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Microsoft CIO Stuart Scott Gets Axed
avjt writes "Microsoft has terminated its CIO Stuart Scott for 'violation of company policies'. They won't elaborate. Now what do you think this guy has done?" Ya know, I'm positive someone reading this story knows the answer to the mystery... and they could post it anonymously and be totally fine because there will be a hundred other totally wrong guesses and it would be completely impossible to distinguish the two ;)
Time to google for articles where he said something good about Linux...
Got fed up with Vista and installed $SOME_DISTRO instead. :-)
:-(
Somehow this is gonna cost me karma...
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Taco said in one of his write-ups, comments will (very rarely) be removed for legal reasons.
Whichever post dissapears after MS sends an email threatening legal action. That is the reason... Everyone, ready your screenshots!
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
Stealing office supplies
... using Ubuntu on his personal laptop.
Generally, bash is superior to python in those environments where python is not installed.
When filling out a form, under the section that said 'DO NOT WRITE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE' he wrote 'OK'
Holla at a playa when you see him in the street!
Maybe his daughter was caught using an iPod? Or perhaps his work machine's cache was found to have a Google Search results page in it?
But, in all seriousness, it wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft had a very stringent agreement with it's employees such that you're guilty of violating company policy at all times. Something really vague and impossible to avoid like "you shall not support a competitor in anyway with any of your personal funds or free time." They only let you go if they want to and so few get let go on these grounds that nobody really cares about it. Does anyone know if this is the case?
It really wouldn't surprise me if they treated their employees the same way they treat their customers.
My work here is dung.
He bought a Sony Playstation 3, then looked for help setting it up via Google on his Linux based computer.
What are you all doing CmdrTaco just gave you an ordr to post unfounded accusations anonymously! Why aren't you making slanderous posts yet?
Broke a chair?
Has he never heard of demarkation?
simon
he bought an iPhone.
Rule of Acquisition #19: Satisfaction is Not guaranteed.
His daughter bought a cool iPod instead of a lame Zune.
balmer run out of chairs to toss! so he moved onto the management, which is a smart move they are thick as wood anyways
Is not the thing to do
He was baggin' Belinda.
he deemed himself the "chief indecent officer", came to work naked, and refused to let anyone not notice his lack of clothes lolololol
Now let's the conspiration theories fly, but often the reality is much simpler and mundane...
It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
Sportscenter was taking up too much of his time.
not as much because i have something against THIS stuart scott, but my first thoughts were of stuart scott
frog blast the vent core
Got caught playing with his Wii
Did he steal office supplies, or Microsoft Office supplies, or office supplies for Microsoft Office, or Microsoft office supplies for the office, or......forget it, I'm confusing myself
Stuart L. Scott's middle name is Linus.
... with an iPhone.
He tried to stop Steve from throwing his chair?
Usually, at levels this high, executives who misbehave are quietly asked to resign. The fact that his termination was this public and graceless tells me he did something pretty egregious, because Microsoft apparently wants to not just get rid of him but warn other corporations not to hire him. Misappropriation of corporate funds, in some way, seems the most likely candidate to me.
Please note I'm not informed at all, just speculating.
...often the reality is much simpler and mundane... What are you doing bringing reality into this? We're trying to film the nerd equivalent of 90210 here, and you barge in with your 'reality' like it actually means something!A test came back negative -- his body was NOT composed of pure evil, which of course violates MS company policy. Subsequent tests confirmed it, although he is appealing to the World Anti-Doping Agency. Floyd Landis was unavailable for comment.
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
He probably installed OpenBSD in an all-RedHat shop? Tool...
I know several people who currently work at Microsoft. It's not because he installed linux or owns an ipod or some such silliness, since I know these people have done those things. I would imagine that it's actually something more serious, like an inappropriate work relationship (still thinking it's not something they would fire you for, at the CIO level) or divulging info to a competitor or inappropriate use of company funds.
[b.belong('us') for b in bases if b.owner() == 'you']
He told Clippy to, and I quote, "Get Bent".
Ballmer found out he named his kids Ubuntu and Google
Speedy thing goes in; speedy thing comes out.
And it wasn't that he bypassed WGA, it was that he helped someone.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Get real guys, there's no way he was fired for using Linux or Google searches. The chip they install in every MS employee's brain disallowes deviance from the collective (more specifically, Gates clicks the "Deny" button that pops up in his head).
