Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft PR Rep is the Switcher
Here's a followup to our
earlier story
about Microsoft's "inverse switch" campaign. The AP tracked down the switcher and spoke with her:
she's an employee at a Microsoft public relations firm but says she actually did switch from Mac to Windows. Microsoft's
page
is still 404 (but Google's
cache
still works).
The interesting part to me is that the AP "tracked Mallinson by examining personal data hidden within documents that Microsoft had published with its controversial ad." Hmmmmmm.
(Kudos to obidonn, the first to
demonstrate
the use of a stock photo, which piqued interest in this story.
As of noon EDT Oct. 15, other
stock
photos
are still being used in anonymous Microsoft "testimonials.")
Maybe Microsoft will follow the Church of Scientology and try to get them to remove the page from their cache. They certainly have the resources to enforce any threat they could make.
Have you been stalked by Seth today?
How do we know the Anonymous Poster isn't an employee of Linux and is just trying to discredit their biggest competitor?
Lies, FUD, bad software (let's not get started), breaking the law... Where does it end!?
Microsoft have so much egg on their face that this they're starting to look like that nasty chick in a cheap porno!
People still trust these assholes?
Why bother.
All this info found will be of no use unless it can surface to mainstream media.
I doubt any national TV stations other than TechTV read slashdot, this can be seen pretty obviously. Time Magazine just published an article on the music companies using glue to seal in unrelased songs for publications to read... I was in awe because it finally made mainstream about a month after it was on Slashdot!
Excuse my rant, but it seems that Microsoft has done a pretty good job tucking this firmly under the proverbial carpet and I really doubt it will see the light of day again...
I fail to see how is EASIER than any other OS. A basic install of any operating system on any decent set of hardware is going to be equally easy to use. I use two Apple iBook's for music, not because I think the hardware is superior, but because my software isn't available for Windows yet. Most people that use Apple computers don't use them for what they are best at (multimedia, audio, video, etc) so they've basically spent anywhere from $500-$1500 more than a better equipped PC for absolutely no reason, they aren't benefitting from "ease of use," they aren't benefitting from the power.
And getting people to switch from their Mac to Windows? Why even spend money on that effort? Windows machines may have been more difficult to use 15 years ago, but they've caught up... anyone who still thinks they are more difficult to use hasn't tried one.
In my experience as the "computer guy" in my circle of friends I find that 95% of their problems come from using crappy software (and stuff that installs spyware) or using crappy hardware (e-machines).
If you can't figure out the "start" button good luck trying to interface with OSX... (how is clicking start -> programs -> microsoft word harder than clicking Macintosh HD then searching around for your software? hm...)
sig.
All microsoft products are gone from my machine! Oh wait, I want to play Fallout one more time.....
Not on Limewire......And come to think of it, Office vX / XP is free too......
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
I remember this same thing happening with the antitrust trial. Soon dead people are going to be writing in to say that they switched from Mac to Windows.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
But on topic, if they tracked her down, how 'bout a real photo of this person? Just for comparison's sake.
It looks like MS is trying to do a "save my face" operation here by spinning the story by (of course) a MS PR person.
I went and immediately threw my g4 into a dumpster and bought an e-machine with xp after I saw that ad.........it was so powerful and convincing.
Microsoft spends big when it comes to it's PR and marekting firms. More than on any other single item in the budget.
These firms have a mandate from MS to spread out and hit hard. They lurk here and on ZDNet, as an example, just waiting for opportunities to impersonate Joe/Jane Average user.
They pump out hourly press releases that all have the same theme..."MS is best and who can fault a leader?...Join us in the fun and we will do all the thinking for you."
It is all too clear what they think of their customers...brain-dead sheep, begging to be sheared.
To understand the mechanics, it may help to first study a long standing 'marketing' ploy known as 'the big lie'. I don't normally use references like this, but the best manual I know is titled 'Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'.
I mean, jeez, get some priorities or something. Nobody outside of maybe slashdotters or other MS-haters really would care, you people are frothing out the mouths over their godamn PR campaign! Is there nothing about Microsoft you won't bitch about?
Maybe if you guys focused your time on making Linux better, you people wouldn't be so jealous.
SIG:Slashdot: indymedia for nerds.
Is this story suggesting that Microsoft would be dishonest? I'm shocked... Not.
More Microsoft issues: Windows XP shows the Direction Microsoft is Going.
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Some how I don't think they'll publish a story on returning Windows for a refund and installing Linux. 8P
-Gordy
Clearly not a candidate for googlewhacking. The combination gives about 1300 hits.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Let's not get on that bike again, where someone says /. is the hard news site of the century. If you read it here first, it's because you're not looking elsewhere, that's all. Get out on the net and look around for yourself before you hand this place an Emmy.
...is not that Microsoft has done this, but that they're so shocked and shaken over Apple's switch campaign that they felt this was necessary.
Without getting too offtopic, I owned a Mac for awhile and wasn't too thrilled with it. Yes, it was usable, but the thought that kept repeating in my mind was "I can sell this on eBay and use the money to buy MUCH better hardware for my PC." - so I did. Do I regret no longer being "biplatform"? Nope...
It wasn't so much that I had anything against the Mac platform... I just didn't NEED it. My PC didn't give me any trouble and all the apps I use for doing what I like to do work fine on the PC. I guess if I felt the same way about the Macintosh to begin with, I wouldn't want to switch either and no amount of Microsoft fluff could change my mind. In the end, it just comes down to using what it is you like to use...
As a side note, I think some of you Slashdotters agree that you'd be more than willing to go "biplatform" if Macs weren't so expensive... There's a $199 Wal-Mart PC for the curious Mac users, where's the $199 Mac for curious PC users?
---
DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
This isn't mainstream?. Considering they broke this a few hours after it ran on Slashdot I'm not sure what else you expect. A CNN <blink>breaking news</blink> flash?
Hi, my name is Valerie G. Mallinson and I work for a Microsoft PR firm.
One day I asked my boss for a new video camera for my Mac. He said "Remember, your paycheck comes from Microsoft, let's switch you for our new marketing campaign!"
So I switched.
And then my boss said "Hey, Microsoft wants to tell the world that you switched, but you're no prettier than those people Apple used. We wish you looked BETTER than Apple people."
And so they used some stock photos to give me a make over.
There's been plenty of people that switched from Apple to Windows, they're just too embarrassed to publicly admit their mistake.
all the dishonesty.... its legal.
they never made any connection from the woman to the article, they just placed it on the same page and hinted that she was writing it.
(of course, i'm not a lawyer. so i could be 100% wrong.)
No one is claiming the intelecual property rights on stupidity ....
---- "Logoff! That cookie shit makes me nervous!" - A. Soprano
Two things get me about this:
1) The woman works at a PR firm--a business where Macintosh systems are fairly strong, albeit not quite as much as advertising and the graphic arts. So, what kind of Mac did she switch from? A crappy 6-year old Mac or something ancient? Hell, anything would make you switch from that.
2) By being a contractual employee of Microsoft, this ad really doesn't give MS a lot of credit for their product. Can't they simply find a relatively honest person to endorse? I mean, really! Not everyone hates Microsoft, and I'm sure there are enough people to say, "Sure, it works for me."
This can't be a good thing, and it only creates more alienation in a business where getting along still means a little something, if only to make friends before you merge your companies.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
Yes, you may be horrified by the enormous amount of mac users which turn out to be actually windows users. Methinks all of them deserve what they get.
Thats what watching 50 hours of UHF over and over again will do to you.
Microsoft is living proof that with enough creative marketing, you truly can wrap a turd in colored foil and call it candy!
Some people may see this as insignificant in light of all the other corporate scandals in the world. However, it's just one more instance of Microsoft treating their customers and/or prospective customers as bafoons.
Many companies have fallen on hard times because they failed to respect the intelligence of their customers. The *only* thing keeping people from ditching Microsoft like a bad habit is the lack of anything comparable. That day will come, and Microsoft will surely rue it.
How well it works in WineX: 4 out of 5
3
User Comments: Fallout works really fine; Haven't
experienced any glitches while testing
the game.
http://www.transgaming.com/gamepage.php?gameid=17
Daughter: "Mommy, did you have your 15 minutes of fame?"
Valerie: "Yes, honey."
Daughter: "Did you like it, mommy?"
Valerie: "No, honey."
Daughter: "Why?"
Valerie: "It was for Microsoft."
As a Windows 2000 user, I'm not at all surprised that Microsoft had to fabricate the story of someone who switched from a Mac OS X to Windows XP.
Everytime I think how these guys are stupid, I get surprised as they go a step lower!
:-/
Then I remember these guys are the richest ones on this world...
And some folks, who I wont name out of compassion and because I also say my share of bs, call them "geniuses"... *sigh*
Cest la vie, I guess...
They downloaded the word doc. Looked at the properties of the doc. Saw that the url "valmalgal.com" was in it. Did a WHOIS on valmalgal.com, came up with her name.
hahahahahaahahah...argghaaaaaggarrraa....(coughs). ..i can't breathe.....i can't breathe
The best part of the article:
"A spokeswoman from Apple would not comment"
Yeah - because she was still cleaning up all of the millk that she laughed through her nose.
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
The ramifications of this are astounding, imagine if this sort of thing is going on in other industries. You know those housewives who give testimonials about the effectiveness of washing powder? The fast cars that are guaranteed to improve your sex appeal? How can we trust anything we see in advertising anymore?
Using stock photos in "testimonials" is something low-budget spammers do. Did Microsoft really think we wouldn't notice? They could do some TV commercials with stock footage. Do they use the Ed Wood ad agency?
Advertisers don't "get it" why Gen X isn't buying their crap. We have figured out that marketing and lying have become synonyms, and we don't like it. Anybody remember the movie, Crazy People? Dudley Moore wanted to use honesty in advertising, and they locked him up in the nuthouse. The ads worked, though.
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
Is the one about how much of a surfing addict she is and how nice IE6 is. How can a good looking women become a surfing addict? It's not like she has to have her porn every day....
Hrm, the AP says that they found the writer's personal website. Anyone out there have the URL?
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
<i>STOOOPAD! YOU SOO STOOOPAD!</i>
ROFLMAO! I love a good UHF reference.
Microsoft's favorite song must be "Oops, I Did It Again." After the MSNBC article about Ebay fraud (riddled with ads for uBid, hmmm), this looks to be the latest in what could become a series of goofs by MS.
Where do you want to find us tooting our own horn today?
Blog Prophyts - Right On, Man
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The more outrageous news is that Microsoft has forced the some of the largest multinational ad agencies to get rid of competitors products (Novell, IBM, etc.) if they wanted to see any Microsoft$ in their books.
I spoke with sysadmins, who told me that Microsoft audited their IS department on a regular basis to make sure that whatever Microsoft police decided to die is dead indeed.
