12.12.08
Gemini version available ♊︎World’s Computing Thugs Fight Governments and Continents
Because the biggest criminals wear suits, not jumpers
Being a large company is no crime. However, behaviour is a separate factor and it’s unfortunate that regulation has been so utterly poor, which means that those who are corrupt also meet the most ‘success’.
We see the effects of this in the global crisis right now because those who are rich are doing fine, whereas those who are poor are marginalised further and forced to pay big corporations in order to ‘save’ them (from their own fraud).
Has everyone read about the $50 billion Madoff corruption yet? Everyone should. It’s in today’s news.
The Software Felon
Companies like Microsoft grow to become political creatures that laugh at the government [1, 2]. This is something that we covered — using plenty of extensive evidence — so many times before. Here is the news story about Microsoft’s latest fight against European law, which it refuses to obey. It’s not inability. It’s unwillingness, it's vanity and it’s hubris.
Trade groups the Association of Competitive Technology (ACT) and the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) will side with Microsoft, while IBM, Oracle and Red Hat will help the Commission defend itself in the court appeal.
Got that? Microsoft and its fronts are so adamant and vicious that the European Commission needs to be defended by large American companies like Oracle and IBM. Yes, a high legal authority needs to defend itself like a coward, having witnessed the smear campaigns Microsoft et al launched at Neelie Kroes for ‘daring’ to call for (and yet to restore) justice.
The text quoted above would also be useful to few naive people who still stubbornly deny that CompTIA [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] and ACT [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] are Microsoft mouthpieces. These are people who virtually work for Microsoft, but can pretend not to because they do their trade under titles which sounds more neutral, e.g. BSA [1, 2, 3, 4], being an equivalent of the RIAA or MPAA.
The article continues:
The Free Software Foundation Europe, the Samba Team of open-source software programmers, the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) will also turn up in support of the Commission, the court said in a statement released earlier this week.
[...]
Microsoft failed to honor this order for three years after the 2004 ruling, employing delaying tactics despite being threatened with further fines. The Commission imposed an additional €600 million in fines because of the delays.
Yes, that’s the same old Microsoft, whose ways never changed.
The two sides here are not equal per se. Freedom is no “religion” and those who battle against freedom and human rights have all sorts of names, none of which seems appropriate to include here. Sometimes there are no gentle words when approaching a hard issue, but need truth really be a taboo?
Apple vs. Microsoft (or Mac OS versus Windows) is a battle of egos and a battle between vendors, but both are harmful to the users, who are manipulated into not realising this and not even valuing what they have and what they gradually lose.
The Hardware Felon
Intel continues to treat governments like they are some nuisance or a bunch of obnoxious kids. Intel is so full of itself that it believes only ‘responsible adults’ who run the corporations should decide what qualifies as a bribe and what does not. This series of patronisations now extends beyond Europe as Intel takes its ‘beef’ over to Korea where it wishes not to pay heavy fines for crimes it committed (with conviction).
Intel takes legal swing at Korean antitrust decision
[...]
The watchdog ordered Intel to cough up $18.6m for violating fair trade rules. The Commission ruled that Intel paid rebates to South Korean computer firms to undercut arch rival AMD.
Intel was charged by the regulator in June last year for violating antitrust laws following a two year investigation into the company’s business dealings in South Korea.
It is disappointing to see what comes out of Intel’s crimes, a recent example of which is the case of collusion (a joint conspiracy with Microsoft). We covered this in:
- Prepare for the Steve Ballmer Deposition Following Crimes with Intel
- Microsoft Tries to Dodge Vista Collusions Lawsuit as Ballmer Deposition Nears
- More Information About Microsoft’s and Intel’s Crimes Against Customers
- William Poole of NComputing (Formerly Microsoft) Blamed in the Big Collusion
Speaking of Will Poole and NComputing, the company has just added an executive from Intel, which is the very same company that fought against a charity, OLPC. Yes, one might add the role of OLPC (NComputing, like Intel, fought against it) and the recent example of corruption in the OOXML fiasco. Intel supported Microsoft’s OOXML, of course.
Unless governments are able to regain a grip on corporations, there will be a reversal of roles (or a continuation, if not exacerbation, of this reversal). This means that we, the ‘little people’, are left at the mercy of people in companies who want to “cut off air supplies”, “tilt into death spirals” and “whack” those who are disobedient. And that’s just a sample of Microsoft vocabulary and attitude towards legitimate competitors. It gets worse. █
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orbital said,
December 12, 2008 at 12:41 pm
The PCWorld article mentions the ECJ website:
“More information about the participation in the new appeal can be found in this section of the Court of Justice of the European Communities’ Web site.”
