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Microsoft Promotions Turn Up in USPS Offices
Several readers, like this Anonymous Coward, have written with links to a letter from Cliff Crouch on macintouch.com. "I stumbled across this letter submitted to a web site I frequent. Apparently Microsoft has promotional displays with free WindowsXP promotional software in U.S. Post Offices."
For better or worse, the US government is large. In fact, it is HUGE. It would be impossible for every decision to be internally consistent in any organziation this size. This is why you always see those exposes on ABC and the like saying Branch A of govt does this and that while Branch B seems to be doing someething flying in the face of it. Its not necessarily that the govt. are hypocrites, all it is is a aggregate of people like you and I. So in this case, its not really the worst thing in the world. And what happend to "innocent until proven guilty"?
It's not the fact that they are giving away Demos, it's the place that the demos are being placed. A tie-in with a US Government agency is new.
You're simply naive. Last time I checked advertising was legal, even for Microsoft.
- adam
usps.gov has a marketing deal with Microsoft apparently. Their Web-Based Solutions page, accessable from the main usps.gov page, is "Powered by Microsoft bCentral", and promotes subscriptions to Microsoft services.
Maybe we need to add "separation of corporation and state" to our "separation of church and state" in the constitution?
Here in Australia, anyone can stick things in post offices if they pay for it. There are all sorts of brochures and things, plus most of the larger ISPs and phone companies have free samplers and recharge kits there.
I assume Microsoft's deal isn't an exclusive arrangement?
I hate M$ same as everybody else but who cares? They paid some dough and the post office put up a display. Anybody could do it if they had the money.
The Post Office isn't some holy place, it's barely connected with the government, and hasn't received any tax dollars since Nixon. It's basically a private organization.
When you see Windows product placement in, say, a courtroom, that's when I'd start to worry....
Well, okay maybe it's not hell yet, but I'll know I'm in hell when the Johova's Witnesses start going door to door and handing out MS CD-ROM's.
The post office is crawling with viruses these days.
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
The CDs are free. Take them all.
Once you have a few hundred of them, you can gather them together with the myriad AOL CDs in your drawer and enjoy a nice day of CD Craft Fun as suggested here, here and here.
Good luck.
-Rothfuss
I really don't care if MS advertises in post offices. What piques my curiosity, though, is what were / are government agencies' policies on advertising?
:)? Could an advertsising policy cause bias in a government agency like campaign contributions cause in politics?
I know that the MA Registry now allows advertising at their sites (somthing for people to look at during the long waits). It wasn't that way too long ago. . .
I have never seen an advertisment in a post office that did not either promote USPS's services or was somthing about taxes.
Was this by design, or was it that no one thought of advertising in a post office before
It's not radical or life-changing, but it does have a large curiosity factor that I could not find much info on. . .
Man, the "devious" flag just raised on this one. Maybe I can grab all the CD's, bring them home and burn new ones, chock full'of nice little additions...viruses, bugs, flaws; then put them back, shrinkwrapped and ready to go. "Hello, Microsoft? I just installed this XP promo and every time I boot up it invokes the name of Satan". Or, "sweet jesus, what's with all the penguins on my screen!?". Hey, maybe something as simple as a new office assistant that offers advice every 15 seconds.
And for the smartasses...yes, new bugs over the ones already on there. I guess this would work with those AOL promo's too...but since no one would ever install those (as they already have 500) it wouldn't be as fulfilling.
The best one was a diskette (in the early days) that was distributed with a magnet order.
- - - - - - - - - - -
I am a programmer. I am paid to produce syntax not grammar. Deal with it.
Soon to come for US Postal Service:
- Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer special edition collectable stamps. Special $1.50 versions: their eyes follow you around the room.
- Windows 3.1 commemorative phone cards ("Relive the special magic of that release with every call you make!")
- Collector's Edition Outlook Virus Stamps. 24 special full-color postage stamps illustrating your favorite Outlook-spread viruses. Collect 'em all!
- Special "Blue Screen of Death" postcards. Nothing but white hex numbers on a field of blue, and you can't write on them. $5.00 for a set of 20.
I'm looking forward to the "Great Operating Systems of the 20th Century" stamp series sponsored by Microsoft.
There will be stamps celebrating such great operating systems as
Windows 3
Windows 3.1
Windows 3.11
Windows NT 3.5
Windows NT 3.51
Windows NT 4.0
Windows 95
Windows 98
and
Windows 2000
Then of course there will be a variety of service packs for the 1 cent stamps.
-Rothfuss
Just the disks I have on hand... I'll make 10 copies of Red Hat, 10 copies of Mandrake, 10 copies of Suse, trek on down to the post office tomorrow and stuff them in the Microsoft ad. I encourage everyone to do the same :)
Maybe scribble a sign overhead and tape it to the MS ad. "...Or use Linux!"
