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If he sold off his shares, then I might believe you were anything but a piss-poor Troll. But he hasn't.

Funny you should mention that.

I'd say that Billy has been selling off Microsoft shares as fast as he possibly can without people noticing too much.

So whoever modded this +1, kindly go unfuck yourself before attempting further moderation.

Ah yes. I think we know why you don't have mod points.

Here's one company that has taken to providing not just bus passes, but actual buses to get employees off the road.

http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2011/12/microsoft-connector-adds-runs-to-help.html

Now if we can get Boeing to do the same. It's the Boeing workers that seem to like to drive jacked up 4x4 pickups to work. The Microserfs are the ones that drive hybirds. (Or BMWs)

I might question whether you are incapable of reading comprehension, but I don't know it.

You can question anything you like. There's still no doubt Microsoft knew what they were doing.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/12/russia-uses-microsoft-to-_n_713653.html
http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/russia-uses-microsoft-to-suppress-dissent-51505
http://www.osnews.com/story/23797/NYT_Russia_Uses_Microsoft_to_Suppress_Dissent
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Russia-Anti-Piracy-Raids-Microsoft-Piracy-Putin,11270.html
http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2011/03/microsoft-sorry-for-bing-quake-tweet.html
http://techrights.org/2011/09/05/microsoft-mockery-of-the-chinese/

Microsoft says open-source software is not the intended focal point of the action. Five of the alleged patent violations relate to proprietary software.

Microsoft says it filed the case as a last resort, after trying for more than a year to reach an agreement with TomTom.

Five of the patents in dispute relate to in-car navigation technologies, while the other three involve file-management techniques. Gutierrez said Microsoft has reached licensing agreements with with other in-car navigation vendors over the same patents, and it remains open to "quickly resolving" the TomTom dispute through licensing.

But this being Slashdot, of course Microsoft is out there trying to destroy Linux. That is why they are attacking companies like Red Hat and Canonical all the time!

http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2009/10/video_nathan_myhrvold_explains_how_to_save_the_world.html

Stratoshield: Nathan Myhrvold explains how to save the planet
But it turns out that's far from the only idea Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures has dreamed up to save the planet from calamity. Here's another one: Combat climate change by pumping liquid sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere through nozzles in a hose lifted more than 15 miles into the atmosphere using helium-filled balloons. As described by Myhrvold in an interview this week, the idea behind this "Stratoshield" would be to dim the sun in critical areas of the world by just enough to reduce or reverse the effects of global warming. "We think it's a simple, relatively cost-effective, pretty practical way that you could intervene and cool Earth off enough to present disaster," Myhrvold said. No, this is not a joke, or a plot from a bad science-fiction movie. In fact, Myhrvold is talking about the idea now because the Stratoshield and hurricane-stopper ideas are both documented in the new book, "SuperFreakonomics," the follow-up to the hit "Freakonomics" by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.

Here are a couple articles describing some times when Microsoft has sued different companies over patents:

TomTom:

http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2009/02/Microsoft_sues_TomTom_over_patents_in_case_with_Linux_subplot_40305732.html Salesforce:

http://www.tgdaily.com/business-and-law-features/49826-microsoft-sued-over-patents-for-a-change

Motorola: http://www.osnews.com/story/23860/Microsoft_Slaps_Motorola_with_Patent_Lawsuit_over_Android

Barnes & Noble:

http://mashable.com/2011/03/21/microsoft-sues-barnes-noble/

Just a few of the companies being sued by Microsoft. Most companies don't wanna get sued by Microsoft - so they often settle. But Microsoft will sue if they don't get their way.

How are any of these links supporting this very specific claim (complete with snarky comments about others needing to do research): "Lindows, Android, Apple. You might actually want to do some research"

Here are a couple articles describing some times when Microsoft has sued different companies over patents:

TomTom:

http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2009/02/Microsoft_sues_TomTom_over_patents_in_case_with_Linux_subplot_40305732.html
Salesforce:

http://www.tgdaily.com/business-and-law-features/49826-microsoft-sued-over-patents-for-a-change

Motorola:
http://www.osnews.com/story/23860/Microsoft_Slaps_Motorola_with_Patent_Lawsuit_over_Android

Barnes & Noble:

http://mashable.com/2011/03/21/microsoft-sues-barnes-noble/

Just a few of the companies being sued by Microsoft.
Most companies don't wanna get sued by Microsoft - so they often settle.
But Microsoft will sue if they don't get their way.

