01.28.09
Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software, Microsoft at 12:28 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Invade and divide?
Microsoft wants to use Eclipse in order to spread more Silver Lies and to break the Web with its proprietary, DRM-laden replacements [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. The price is very low (slush funds really), though the damage to this rival of Microsoft is high. There is not much trust there and we explained in more details what Microsoft had done and why. For more details, here is a new article which heralds the predictable and has elements in it that are reminiscent of what Microsoft did to OLPC in order to discourage participation.
The Eclipse Foundation is looking for opportunities to work more closely with Microsoft, says Mike Milinkovich, its executive director. Meanwhile, one observer is skeptical about whether a close Microsoft-Eclipse partnership would truly be a win-win scenario.
[...]
Tony Wasserman, a professor of software management practice and executive director at the Center for Open Source Investigation at Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley, said, “In thinking about possible relationships between Microsoft and the Eclipse Foundation, it would make sense for the two groups to collaborate in those areas where benefits would accrue to their respective users.”
A Microsoft-Eclipse partnership must work on a business, technical and personal level if it is likely to succeed, Wasserman said. He added that while the “win” for Microsoft is clear, he is less sure on what the “win” is for the Eclipse Foundation, other than having Microsoft join as a strategic member and contributing up to US$500,000 per year.
[...]
Eclipse developers paid by their employers to work on an Eclipse-related project would not have much of a reaction one way or the other, said Wasserman. However, the reception from unpaid volunteers might be cooler, he noted. “A typical unpaid volunteer contributor to an Eclipse project might be less likely to work on the project if he (or she) felt that his or her work was going to benefit a large for-profit business such as Microsoft.”
Microsoft describes "Open Source Software" (OSS) as a rival. Why do some people fall for posturing? We gave answers before. █
“GPL is the licensing model. We think it’s very bad for — on an education, telling the world why we think it’s bad. We don’t think it’s the same as public domain. Somebody wants to put in a free DSB, we don’t have a problem with that, at least on licensing. But GPL, we think it’s very bad basically for the world, but especially for the United States.”
–Jim Allchin, Microsoft
Eclipse: Don’t let the dark side in (SilverDark)
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Posted in Africa, Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 11:45 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
EDUCATION in Uganda seems to have just been hijacked by Microsoft, assisted by the United States government. This is an excellent example of imperialism, which also requires seeing the following antitrust exhibits about a programme that Microsoft calls EDGI and accompanying MOUs (codenamed “Project Marshall”).
How can this type of thing be ethical? Is Uganda delegating control for Microsoft to handle its children’s education? Is this an offshoring of minds?
The United States is working with Microsoft to improve education management with computer technology. The U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, will provide two million dollars to purchase equipment for the project. Microsoft will design software that will help gather data in the education ministry. The alliance is expected to provide educators and students with online resources.
Ten years ago Uganda introduced free primary education for all children, opening doors for millions who would have been too poor to go to school. Under the Universal Primary Education program, the number of children between six and 15 years tripled over the past decade.
Why are the Ugandan authorities permitting digital colonialism by a company that committed so many crimes and continues to commit them? Microsoft has no place in Africa because it only exploits and insults the continent. It’s a fight against Free software and GNU/Linux, which would empower the local population rather than use it. █
“They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.”
–Bill Gates
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Posted in Antitrust, Europe, Microsoft at 11:24 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“Basically what everyone is saying is that we have done nothing Microsoft specific that makes IE and IIS work well together. This is a huge missed opportunity.”
–Bill Gates [PDF]
Microsoft is known to have essentially spammed all registered GNU/Linux users in Austria and its habit of AstroTurfing is speculation no more because there is hard evidence and admission. Now that Microsoft is pressured to unbundle the Web browser (again), the company seems to be flooding Internet users with unwanted mail.
Microsoft IE8 rolls out the astroturf
Microsoft is hawking the near-ready version of its Internet Explorer 8 browser at its staff in a desperate attempt to snatch back some of Mozilla’s growing market share.
Microsoft did the same thing for OOXML.
In other news about IE8, the company is pressing the press (in its typical fashion) to make some noise about a feature that, according to experts, is utterly useless.
IE8′s Clickjacking Fix Not Much Help, Experts Say
New Microsoft technology designed to protect Internet Explorer users from a powerful new Web-based attack will not fix the problem, security experts said Tuesday.
[...]