Compared to that this documented switch is just the tip of the iceberg.
I really wonder that these incidents should also be included in the Microsoft anti-trust trial.
Download "ShowOffYourSkills.doc" from the web page.
m ailSubjecto lsShownOnce
= UTF-8
$ strings ShowOffYourSkills.doc | less
/* truncated... */
Show Off Your Skills
Normal.dot
Katherine L. Trunkey
Microsoft Word 10.0
valmalgal.com
Show Off Your SkillsTitle
_PID_HLINKS
_AdHocReviewCycleID
_E
_AuthorEmailDisplayName
_ReviewingTo
Comments
Valerie Mallinson (Wes Rataushk & Assc Inc)
Microsoft Word Document
MSWordDoc
Word.Document.8
This "switcher" had her privacy compromised by Microsoft software. Her web site is not yet active but you can look up the "Wes Rataushk" firm to find that it is in Redmond. The following blog belongs to a coworker of hers, perhaps you could ask him more:
http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:ncxQ S-5T-OQC:www.pamkeesey.com/+Wes+Rataushk&hl=en&ie
-s.
Thank god slashdot doesn't permit the "" tag.
The time of day is 29:33.
Yeah, this be-otch went from an 8 year Mac "owner" to Windows XP and she's already mastered device drivers and MS Office... RRRRIIIIIIIIIIIGHT
"Fire another round, corporal."
"But sir... we're running out of feet."
-pyrrho
...she's as hot as that chick that M$ used in the ad. Otherwise, someone must pay.
Trolls make great pets. Adopt one today!
Do you think that M$ gets pissed that 95% of their traffic for web marketing programs comes from slashdot?
Please, don't let Microsoft ask Google to remove the page. That's a damn goodlooking woman, and we all know that sells your products and services. Remember the Aimster girl? How about Voicestream's Jamie Lee Curtis? I could go on and on. How about someone putting together a calendar of the spokeswomen of industry, or something like that!
The sound of M$ sheep eating astroturf!
They are like drug addicts, and each time I think they have hit rock bottom, they plumb new depths.
What's next? Are they going to take hostages until the victim's family members buy Microsoft products?
This proves once again that Microsoft cannot do a single thing honestly. Their corporate culture is so imbibed in lies, illegalities, borderline and otherwise, outrageous affronts to the intelligence of the Windows user base, that they keep stuffing their corporate asses into their own mouths. What surprises me after all these years of abuse on all levels from lies about security, deliberate sabotage of third party soft, stealing of code, is that they actually have a "following" of users, BinLaden included right alongside of Bush and Grandma down the street willing to defend them and kiss Billy"s ass just because he is rich enough to be their god or they find it an absolute necessity to play a few games. This doesn't say much for either the intelligence or the courage of the "average" user.
Rien n'est plus beau que le creux du 0.
Who is the asian man with black glasses and headphones? He's always in print ads.
And on the same note as stock photography, the David Byrne book "Your Action World: Winners Are Losers With a New Attitude" features a hilarious comic strip done entirely with bad stock photography and thought bubbles.
According to this site, she was helping this guy put together PocketPC solutions for use on his Africa biking trip. Sounds like she was a little more in the MS fold than the article said. I'm surprised she even still used Macs, being a PocketPC "solutions troubleshooter" and all!
"Doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs." -- Switchfoot, Ode to Chin
Since when is lying illegal? I mean, other then in court and to the police lying is and has always been legal. There can be civil penalties if you disparage someone, like if I said you raped children you could sue me. But you would have to prove that I knew what I was saying was false.
they never made any connection from the woman to the article, they just placed it on the same page and hinted that she was writing it.
And if they had... so what? It still wouldn't be a crime.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Have you considered speech therapy?
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
here it is...
/Volumes/Users/anon/Downloads/ShowOffYourSkills.do c
are you ready...????
[anon] less
or you could use Properties... in MS Word if you have time to wait for word to launch and open
She has a domain name registered, valmalgal.com, but nothing on it yet.
The end of the world will happen when Microsoft enters the military software market. Then we will see wars started and sponsored by Microsoft - as just an other PR gem.
You've discovered that what was probably a joke, was faked! Congratulations!
Make fun of Apple's Switch ads all day, but when Microsoft joins in, quick, better find a reason to bash them.
Better hurry and mod this post down too, before someone sees it and ruins your 'victory'.
As a PR rep wouldn't this just be doing her job in promoting Microsoft? :)
sig.
- _AuthorEmailDisplayName
property is set to- Valerie Mallinson (Wes Rataushk & Assc Inc)
I guess that's hidden if you don't know much about computers.Check out Chad's News
Who cares which OS is more stable or looks prettier? In truth, command line platforms are the most stable (DOS, *nix, etc). As for User Interfaces Apple and Microsoft have upgraded their User Interfaces considerably, but they need to give due credit to Amiga for pioneering UI-based operating systems, from which they obviously ripped off.
Apple OSX = Amiga
Microsoft Windows XP = Amiga
grep >= ! == $your
Soooooooo, is this the company that promises us a full-fletched Terminator 1001B termed "Palladin" to protect our privacy and safeguard our security? Is this that same company that recently promised to solve privacy concerns for its bullet-holed Passport in front of the Government? Is this that same company that cries foul of seeing holes, bugs, trojans roaming all its platforms and claims there should be some order on publishing such things on Inet? It seems so...
Only M$ could publish an article signed by an anonymous writer. And show who she is in front of hundreds of millions of Internet users...
That's a lot of privacy... I like it! How long it will take to see M$ MUD - Where BG went today?
Pave Low is actually employed by Microsoft...or does he just like being lied to?
...if for not other reason than because the set of hardware on which it must run is much more restricted. Microsoft is attempting to do the impossible -- support every PC and PC peripheral that has ever been shipped. This is the source of many M$ software headaches -- especially during installation.
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
How do we know the Anonymous Poster isn't an employee of Linux
I don't see "Anonymous Poster" capitalized that way anywhere in the blurb or the article.
If you're trying to draw a parallel between "AP" in the blurb and "AC" as a common abbreviation for Slashdot's Anonymous Coward, you're mistaken, but I forgive you: AP == Associated Press.
Will I retire or break 10K?
M$ has now become their worst nightmare. They are where IBM was in the 80's and 90's. While IBM has learned to let go of their old legacies and monopolies, M$ holds on to a largely irrelevant position of protecting what once was. I feel sorry for the young programmers that went to work for M$ hoping to change the world. They now work for a company that has as management several old geezers living in the past and very afraid to realize the implications of a book like "The Innovators Dilemma."
Innovation has become an oft oft-used and little heeded word at M$. When the wealth of the status quo out weighs the gains of the revolutionary, old men clutch at straws and young men are wasted.
billg led them to where they are, but now he is dragging them down.
So, you'd also buy a Mercedes bulletproof limo and Gulfstream personal jet if they were closer to your budget as well?
What kind of logic is that? We would be crazy to argue with that. It's a debater's tactic that puts the respondent in a no-win position, regardless of their answer. Would you do drugs if there was no risk? Would you stop ageing if you could? Would you fly if someone gave you wings?
This is a huge corporation that is claiming things that aren't true. They (you) should be hung up by their balls.
Kudos to /. for shining the light on this dirty dirty company.
"I was skeptical that FatAway(tm) would work but I've dropped 47 dress sizes in two weeks -- George from New York"
Since I purchased my FastCash(tm) Work at Home Kit, I've earned over twelve trillion dollars in just one month -- Dick from Arkasas
etc, etc.
The interesting similarity between such testimonials and Microsoft's little works of fiction are:
Like most consumers, I only have so much money to spend -- so will I buy the breast enlargement cream or Windows XP? Hmmmm...
Sucky as it is, scaring up "testimonials" from people who are involved in a company seems pretty common.
:-)
I once wrote a fairly awesome tool for finding expired domains, for a company I once worked for. The company president sent off an e-mail telling all employees of the company to write up a testimonial about how great this new product was, and how it gave so much more useful results than the "e-crap.com" that other search engines suggested. He mentioned in the e-mail "even Micah, if he's willing" -- which I took to mean he thought I'd be above writing a fake testimonial (which is true, I WOULD have a problem doing that).
Funny thing is, I actually had a true testimonial. I used the thing to find some very good domains for a project I was working on. So the company put up a "testimonial" page with about 6 completely BS testimonials and my true one.
Ironically, my tool has been taken down for some reason which I'm still not sure of (I think they were ticking off the WHOIS people), and now it has degraded to one that suggests things like "e-crap.com".
By viewing the document's properties, under the "custom" tab, one can find the following, "Valerie Mallinson (Wes Rataushk & Assc Inc)."
And while I'm at it, let's not forget that people who appear in the Apple switch ads are real people, located by the company through god-knows-what mechanism and invited to offer "testimonials" gratis. Yeah, sure.
Hey kids!
Want to engage in real-life Kompooter Forensics just like AP does? Follow these easy steps!
1) Go to Google's cache of the article, since it has now been pulled by Microsoft.
2) Now click on the link at the bottom of the cache page, which reads "Download the submission form in Word format." Whoops! Looks like those kid whizzes at Microsoft didn't actually remove everything!
3) Haven't made the switch to Microsoft yet? Word still new to you? No prob. Go to the 'File' Menu and select Properties while you are viewing the Microsoft Word document. Don't worry! No chmod here!
4) Peruse the tabs to uncover all of AP's 'personal data', including Valerie's zany new website. You go, girl!
either the ps managers changed their mind or she (the freelance writer) switched back to mac :P
Yeah, it was probably a "joke". How long did you and the boys take to think up that explanation, Bill? Sad, sad effort.
Okay, she's a contract model for freelance photography stock photo pages, *and* she's a technical writer who switched from a Mac to XP? Let's get her in the lab and watch her fumble around with some Nvidia drivers and see how proficient she is. Wonder how much she's getting paid to keep quiet. Ha ha, good work /.
MSNBC might actually pay you to advertise on Donahue, with his 3 viewers.
Start, and maybe even finish
That's part of the problem. You click the Start button to Stop the computer.
I really can not think of any way that the OS could contribute to make me more productive.
How about being compiled specifically for your processor's microarchitecture? Public-source operating systems (such as GNU/Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, and Darwin) can provide this, and operating systems designed to run only on one or two microarchitectures (i.e. Mac OS X, which runs on PowerPC G3 and G4) can provide this. Can Windows?
I don't recall having XP crash (needing a reboot) in about a year now
What about when it goes and downloads a patch to its networking stack, IE, the J?v? VM, or Outlook Express? Granted, that's not a crash, but it still needs a reboot.
If you are really desperate, you can skin XP to make it look like Aqua.
Go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Off hand, I would guess that MS does not produce even there own web pages. No innovative software(actually, I susect that they own the worms going on Unix/Linux/Apple). No real MS customers. What else is fake about them?