You don't want to deal with patents, avoid infringing on them and innovate.

Except one of the scumbag tactics that MS used was refusing to even tell which patents they infringed without signing NDAs, specifically so other companies had no chance to drop the allegedly infringing code before MS came after them in turn.

Microsoft really doesn't have much of a history of litigation

Microsoft has a long history of FUD and litigation, and is clearly not afraid to use patents to protect itself from competition.

Preventing or taxing interoperability is easily one of the slimiest way you can employ software patents. It's not like anyone wants to use their crummy FAT file system, it's just the only one their retarded operating system supports. And now they've managed to pull the same scam with exFAT. As if file systems for volumes larger than 32 GiB were not a dime a dozen, let's standardise on one that requires licensing from Microsoft, because they sure as hell deserve some rent from all those Linux devices out there.

they tried for a year to negotiate with B&N

Sounds more like blackmail.

I'm sure google would love a merger: two top heavy companies doing everything they can to kill R&D

Do you have even the faintest notion of what Microsoft spends on R&D?

Microsoft's $8.7 billion in R&D expenses for the 2010 fiscal year represented 14 percent of the company's $62.5 billion in annual revenue. That was down slightly from the previous year, when the R&D expenses of $9 billion represented about 15 percent of its revenue, roughly in line with its traditional ratio.

Microsoft's annual R&D spending dips for first time in five years

Pharmaceutical giant Roche Holding took the top position for innovation spending, having boosted its R&D spend 11.6% to $9.1 billion, replacing Toyota Motor, which cut spending nearly 20% and fell to fourth place.

In fact, healthcare companies took 5 of the top 10 spots on the list and 7 of the top 20.

Microsoft (#2), Nokia (#3) and Pfizer (#5) rounded out the top five. Corporate R&D spending declined during 2009 downturn, finds Booz & Company global innovation 1000 study

When you look at the top three most admired people: Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton, you can immediately see poll responders were giving USA Today/Gallop extremely predicable responses.

What pollsters don't discuss – and will never discuss – is their poll results annoyance factor. Responders are at home, intruded upon by a complete stranger, who is asking scripted, inane and repetitive questions. Responders are too polite to say, "Hey, you're bothering me. You're boring. Get lost!" So they give quick answers simply to get rid of the pollster.

What's disturbing is how many people take these poll results seriously. Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton aren't really the most admired men in the world. Nor, for that matter, are Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama the most admired women in the world. They're merely unimaginative responses from people who are eager to get rid of an annoying pollster.

...Steve Ballmer said that (paraphrasing) Linux is what all our competitors use

This was in response to a question by their stockholders about the possibility of breaking the company up

http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/11/ballmer-and-gates-heres-why-were.html

Divesting something only means creating a harder time competing for all relevant parties . The operating systems that are popular on clients also tend to be popular on servers. They're all based around Linux technology. We happen to build our server business on Windows technology. It creates dis-synergy in fact to split our server and enterprise business from our client business.

• Microsoft sues TomTom over Linux and other patent claims
• Aiming at Android, Microsoft sues Motorola
• Microsoft sues Salesforce.com for alleged patent infringement

That's before we get to the actions of the major Microsoft shareholders e.g: Microsoft Co-Founder Launches Patent War "

And finally of course ; Microsoft's apparent involvement in many proxy actions.

• Microsoft Proxy Fights Against Google in the United States
• Microsoft Proxy Attack on GNU/Linux Continues With TurboHercules
• Google Accuses Microsoft of Proxy Legal War
• Also suggestions of MS involvement in the SCO lawsuit

Under previous management MS may not have been lawsuit happy. Nowadays they pretty clearly are.

Had to click through a few things to actually see it:

http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/04/us_marine_corps_general_powerpoint_makes_us_stupid.html

and the original NYT piece:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html?_r=1

both include some brilliant shit, and absolutely nail some of the things I've noticed about what PPT does to your information organization

Amazon patented that last year - http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2009/06/Amazon_patents_electronic_pen_technology_49100176.html (see patent here: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,546,524.PN.&OS=PN/7,546,524&RS=PN/7,546,524 )

"An electronic input device such as an electronic pen is provided to annotate a paper document. The input device records an annotation and an image of human-comprehensible content in the document sufficient to identify the document and possibly a location in the document. The human-comprehensible content is used to locate a digital version of the document and determine a corresponding location of the annotation in the digital version of the document. A computer system such as a server system may receive and store the annotation in association with the digital version of the document. The server system may further augment the digital version of the document with the annotation and send the augmented version to an output device for display and/or printing."

