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Sweden's Vote on OOXML Invalidated

Groklaw Reader writes "Just days after Microsoft's attempt to buy the Swedish vote on OOXML came to light, SIS declared its own vote invalid. The post at Groklaw references a ComputerWorld article with revelations from Microsoft: 'Microsoft Corp. admitted Wednesday that an employee at its Swedish subsidiary offered monetary compensation to partners for voting in favor of the Office Open XML document format's approval as an ISO standard. Microsoft said the offer, when discovered, was quickly retracted and that its Sweden managers voluntarily notified the SIS, the national standards body. "We had a situation where an employee sent a communication via e-mail that was inconsistent with our corporate policy," said Tom Robertson, general manager for interoperability and standards at Microsoft. "That communication had no impact on the final vote." ...'"

16 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. Theft by Das+Auge · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well it's good to know that, after I commit my first robbery, every robbery after that is no big deal.

  2. In the next by fishthegeek · · Score: 2, Funny

    vote it'll come out that they were voting on Diebold voting machines furnished by ProClarity Corporation

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    load "$",8,1
  3. In other words by Trogre · · Score: 4, Funny

    "We had a situation where an employee sent a communication via e-mail that was inconsistent with our corporate policy"

    Sorry we got caught, we'll try not to let it happen again.

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  4. Policy by laron · · Score: 5, Funny

    "We had a situation where an employee sent a communication via e-mail that was inconsistent with our corporate policy"

    Said policy probably states that such communication should never happen over a traceable and archivable medium.

    --
    "Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."
  5. The diffusion theory of Evil by Colin+Smith · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hopefully more people will realize how flat out EVIL that company is because of this. One of the interesting things about Microsoft is the high concentration of evil within the organisation. I have a theory that they have managed to attract or suck the evil from many surrounding areas. This leaves an evil gradient, from those who work in the company, through their trading partners into the general I.T. marketplace where there is now a general lack of evil.

    This is clearly shown by the Google, "Do No Evil" corporate slogan. More a statement of the inability to perform evil due to the concentration gradient and general lack of evil available.

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    Deleted
  6. Re:No impact... by gameboyhippo · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sure... It's your "wife's" favorite Soap Opera. *snicker* Marxist H4x0r watches soap operas!!!

  7. Re:No impact... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    For those who don't speak swedish, here's a rough translation of the article:

    meekrosuft iz zee bad for zee bribeeng oof zee svedes bork bork bork!

  8. Re:It seems to be the logical step by Ajehals · · Score: 2, Funny

    Parent is right, they should have used a voting machine.... Maybe one of these

  9. What is microsoft actually trying to achieve? by MSPK · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can anyone with some insight into the matter explain to me why microsoft is trying so badly to get OOXML accepted as a standard, and doesn't simply support ODF? Are there technical reasons (are Microsoft Office documents somehow easier to store in OOXML than ODF)? Political reasons (is Microsoft trying to control/corrupt an open standard, kinda like they did with Internet Explorer and HTML)? Cause in the end both formats try to be the exact same thing: An open standard to store documents. Why go through all the trouble?

  10. That makes me wonder... by gringer · · Score: 5, Funny

    If there were a drive to get through an ISO specification on ISO corruption (i.e. the recommended way to influence others to get the specification you want), would that also be corrupted? And if so, would the corruption follow the procedure in the specification?

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    Ask me about repetitive DNA
  11. Refund time by jesterzog · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hopefully the SIS will offer a refund to all the honest corporations who were falsely led to believe they could buy a vote.

  12. Re:For those in the US. by BlueParrot · · Score: 2, Funny

    Things have traditionally been so bad that only light entertainment artists, which are all bad clone's of ABBA, have had a chance. Only occasionally does anything else, like a recent group of death metal rockers from Finland, make any progress at all.


    Fixed that for you.
  13. Re:No impact... by arth1 · · Score: 2, Funny

    So you're saying that IT people are the most rational and moral people on earth just now?

    No, I'm saying that IT geeks are.
  14. How was it inconsistent? by giafly · · Score: 2, Funny

    "We had a situation where an employee sent a communication via e-mail that was inconsistent with our corporate policy," said Tom Robertson, general manager for interoperability and standards at Microsoft.
    How was it inconsistent? Simple. The employee broke corporate policy #1, "Don't get found out".
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    Reduce, reuse, cycle
  15. Re:No impact... by NickFortune · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's just as gratifying to have an inferior standard "win" and used by the unwashed masses, so one can keep feeling superior.

    What's more, I'm sure Bill Gates agrees with you wholeheartedly.

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    Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
  16. Re:You sure about that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "those products that don't implement important international standards like OOXML, MicrosoftHTML, MicrOSoftIX, MS-DB"
    Given the current Microsoft naming scheme, that should really be:

    "those products that don't implement important international standards like Open Office XML, OpenFirefoxHTML, OpenLinux, OpenMySql."