Yes, it's true. I like the Menuet Operating System enough to change my whole computing world around.* Here's the bottom line: Menuet gives me more opportunities to write 32-bit assembly code. It's about more and better...
I can read my files, I can write my files, I can even write to video memory. To my surpise, the process of switching was as easy as all the Menuet OS marketing hype had promised. I was up and running as fast as I could format the floppy, Girl's Scouts Honor taken. First, let me tell you more about why I converted...
I'm an assembler geek. All those high-level abstractions found in other operating systems are for pansy-assed sissies. I want an OS that required that I coded my own TCP/IP stack before I coded a web browser. In assembler. Menuet delivered.
I discover more treats daily. For example, I have to reverse engineer Microsoft's .doc file format if I want to implement a word processor whose data files can be infected with viruses. It will be an ongoing process, but I'm thrilled so far.
*Editor's Note: Now that we've successfully converted our writer to using Menuet OS, we will be working on getting her to try writing a Befunge interpreter for it! Stay tuned for more developments!
I hope they'll do it, I really do. Apple I mean. It's obvious:
"Microsoft? Hell, they can't even find enough real people to do their ads, they had to dredge up an employee!"
You know microsoft got a lot of their intial development talent in 80's by recruiting a bunch of people from Xerox PARC. You think they would use the same stragey and offer to double all the salaries of the Apple marketing people.
From the article:
"I am a freelance writer; I demand the best in mobile computing."
But if you work for Microsoft PR, you can't be freelance now, can you?
Perhaps she was misquoted:
"I am writing promotion materials for Freelancer, a game which will demand the best in computing hardware"
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
For instance the MacOS's file-type registry (you know, the thing that links the file type stored in the resource fork to the application that's supposed to open it?) would be inconsistant after such a delete
On Mac OS 6.x through 9.x, you can rebuild the desktop database by holding Command+Option while you mount the drive (for fixed media, usually when Finder starts). It scans all the apps on your hard disk, looking for "bundle" bits that tell whether a program has some sort of association, then it looks for BNDL, FREF, open, and kind resources to determine which file types to associate to an app.
Can you rebuild the Windows Registry that easily?
Will I retire or break 10K?
Actually chances are this person at the ad agency decided to throw this together as a trial to see how it would take.
Then someone in marketing found out about it and called the ad agency asking them to pull it because it's a completely worthless ad campaign. Apple's switch commercials have generated a lot of bad press for the company, mostly with parodies and spoofs, and have done nothing to convince non-current Mac owners to buy a new Mac. To copy this bad campaign from the Microsoft side would just look pathetic.
Apple unfortunately has a long history of this... their commercials target the Mac faithful. I guess you could call this the innovator's dilemna, because if Apple started targetting the Macintosh towards the Windows market they would alienate the "Think Different" people who only buy Mac's because they aren't mainstream.
In the end, the rest of the world doesn't give a shit anyway. Well except maybe slashdot, but they try to make headlines out of anything that can be twisted in an anti-Microsoft way.
I mean, look at the difference:
Apple: spends the better part of a year looking for interesting, off-beat, photogenic people. Then they read hundreds of emails. They hand-pick a bunch of folks and pay money to fly them out, coach them, then tape them. They put the ads on nationwide TV.
Microsoft: Somebody at Microsoft's PR firm picks up the phone and says "Hey, remember that writer, Valerie? And remember how the screen on her Mac Centris 610 finally died and she got that Windows laptop? .. What's that? .. Yeah that was funny.. though I probably I did the same thing the first time I used a CD-ROM .. But anyway, track her down and give her $500 to finish some copy for our new campaign. I've already got most of it written.. .. what?.. No, just put a stock photo like usual .. okay .. bye!"
How easy! That's why Apple will always be a "niche" player. They give a shit about stuff like this. Like the guy in college who actually wrote all his lab reports while everybody else just copied one from last year.
Harass her and I'm sure Micro$oft will back her up with $$$$ of dollars and sue you.
Also, that home address information and telephone number is either wrong or outdated or the address info I found is outdated. However, as of APRIL 2002, her address is NOT what you said.
Her e-mail is valmalgal@attbi.com. Use that if you really NEED to contact her. The bright will figure out how I found out that you are wrong.
Cover your eyes and click this link!
This is just too good. Thanks for a great sleuthing job for all around. MS can be so pathetic. Getty is one of Bill's acquisitions too. Adolf Hitler ought to come back from the dead and bring the good Doctor G. with him. Bill could teach them a thing or two. But really, it's so pathetic. Great thanks for /. figuring this one out and putting MS up against the wall.
Gravning confirmed Microsoft hired Rataushk for the ad.
Sorry, but isn't it illegal to be the spoksemodel for something and you don't use the product. Magic Johnson got in trouble a few years back for this. If they hired the woman, how can they possibly try to run that off as a REAL PERSON SWITCHING FROM MAC TO M$. It just sounds like more and more M$ lies and treachery
This may have been pointed out already, but Microsoft Word 10.0 (the version stamped in the ShowOffYourSkills.doc file), is the Mac OS X version. So, apparently, she wrote this piece on a Mac.
I love this world.
StrategyTalk.com, PC Game Forums
microsoft fabricating their news? I'm shocked. SHOCKED!
As Micro$oft keeps making stupid mistakes like this it hurts them. Yeaaaaaah!!!!!! My hats off to the people here who exposed this lie.
From Yahoo News, "Trouble erupted after amateur sleuths at a popular technology Web site, Slashdot.org, noticed that a photograph showing the woman with a cup of coffee was a stock image available for purchase elsewhere on the Internet."
I can't wait until they start their new subscription licensing scheme. People are really going to get fed up with stupid Micro$oft.
Sincerely,
David Manning
It was not that great an ad in the first place, but beyond that, come on, it was advertizing, and a pretty fluff piece at that. Do we expect some big shocking expose here that shows how Albert Einstien, despite his prominet appearance in Apple ads, never in fact owned a Macintosh! Oh the shame! Oh the horror! How low will they stoop just to sell computers! I mean, with the life-and-death issues going on in the world we are supposed to get upset that it wasn't the real picture of the person and that she had ties to the ad agency that created the ad. Oh the horror! I bet she was even paid to write that ad! How incredibly mercenary it was of her!
I can't even get past the clickwrap EULA in the installer. It keeps hanging up on the part of the .NET Framework EULA that states that I can't disclose benchmark results to a third party: "You may not disclose results of a benchmark test of the .NET Framework without the prior written permission of Microsoft." (Here's what microsoft may have meant by that: "Installing .NET will slow your Windows computer to a crawl, and we'll sue you into the ground if you go to a web board and warn others.") Because I do not agree with that policy, the installer stops right there. Therefore, the only .NET performance figure that's legal to report is .ZERO mips.
I never had that problem with my Mac. I guess the Power Macintosh G4 computer does run twice as fast.
Will I retire or break 10K?
This is only a web page, nothing like Apple's switch campaign. Peoplare are talking like as if it is a big marketing effort. Nobody noticed this page until a person posted here for amusement, and everybody seems to entertain the Microsoft people.
Steve "Monkey Man" Balmer makes a very compelling argument. I'm switching.
http://homepages.nyu.edu/~jgg221/
See Balmer like never seen before.
Looks like this Slashdot expose together with proof of using clipart photos will totally discredit Microsoft and ruin their business.
how much more can i dig up on this woman?
she and her husband helped produce a play featuring ugly, naked people at a local seattle theatre house. he was the lighting manager.
here's all his contact information, including his seattle based theatrical lighting equipment company, PNTA
and yes folks, his web site is powered by Apache.
Valerie's husband is an Open Source Software user. looks like she has her work cut out for her.
-s.
hi - i'm ken.
and i'm barbie,
and we like windows better... really really.
everyone else uses it,
so should you.
--
ignore that man behind the curtain
(the wizard of oz)
Was Firewire a commodity item when it showed up on Yosemite? Was the crush zone car body a commodity when Mercedes introduced it to the world?
Just because these items eventually show up everywhere, doesn't mean that at one time they weren't exclusive to one manufacturer...and costly as well. That's the way it works. If you want the best when it first comes out, you have to pay for it. Ask anyone with a 60" LCD TV...or a home elevator, etc. Expensive now...commodity later.
Come on -1 offtopic. It's not the the Balmer "Monkey Man" video, but a claymation monkey switch ad parody. Pretty funny.
um...yes they are real....dumbass.....
You missed getting her email address from the properties. Humm interesting.
Bruce Perens nailed some of the puppetters behind the "software choice" campaign.
Ok, they looked really bad. But do they actually expect us to believe that this "new" person is any more real? The PR firm probably got a call from his billness himself, and in a panic they hired some chick who fit the description to play along. Just my 2 cents.
today is spelling optional day.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Monday October 9, 2:04 pm ET
REDMOND, WA, Oct. 9
MS Mac User Converter®. MS Mac User Converter® is a product that converts a Macintosh® user
to MS Windows XP® user. "Our internal tests has been more successful than we had expected," said
Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft®. "If we can successfully convert all Macintosh® users to MS
Windows XP®, we're going to dominate 96% of the desktop market." Ballmer said. "Next step is to
convert all the Linux® users, but we still have some problems that needs to be solved. Linux® users
tend to be tougher to convert." Ballmer said.
Microsoft® can now add MS Mac User Converter® to their already successful list of innovations,
such as:
- MS Windows®
- MS Excel®
- MS Word®
- MS Powerpoint®
- MS DOS®
Microsoft® clearly shows the world that they're ahead of their competitors. "None of the competitorshave been able to launch a product like MS Mac User Converter®. This strengthens Microsoft®'s
position on the market" said Blackie Lawless, industry analyst for Gartner Dataquest's Software
Industry Research group®.
(1) Ms. Mallinson may be the "switcher", but did she actually write the article? If so, who is "Don Funk" and why is it his folder that is shown in the screenshot?
(2) Did she actually buy XP Pro and Office XP, or did she get that for free as an M$ contractor? That's some pricey software; she must be one hell of a freelance writer to afford it.
(3) Was the "switch" voluntary or was it part of a requirement for the campaign?
Yeah, leave it to slashdot to not get it and mark it a troll.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Maybe M$ should become B$?
---
Destiny-land.
The happiest blog on earth.
From the .doc on M$'s site:
Microsoft will not share the information you provide with third parties without your permission except where necessary to complete the services or transactions you have requested, or as required by law.
Yeah, and they most definitely won't distribute a Word document to a half million geeks on Slashdot that shows among other things your name, your email address, your website (for which the whois provides all your information), and the fact that you wrote the article about switching to Windows using Office X on Mac OS X.
"*Editor's Note: Now that we've successfully converted our writer to a Windows PC, we will be working on getting her to try a Pocket PC. Stay tuned for more developments!"Should be:
"Now that we've successfully converted our writer to crack cocaine, we will be working on getting her to try crank. Stay tuned for more developments!"
