closely by its rival, Microsoft, said a recent survey by Universum, a provider in research, strategic consulting and media solutions in the field of employer branding.

iii. Google’s Obsession With Microsoft Burns Hotter

Google CEO Eric Schmidt claims that Microsoft has provided his company with a sort of ‘reverse roadmap’ of what not to do to achieve sustained success, a comment that shows just how preoccupied Google has become with its gigantic rival.

iv. Google CEO: We Won’t Repeat Microsoft’s Mistakes

Google CEO Eric Schmidt is on a bit of a Microsoft offensive. Earlier this week, while talking to press in Boston when Schmidt was asked to comment on a statement by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, he said, “I’ve learned not to respond to quotes by Steve Ballmer.” Oh Snap!

v. Google: Don’t Be Evil. Or Microsoft.

There is a certain batch of new articles worth tackling in isolation. Specifically, it’s about regulation. We previously wrote about Microsoft-Yahoo! antitrust barriers [1, 2, 3, 4], which according to the Telegraph will lead to no progress this year.

Yahoo! and Microsoft search deal delayed until 2010

The two companies signed a 10-year deal in July 2009, which will see Microsoft’s Bing technology power Yahoo! search. Both companies have been waiting on US regulatory approval and at the time of the signing of the deal said they expected it to be closed by October 27.

It’s not getting any easier. Now they want to make it even more worthy of scrutiny, essentially by using up what’s left in Yahoo!, which Microsoft ruined deliberately whilst ousting key staff.

Microsoft has made no substantial progress in this area and it knows it must stop Google. Microsoft even uses politics against Google these days. Situations that are suspect include:

1. Microsoft Loses to Google, Microsoft’s Anti-Google Lobby Unable to Change Laws Anymore
2. Has Microsoft Sent Its Former Employees to Conduct Anti-Google Studies?
3. Microsoft’s Anti-Google Whisper Campaign
4. Microsoft-Sponsored Czech Presidency Fights Google?
5. Did Microsoft Hire Consumer Watchdog to Attack Google?
6. Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC): Got Microsoft?

Found in the Wall Street Journal is the following piece from the following person:

Mr. Petkantchin is research director at the France- and Brussels-based Institut économique Molinari.

Institut économique Molinari also played a role in helping Microsoft. It’s called a “Think Tank”, but these are increasingly associated with AstroTurf and lies, based on a recent survey that PR Watch wrote about in October. According to another new report from the Washington Post, “Microsoft buster Gary Reback goes after Google on books”

Gary Reback, a leading antitrust attorney from Silicon Valley who went after Microsoft in the late 1990s, has a new target in sight: Google.

Sounds like another Christine Varney based on the track record. Separately, the Wall Street Journal published the following:

The Great Disruption

[...]

Lawrence Lessig, who was an expert in the Microsoft antitrust case (and is now a professor at Harvard Law School), tells Mr. Auletta that Google will soon be more powerful than Microsoft ever was, since primacy in search gives the company unprecedented control over commerce and content.

Also worth mentioning is the following item from Information Week. It speaks about Microsoft fines which it has not paid to its victims yet (the issue is well overdue). It pays that money to Google now, as we noted before.

As part of a 2006 settlement between Microsoft and the state of California alleging overcharges for software, the city of Los Angeles received several million dollars. The city will use $1.5 million of that Microsoft money to pay most of the $1.9 million cost of the Google contract’s first year.

But never mind the crimes; Microsoft Nick pretends it’s all attributed to “anti-Microsoft mentality”. It must be “hatred” when someone loves the law.

Silicon Valley, the home of Apple and Google, is known for its anti-Microsoft mentality.

It is stuff like this which invalidates the Seattle P-I as anything other than a Microsoft booster. They always defend Microsoft, no matter what the circumstances are. There are exceptions though. Microsoft is currently mass-banning Xbox Live accounts. There is actually a valid reason for this, but will there be false positives?

No word on the exact time the latest ban wave took place but according to the official Xbox Live forums and the tears of many pirates asking why their consoles are now banned, it looks to of taken place within the course of this last week.

Microsoft also uses this as an excuse/reason to discourage second-hand sales of Xbox 360.

Larry Hryb, Programming Director at Microsoft, is warning people who buy a second hand Xbox360 as they seem to be running the risk of not being able to connect with Xbox Live.

Actually, Xbox 360 cannot be bought, it can only be rented. The above shows that Microsoft failed with its kill switch-enabled DRM experiment called Xbox. It has already lost billions. █

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