But for someone at CIO level to get canned it was either something that borders, or is just straight up illegal that MS is trying to keep under wraps primarily because it would damage their reputation, whether it was something tacitly approved by them or completely unknown to them. Or, possibly, they had it out for him and used some minor infringement as the basis for letting him go. Something like "Sorry, the company limit on gifts from vendors and suppliers is $50, and that widget was clearly $51 after tax!"
Either way I'm sure he has some majestic golden parachute that will help ensure that neither he nor his family could potentially go hungry for the next 5 generations if they're marginally competent at managing money, provided he never talks about it...of course.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
Terminating him seems a bit harsh - couldn't they just have sacked him?
Penguin Lust
...that he's the BOFH? In which case expect him to be back within a week with a 20% raise, and Steve Ballmer nowhere to be found.
or something similarly pedestrian.
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
He was let go because his stock was about to vest...
Pamela Jones!
Sean Ellis
Follow OfQuack's antics on Twitter.
He started behaving like a convicted monopolist instead of a monopolist. Having a conscience as an executive is not always a desirable trait.
... according to ValleyWag.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/stuartsc/default.mspx
* He is a Six Sigma black belt.
* Scott lives with his wife and SEVEN children.
* He helped "ensure that Microsoft is the "first and best customer" of its own products."
* He spends his free time with his family, coaching sports teams, leading youth groups, and playing golf.
I'm guessing...he was teaching Six Sigma karate to underprivileged inner-city girls and, as happened with his wife, got too close and BAM...instant pregnancies all round.
Seriously...who has SEVEN CHILDREN? On PURPOSE?
Exempted himself from all security policies so he could download porn at work.
End of lesson. You may press the button.
Despite his non-compete contract, it was determined that he still had his soul.
#Comment Deleted for Legal Reasons#
Fired?!
On his day off!?!
For stealing boxes?!?!
What!?!?!
Was he trying to build a clubhouse?!?!?!
Microsoft basically paid for the new members in the Swedish OOXML vote and a subsidiary of Microsoft in Hungary was raided by the police in July. I have no knowledge that it is related to either of this, an out-right firing of such a high level person usually means basically stealing money. Not even a sexual harassment scandal would do that, just a quiet resignation.
hey, i'm just saying :)
... a press question truthfully and honesty (these words do not exist in MS corp along with Ethically and Morally).
Somebody who is never at home anyway. Nannies deal with the kids.
- Only a few of us know the truth, posting the truth is a good way to violate company policies, and you see what happens when you violate company policies, so even anonymous posting just means pressure is applied to
... let's just say a few ... people until it is determined who the one is and BOOM, job over
- We don't like really like slashdotters that much, so we don't care if you never know the real reason
- The truth is not exciting or anything...it's just mundane policy violation...so posting it is less enjoyable than reading all the wild-ass guesses
- Halloween is over
I'll never tell. Even if I did, you'd be all "Meh" and say the idea that he was bangin' Melinda or selling Microsoft secret plans to Google is much more intriguing. So, sure, he was a Google mole. Just run with that one.n/t.
He's just better at throwing chairs across rooms than a certain CEO is.
Not with Balmer sitting in it. Moving anything that big requires a fork lift, and a sign saying "wide load".
Undoubtedly because he was caught using an iPhone or an iPod touch. Or perhaps he brought a MacBook Pro to work. I can see it now!
...Er...It's only running Vista, if that helps. I erased that...oh-so-lovely (whoops) Mac operating system...Mac X, or whatever it's called...
:P
Ballmer: What the fuck is that?
Scott: Oh yeah, it's a MacBook Pro. Sexy piece of kit, isn't it?
Ballmer: What the fucking fuck? Fucking sexy? No, it's not fucking sexy. It's fucking Apple, that's fucking what. What the fuck?
Scott:
Ballmer: You fucking fuck! Get the fuck out of my fucking face!
Ballmer grabs a chair. Scott exits quickly stage left.
n/t
you had me at #!
Come on, Stevie B. We know you're reading this. Just pop in as AC and give us the dirty on ol' Stu.
You never really know how close to the edge you can go until you fall off.
Stuart L. Scott is corporate vice president and chief information officer (CIO) of Microsoft Corp. Under Scott's leadership, Microsoft IT is responsible for security, infrastructure, messaging and business applications for all of Microsoft, including support of Microsoft product groups, corporate business groups, and the global sales and marketing organization.
Snooping on other people's email?
The man over-reacted a tidge when someone took his red stapler.
...and caught one of them using Google. When asked 'shouldn't you be using Live?', the answer I received was 'Ya, but I want to find something...."
Slashdot makes be feel uncomforable posting as AC when the CAPTCHA is 'tracking'.