Always look on the briight side of life! (whistle, whistle)
is it just me, or does anybody else find it hilariously funny that the woman was tracked down because her name was hidden deep in the Word file ShowOffYourSkills.doc, even though she had 'deleted' it (she thought). When will people stop trusting Microsoft with anything of importance?
Valerie Mallinson (Wes Rataushk & Assc Inc) is also apparently the author of:
MS EnCarta FUD Paper
... meaning she's a black male 7th grader. Or a white female married adult... or perhaps she is a group of 4 older people of varied ethnicities. Cant print? You're probably running MS Windoze XP and are pretty screwed!
Either Valerie has multiple diverse personalities or all or most of these "submissions" are penned by her and falsly attributed to others.
-Rob
WebMaster:
BinFeeds
XXX Thumbnailed Image Newsgroups but
She helped David Mozer to acquire, configure, and troubleshoot a PocketPC for his bicycle trip in Malawi, Africa "in October." (Last year?)
http://www.ibike.org/bikeafrica/malawi/
Frankly the Microsoft Switcher article was embarrassing for a host of reasons besides the use of clip-art and a hired PR professional who is obviously an experienced user of Windows.
It's abundantly clear that Val has never used Mac OS X. All her raves about Windows XP were about features which exist - and are much easier to use - in Mac OS X.
For example, her excitement about being able to get Windows installed and configured "in under a day" is laughable. In 90% of cases Mac OS X can be installed and configured in under an hour.
Bringing up Netscape as if it was the default browser on Mac OS was likewise a foolish gaffe. Most Mac OS users (9 and X) use Internet Explorer 5 as their web browser. Why would Val have chosen Netscape? Could it be she had only used Mac OS 8/9 at work where Netscape was pre-installed?
Comparing the FREE AppleWorks to the $300-$500 Microsoft Office is a staggering faux pas - especially since Office v.X is generally considered superior to Office for Windows. (And who in the world likes Office's annoying hide-and-seek menus? I like my menus to stay consistent, and keep that feature turned off on my Windows box.)
Finally, all the step-by-step instructions for migrating documents and Favorites were a glaring exposure of the complexity of Windows XP. The instructions for the same migrations to Mac OS X are only half as long.
Alas, this was an amateurish article by an uninformed PR-lackey. Microsoft should know better than to try to pull the wool over our ever-watchful eyes.
-- thinkyhead software and media
The end of the article said, "A spokeswoman from Apple Computer would not comment."
:)
That's probably because she hasn't been able to stop laughing!
"Sometimes the truth is stupid." - Lawrence, creator of Prime Intellect
you know, with all their troubles with security, patches, linux, anti-trust trials, and everything, they just don't have the time to find people who have benefitted using their products. i mean, come on, there must be one.
surely, you can cut them some slack. ballmer is up late at night thinking of more ways he can attack linux/open source. with 40 billion in the bank, they just can't aford to do the necessary research and investigation. give them a break will you.
i'm sure there are plenty of people who'll testify that they learned how to program using "Learn Visual Basic" and are now working at a major software company.
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
jesus christ, Apple needs to start running that monkey-switch ad. That's too damn genius. Seriously!
"Oh, well I'm sorry if you don't appreciate my random murders!" - Crow T. Robot,
I wonder what keyword it is that you use....I'm guessing its 'Linux' ...unfortunatly that doesn't work, http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF -8&q=site%3Amicrosoft.com+linux I cant think of any word that you'd be using besides linux.
LinuxWorx
Spelling errors are intentional as are gramatical error
From the article:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 does more for me than Netscape Navigator ever did, and I am a surfing addict.
And then later
2. On the Mac, start Internet Explorer. From the Window menu, click Favorites.
Hmmmm!!
Actually, a slashdotter pointed it out to him.
To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three persons, two of them absent.
All us slashdot users are using Privoxy, or such.
Imagine, not only are we sucking down all their bandwidth, but keeping armys of marketing droids busy. All feverishly seeking meaning behind a click stream of falsified static noise.
I wonder what they see?
"All the Mac hardware--including my printer, broadband cable, Zip drive, and Palm handheld--works perfectly with my Windows-based PC."
blah blah blah....
"The New Connection Wizard then guided me through the setup of my Internet connection for browsing the Web."
Hey!! I want to dial into my cable provider too. Does XP actually let me do that???
I just had to tell you that was the first thing I've read on Slashdot in about 4 months that made me burst out laughing uncontrollably in the middle of the night while my roomates try to sleep. Of course, the alcohol might have something to do wi th it...
Anyways, *CHEERS*
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
But then again my company does not manufacture software and thus it is a expense of doing business. We do however produce a durable good and since I can get the job done with linux I will price your ass right out of the market with the money I saved.
You see just how simple that plays out.
Got Code?
She was probably using Mac OS 8 or 9. That thing was well beyond its useful life. XP is actually pretty good, and certainly much better than Mac OS 9. Making that switch makes perfect sense.
Had she been using OS X, well, that's a different story. That OS rocks and it would truly be suspicious if she jumped from OS X to XP.
I know all those "i switched to apple" folks in the ads..."my pc was like Zap and there goes my files! no i didn't back anything up, cause i'm a doofus!"
They're the same morons who come and say "my computer hates me" or "my computer is possessed." i want to rip their eyes out and say, "well, i hate you too so buzz off!", so maybe it's best if those idiots switch to mac and never talk to me again...
$8.95/mo web hosting
From WinXP to MacOSX.. and my mom's really stupid!
DIE MICROSOFT DIE!
Yes, I'm out for MS blood... and all windows users that helped to make MS into what it is. Their blood to!
Tabula Rasa
...you're trying to lie. Would you like some help? ;)
J-Log: Journalism News, Media Views
it only refreshes to the page not found on M$'s site now!
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
I mean, Coca Cola is a popular drink, but you don't see them claiming it builds muscle or makes your penis/breats grow. Such a claim, besides immediately inviting scrutiny, would be so out of character with their product it would make people stop and question why they actually do drink it.
The best marketing machine Microsoft has is dingbat leader types in public and private sectors who shove Office down the throats of companies, because everyone else is doing it (wow, such leadership!) Microsoft needs to cultivate these people (Repeat after me, "Nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft") and less draw attentions to what they really are doing. For such a successful company, they sure can act foolishly and that doesn't help them any.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I don't doubt the PR Agent did, indeed switch from Mac to PC. The question is, did she do it voluntarily, without coercion?
It's amazing what some companies will do to get a share of the billion dollars a year MS spends on advertising and PC... including kicking out all Macs for the occasions when the MS Execs come by.
the switch "backlash" was old before it started. ads are lies. get over it
The coffee was instant.
The girl had a boob job.
And that's not her real hair color
Cake or Death? Cake Please!
Not really on-topic but, despite the recent move by the Chinese government to "unblock" access to Google, all cache functions are still inaccessible for those of us living on the mainland.
A dream is good. A plan is better.
Although microsoft.com seems to no longer have the Greetings 99 page up, some guy back in 1998 was interested in it and posted a comment on microsoft.public.inetexplorer.ie4.outlookexpress.s tationery. In his post he included what looks to be a blurb about the product written by none other than our now infamous Val Mallinson.
... you're on candid camera.
Smile Val
"She's a West Texas girl, just like me" - G.W Bush Iraqis
Say, did Bruce ever right up that article on the Reg? I wouldn't mind reading it since I haven't heard about it.
Check the .doc files (text editor, not in Office) and you may notice that it lacks the path info and the ".doc" extension that WinWord of any version put in the bottom of the document. If she were using WinWord the bottom should have something akin to:
C : \ M y D o c u m e n t s \ F o r m s \S h o w O f f Y o u r S k i l l s . d o c
Instead, it has S h o w O f f Y o u r S k i l l s and references to MAC paths in MAC fashion.
Ooops... they couldnt even get their paid for writer to switch as she claimed...
-Rob
WebMaster:
BinFeeds
XXX Thumbnailed Image Newsgroups but
"Because the 13 year old script kiddie crowd wouldn't stoop that low."
The "13 year old script kiddies" are smart enough to remove not only the web page, but the files to which it links. Not Microsoft. You can still download the original files, using the original links, which I copied from the source of the original page (my italics):
Do you have an idea for a story? We'd love to hear from you. How have you used Microsoft software to make your home or work life easier, more fun, faster, or simpler? Submit your ideas, and you could get published on the Insider Web site! Submit Your Idea Today!
- Download the submission form in Adobe PDF format
(ShowOffYourSkills.pdf, 64kb)
- Download the submission form in Word format
(ShowOffYourSkills.doc, 27kb)"
Note that, if you look at the binary of theComments To Valerie Mallinson (Wes Rataushk & Assc Inc)
A google search says Wes Rataushk & Associates, Inc is located at 5904 105th Ave NE, Kirkland, Washington. If you are in the area, stop by to joke with them about their business ethics.
It seems likely that someone downloading and submitting the form would have no chance of getting their story published because Wes Rataushk & Associates is paid to write them.
I try to help people have a balanced view of Microsoft: http://www.hevanet.com/peace/microsoft.htm.
This is from the bottom of the word doc put up in microsoft website
"Microsoft will not share the information you provide with third parties without your permission except where necessary to complete the services or transactions you have requested, or as required by law."
Isnt it ironic ?
The interesting part to me is that the AP "tracked Mallinson by examining personal data hidden within documents that Microsoft had published with its controversial ad." Hmmmmmm.
/.
Not so interesting. There is a word doc linked from the bottom of the 404'd page. File > Properties > Custom shows her name and PR firm.
What's interesting is AP figured this out first, and not
His name is Ted Bridis. I'll quote him here.So this guy, who's evidently been around the block a few times, thought this story was worth covering. That's saying something, I think.
He also says that the story could contine developing in the morning. He asks us to stay tuned.
I write in my journal
If you read the cached Google page, the MS switcher story ends with these lines:
"*Editor's Note: Now that we've successfully converted our writer to a Windows PC, we
will be working on getting her to try a Pocket PC. Stay tuned for more developments!"
*But* - if you go to the site mentioned by Kostya, you can read a biker's thanks to Ms. Mallinson for helping him set up his handheld PC. (http://www.ibike.org/bikeafrica/malawi/)
"The computer, on the other hand, was one problem solving exercise after another--
though I must also add that when everything is going right the Handheld (H/PC) never
stops impressing me and I am tickled pink to have it. I also didn't have to do most of
the problem solving and troubleshooting by myself. Val Mallinson, of Wes Rataushk
and Associates, was a great help discussing solutions, getting equipment and finding
resources with answers prior to my departure."
Get her to "try a Pocket PC?" - she's already providing Pocket PC consulting services!
No wonder MS yanked this- it could only get uglier for them...