“It’s not a solution to clickjacking by any stretch of the imagination. It’s a vaguely mitigating factor for the very few people who use IE8,” said Robert Hansen, CEO of the SecTheory consultancy, and one of the people who first reported the issue to Microsoft. “But it’s interesting that they’re taking it seriously.”
Performance-wise, IE8 is well behind the rest, according to a new benchmark from a Microsoft-biased news network.
IE8 still trails the opposition by an awful amount; removing Opera from the comparison would leave IE8 at almost three times slower than its nearest competitor.
There is further commentary about these results right here.
Whatever the performance of IE8 is really like, it’s possible that it will not be bundled with future operating systems.
The European Commission has accused Microsoft of harming competition by bundling its Internet Explorer browser with its Windows operating system.
Richard Waters shows his typical pro-Microsoft bias by calling it “a fresh attack.” Microsoft is not facing “an attack”, no more than a criminal faces an “attack” from a policeman that’s chasing him. Microsoft broke many laws and it was never really punished for these. What we see here is more daemonisation of the EU Commission — daemonisation which is typically coordinated from the top (or from dead people [1, 2, 3]). █
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Posted in Antitrust, Fraud, Hardware, Microsoft, Vista 7 at 11:03 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
INTEL has committed many crimes (c.f. most recent example), but the European Commission limits itself — scope-wise — to looking at just one of them while Intel keeps trying to slink away. It’s very much how Microsoft handles the very same commission. Delaying tactics are so typical and characteristic of this, but the Commission is losing its cool.
A European court on Tuesday rejected a request from Intel to postpone a deadline in the European Commission’s antitrust proceedings against the company.
The Court of First Instance (CFI) in Luxembourg also rejected a request to allow Intel to access certain documents from Advanced Micro Devices that it said it needed in order to file a response in the antitrust case.
The Commission has charged Intel with anticompetitive behavior in the market for x86 microprocessors by allegedly offering rebates and selling chips below cost to PC makers and retail stores. The investigation began in 2000 when AMD filed a complaint against Intel with the Commission.
Microsoft and Intel’s affairs, especially when it comes to Linux, are not so easily forgotten. They must never be forgotten and we’ll be covering more such antitrust exhibits in the future.
Speaking of regulation, Vista 7′s anti-competitive parts [1, 2] have gotten it under more fire as well.
Technical advisers to the antitrust regulators who monitor Microsoft Corp.’s compliance with a 2002 antitrust settlement will test Windows 7 “more thoroughly” than earlier versions of the operating system were tested, according to a recently-released status report filed with the federal judge watching over the company.
The three-member panel of computer experts that works for state antitrust officials has had a copy of Windows 7 since at least last March, but in December 2008, Microsoft delivered additional documentation to the technical committee.
Regarding the Web browser, this issue will be more properly discussed in the next post. █
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Posted in Microsoft, Security, Windows at 10:47 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
THERE ARE SO MANY MICROSOFT failure stories to share today that it’s hard to decide where to start.
Sites Hijacked
Microsoft’s security nightmares as of late [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] are where we begin by presenting the following report about a government site in Australia getting cracked and doing enough harm that it needed to be shut down.
Like you, I get masses of spam. I knew it wasn’t from jobs.nsw.gov.au no matter how much it pretended to be. I deleted it figuring it was “just another” bit of junk mail, although I was surprised to find one purporting to be from the NSW Government job board; that was definitely a new one on me!
Had I thought about it deeper I might have considered this was no ordinary spam. This time there was a direct relationship between how the spammers got my e-mail address and the organisation they purported to represent.
It turns out the Department of Commerce has taken this whole incident very seriously indeed, and far more than common garden-variety spam would necessitate.
If you visit the site jobs.nsw.gov.au you will see it is inaccessible, and in fact, has been for a week. A message advises that the system is down for “system maintenance.”
The site is powered by Microsoft IIS.
Moving on a little, it turns out that Obama’s Web site too is causing harm. Some pages in it are distributing Windows malware.
Web security firm Websense reports that malicious hackers have registered multiple bogus user accounts on My.BarackObama.com. The site allows legitimate punters to join groups, raise funds, or creates blogs. The griefers have established blogs with fake YouTube clips, ostensibly offering grumble flicks.