I cannot find anything related to Microsoft there:
http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=en?wform=newform&Submit=Submit&alljur=alljur&jurcdj=jurcdj&jurtpi=jurtpi&jurtfp=jurtfp&alldocrec=alldocrec&docj=docj&docor=docor&docop=docop&docav=docav&docsom=docsom&docinf=docinf&alldocnorec=alldocnorec&docnoj=docnoj&docnoor=docnoor&typeord=ALL&docnodecision=docnodecision&allcommjo=allcommjo&affint=affint&affclose=affclose?maff=T-167/08&ddatefs=&mdatefs=&ydatefs=&ddatefe=&mdatefe=&ydatefe=&nomusuel=&domaine=&mots=&resmax=100
Josh Bell said,
December 12, 2008 at 1:13 pm
What a horrible picture at the end of this article. There is no truth to what you say in that picture. You really need to get some help Roy. Now your starting to sound like PETA. Disturbed and disgusted.
Roy Schestowitz said,
December 12, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Your humour gauge is broken. Your regular heckling, Josh Bell, is not effective.
jo Shields said,
December 12, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Whose kit should we buy, Roy?
Roy Schestowitz said,
December 12, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I don’t instruct (you’re trying to trip me up here, I’m sure). It probably depends on one’s needs as well.
Josh Bell said,
December 12, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Humor and heckling? You think showing a dog with a gun to its head is funny. I didn’t realize that kind of trash was funny. I don’t heckle you Roy, I try to point out inconsistencies and untruths. The shame of the matter is that you make some good points and good arguments but you don’t accept any other viewpoint. At the point you realize you’ve been cornered is when you start to doublespeak and try to back your way out.
Roy Schestowitz said,
December 12, 2008 at 1:49 pm
It’s a famous picture. It’s part of a famous joke.
SubSonica said,
December 12, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Go out there and read “No lobbyists as such” by Florian Mueller who fought against software patents being sneaked into the european legislation mainly by the Microsoft lobbyists….
jo Shields said,
December 12, 2008 at 2:22 pm
The question stands alone, Roy. The only “gotcha” is the very nature of your constant negativity, which you reinforced more than dissuaded in your reply.
If Intel, with its full-time staff working on Free drivers, is irredeemably bad, then who would you recommend instead? You constantly say “AVOID X, IT IS EVIL INCARNATE” – perhaps it would be easier for people if you gave some positive words (e.g. telling them which alternatives you’d recommend) alongside the negative? Perhaps even throw in some realism in your suggestions (e.g. don’t suggest Python as an alternative for C# developers).
Roy Schestowitz said,
December 12, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Read this news article which tells you Wall Street (NASDAQ at least) was/is run by criminals.
Read SubSonica’s comments about Microsoft’s “legalised bribery” (that’s what I cynically call lobbying).
Can you not see what is wrong?
If you want positive advice, see my posts in USENET. About 80% of my posts are positive. This site is not a ‘marketing’ site though, so you won’t find much positivity here. We already have ‘too many’ pro-Linux sites but too few that explore the ugly sides which turn against GNU/Linux and Free software.
SubSonica said,
December 12, 2008 at 2:50 pm
“If Intel, with its full-time staff working on Free drivers, is irredeemably bad, then who would you recommend instead? You constantly say “AVOID X, IT IS EVIL INCARNATE”
Stop speaking strawmans, We don’t critizice Intel in the things it does right (like opening the specs for their integrated graphic chipsets -which, aside the fact they are the most Gnu/Linux compatible, are crappy when compared with nvidia or ATi-), but that can never compensate or justify its wrongdoings and its competition-stiffling strategies. Didn’t you hear about the WinTel duopoly?, about the Ready for Vista fiasco?
Look at what is happening with netbooks and nano cpus:
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/11/29/intel-slams-netbooks.html
Monopolists and oligopolists abuse their market dominance and evolve their business in ways that are damaging for its customers and consumers at large in order to maximize benefits (they can afford to do it because their customers have no way or find very difficult to escape)
Roy Schestowitz said,
December 12, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Intel’s crimes are mostly well documented. It still amuses me when Alex Hudson sings about Microsoft’s submission of a few dandy patches whilst the company bribes and bullies (he chooses to ignore that).
Intel’s driver giveaway reminds me of robber barons that throw a nickel at grateful bums at the street’s corner. God, those thieving hounds are sooooo generous. Oh yeah… and BillG claims to be a philanthropist, too.
jo Shields said,
December 12, 2008 at 3:02 pm
“When you buy Intel a puppy dies”? That encourages people to support positive action, does it?
This may come as a shock, but I’ve been around for long enough to know MORE than enough about Wintel, about Ready for Vista, and so on. These are not news.
It’s the overriding problem with the all-encompassing “single label” approach taken by sites such as this. Coming up with a final “good!” “bad!” label summing up every action taken by a large corp is impossible to do properly. How many lines of source & documentation is a misleading Vista Capable sticker worth? How many Linux-capable home consoles per rootkit? Large companies are impossible to view as a single entity.
Pretty ironic given they’re the ones who made the damn things, but they’re obviously unhappy about selling lots of cheap chips instead of expensive chips. Duh. You understand the whole idea of “business”, yes?
Roy Schestowitz said,
December 12, 2008 at 3:12 pm
It’s not business, it’s price fixing.