Honestly..
:-)
If Microsoft doesn't stop this sort of crap I am going to loose all my Microsoft ANTI Karma which people regularly give me a 5 or plus on...
I mean...why read ANY of Hackus's posts when Microsoft keeps putting fodder like this in the Web Machine that is Slashdot to turn out absolutely positively A PLUS quality entertainment.
More than a poor match for Hackus and his rants!!
Hack
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
They found the bat cave.
Hell even go here MSNBC and /. is on the news as:
"Trouble erupted after amateur sleuths at a popular technology Web site, Slashdot.org, noticed that a photograph showing the woman with a cup of coffee was a stock image available for purchase elsewhere on the Internet."
This SIG pulled due to lack of funding. (This damn war is costing too much!)
From what I have seen of Microsoft's PR mania I would actually be surprised if they could find someone in Western Washington that wasn't a Microsoft PR person.
I once configured a dialup modem on slackware the extremely hard way, including AT commands. Now it is pretty easy, but I am running a DSL line, which required me to compile a new kernel and read some HOWTOs. Then my harddrive crashed, oh disaster, lost many photos of my daughter, and my Slackware DSL gateway...but I had been itching to install LEAF Bering rc2 and see how it worked. It was a breeze, as it was designed to work with DSL gateways---some guy (Jaques Nilo, if I remember right) thought of all the little things! Now I have a DSL gateway that boots and runs, firewall and all, from a floppy that isn't even mounted at runtime so I can just press power whenever and reboot nice and clean.
Linux is hard, sure. But it runs my laptop, my webserver, and my hard-drive free firewall.
Try to get that flexible and useful with os-x or win-xp!
Trouble erupted after amateur sleuths at a popular technology Web site, Slashdot.org, noticed that a photograph showing the woman with a cup of coffee was a stock image available for purchase elsewhere on the Internet.
I thought I was just a geek. Cool.
Why didn't you just come out and say that in the first place :)
...heheheh...choke...sorry.
I guess as a beleagured PC user, you felt diminished and needed a bit of prodding, which is normal, and completely understandable, so don't feel too bad. If you would have just come out and said how you felt at the beginning, I wouldn't have gone this long before I elected to ignore the Honorable Dunce from PC Ville...heheheh.
You're awfully hard on yourself, arguing against an analogy you brought into the conversation. Might that PC you're using be causing a bit of stress?
LOL...you've actually made my day, thanks!
I am so tired of hearing about Jakob Nielson being an authority on usability. Napolean presided over his own coronation and Nielson really no different. How many broken links are at useit.com today? How many menu items don't lead where they say?
"Form should follow function...unless it's just plain ugly."
I hate to get all deep and philosophical but this is so deliciously "old guard" vs. "new guard". The old guard PR hacks who put this together must be struck dumb by how this has played out. Think about it for a second. Their esoteric tricks that they've been using for years have turned around and bitten them to the core. They put together what they thought was some appropriately stylized words with an appropriate picture from a stock agency. In the old days, stock agencies were the province of specialists and now, some smart person is able to find the *exact same picture* and link to it alongside their little piece of PR trickery.
It gets worse. In the old days, once a piece of their work was published, it was cast in stone, so to speak. The public only saw what the PR folks wanted them to see and didn't see anything that might have been held back. But today, another smart person is able to delve into that sacrosanct PR document and find out all sorts of names and addresses that should have been (from the perspective of the PR hacks) forever kept secret!
It really is a new world, don't you think?
dcobbler
www.digitalcobbler.com
October 14, 2002
Yes, it's true. I like obsolete technology enough to change my whole computing world around. Here's the bottom line: the UnixPC gives me more choices and flexibility, and better compatibility with the rest of the technology world.
More Hardware Options, for Less Benjamins (or free)
I am a computer engineer. I demand the best in desktop computers. There are many features for the UnixPC platform. My UnixPC came with 1 Megabyte of RAM, a 12" screen, a 20 Megabyte hard drive, a 360 Kilobyte disk drive, a 1200 baud modem for lightning fast connections over a phone line, and a Voice Power board, which allows me to record sounds on the computer. Entirely free. And the UnixPC runs UnixPC OS 3.51, based on AT&T's System V Release 4.
More Software Flexibility
Microsoft Word pales in comparison to vi. There's no equivalent to the versatility of typing with vi and formatting with troff. It does ASCII text formatting for maximum standards compliance. My AT&T dot-matrix printer prints all my code listings with stunning clarity.
The additional "Ethernet" board allows the UnixPC to connect to other computers on your network, or even to the "Internet," a new and growing global network of computers. Telnet does more for me than Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 ever did, allowing me to directly connect and enter commands into remote computers.
How Now Brown Cow?
Now that I've given you the reasons why I converted, here's the 411 on the how, dig it.
Step 1: Operating System Install
The first time I turned on my UnixPC, the UnixPC prompted me to insert the install media. I sat for only an hour, putting floppy after floppy into the computer, while the system copied them to disk. It's like that time I owned a Pinto, and I kept feeding it more and more parts and spending more and more money until it eventually worked.
Step 2: Setting up Accounts
After I installed the operating system and rebooted, my UnixPC asked me to login. I logged in with the installation account, and I was brought into the UnixPC's "Windowing" environment. I easily created myself an account and set the root password.
Step 3: Setting up "E-Mail"
Once I installed the Voice Power board and its driver software, I also installed the Voice E-mail package. E-mail (or Electronic Mail) is a way for people to send each other messages over the Internet. The Voice E-mail package allows you to use your UnixPC as an answering machine, once the answering machine software is installed. When a message is recorded, an envelope icon shows up at the top right of the screen. Clicking on this icon brings you to your Inbox, where the new message will appear as a new E-mail. In the Inbox, you can also compose and send messages to other users, all you need to know is their UUCP bang path.
The AT&T UnixPC has all the features a 17 year old computer should have.
AT&T's UnixPC: The Computer With The Future Built In.
Sheepdot: Open Source good, Closed Source baaaaaaad!
Here in WASHINGTON on Q13 reports @ 10 they covered the story and got it right. Somebody is paying attention, and it's not just us geeks! Yay!
Life is like pants... fit in or you don't fit in.
Put a little ice on it, it'll be fine!
...but if and only if I get to sleep with that "freelance writer"! I'd like to discuss her perky "prose style" with her, say, or other aspects of the "life of the mind" -- once we're both slathered head to toe in each other's saliva! Wooooo-eee! And if we do it on the Microsoft campus, she can even deduct the rubber toys as a business expense!
So, you're not anti-mac....you're just cheap, is that it?
I'd complain to, if I had to buy junk. Fortunately, I don't.
Technology is like money...you know you have enough when you don't have to think about it.
All those people you see in commercials are just actors pretending to be actual customers! Shocking!
This is funny, but more so because Microsoft stooped down to Apple's level... especially since it wasn't necessary. The fact is that a LOT of people have switched from Apple to Microsoft. Just look at the numbers.
Waiting for a DVD to rip.
So:
Go buy any old digital camera and try to download the pics on a RedHat system.
Go buy a DVD-R and try to burn a disc.
Go to any old website showing media (RealPlayer, QuickTime, Windows Media) and see how successful you are at viewing content.
Buy a Firewire DV Video Camera and see how successful you are in getting the video off and editing it.
Try to visit a site that's made for IE.
Go to the store and buy a game. (I'll give you these -- VmWare and other solutions are a serious bitch to setup, and don't work well except in certain Distros)
Buy a PDA and get it to synch up.
Your network card doesn't work, find somebody you know willing to come over and fix it. (Huh? If the card is broken, even your God(s) ain't/aren't gonna fix it.)
>The steps to do any of the above in Windows are very easy
Uhhh, sure... I mean, I mean, if you want to have every two or three DVDs come out as coasters (happens with Prassi Primo DVD for me) sure. Or if you want to use crappy outdated camera software that just lets you easily download one picture at a time through a slow ass serial connection, great (Fuji MX-1200). I've never done DV, but Kino doesn't look too hard. Or you can try Cinerella, which seems more full featured and easier.
>When a DVD-Burner manufacturer is swamped with "Uhh where's the Linux Drivers?"
DVD-R in linux doesn't use "drivers", unless you count the built in generic SCSI support built in linux (since well before DVD was available for most PCs) as a "driver". Try saying that about windows. Especially windows 9x...
HTH. And take it from me, there's NO software in windows that lets you use a Celeron 300 to burn DVD-R at 2x and surf the 'net at the same time.
Linux's motto should be "Spend some time now -- Then do more, quicker".
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
"Trustworthy Computing is the highest priority for all the work we are doing."
Bill Gates, Jan 15, 2002.
Really, Bill? Is that why you are disguising advertising as customer feedback? To promote trust? Or is it that customers trust each other more than they trust you, so you'll just pretend to be customers and steal some of that trust?
"Theft of trust" - that has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Or how about trust infringement, or trust piracy?
This isn't just a Microsoft thing, it's a good illustration of the absolute contempt people with a lot of money often have for the rest of the world. We are nothing, and lying to us means nothing. If you own enough of the law, getting caught doesn't even mean much.
Corporate America is cutting its own throat day after day. Whether it's inventing demographic data or telling accountants what to make 2 and 2 add up to, every crooked move blackens another tooth in the shining smile. Trustworthy Computing isn't going to be a commercial product, Bill, because you guys just can't be trusted.
http://delivery.gettyimages.com/comp/ca33501.jpg?x =x&dasite=GETTYIMAGES&dareq=151314034C2723345C0212 40435443425C534D
My reference was to something that didn't previously exist, and only later became an industry standard.
You, then, proceeded to change the subject...
Your's was to compare expensive auto's with less costly means of transportation (don't get what you pay for, etc.), and then to proceed to trash Macs. Since I didn't make that analogy, your argument was with yourself.
PC owner: anti-mac and cheap... I get it. I wonder how many are just cheap.
Would you own a Mac is someone gave it to you?
Thankfully so do a lot of other people, so I was able to use a nice random-login generator to retrieve it:
Site for the Truly Geeky Makes a Few Bucks
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
The front door to the office of Slashdot bears a nerdy little joke. A computer key is glued to the door: "Enter." The other side of the door has an old "Return" key.
That's the geeky essence of Slashdot.org, an online publication with a fanatical community of millions of readers that combines a rich view of technology with quick, off-kilter wit.
Could it be that this is the 21st-century model for Internet publishing?
The highest-flying print publications of the dot-com bubble burbled about technology and the businesses that it fertilized. But now they and their glossy paper have fallen to earth. Just last week, Forbes ASAP and Upside joined the once-fat Industry Standard in the glossies' graveyard. "There is no market for a dedicated new-economy publication," said Monie Begley, a spokeswoman for Forbes.