Indeed. Here in Colorado they just passed a so-called "Amazon" bill, which aims clamp down on people who don't pay use tax for online purchases, which according to tax data, is almost everyone. Instead of requiring businesses to collect and remit CO sales tax directly, they require them to notify the customer(s) of the amount spent that year and a reminder to pay their state taxes, along with providing the state of CO with customer information. The new law applies to all companies doing more than $100k gross sales to residents of CO, and went into effect on March 1.

TechFlash: The Google-Microsoft rivalry now extends to Santa Web sites

'One of the great strengths of the Windows platform is that it has always been licence-agnostic', westlake

as long as it isn't the GPL ..

'The system never frets or complains when you try to install an app that doesn't meet Microsoft's standards of political correctness', westlake

Except with WGA, Microsoft can remotely disable your desktop if it deems it 'unlicensed' and they don't give a toss about unlicensed third-party software.

'The Linux distro can make you jump through a hoop or two or three before you get to that closed source app or binary driver', westlake

Except, a certain software company keeps threatening codec developers with litigation, therefore such codecs have to be supplied seperately. If such a 'closed source app' exist do you mind telling us what it is. And if a binary only driver is available, then that's down to the supplier of the hardware, in'it?

'Windows does like to see a signature', westlake

Microsoft gets to approve what gets installedon my computer. Besides they are now selling a 'crapware' free computer, that's software from third party developers I assume.

"We think we're really unlocking the potential of Windows 7 "

OLPC ran into trouble because of its "all or nothing" attidude, westlake

bs, there was much machinations behind the scene. In fact MS was initially going to join the project to 'help' it get better .. :)

'The meeting begin with a question by Marcelo on wether Microsoft felt the OLPC project would be successful without its involvement '

MS even wanted to get a license for the "open source hardware"

'Remember that a key part of our strategy is to create a situation where even if Nick rejects us for philosophical reasons there is a long and visible history of our attempts to work with them and then we have to ask to get a license for the "open source hardware" and we will make our own offering on the commercial side'

If that didn't work, then they proposed creating their own 'open source' license and naming it "Education Open Source" or some such ..

'I think we should name our new open source license and romance its creation. "Education Open Source" or something like that'

'When the minister took his business elsewhere there was suddenly room in OLPC for XP and MS Office', westlake

You're comments are becoming ludicrous here ..

"Vista sucking has a lot more to do with sociology than technology. The problem was that marketdroids .. outright lied about the user experience at some levels of hardware capability", QuoteMstr

"More internal Microsoft e-mails were unsealed today in the Windows Vista Capable lawsuit, detailing the wrangling that took place inside the company and across the industry before and after the operating system's January 2007 launch. The plaintiffs are using the messages to support their contention that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was involved enough in decisions to warrant a deposition"

'The "Vista sucks" meme, however, spread virally because 1) we all love to hate Microsoft, and 2) most users really can't tell the difference between good technology and bad', QuoteMstr

The "Vista sucks" meme spread becasue Vista did really suck, really :)

"From: Stevan Sinofsky
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2007 12:08 PM
To: Steve Ballmer Cc: Bill Veghte; Jon Devaan
Subject: Re: Vista

A lot of changes led many Windows XP drivers not really working at all - this across the board for printers, scanners, wan, accessories (fingerprint readers, smartcards, tv tuners), and so on"

Microsoft's commitment is legally binding.

OK, maybe that Microsoft Community Promise is legally watertight and binding.
That means Microsoft can't sue users of mono with patents.
<tinfoil-hat-time>
However..
we are in a financial crisis, so if Microsoft needs to sell a package of patents for much-needed cash to, oh, say Intellectual Ventures, and *they* subsequently sue users of mono with their newly acquired patent portfolio, what then?
</tinfoil-hat-time>

context for parent: http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2009/09/ballmer_spots_microsoft_employee_with_iphone_at_company_meeting.html

It's called "Learn That Name" and it's found in the second link from TFS, not the first link.

I do believe you're a diehard linux fan... I really do :]

"... I'm frankly getting sick of the FSF. This latest stupid campaign reads like it was written by some petulant teenager without the first clue as to the realities of life"

I take it you that you don't disagree that the following is an accurate depiction of Microsoft practices.

Poisoning education, Invading privacy, Monopoly behavior, Lock-in, Abusing standards, Enforcing Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), Threatening user security ...

