Bonum Certa Men Certa

Unmasking “hAl”, Pro-OOXML Fighter

Anonymity is not fair in Microsoft's age of "technical evangelists"

ONE of the leading forces behind a pseudo-grassroots push for OOXML is a mysterious character known as "hAl". This character was responsible also for smearing the names of those who spoke truth about OOXML, including myself. We wrote about this character before, but we have just obtained some information about hAl, which was sent to us anonymously. It was found on a special week, on which Google opened its archives, and there it was, in Google's cache, a homepage from hAl, from the year 2000. This matches some of the information that we already have (the name "Albert" and city/country of residence). From the page:



Here is some more information about myself:

Albert Zonneveld

Born on 16-may-'69 in Heemskerk, The Netherlands I live in Castricum at the Dutch coasts about 15 miles northwest from Amsterdam.

(Route) <= http://free.lokatienet.nl/freemap.asp?postcode=1901ej&zoom=4

My hobbies are:

* Badminton * Reading books (They do still exist), mainly SF and Adventure * Playing board/card games, because I enjoy the company more than I do my computer * Playing united games by mail, the kind that is still delivered door to door. * A friendly game of snooker And last but not least... drinking BEER.

Favorites:

* URL: < still looking for a good one > * Book: Ringworld by Larry Niven * Writer: Robert A Heinlein * Beer: Westmalle Triple * Game: 1830 * Computer game: Nethack (Seen the spectacular graphics??!!)

a.zonneveld@tip.nl


At that time he was employed at PinkRoccade, a large Dutch ICT-service-company, working, mostly, for government.

Our source claims that he is writing a lot on the Dutch Web site webwereld.nl, which is owned by the Microsoft-paid analysts at IDC.

To merely give away the identity of someone who smears another would only be fair. One's identity is not a smear; it's information and it's publicly accessible.

Here he is posting under his full name (also here) and discrediting a Red Hat employee along with "The Wraith" and Microsoft's Doug Mahugh. He also commented on Miguel de Icaza's blog when de Icaza's said that "The EU Prosecutors are Wrong [about Microsoft]." It's always fascinating to see a vice president from Novell defending Microsoft from those 'zealots' in the European Commission.

"The Norwegian [OOXML] affair was a scandal and we are still pursuing it. We haven’t given up hope of changing the vote back to No, and we hope people who experienced similar travesties in other countries will do the same."

--Steve Pepper



flickr:2400865918

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Writing and Coding Isn't Always Enough
Last year we had to assume a role we didn't have before: litigants
Autumn Has Come
Autumn should be exciting in all sorts of ways; it'll also mark our anniversary
 
Why We Stopped Publishing Videos (for Now)
We'll probably get back to videos one day, but it's hard to say when or to what extent
What Animal Rights Activism Teaches Us About Sympathy and Focus
It's possible to believe that the planet is warming, that we must do something about it, and still eat eggs and butter
When You Turn Web Sites About Tech Into Political Sites
A lot of people fall into the trap of catering only for particular groups
Gemini Links 02/09/2025: ROOPHLOCH 2025 and Lagrange 1.19 Released
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/09/2025: News Corp. WSJ and A Month With NixOS
Links for the day
Slopfarms Already Peaked, They Will Die When Slop Companies Run Out of Money to Borrow
slopfarms will lack an actual "engine"
“Sideloading” Never Killed Anybody
There are many online discussions this week about the misnomer "sideloading"
Slopwatch: Google News as FUD Vector Against Linux and Plagiarism Enhancer, Serial Slopper (SS) Uses LLMs to Googlebomb "Linux"
Slop destroys the Web not just by screwing with search engines and helping plagiarists. It's also responsible for de facto DDoS attacks...
Links 01/09/2025: "Attacks on Science" and China's "Soft Power" Grows
Links for the day
Links 01/09/2025: Fresh Backlash Against Slop and "Norway’s Electricity Crisis is About to Hit Britain"
Links for the day
Links 01/09/2025: Catching Up (Mostly via Deutsche Welle), "Windows TCO" Effect in UK
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/09/2025: Linguistic Barriers and "Web 1.0 Hosting"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 31, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, August 31, 2025
The UEFI 9/11 - Part IV - External Interference
They all seem to be playing a role in crushing Software Freedom and self-determination for users
Links 31/08/2025: Baggage Claim Scams, an Insurrectionist’s War on Culture, and a Sudden Robotics Hype
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/08/2025: Reviewing Netsurf and Slightly Less Historic Ada Design
Links for the day
IBM Has Taken Control of GNOME
Don't expect a successor to be found any time soon
Links 31/08/2025: Google Gmail Data Breach and LF Puff Pieces for Pay
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 30, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, August 30, 2025
This is What Google News Has Become
Moments ago