But far away from the buzz and the glamour, Slashdot survives and thrives. Run out of a basement office in a suburb of Ann Arbor, Mich., Slashdot has remained true to the slogan: "News for nerds. Stuff that matters."
The secret to the online publication's moderate success? "They didn't buy a Super Bowl ad," joked Sean Bergeron, a fan from Virginia.
It's a little more complicated than that, but not much. The company keeps its expenses low. Its creators write about what interests them. And -- here's where the business model may not be everyone's cup of Bawls Guarana energy drink -- they don't seem to care if the operation actually makes any money.
Publishing without paper is cheap and cheap is good, said Richard Seltzer, an Internet entrepreneur and author of "Web Business Boot Camp: Hands-on Internet Lessons for Managers, Entrepreneurs and Professionals" (Wiley, 2002). He said online publications like Slashdot could flourish "in a down market, and especially when the market for online advertising is in disastrous shape."
Slashdot persists as a must-read publication for the wizardly set, and especially those within the community of developers and fans of "open source" software like Linux, which is created and improved by legions of volunteers. The Web site provides the technically inclined a place to keep up with news, submit articles on their own, and discuss it all at length that can make a neophyte's head throb. The 25-year-old creators of the site, Rob Malda and Jeff Bates, estimate that in their five years online they have published 30,000 articles, served 500 million pages and amassed an audience estimated at 2 million people -- including some 50,000 who regularly enter the continuing conversation at least once a month.
"Slashdot is the best site in the world for techies that want to know," said Daniel Hedblom, a reader in Sweden.
The site's editors look for news and interesting sites, and cull hundreds of daily free submissions from readers and then edit and post a dozen or so articles each day. Those pieces are short, rarely more than 200 words, and offer links to other Web sites or news reports. The discussions then can go on for hundreds and even thousands of postings by readers, offering comment, argument and further research. Those who want to post without using their names are allowed to, but the system automatically gives them the user name "anonymous coward."
And, of course, there is the goofy stuff. Along with arcane discussions of software technology and licensing schemes, the editors post gleeful critiques of Microsoft and its wares, and approving commentary on pop/nerd culture, including Natalie Portman, Aibo robot dogs, Lego projects and fun science projects.
The creators also let pictures substitute for a thousand words. Small icons are attached to each item, including a much-used image of Bill Gates made up to look like a Star Trek Borg -- a race of half-man, half-machine beings that spreads across the universe and whose members drone: "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated." It conveys everything that the geekerati think about the software mogul Mr. Gates.
"They have this fun combination of total geek cred and a good editor's eye for the weird and interesting and compelling," said Michael Hirschorn, senior vice president of news and production at the cable channel VH1, and co-founder of the late Inside.com, which was an online report on the world of media.
Mr. Hirschorn applauded Slashdot's "very smart balancing act," which he characterized as "appealing in a very intimate, direct way with its core audience and figuring out a way to branch out into other topics, like intellectual property, that would appeal to a broader audience."
He suggested, however, that any comparison between large business efforts like his Inside site and Slashdot were misleading. Slashdot's creators don't really "measure themselves as a business. They can meaure themselves as a cause," he said. "The fact that it's turned out to be a modest business is a happy surprise."
Does Slashdot, in fact, make money? Its owners say, yes, sort of. The site is owned by Open Source Development Network Inc., a subsidiary of the VA Software Corporation. Open Source runs a number of technology-related Web sites and an online store, ThinkGeek.
Richard French, senior vice president and general manager for Open Source, declined to break out the income of any one component of the company, except to say, "Slashdot works from a cost point of view and from a revenue perspective."
In fact, he acknowledged, "If you took any one of them on their own, probably none of them would be profitable," he said of Open Source's various Web sites.
But because many of the sites use the same hardy, low-maintenance software developed by Mr. Malda and his team, and because the Internet resources are pooled, the company says it is able to squeeze out a profit from the cluster, and makes further profits from sites that it sets up for businesses.
The sites have a combined audience of some six million people, Mr. French said, and a sizable number of those visitors go to ThinkGeek. The store offers a range of goods that techies love, including T-shirts with the logos of Slashdot and other affiliated sites, like Freshmeat and SourceForge, as well as shirts and caps that bear representations of the chemical structure of caffeine; caffeine-spiked candies; and even caffeine-saturated soap.
"Apparently, our readers need caffeinated soap," Mr. Malda said.
The arrangement works, Mr. French said, because the corporate owners do not interfere in the editorial decisions of the Slashdotters. "I don't go down and say, `Rob I want you to write about this,' " he said. "Rob understands his community."
Mr. Malda added: "I still think of it as my personal soapbox. If I decide next Thursday that `It's all about Windows!' I don't know if Slashdot would follow that -- but I would keep posting it and posting it until they fire me."
Mr. Malda and Mr. Bates met in high school in Holland, Mich., and went on to attend the local Hope College, where Mr. Malda created the site. He was soon joined in the effort by Mr. Bates, the way that kids in the old Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney movies put on a show with friends. They were stunned by the site's popularity, and even more stunned when it actually made money.
They once had visions of dot-com wealth of their own, and had immense paper profits when their site was bought in 1999 by the Open Source Development Network, then known as Andover.net. Open Source was then sold the next year to VA Linux (which later changed its name to VA Software). The 2000 transaction was, for a heady moment, valued at $975 million. That's when the company's stock was worth nearly $250 a share. These days, VA Software's stock trades for around 75 cents a share.
Mr. Bates said his stock did not make him rich, but he was able to sell some shares.
"Not as many as I would have liked," he said, "but that's the nature of lockup" -- the clauses that restrict a corporate insider's ability to sell newly acquired stock. "At the end of the day, I was able to buy a house, and hey, I'm not going to complain about that."
Fans of the site are ready, even impatient, for more.
One of the messages posted to the discussion of passing the five-year mark last month was a simple three words: "O.K., now what?"
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
forgive my ignorance, but what is bukkake?
As I write this there are about 538 responses to this post or to the responses to this post. At this point reading them is not feasible but things seem to be breaking down into two areas: 1) The windows vs. OSX/Mac vs. linux arguments that are common curency around here 2) The "Oh my GOD! Microsoft used a model in an add and quoted someone who might not be entirely objective in their opinion!?!?!?" To those who fall in the first camp I'm glad to see that you are all alive and well and its like a breath of fresh air everytime I see M$, Windoze or Microsuck. It's sort of like when the guy at the office says "Ohhhh BEHAVE!" as if it were still funny. To those that fall in the second camp I'd like you to sit down for a second. There is no Santa Claus, your mom may not have loved you best and Wilford Brimley didn't do the goddam oatmeal commercials becuase he loved oatmeal. They paid him. Yup, it's true. The Abe Lincoln you see in the car adds around President's Day? Not the real president. It's not a lie its advertising. I can't believe this is a story to the /. crowd.
-Nasty
He's right man...you made the cost analogy, and then you said it was stupid... You are arguing with yourself.
Microsoft's PR company's employee used MAC only until recently. I wonder if she is a long standing employee of their?
My bet is that she is lying about switching, but should be hard for her to prove unless she obtains a MAC real quick.
I knew MS was bad at designing software, but it looks like they can't even be orginal at designing an ad campaign...
"A spokeswoman from Apple Computer would not comment"
the mental image I get is from someone laughing so hard she CAN not comment.
You beat that dead horse into the ground!
"There's no equivalent for the versatility of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint."
;-)
So what about MS Office v.X for the Mac? Or is that too good to be considered as merely equivalent?
that makes it way funnier than he thought it was.
Ohh, but that was years ago you say, Macs don't suck anymore. OK, fair point, but why should this stop MS Marketing? Bear in mind the Apple ads talk about stuff like blue screens (i think they have a whole ad devoted to them) despite the fact that if you go out and buy a brand name PC with XP preloaded (so you don't have dodgy hardware combos) you will never see a blue screen. I have XP at work, using it now, and have not seen a blue screen on it ever. That's a solved problem, yet Apple keep harping on about it.
Why? Because it's got a reputation. Marketing is about perceptions, and the perception is Windows == BSODs. Yet for many, many users, "Mac" reminds them of the POS that was System 8 or whatever it was called, and they "switched" to Windows for very good reasons.
Anyway, it's worth remembering the post in the earlier story by Dr Spork - Apple is not serious competition to Microsoft. I think something like 80% of computers are in business? Don't recall where I read that statistic, but Apple have practically zero business presence. Lockin is too strong, and Apple are on MS life support anyway - and even with Microsoft helping them to fix bugs in OS X they still need help from the open source movement too! If Apple were to become a threat, you are guaranteed Microsoft would not be pissing about with ridiculous web pages (not even a tv ad). They'd do something about it, like they did back in the days.
Legal or not, msft doesn't care. Whether it hurts people or not, msft doesn't care. Linux? It's a non issue on the first part, get around legal hassles with liscense like you just passed a bowl around and drinking frappucino. Problem is, too much frappucino and pot makes you SICK. On the second one it's overuse of GPL. It can and does hurt some people, but not microsoft or apple.
And, msft has their own legal dept nursury, they call it "the legal dept".
And, msft has their own PR dept. they call "paid liars"-- btw, PR dept is not the same as advertising dept, so I have to ask for a WTF upmod.
Be Inc had "kindler, gentler" down pat. It was their way. A way all to easily destroyed by people calling themselves "friendly competion".
but like their(msft, apple, and linux to a trite degree) collective PR and Adv. wings, they are all abv for this
BS.
I hope Be wins in court against Microsoft, I really truly do. I hope they win, I hope sun wins, and the other 133+ plaintiffs in court charging them.
Check out the bottom of the story--
Would you recommend this story?
Not at all 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5
Yahoo members, you can mod this one up!!!
W
-------------------
This is my SIG. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
"It was an actual customer," spokeswoman Charmaine Gravning said. "We kind of figured out that really isn't the best way to go about communicating. "
Oops, no it's not....btw is there an advertising standards agency in the US ? In the UK there's a government body set up to slap companies for exactly this behaviour.
"Free software as in beer, copy protection as in racket" - Telsa Gwynne
It's worth noting that the article was pulled, thanks to this thread.
Check out the article on that here.
"PC Load Letter? What the $@#% does that mean?!"
Wow, I that artical made me laugh -so- hard. Does Microsoft have ANY shame?
;)
It's as if Microsoft's shamelessness was so huge that I can't single out a witty smart-a** comment to toss up here. My brain doesn't quite know which was funnier, the stock Getty Images, the 8 year old kid that can write at a college level, the woman who works for MS PR, the fact that anyone would find a Windows box easier to use.