"and it tars the rest of us who support (and in my case actually write) OSS with the same idiotic uncompromising brush"

That would be speaking only for yourself and what OSS have you contributed to ?
--

Bill Gates' hurricane stopper

"The end product was essentially a vending machine that links to correctional facility databases and dispenses prescription medications"

We've already got that here. It's known as the NHS, only the 'medications dispensers' are called doctors and it's they that do the typing.
--

Bill Gates' hurricane stopper

Why doesn't it come with an up-to-date anti-virus utility like most modern innovative operating systems?
--

Bill Gates' hurricane stopper

'It's not trolling if your patent truly covers an innovation, and your competitors copy it. In this case it's called "protecting your rights"'

Apart from the accusation that Dish illegally copied TiVo technology. I would have assumed that there were any number of methods of pausing, rewinding, and recording live television on digital video recorders. A PC, a tuner card, a dual head harddrive, and two instances of FFMPEG .. --

Bill Gates' hurricane stopper

With Bill's patent for stopping hurricanes why is a patent for cows that don't fart a joke? http://www.techflash.com/microsoft/One_force_of_nature_vs_another_Bill_Gates_wants_to_stop_hurricanes_50385622.html

Two errors with that claim. First, as others have posted, Bing is a re-branding of MSN Live or whatever it was called. Second, it is a response to Wolfram Alpha which, unlike the marketing initiative from MS, is something new. MS has a pattern of re-naming failed products like Live to hide bad reviews or avoid the downside to brand recognition.

Apply the lessons learned elsewhere. When you see a product or service from MS spewed in a media blitz, especially one touted as being new, look around for the target of MS' copying and if that copy is a re-tread of an earlier, failed product. In this case, the original being copied is Wolfram's Alpha.

http://www.techflash.com/How_a_Microsoft_veteran_learned_to_love_Linux_and_why_it_matters_48542167.html

Why Bill Gates stays so calm on stage whenever Microsoft's product demos run into trouble: He had plenty of experience with such things, starting at an early age. Young 'Trey' managed to persuade employees of the City of Seattle to come to his parents' house for a demo of his and Paul Allen's Traf-O-Data software, but the first live demo of his system failed. So how did Bill react? He ran into the kitchen, shouting on the way, 'Mom! Mom! Come and tell them that it worked!'

"The irony that when Gates was in control, Microsoft was more aggressive on the business side, and since Ballmer took over, they've been working a lot harder on the technology side?"

'Microsoft sues TomTom over Linux and other patent claims'

'On February 27, 2008 the European Union (EU) competitions commission announced its decision to fine the Microsoft Corporation 899 million (US$1.35 billion), approximately 1/10th of the company's net yearly earnings, for failing to comply with the 2004 antitrust order'

More to the point: Why Microsoft has been making such a habit of changing its mind

I guess that the good, capable people long ago left Microsoft for more friendly surroundings.

Silverlight is not touching my computer either, an AC posted a URL which contains the ad in flash format

http://www.techflash.com/microsoft/Microsofts_new_Im_a_PC_ads_target_Macs_as_overpriced_elitist_41942687.html

It's not like MS sues people for running windows on non-standard hardware.

http://www.techflash.com/microsoft/Microsoft_sues_TomTom_over_patents_in_case_with_Linux_subplot_40305732.html

You're right. That boycott novell site is so batshit is kind of funny

http://boycottnovell.com/2009/01/18/irc-log-17012009/#tJan%2017%2021:09:00

twitter: It's like the secretary in Hitler's bunker. She heard everything but never felt responsible.
schestowitz: People are easy to program
twitter: People want to believe their leaders and employers no matter how brutal and wrong they are.
amd-linux: hmmm lets not compare MS with Hitler - as a German I have difficulties with that
schestowitz: That's what makes us just high-class chimpanzees
amd-linux: I mean MS is ruthless, but they did not kill 6 million people...
schestowitz: More
schestowitz: There are also the wars
twitter: they push patent law and deprive the world of life saving drugs
schestowitz: Some nations are still invading other countries
schestowitz: And people are taught that they "Do the Right Thing"
twitter: As an American, I have a lot to learn from people like Hitlerâ(TM)s secretary
schestowitz: WT*? Look at this headlne: http://www.techflash.com/microsoft/Microsoft_faces_long_â¦
twitter: I am responsible for Iraq and Gaza.

Microsoft = Hitler. Microsoft employees are like Hitler's secretary. And oddly enough twitter is like her too, responsible for all the evils of the Bush admin.