According to some new statistics, there is a sharp increase in distribution of Windows malware, with more malicious sites than one can practically keep track of:
AVG is seeing between 200,000 to 300,000 new Web sites per day hosting code that can in some cases result in a PC being infected with malware just by visiting the site, said Roger Thompson, AVG’s chief research officer.
Zombies/Botnets Explode
Conficker is still running wild and it’s draining resources along its path (human resources and Web resources).
The world’s top virus hunters are watching every move made by the attacker in control of a nasty new Internet worm — referred to as “downadup” or “conficker.”
The number of infected Windows PCs keeps growing fast.
A virulent computer virus has infected as many as 15 million computers around the world so far, according to various estimates.
The virus — a self-replicating computer worm known as Downadup, Conficker or Kido — spreads across computer networks using Microsoft Windows software which have not been patched or updated properly. Microsoft issued a patch that fixes the vulnerability the virus exploits last October.
This is also covered here.
Computer experts are preparing to respond to further virus outbreaks and security threats posed by the Windows worm, known as Conficker, Kido and Downadup, which has infected more than 15 million PCs worldwide.
Had Microsoft cared about security rather than premature announcements (vapourware) and irresponsible releases, the Internet would have been a better and safer place to travel. █
“Our products just aren’t engineered for security.”
–Brian Valentine, Microsoft executive
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Posted in Deals, Microsoft, Search at 8:19 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
It’s not capitalism, it’s racketeering
MICROSOFT’S FORMER buddy [1, 2] is buddying up to Steve Ballmer on Yahoo’s behalf, despite the continued resistance and endless bullying directed against Yahoo! (see links at the bottom for details)
Carole Bartz, Yahoo’s new chief executive, left the door open to quick agreement on a sale of the troubled internet company’s search business to Microsoft yesterday as it reported its first decline in revenues since 2001.
This is no surprise. Microsoft means for achieving this? Expelled/demoralised staff who are departing (latest departure).
Over time, Microsoft planted its own cronies inside Yahoo. They ruined Yahoo from the inside in order to drive them to misery. Microsoft's siege against Borland was similar.
If this is a business atmosphere that is considered healthy (let alone acceptable), then the world is in serious trouble. █
For background:
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Posted in Deception, Fraud, Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Site News at 6:15 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Poor Microsoft
OVER THE PAST 27 days we’ve published:
All that was accumulated in less than one month. We’ve run this Web site for over two years, just for proportion’s sake. Microsoft will continue to rely on people’s limited memory; there is so much one can remember. The press, for example, has already forgotten the OOXML corruptions.
Among some older posts we have:
To quote a recent comment (made in response to a commenter who works for Microsoft):
That’s a lot of opposition. Microsoft’s a large corporation. Do you oppose large corporations? The history of taking advantage of patents? Misusing its monopoly status? Its outsourcing of American jobs? The fact that it competes with other software vendors? Its recent contributions to the Free Software world? Its market dominance? Its choice of logo colors? The poor support for CSS 2 in IE 6?
You forget to ask so many things. How about:
- Do you oppose bribery?
- Do you oppose financial fraud?
- Do you oppose tax evasion?
- Do you oppose supporting the death of poor children in Africa?
- Do you oppose illegal dumping of goods to starve competitors?
- Do you oppose outright sabotage of a competitors’ technology?
- Do you oppose blackmailing?
- Do you oppose buying laws overseas to harm the local people?
- Do you oppose fishing a competitors’ workforce only to cause their destruction?
- Do you oppose collusion?
- Do you oppose false advertising?
- Do you oppose funding companies to sue competitors?
- Do you oppose bullying professors for for their honest assessment of a technology?
- Do you oppose smear campaigns against volunteer advocates of a technology that’s not yours?
- Do you oppose embezzlement?
- Do you oppose overthrowing CIOs (to have them replaced by cronies)?
- Do you oppose “planting” articles in the press?
- Do you oppose bribing professors?
- Do you oppose treating kids like a drug addicts, by own admission?
- Do you oppose setting up AstroTurf Web sites?
- Do you oppose polluting forums and newsgroups using undercover agents? (violation of EU laws)
- Do you oppose crashing competitor’s parties?
- Do you oppose liaising with the Bush regime to intrude the computer of each person?
The response to which this was made sheds light on how detached Microsoft employees are from reality. They believe that Microsoft is disliked because it is “a large corporation”, because it “competes”, because it “contributes” to the Free software world and because its logo has multiple colours. █
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