I'm going to archive that google cache and print it up for my "Wall of Shame" at work. The *nix geeks will love it
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
... that had this kind of fake "user testimonials". Only, they got caught and exposed in an even more ridiculous way. The company was french-based wappup.com (now www.wappup.it), and they had each month a new made-up user story to promote their crap service. But some people recognised where the "models" used for illustrating the articlescame from : They were cropped porn photographs taken from magazines. See this snapshot of the web page : http://www.vakooler.com/docs/interview-sandrine.gi f
And see the original (uncropped) picture :
http://www.vakooler.com/docs/0103.jpg
They removed the pages, but too late :p
All the proper use of (C) and (TM) and (R) was a giveaway that this was not drafted by some indivual user. Remebering to putting those (C)s and (R)s and (TM)s at ooh so trim and proper places was a dead giveaway that it was drafted by some professional. They have even been appended at the end of "Outlook Express" as in OutLook Express (R).
I've allways seen it come. I have no doubt that by now M$ has serious problems appearing on their horizon if they really want to keep up the inhouse software only strategy.
People don't by PCs a dime a dozen anymore, and to all sides those who professionally deal with computers are switching to Mac or Linux so to use their older Hardware and have all software for intercomputer work in one package rather than shelling out bundles of bucks for M$ software addons. Just the other day a friend of mine got feed up and ditched XP for SuSE Linux Pro.
All you'll ever need in one box.
No license issues.
High performant and cheap.
No need to ever learn to handle yet another new OS.
And for design jobs?
Well of course you take a Mac.
M$ will either buy RedHat some day or move to appliances and an AOL like 'community' - but they're not gonna sustain a serious Software buisness - not this way at least.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
This is just a devious trick. Microsoft's PR team is obviously smarter than this. Could it be possible that they knew from the beginning that this would come out pretty soon? Seems to me it's gives them a lot of publicity, not necessarily publicity that's not gonna have people move away from MS products. Microsoft appears to be doing too much of this sort of thing, which is more than a little suspicious. It could just as well be a planned effort.
Switch to Windows, more Microsoft employees chose it than any other brand!
KFG
I hope (for them) they at least checks client IPs to filter repetitions.
Ciao
----
FB
Reminds me of a small company I used to work for, where most everyone insisted on using MS-Word format for email, much to the annoyance of us Unix operational types. Still, strings worked pretty well to get the gist of the text (this was quite some time before Openoffice etc.)
One day, we received a fairly innoccuous memo from our CEO. However, running strings on the document showed an interesting little "hidden" addendum: details of annual pay increases for pretty much the whole company.
My boss pointed this out to him in private. A few minutes later, a decree was issued: plain text is the standard email format, and thou shalt not use Word. A good day, that was.
I noticed the images used are from Getty images, the largest stock photo house in the world I have been told. Their closest competitor is Bill Gates former non-profit digital art acquisition foundation turned stock photo house.
http://www.corbis.com
Lots of images in the royalty free area but the search results are pretty entertaining if you don't use IE..
*"Cogito Ergo Liberalis"*
OK. Beaten to death, but maybe missed by some... .doc ...convert' implying that this is the person in question. Fat chance. Just a stock picture....( Now had the picture been next to a heading like 'Conversion Stories' or so, no problem). Next, the writeup turns out to be done by a professional in MS's paid service.
The article claimes AP tracked down the 'convert' by personal info embedded in the
Now, the ShowUsYourSkills.doc is at the bottom of the page and is an invitation to write down your own 'conversion' story. If you open it in Word, go to File/Properties and select the custom tab. There you see the name of the Microsoft employed author (Valerie Mallison). AP contacted this person.
Wonder above wonder, the conversion story is her personal story and, of course, has nothing to do with the fact that MS is paying her to write for them.
So what do we have? Obviuously, this is a pale imitation (yet again) of an Apple commercial, brought without any soul. They put in a picture right next to 'Confessions of a
I won't say this pisses me off, just that this is (yet another) element of proof of the total lack of scruples on Microsoft ( not that we weren't aware of that already of course)
MICROSOFT IN ITS PRESENT FORM MUST DIE
My clients are generally sole proprieterships who are getting on the web. Very few have the $60k to dump into "An Exchange Server, a MSSQL server, and a Dell Rack Mount running Win 2k." Their budget is a white-box athlon running RedHat and MySQL.
They will pay for hardware, because you generally purchase it once and it has a clear ROI. Most small business owners I deal with are delighted to find they don't have to pay for the software, beyond my time to customize it. Very few if any actually have any IT staff, so training is less of an issue than "can this machine run unattended for months at a time?"
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
It's appeared on BBC News now, and there's a link back to /. too. Is this a first? Are they trying to give Slashdot a taste of its own Slashdotting medicine? :-)
--
Karma: Chameleon (you come and go)
"We kind of figured out that really isn't the best way to go about communicating. We decided it was best to point customers to the Windows XP home page." says spokeswoman Charmaine Gravning.
No shit Charmaine!
"I tend to think of OS X as Linux with QA and Taste", James Gosling, creator of Java
NOTICE: MS Corp is looking for spineless, ignorant, sell-outs to lie about why they just love Windows XP. We will only use people who have no clue as to what Open Source is. Applicants must have no ethical standards at all, in other words, they must reflect the total lack of morality and justice demonstrated by Microsoft Corp. for the last 15 years. If accepted, the "user" will be presented with one of Bill Gates' shoes to lick and a photo of his ass to kiss. Monetary compensation is also possible, depending on the quality of the lies.
Rien n'est plus beau que le creux du 0.
I did. I sent them a detailed letter why their page was technically flawed as well as underhanded marketing. Let them know that they're suffering for this kind of FUD.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
First of all I ask the question, "HOW CAN THIS POSSIBLY BE NEWS". Now that that's out of the way, WHO CARES!? You think Microsoft is the only one to do this? And besides that, what did they do. If they find somebody within their company that wants to give her story who cares? You think that Linux affiliated companies have never done something like this before? Or apple for that matter? What bothers me is that Microsoft can't do anything without you guys complaining and that makes you all look like tattling little kids. And yes that does represent all of the Linux community if a large site like Slashdot which is representative of the Linux community posts it. Believe me, this does not hurt Microsoft's image at all, it only hurts yours for trying to sling it as dirt when it isn't even close.
Take a look around, she's all over the place.
They might have been brighter if she denied being the switcher and simply said many documents go through her before being posted.
The BBC is also covering this story, with credit given to Slashdot.
I'm surprised any Slashdot readers would expect a "customer testimonial" in an advertisement to have any basis in fact. Ads are a form of propaganda designed to generate brand awareness and to sell products -- they aren't intended to present facts or to educate potential buyers.
This BBC News report claims:
"...the picture of the woman used to illustrate the story was a stock image from the Getty Library and unlikely to be that of a real person." (emphasis mine)
I hope she doesn't have an inferiority complex already, because this kind of talk really won't help...
What we need is an 'Ask Slashdot' on this topic. Collect your questions, and then ask Val what the real deal is.
Send her a note, her website, valmalgal.com (open the file, look under File/Properties/Summary/Company) has been registered but has no content. Maybe she's having computer problems, but I digress...
Apple should offer a free Mac to her.
Anyone notice that microsoft has keywords next to the boy from the stock pictures?
Words like "Pre-Adolescent Child" , "One Boy Only"
Kind of weird.
I expect nothing more from someone that works for Microsoft PR dept.
I ran the Smog Readability Formula test against the "7th grade kid" and he writes like an 11th grader. This was a poor attempt at deception. C'mon Microsoft, if you are going to lie, cheat and steal at least have some style!
t y. html
http://www.med.utah.edu/pated/authors/readabili
track7.org has all kinds of interesting stuff!
I read about a bearded guy's testimony. He was talking about switching from Linux to GNU/Linux. Honestly, who could believe that?
Trust me--you don't want to know.
Especially if you are having a vanilla shake right now. . .
I think this article speaks for itself:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/821269.asp?0dm=N18LT
Slashdot 1, Microsoft 0.
Hey, this story just got picked up on Howard Stern.
Robin referred to us as "cyber geeks" but she didn't mention slashdot by name.
...apparently even Microsoft isn't aware that people like you *actually* exist.
Show Off Your Skills
Normal.dot
Katherine L. Trunkey
Microsoft Word 10.0
Notice the bold name. It appears that Katherine downloaded the Word document, opened it up, and then saved it to her hard drive. Little did she know that Word would stick her name in the document. This anonymous coward isn't so anonymous any more!
---------------------------------------------
SERENITY NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey, Robin just said that "a bunch of cyber geeks" figured out that it was a stock photo and tracked down the real woman, is she talking about SlashDot?
May you be touched by His Noodly Appendage. RAmen.
Just made it to Robin's news on the Stern show. They called us "Cyber Geeks". Howard says that Wendy also made the switch, from a Mac to a Toaster (perhaps the video Toaster?)
I think you'll find the answers you're looking for right here. You may also find a few other sites are useful for describing bukkake.
...oh hevans, chicken-little. I do beleve, indeed, the sky is falling.
the link in the story is to the microsoft testimonial of a "seventh grade" kid. not the kid pictured, mind you, but aparently to a real life seventh grader.
um. then the testimonial says this:
Our first assignment this year was to read a historical novel. I chose Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities. I read the book over the weekend. The guide for A Tale of Two Cities helped me to consider some things about the book that I might not have noticed just reading it once, like asking me to look for thematic images and foreshadowing like the red sunset falling on the French palace.
i see two possibilities: (1) it's all fake; (2) this is the most brillian seventh grader in the history of formal education. shit, in seventh grade i was hardly reading Dickens, much less doing presentations about thematic images and foreshadowing. and what kind of genius reads A Tale of Two Cities "over the weekend"? i think microsoft would do well to employ this golden child.
No need to do anything difficult! Just open file in Word. Go file>properties and choose the 'custom' tab.
thnx for the nfo!! now if only i could stop masterbating!!! *beat-beat-beat-beat...*
Richard Stallman wrote the GPL to protect himself (and others) after James Goslings's shenannigans with Gosling Emacs. See the history here
I don't know when Gosling started working at SUN, but I don't think SUN had anything to do with the original creation of the GPL.
BTW, Sun was growing fast, but IBM was the big monopolist of the time (and hadn't yet realized the monster they created in Microsoft).
Can we become our own nation? We're now on our way to world domination!
you have no chance to survive make your time!
I really hate signatures, but go to my website.
I went to this page. I'm still trying to find the "balanced view". This is one of the most unbalanced views I've seen - it's bordering on delusional. Now, I'm not saying what you say is wrong (although I do disagree with much of it), but suggesting this is a balanced view is, well, maybe not even bordering on delusional - it's just delusional.
Lies! Lies! Lies!
Katherine L. Trunkey
welcome to the Microsoft (e)Paper Trail.
... not to mention violation of Valerie Mallinson's privacy.
Has M$ broken a law or two here?