These may seem far fetched to you, but they are possibilities that become unpossibilities one you start switching devices to non-ubiquitous filesystem. So, here's the bigger question: why close those doors?

Its best to avoid making assumptions as to what someone else may find far fetched, I in no way disagree with the value of interoperabilty. The only reason linux and TomTom use FAT is for interoperability not because Microsoft has some amazing "IP" and everyone wants FAT. However, you do bring up an important point, the bigger question, why close those doors? Considering the threat to all the hardware manufacturers affected by the interoperability issues you highlight it seems its time to dump the dead weight baggage of Microsoft's FAT patent lunacy and bring an open format to ubiquity.

April 16, 2008 ELC: Trends in embedded Linux

Usage of Linux in embedded development projects crossed a threshold this year, with more than 50% of the 812 respondents saying that they are currently using it. Usage of Linux has been growing year over year, but didn't cross the halfway mark until 2008. More than 61% believed their company would be using Linux within the next two years.

December 04 2003 Microsoft to Charge for FAT File System

January 11, 2006 Microsoft's FAT Patent Upheld

January 13, 2006 FAT Patent Means Hardware Dollars For Microsoft

February 20, 2007 Ballmer repeats threats against Linux

February 25, 2009 Microsoft sues TomTom over Linux and other patent claims

Hardware manufacturers are caught in a catch 22, decouple from the Microsoft monopoly and risk losing market as I assume you are suggesting or remain fully engaged in the Microsoft monopoly and have your margins, market, and product plans somewhat dictated by Microsoft.

As someone who has worked in the brutally competitive hardware industry for many years I can see that its time for hardware manufacturers to show some back bone and beat down the fat and lazy leech that Microsoft has become.

"Here's an example. The US government probably prevents you from selling your open source software to Cuba"

Where does it say that, there is no mention of the GPL on the U.S. Treasury Cuba Sanctions site.

"I hope the same applies to this theory that Microsoft is forcing people to violate the GPL and therefore lose their rights to the code"

Microsoft claims that the Linux kernel used in Tom Tom devices violates Microsoft own patents. If Tom Tom were to start paying Microsoft royalties for such, that would be in violation of section 7.

'Yes, well, three of the eight patents in this dispute read on the Linux kernel as implemented by TomTom .. What I mean is the patents cover the implementation of the Linux kernel done by TomTom in their products'

The temp's employer is Volt Workforce Solutions.

Volt joins most but not all firms in deciding to pass some or all of the impact of the [Microsoft] cuts on to their workers. Temp giant Volt informs workers it will make Microsoft pay cuts

How surprising is it when a wholesale supplier cuts his prices and costs to remain competitive in a recession?

--- but is not so quick to dial back his own profits?

Microsoft is bleeding to death when kdawson's theme is FOSS and Linux. Microsoft is rich, strong and stable when the talk turns to pay cuts and layoffs.

The well-run company survives a deep recession - a depression - by making changes before the situation turns desperate.

The 10% pay cut now is at least a better outcome for the temp than the 100% cut he'd take later if his job is outsourced to India.

It's useful to remember now and again that the median household income in the states is $50,000 -

keeps things in perspective, when you ask yourself how much your job is worth.

Skip the ads and get the PDF of the complaint:

http://media.techflash.com/documents/tomtomComplaint.pdf

A quickie read of it still has me going "WTF!?" a lot. Seriously - they patented such things like:

"Vehicle Computer System with Wireless Connectivity"

"Portable Computing Device-Integrated Appliance"

A quick look at the dates these things were granted, and most gadget geeks' memories should spark something: Most of this crap shouldn't have been patentable in the first place (wish they appended the patents to the complaint, though... it'd make things a lot easier to eyeball and evaluate in one spot).

I'm guessing MSFT is just hoping to force a settlement, so that they can then use it as a cudgel... thing is, Microsoft is using a lot of OSS code nowadays too (IIRC in MSN/Live Messenger, Visual Studio 2008, and etc - linky here).

"this was also the fault of the hardware manufacturers who pushed so hard on Microsoft to get the sticker on their products"

Like where, according to Microsoft insider Rob Enderle the push came from MS over the protests of Intel and others, unless you know differently.

'sitting on the OEM typically is not effective at making a problem like this go away'

• PCPro article
• The Microsoft mail trail (PDF)

Here's the emails the story mentions but fails to link

Link to the email conversation in question: http://media.techflash.com/documents/intelvictory.pdf (pdf)