I have two guesses as to why Stuart Scott was fired. They are worth what you paid! 1. He was running some kind of online side business on microsoft infrastructure. 2. Perhaps his academic credentials were not real. In other words, he did not really earn one of the degrees he claimed before he was hired by M$.
-- Anybody here remember the Atari 800?
He forgot to add a cover sheet to his TPS report
Bolted all the chairs down. Just for a laugh.
Deleted
He photo shopped gene simmons' tongue onto a pic of Balmer
....at someone. Obviously Ballmer was not happy that it wasn't a chair. *I know I am going to get burned for this one!*
So in other words... he caught one of the flying chairs and it pissed off monkey boy?
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
He violated the terms of the EULA.
Maybe M$ hired security to snoop on Google, got found out, and the buck stopped with him.
http://www.pollsb.com/polls/poll/3617/microsoft-fires-cio-stuart-scott-possibly-for-inter-office-affair-with-his-subordinate
In Redmond, that is treason!
I'm not a troll, but I play one on Slashdot.
The rumor mill is already gushing about the story: turns out Scott had an affair with one of his subordinates, who recently go a big promotion that raised many eye brows around the company. The two were on leave together when the investigation started: http://www.pollsb.com/polls/poll/3617/microsoft-fires-cio-stuart-scott-possibly-for-inter-office-affair-with-his-subordinate
BOO YAH!
:)
Oh, wait, wrong Stuart Scott
getting drunk and removing his chip with bbq tongs
When M$ loses someone to Linux or BSD or Minix or whatever, that's a customer they've lost for life, no biggie, it was probably unavoidable given their poor treatment of customers, and general abuse/lying/cheating/hypocrisy track records. That and notice that Vista looks and acts the way KDE has looked for about 5 years, and the way Gnome has looked for at least 3. I would wager there's more than "some" Linux usage at M$. Getting M$ pinheads actually admitting it, heh that is going to be another thing altogether, unless they're starved for news coverage in a particular month.
:) (Even the units they "give away for free" aren't "free" they are claimed as "units shipped" and thus help stock values go up. Same thing for the Bill and Mel "foundation", so long as they stay away from associations with the Nazis, or somesuch bad rap, they can continue to give with conditions such as "1 million for your school, but you can only buy M$ computers with it". Units shipped, stocks up baby, its what its all about. Bill's fortune and power is linked to his stock value in M$. He's not about to let it fall. You can guarantee Ballmer will be out on his ass before Gates lets M$ drop in the toilet.)
Losing customers to the fruit company isn't so bad either, they can still sell them office software from their subsidiary Main Soft (their fruit friendly branch). Thus they can still claim unit sales... which makes stocks go up
Now, with that being said, if they begin to lose customers to a product they have end of life'd now that's gonna hurt big time. (I recall an announcement that XP was EOL'ed sometime this year... but as I don't use it and don't care for trolling the M$ website anymore, I can't say for sure.)
Any press is GOOD press. Remember that saying. M$ always gets in the news somehow, and only in the last 6 years have the geeks learned to substitute another name in its stead into OSS games, software, stories, etc. This is good, the less press they get, the better. It is about the only way to not advertise FOR them.
So in my opinion he got axed with a generous severance package because he was:
A) expendable, nobody liked him, he didn't come to drinking parties at Bill or Ballmer's houses.
B) he installed XP or suggested someone else do it, or suggested/authorized it without consulting the big B's.
C) said something in a private memo about Vista (like "its a bucket of turd and smells strongly thereof") and was unrepentant.
D) any of the above but mainly A PRESS GAINING STUNT. They say getting your company name in the press once a week or more often is good for business, especially if you are a publicly traded company. M$ obviously knows this.
" What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler
Ever since Kevin, took over from Walmart, operations at the retail level have sucked, and not in a good way. A lot of good people have left, and even more want to leave. Something like a 30-40 percent turnover per year. It's rediculous. Also, I'm willing to bet that Kevin had something to do with him getting discovered as he was the former CIO at Walmart who's ethical practices aren't exactly "well known".
There's your answer - he pushed them to use Vista internally.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Says here 'Scott was charged with the distribution of Microsoft products among employees.'
So, was he bootlegging Halo betas?
I cant see them firing him for giving out copies of Vista.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/microsoft-executive-fired-violating-company/story.aspx?guid=%7B3C9D5FC9-8119-4559-93AE-8FA7ED975002%7D&dist=hplatest
Starman97@Gmail.com (bring it on spammers)
in meetings and in emails concerning Vista and M$ future plans - he actually said what everyone secretly thinks about Vista etc.