PR release:
Microsoft announced today the acquisition of the United Postal Service. "It's a great innovation, that we know our customers will enjoy. Instead of being hassled by paper communication, our MSN and Hotmail service will provide all means of communication for the people of the US in a safe and secure way." said Microsoft's co-founder Bill Gates.
While many questions have risen regarding the ethical and legal considerations, Microsoft was confident of the acceptance of their new program. With a surprise backer in the federal government, Microsofts program received considerable support from a Mr. DCS1000. Security considerations also came into play with the recent anthrax scares.
The program launches tomorrow, with the initial transfer of all US citizens to the new MS PassportPlus for national identification (Win95/NT/98/2000/XP compatible). A new email activation program will also initiate, offering enhanced security against terrorist hackers sendign unauthorized digital signals.
From the Site
United States Postal Service
The Post Office Department was transformed into the United States Postal Service, an independent establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States. The mission of the Postal Service remained the same, as stated in Title 39 of the U.S. Code: "The Postal Service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people. It shall provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to patrons in all areas and shall render postal services to all communities."
Because, sometimes they just have to touch the stove.
-YY1
Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote. They're all there. They've done that for years.
I've seen American Express application forms at the Post Office for as long as I can remember.
I really don't see much wrong with this.
Regardless of your opinions of Microsoft, it's advertising. AOL has done the same for years, leaving their CDs or floppy disks everywhere imaginable.
So MS puts posters in CDs into a USPS office? Big deal. It's not like you can argue that the USPS is a government office and the government is promoting it, the USPS is a government-contracted company, just look it up in your history book.
If the USPS agrees to hang the signs, then they're there. Personally, either someone will or won't upgrade, and a nifty poster in a post office won't influence too many people, and certainly not the type who would use Linux.
Call me a troll for not flaming Microsoft, but it's just marketing, not monopolistic business tactics. And hell, maybe the cost of postage will go down with the money that MS gives the USPS for putting the posters.
Gawyn
Freedom of Speech?
"You pay for a stamp to send mail"
And the post office loses money on it.
"You pay for a box to receive mail"
Or receive all your mail at a friends house.
"You subsidize spammy junk mail catalogs because companies get favorable bulk mail rates"
Companies get favorable bulk rates because bulk prebarcoded mail is easier to process. I don't think you "subsidize" it.
"And now you have to veiw adds while you stand in line or check your box"
OK, I hate ads too. But you're already bitching about your stamp costs. How do you want them to make enough money to continue their operations? I barely ever go into a post office--if it bothers you that much, you could probably avoid it too.
Usually when you see posters on post offices, they feature people who steal valuable resources from citizens or cause them irreperable harm. Usually these people are regarded as being extremely dangerous and should be avoided at all costs
I'd say that adequately pegs XP.
like a bunch of startled dugongs, or are you going to burn a batch of Linux install CDs and swap them with the XP demo disks? Use one of those "we make it look as much like Windows as possible" distributions, and you might just get away with it, too.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
The USPS does not get any money from the taxpayers. They have to earn everything themselves. Since 9/11, the USPS has lost Billions of dollars in lost revenue, anthrax hassles, etc. They have to make up the money somewhere! If Micro$oft came to them and offered them a large amount of money to put up such display cases, I'm all for it!
BTW: the USPS does a tremendous job for the amount they charge for the postage. Have you looked at first-class postage rates in Europe?
The post office is the sole official physical presence of the U.S. federal government countrywide.
Where do you go to "register" for the Selective Service (the draft)? The post office.
Where do you go to get federal tax forms? The post office is required to supply them.
Sure, some municipalities may have an FBI or ATF branch office, or even a Secret Service office, but the USPS is the main federal presence in EVERY town. It is the face of the US Government for most.
One simple rule for its versus it's
Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer special edition collectable stamps
And if they did issue such a stamp some people would have a problem getting them to stick as they would spit on the wrong side.
Sounds like government to me, warts and all.
Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
..unless, of course, you play games, develop software for windows, do video editing, have a consumer-grade webcam, scanner, etc., or are learning to use a computer and will have to know the OS for work. In which case, carry on..
Btw, nowadays Windows surpasses Linux in the desktop scene for three technical reasons:
1) video drivers with a standardized interface to the kernel. The X/Gtk/KDE thing is outdated; we need a more Windowsish approach where we drop files in, set up a few symlinks and it's using those drivers instead. We should not be forced to recompile our kernel or replace X!
2) a graphics SDK that's modern (OpenGL 2.0 and it's standardized pixel and vertex shader calls won't be out for another two or three quarters at least, according to the last meeting of the ARB, which means that without a doubt, DirectX will be the new standard for game development. This is fact. Live with it.)