Always keep a sapphire in your mind
I acknowledge that the "switcher" saved $500 on hardware by buying a Windows laptop instead of an iBook. But to me, the main point of the switcher's testimonial is she felt that Microsoft Office was superior to Appleworks, and Internet Explorer to Netscape. Well, OK, so why hasn't she been using these Microsoft applications on the **Macintosh**? Why buy new hardware AND new software, when new software would have been sufficient? This should have been a testimonial for Microsoft application software, not a "platform" switch.
Nevertheless, I have started collecting certifications. First was the LPIC-1, which I comfortably passed but found surprisingly difficult given that it was an entry-level exam. Next was the A+, which was a TOTAL joke. A monkey could pass the A+
I bought a study guide for the Network+ exam, but I'm a little hesitant given how ridiculous the A+ was. And I can't help but notice that CompTIA is pimping for Microsoft with its so-called Institute for Software Choice. Do I really want to give more money to these people?
I will almost certainly do the LPIC-2 exams sometime this fall. Not sure what else after that. It should be obvious by now that I'm something of an idealist, and really don't want to support corporations that engage in what I consider to be morally repugnant activities. Obviously with the collapse of the
I know this is an old thread, but if anyone happens to read this post and has any suggestions, feel free to chime in.
Are you telling me I'm the only one who noticed her coffee cup is backwards?
Free, legal music for iTunes users.
There is nothing illegal or immoral about holding a monopoly. That said, a company can (1) acquire a monopoly by illegal and/or immoral means; and/or (2) illegally and/or immorally abuse their monopoly status.
Many have alleged that Microsoft is guilty of the first of these. IIRC, Microsoft was convicted of the second.
Microsoft goofed this one up!
wa-wa-waaa...
Despite yet another blunder, Microsoft consoles itself with the bazillion dollars it made today.
wa-wa-waaaaaa...
RTFM; please, I beg you.
Listen retard, you challenged people by saying that Rh can't do what Windows does, and many people countered it. You weren't very specific when you made your broad claim.
BTW, I've had more trouble with NICs in windows than I ever had in Linux, but again, that's not very scientific...
Sorry, it was written in haste. Everyone knows the positives about MS; most Slashdot readers use MS software. What people don't know, really know, is the negatives that might make an executive change his mind in small ways. Most executives do not have the option to change in big ways; Microsoft has a virtual monopoly.
My claim was really clear, 'retard'. For the 90% of the people out there RedHat's not ready today.
Countering with "I made it work with one example, therefore you're wrong" is not a definitive blow.
I still don't think it's ready. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. The worst case scenario is that RedHat got some badly needed publicity.
For the record, I used Redhat 7.2. It was not near as easy to install as people claimed. It was a bitch finding anything in it (everything starts in K for some reason), and getting it on the net was painful. The only thing I didn't have trouble with was installing Opera.
It's going to be a couple of versions before I try switching again. Others will feel the same.
You mean Microsoft used STOCK Photos just like everyone else?
Oh the humanity!
Shows enough proof that Microsoft copied the Mac OS and lied to the Supreme Court on Netscape and Explorer matters. You can't get any lower than that at Microsoft. Besides, if Microsoft invested into brain transplant technology...do you think you want to "upgrade"? Hell no!!!
Balanced? My ass. You're just a freaking stalker waiting for the spotlight to shine on him.
To publish information about a group, especially a singular employee, is obscene. Perhaps we should track you down and publish your address and phone number?
C'mon, man. That's the reason I switched to a PC in 1997. I got IE with the blink tag. You should see how much more productive I was! All my memos got read! The secretaries all gave me head!
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
Long answer: enough already, get a clue, they're F'ing REAL. Sorry to be the one to break it to you.
For the record, I used Redhat 7.2. It was not near as easy to install as people claimed. It was a bitch finding anything in it (everything starts in K for some reason), and getting it on the net was painful. The only thing I didn't have trouble with was installing Opera.
Hardly scientific.... let's both agree that we're full of shit, and have only single user stories to back up our claims.
That's fair. I'd like to drop this topic anyway. I think ppl feel that I'm anti-Linux, I'm not. Im just annoyed that both my attempts to switch were failures. (not intended as another poke at Linux, but a reflection of why this topic bugs me. Im not a fan of MS, but it's the best for me today.)
That's right on my way home. I think I'll stop by there and see if they are giving away any Mac hardware, now that she's "switched".
"It'll grow back, won't it?" -- Homer, with his arm stuck in the soda machine
(Sorry, I couldn't find the appropriate reference on snpp.)
Don't be upset. The information about how to find the name was printed in the Yahoo article.
The address is of her company, not her. She's a contractor. She doesn't work there.
She, and the public relations company, participated in a lie about Microsoft. News articles were written about her. That makes her, in a limited way, a public figure.
Somebody is going to a hell of a lot of trouble to hide this FUD. I think they figured out we are on to them. It's great that somebody noticed all of this. Gives a whole new meaning to trustworthy computing. Even their ads are a pack of lies.
Dear god, another /. FUD attack. Apple is guilty for three counts of the same thing in their little lame campaign. And who cares that the rest switched... honestly, if you are so dumb that you can't find out what cable connects your expensive DV camera to your expensive PC by reading the manuals or what not, you shouldn't have the equipment in the first place.
It's funny how there will never be an ad campaign like this for linux. Linux folks are so 'proud' (fanatical and insane) of their OS and it's magical properties (yeah, right) that they would never resort to lies and FUD (yeah, right)... the biggest problem is finding anyone in the real world who has switched; they don't exist.
Can't she make up her mind?? Here is the switch info from Mac to Atari.
No, I'm not.
Karma: Undead.
Anyone know if MS could be investigated for this ad under the truth-in-advertising rules in the FTC act?
f aq s.htm
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/ad-
I guess the question would be whether it's considered an "ad" -- it's misleading and material by the act's definitions.
I wonder if this is the same Val Mallinson referenced in this usenet post.
If she is she has clearly been using windows since 98.
I didn't even consider using Linux. Even though it would allow me to keep ALL of my Mac hardware, even my old laptop.
I have really complex requirements and Linux just isn't up to the task, I think, I mean never bothered to look, but that's what I am hearing from my friends to work in the marketing department at MS.
My requirements include things like, connecting my Palm organizer, reading word documents, shelling out $250 for an operating system. None of these things are possible with Linux.
Using my postscript based Apple printer, connecting to the Entirenet through my cable modem, hooking up my zip drive. None of these things can be done with Linux. Well maybe some of them but I would need a degree in CompSci to even begin to contemplate the task. And the cable modem is just not possible, I even asked my provider and they said, "Linux?, what's that?, no it won't work!"
And now I get to use XP, that allows me and my hubby to have slightly different desktop appearances, even though we both have to operate as root all the time. Too bad the other OS provider can't figure out how to allow superficial changes to the windowing theme. Its kind of like a shitty rent-a-wreck car that my husband and I rented one day. My hubby is tall and he couldn't really fit comfortably in the sub-compact, but we were still able to cram him in and he could move enough to drive. Boy was he stiff, after the 100 miles to Redmond.
By far, my favorite feature of XP is how, I got the computer system and OS for free and, on top of that, I even got paid to write this article. With a deal like that how could I even consider something like Linux?
And no, I don't actually look like the girl in the picture, but I wish I did, only I would probably change the hair a bit.
Mod me down now, asshats.
The .doc binary also reveals this name: Katherine L. Trunkey... This Katherine Trunkey?
Not that I know who she is...
A picture of the real marketing lady holding a coffee cup in her hand trying to act good looking.
Looks like someone at M$ reads slashdot. The files appear to be gone.
I am very interested to know what they say. I think they might be approached in a friendly way. Then you could tell us all at Slashdot.
Yes, the NYT has to provide at least some of their content for free over the internet. Lots of other papers do it, CNN does it, here where I live the Sydney Morning Herald is all for free on the web with no registration. You can google search for all sorts of news on the web, not to mention weblogs of all kinds. As you know you can listen for news on the radio for free and you can watch them on TV, too.
The price of the paper version is just for the convenience of having your own copy to take away wherever you want to and to use as garden mulch when you are finished. If the NYT wants to survive as a prime source of news that people read, they just have to provide their content. Their registration step is annoying and couterproductive (people will write whatever they want in these little boxes, and they do) so they should get rid of it.
BTW, the providing of news is nothing, this is not the business of the NYT in spite of all apparences. Their real business is the manufacturing of consent in the interest of bigger businesses and the economy in general. Simple, really.
Is it just me, or does it seem MS gets caught doing sneaky things when it comes to PR all the time? Things that would be EASY to avoid getting caught doing, even on a budget that is a fraction of theirs.
I have to wonder if they are not so blinded by their own success that they really don't see how the world outside microsoft operates?
I'm thinking of obviously faked videos used in trials, outright obvious lies about technology (as opposed to sneaky mis-truths)... stuff like this... fake grass-roots campaigns...
Weak dude, weak.
Apple lies about customers switching, hell if linux companies had the money they'd lie about customers switching too. Every company lies. Every company has "customers" in their commercials. Get over the fact that it's Microsoft and get on with your lives. Your personal geek crusade to get your Aunt Suzzie to stop using Windows isn't gonna hurt Bill Gates pockets.
You can see the BBC coverage here.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
Noticed MS had 404'ed it. Yay google!
M J: www.microsoft.com/insider/reference/encartareferen celbrary2003_researchpaper.asp+encartareferencelbr ary2003_researchpaper.asp+microsoft&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:HCFG1sG-FI
Suggestion:
:-)
Switching to Linux is kind of difficult to manage all at once, so rather than moving (and then being frustrated), just keep a linux box around and switch it on when you have a little time to play. Switching (like trying to quit an addiction in one shot) is pretty difficult on the nerves
Oh, and plus there are linux boxes around for very little cash - you can do a nice little firewall/music system/whatever on a 133mhz if you're so inclined - making it easy to treat it as an optional extra.
Linux is frustrating for a long time - part of the difficulty that everybody goes through, and subsequently forgets, is the immense learning curve associated with Yet Another Unix, designed by committee. I think it is worth persevering - but then, I would.
Anyone remember the doctored videotape that M$FT had the balls to submit as ***EVIDENCE*** during the antitrust trial?
This is ad snafu is just the latest example to surface, and hardly the worst yet.
Sigh.
-- Windows is not simply installed on a computer; it is inflicted.
Im considering a slightly different solution: VM-Ware. There's a spare copy floating around the office, I intend to give that a go and at least see if I can get used to the environment.
:) *Taking it into consideration*
Thanks for the suggestion.
If you rap your knuckles against a window jamb or door, if you
brush your leg against a bed or desk, if you catch your foot in a curled-
up corner of a rug, or strike a toe against a desk or chair, go back and
repeat the sequence.
You will find yourself surprised how far off course you were to
hit that window jamb, that door, that chair. Get back on course and do it
again. How can you pilot a spacecraft if you can't find your way around
your own apartment?
-- William S. Burroughs
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