OR
He may have actually suggested that the Emporer has no clothes (or plans)
Its not the years, its the mileage
He was overheard referring to Steve Ballmer as Uncle Fester and Monkey Boy, a la Fake Steve Jobs.
Could it have something to do with the Nigerian Government's purchase of Classmate Systems preloaded with Mandriva and wiped on delivery? The two do seem close together.
He did something for which the company might get sued (sexual harassment could qualify) and has been fired to protect the company. Legal action is like being bit by a zombie. Expect your former friends to shoot you in the head ASAP.
technical writing / development
Ah, you mean something like:
"I know we're partnering with you and all, but don't read too much into that. It's just until our in-house version of your product is ready to be bundled with Windows."
Ready for the google staff... Just, Another coin fired from the emperium...
Jeez. Look at the friggin calendar, will ya?!
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
...he marched into Ballmer's office with a remote control and a nasty case of gas.
Maybe made a pass at Balmer when he bent over to pick up a chair.
Or maybe more hideous, he ran Linux at home.
He refused to swallow anymore.
He added three words to Microsoft's License so it reads:
"Microsoft - All Rights Reserved / All Wrongs Denied"
Fired the guy but may keep the change.
Business as usual.
Reflex time improves with continued exposure to aberrant behavior. ;)
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
1) Distributing MS software to employees (doesn't make sense) http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/microsoft-executive-fired-violating-company/story.aspx?guid=%7B3C9D5FC9-8119-4559-93AE-8FA7ED975002%7D&dist=hplatest
2) Affair with subordinate
http://www.pollsb.com/polls/poll/3617/microsoft-fires-cio-stuart-scott-possibly-for-inter-office-affair-with-his-subordinate
probably not pr0n as he seems to be a religious guy.
Believe it or not, Microsoft does consist of real people too, partly as cyborgs are incredibly difficult to toilet train and I won't even start on the eating habits.
All public communication channels to and from Microsoft (the stuff Slashdot feeds on for instance) represent, well, very little of what's inside.
throw new NoSignatureException();
Maybe this is a delayed reaction to the bribery scandal from a few weeks ago over the OOXML adoption and the screwup of the OOXML adoption itself. I can see where a bribery scandal that could be traced back to high-level executives could pose serious problems for MS in Europe.
*quietly whispers title of post and saunters away*
It wasn't porn, he was reading Slashdot on company time.
Microsoft CIO Stuart Scott Gets Chaired
There fixed the headline for you.
Six Sigma is a process management... process.
I think.
But it's definitely not karate!
He was caught having sex with Linus at his desk.
Fixed that.
You know, the aptitude for bribery, shady competition, backstabbing, monopolistic leanings and such ? And chair throwing skillz ? Maybe he lacked those 'qualities' ?
Read radical news here
wish I had some mod points, someone mod this insightful please?
The guy has 7 kids is married and is a techie. He's too corporate to be hip, so he buys his way into being 'cool' through being the provider. I bet he had like a 15 terrabyte home server that just ripped movies, software and music all day long.
He probably has the 25+mbps bonded DSL, some sort of outlandish automated ripping system and was sharing the spoils of his hobby with his co-workers and friends. You know the kind of piracy setup that only a 6 figure salary can afford.
Microsoft then finds out that he's A) in deep shit with a whole lot of companies and organisations (MPAA, RIAA, etc etc) and B) has even been pirating Microsoft software and distributing it so they can him without being specific in an agreement to not get him arrested and sued for $10,000,000 in copyright violations.
Is it a coincidence this happened so shortly after Microsoft finally accepted to comply with the EC's decision in the anti-trust case?
It might be totally unrelated, but I noticed no one had mentioned this yet.
When a business wants to hide the wrong-doing of an executive, they buy them out and everyone keeps their mouth shut. One publicly terminates an executive when one wants to send a public message. Often the message is that the business is responsive to a situation. So if the executive is harassing someone, or committing a crime, the business can try to limit its liability by showing that it took all possible steps to remedy the situation.
Also, at the executive level, ticky-tack reasons for firing someone aren't really applicable. If the CEO doesn't like the CIO, he just cans him and brings in his own guy. This can be a kind of message too...fire a rival and consolidate power. And if that turns in an employment lawsuit, a little gift violation is not going to stand up in court.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Exactly.
Diverting attention away from Nigeria gaffe.
Nothing more to it.
A hundred legal vehicles exist for the chap to continue workng for msft at better salaries.
Like Acacia.
Some Govt somewhere has referred to the Nigeria case and raised an objection.