3) a monolithic kernel.
Number 3's what's holding us back. I predict that once (if) the GNU hurd catches on, we'll start to see some open source developers moving in this direction. Maybe even the X people'll head that way. But until then.. Linux and BSD may be free, but they ain't the best. Sorry.
-
Success Sells.
So it may get worse; there may be Microsoft ads on USPS trucks next.For over 200 years, the United States Postal Service is the brand that has been built on trust and service.
Now we're selling our unique space. Think of us as your Multi-channel Communications Service. Marketers can get the visibility and reach through the Postal Ad Network.
Place your big message on our trucks, collection boxes and even in our postal facilities. Or small space ads on our stamp packages and banner ads on our website.
There's opposition to the USPS selling out like this.
I agree, the USPS was selling Looney Tunes stamps a couple of years ago, and you can bet that AOL Time-Warner was pulling in some cash from that. There were also tie-ins for The Grinch movie all over our local Post Office, so I don't really see the significance of Microsoft not-so-boldly going where several corporations have gone before...
When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. --Robert A. Heinlein
What part of "United States Post Office" don't you understand? That the civil servants are employed by the Federal Government?
There are many makers of software in this great country and I'm sure none of them apprecite their tax dollars being used to support Microsoft. Don't you remember half of them testifying against M$ over the last few years? Well, gee there it is being promoted in a maner that some people will take as offial US sponsorship. It stinks. Were any of them offered the same oppertunity? Would it even be possible to fit all the material there? 30 Linux distros, 45 BSDs, AOL, Sun, HP, Compaq. There would not be room to stand.
Let's look at another thing "powering" the US post office by way of compairison. Jeeps. You see them all over, as they won bids on an open market. The Post Office Jeeps were stripped of all insignia and were only recognizable by their form. No cardboard cut outs recomending the purchase of Jeeps ever kept the sun from shining through a USPO window. No "test drives" were ever offered. Instead, Jeep was happy to be making the sale and the use was recomendation enough. The USPO had no intentions of recomending one automobile maker over another.
Go to Netcraft, you will see that most US government sites do NOT run M$ trash.
So my wife asks me, "why would they bother to promote M$, a company that needs no promotion." Might the settlement be nationalization? Oh shit.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
Just goes to show what ruthless monopolists they are.
Microsoft isn't so nice, either.
Maybe it's just because I'm drunk, but I think the USPS are a bunch of filthy whores already anway... The damn change-of-address cards come with 25 advertisements, and the first thing they do with your new address is send it out to all the local spammers anyway... The USPS will do anything to keep from laying off excess employees, which is a bit noble if you think of it that way... Now stay away from my wife! No, I'm just kidding, you're my best friend... really, I mean that... just kidding about that... G'night people!
People shape laws. Not the other way around.
After working in the shipping business, I learned quickly how the USPS is the government equivalent of Microsoft. Try sending an overnight letter via UPS or Federal Express to a PO Box. It can't be done. Why? Simple: The USPS forces senders to use their mail services.
When you are a business with no competition, you have no reason to improve. IMO, anybody would be crazy to send something of crucial value or importance via any postal service and expect the same service as a private equivalent (UPS/FedEx/Airbourne).
They are a corporate monopoly with government protection. Not to mention, the only government agency I have seen that runs TV ads ("Fly Like An Eagle" crap).
Microsoft is a convicted monopolist that has shown no remorse for its actions, and scarcely acknowledges that it has done any wrong. Ideally, the government would not be helping to pormote this malignancy.
It has been repeated many times throughout this discussion, first that the Post Office is part of the US government, only to have that assertion contradicted to the effect that the Postal Service is actually an independant corporation established and run by the government -- posters have also pointed out that the Federal Government is the sole shareholder, appoints the directors, and as needed bails the service out to the tune of a billion dollars.
All this is missing the point: the government shouldn't be helping spread the monopoly even if the post office is technically independent. The service still answers to Congress, and does arguably more so than most other businesses. This sort of issue is well within the domain of public policy -- even if no policies currently exist that are relevant to this situation.
In a broader sense, corporations in general also answer to Congress (even in cases like Enron where they'd rather not!), and by extension we regulate all of them in numerous ways as well. In comparison to wholly indepenent and totally private corporations it should be easy to shape a public policy in regards to a pseudo-governmental organization like the post office -- even if it means appointing a board of directors who agree that convicted monopolists shouldn't have the privilege of advertising in Postal Service buildings.
This is also why this is a relevant Slashdot story. It involves what amounts to a public policy decision (or lack thereof) that affects technology that the Slashdot community cares about: Microsoft, monopolies, the blurred line between the public and private sector, and public policy regarding these topics.