SubSonica said,
December 12, 2008 at 3:19 pm
“Pretty ironic given they’re the ones who made the damn things,”
Yes, well, they followed VIA’s C7 in order not to risk loosing a whole market.
“You understand the whole idea of “business”, yes? ”
Yeah, very much the same as the ideas of free market, fair competition and consumer choice (which Intel and Microsoft don’t seem very interested in)
Roy Schestowitz said,
December 12, 2008 at 3:30 pm
No, wait. It was an anti-OLPC move.
To be specific, about 8 months ago, PJ put the following text in News Picks, linking to a this article I had sent her.
SubSonica said,
December 12, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Thanks. Anyway Intel is anything but happy of VIA making any progress in the CPU market. As long as VIA stays in the niche of the pico-micro-ITX machines it won’t be too troublesome, but there has already been some threats on the part of Intel suggesting they could sue VIA…
jo Shields said,
December 12, 2008 at 3:49 pm
They sued once. Over licenses to make motherboard chipsets I think.
And the unfortunate problem with C7 is it’s completely shit.
SubSonica said,
December 12, 2008 at 4:00 pm
“the unfortunate problem with C7 ”
I tried an Asus EEE 701 and I think it actually works surprisingly well (with Gnu/Linux) for its low power requirements.
“is it’s completely shit”
Do you mean like this?:
http://en.tiraecol.net/modules/comic/comic.php?content_id=6
Roy Schestowitz said,
December 12, 2008 at 4:08 pm
How many continents is Intel under fire in? 3? 4?
“In 2005, a unit of Shenzhen Donjin countersued Intel, alleging the Santa Clara, California chipmaker had engaged in monopolistic practices.”
http://www.newsgd.com/business/enterprise/200705150025.htm
jo Shields said,
December 12, 2008 at 4:16 pm
You know Celeron is not C7, right?
I mean a chip sold in 2008 shouldn’t struggle with DVD playback
SubSonica said,
December 12, 2008 at 4:38 pm
You know Celeron is not C7, right?
OMFG! My FAIL!
http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/fail-owned-tough-toys-wheel-fail.jpg
Moreover I confused via nano for C7.
Anyway what is true is that the performance surprised me (also for being a Celeron, which is good).
jo Shields said,
December 12, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Celeron blows C7 out of the water, even at lower clock speeds
SubSonica said,
December 12, 2008 at 5:29 pm
I would really like that Intel (or AMD, whoever) released a good fanless CPU. There is not so much point as before on ever-increasing clock speeds. It would be much better if they improved efficiency.
Also software should stop being bloated and be much less resource-hungry.
Roy Schestowitz said,
December 12, 2008 at 5:31 pm
ARM-based sub-notebooks are coming. I think Maplin has already had some (running just GNU/Linux of course).
SubSonica said,
December 12, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I remember back in the 8-bit times. Computers were not upgradeable so software programmers had to work wonders out of very limited resources. I remember people programmed in assembler and even machine code for the Ziliog Z80 of the Sinclairs (3,5 Mhz, 48 Kb RAM), and they had 3-D games that ran on that!!!!
Roy Schestowitz said,
December 12, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Compare that to Vista which gobbles up 700MB of RAM+GPU to tilt a Windows or two (notepad.exe).
jo Shields said,
December 12, 2008 at 5:51 pm
There’s a balance to make, though. You can get a full-on Core 2 Duo if you like, at less than 10W – it’s only 1 GHz. And, of course, there’s Atom. However, plenty of people really want the clocks.
Yeah, £140 for a 400mhz ARM. An extra 40 quid gets you a “real” laptop, like an Acer Aspire One from Tesco. 400MHz is fine for a PDA, but I’m not convinced it gives an actual laptop, not in this day & age (and try convincing people that they don’t want video or Flash abilities)
SubSonica said,
December 12, 2008 at 6:12 pm
“There’s a balance to make”
I fully agree with you on that.
Also code optimization of software is needed. Too many resources are wasted with the current model of development and the ever growing cycle of forced obsoleteness. There is high time that the companies go from offering “more power, more (often unneded) features, more clock cycles” to optimization: “less power consumption” “less memory footprint” “less cpu overhead” “faster operation times on the same hardware” “cooler running hardware”, etc…
I think dual core Atoms will be nice, if only they could get to make them passive cooled…
jo Shields said,
December 12, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Outside a tight laptop enclosure, you could run one without a heatsink, TBH
The issue, as always, is airflow
SubSonica said,
December 12, 2008 at 6:30 pm
What has happened with peltier-effect heatsinks? It would be nice if there were some developments on these…
jo Shields said,
December 12, 2008 at 6:51 pm
2 problems with a pelt:
* They eat power
* A peltier only MOVES heat. If you can’t remove all the heat from the heated end, then the supposedly cold end turns into a cooker
Roy Schestowitz said,
December 14, 2008 at 3:23 pm
For future reference, I am adding this report from Associated Press:
IBM, Oracle, Red Hat Allowed to Back EU in Microsoft Appeal
http://www.mercurynews.com/nationworld/ci_11172721?nclick_check=1