So, before the mainstream media can make do something big about it, hide it behind something shadier.
Nothing more to it.
No misappropriation of funds (that's most common in companies that big, and that's OK)
Even the MSFT-spies-and-Feds angle is old knowledge.
What is needed TODAY AND NOW, is a diversion from the Mandriva-Nigeria issue.
They are already badmouthed by the media for being litigous
They don't want to lose more third world Govt orders.
How about this... once again, something he did or said made MS, according to their legal department, vulnerable to a lawsuit. By preemptively publicly removing him, they hope that a judge will see that MS is not liable, that the CIO acted in violation of policy and is only himself liable. Unfortunately, whatever he did is either not clearly against MS policy or often goes unpunished, so if they say publicly what he allegedly did, they'll be subject to his next lawsuit.
(Everything I write here is only my personal opinion, not that of my employer, etc.)
Those who have sacked those who sacked those who sacked the engineers of this album have been sacked
If it's dead, you killed it.
Someone that high up in the food chain affects market prices for stocks, some shareholders will demand an explanation to see how there might be further ramifications down the pike. this isn't someone just quit, it is one of their head honchos got fired. The real info will come out.
this type of journalism is no better than some of the rags on celebrities in the supermarket.
Donald Ray Moore Jr. (mindrape)
Suspected Terrorist
I guess it depends on the underlying motives. A lot of people assume companies are run by completely heartless bastards; but you'll find there are ones out there who will even listen to employee's lower done.
There was actually a mate who ran a company, he found out there was an individual stealing money - he later found out that the individual had a gambling problem; rather than punish the individual he actually went and helped the individual out. That individual still works there.
If there were mitigating circumstances, generally speaking it can be in the best interest for the two parties to come to an arrangement and have what ever is taken, repaid, then taking it to court and most likely getting nothing; if someone is truly repentant, they will pay back without needing to ask.
caught him using a debugger in the first place. Did I get a raise for uncovering this gross violation? Of course not.
He probably did something like use his company card to buy personal goods etc. Although I suppose it could have been sexual harassment or something.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
I think he didn't get fired I think Dre just axed him a question.
You guys are nuts ... for a big company to say that a high-ranking employee was fired for any reason is a pretty risky thing to do from a legal standpoint. They must've had a darned good reason to can Scott. Even when a CXX is caught doing something, it's usually handled much more gracefully - he's allowed to resign "for personal reasons" or "to seek a different position" or allowed to stay on the payroll while he finds another job, even if the true reason was that the guy was sleeping with his secretary or got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He also might've been caught on the losing end of a corporate power play - the folks who report to him and the folks who are his peers are always jockeying for position, looking for an opportunity to look good to *his* boss in case they see an opportunity to set him up to get rid of him...
Regardless, most of the opinions posted here about why the guy was sacked are just plain silly.
-- Ed Carp, N7EKG erc@pobox.com PGP KeyID: 0x0BD32C9B What I'm up to: http://intuitives.mine.nu
He installed 641k of memory.
Being CIO Chief Information Officer. It would probably most likely would be due to leaking some information. It could be releasing some specs before hand, or some. Or even something like giving the root password for the Cisco Router to Cisco customer support, who is based in an other country...
Hording money or going with unsavory consultants, Who will buy 20,000 feet of Cat 5 itemize it as Cat 6 and pocket the difference. Taking bribes. A slew of things.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
He was heard saying "I can't find any copyright violations in Linux."
They fined him $699, and canned him.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
no text
Medium cat is MEDIUM.
It involved a goat, a shower and a bar of soap.....I've said too much already.
to software development.
6 sigma is a way to measure and decrease defects over time. However people are intertwined with software development, and software methodologies tend to change;which means new vectors for defects. This is similar to why it doesn't work well in retail.
Plus, you must understand statistics, or hire statisticians to be really succesfull
For the record, if I could afford to put 7 children through college, not need my wife to work and can afford live in help, I would have 7 kids.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Duh.
Ah, CRAP!!! I get busy and don't look at Slashdot for a while. So I miss that a Microsoft Hive Queen has been deleted from the Collective until there's already about a zillion comments on it. And a lot of the comments are funny. And most of the writers came up with the same ideas I did...earlier (and probably funnier).
Caught using Linux/Apple/Firefox/Whatever: check.
Caught having an affair: check.
Caught dumping Vista for XP Pro: I didn't see it, but it's too good to miss. So check.
Caught pirating: See above.
Has a better arm than Ballmer: check.
Theft/Murder/Coveting his neighbor's ox: check
Coveting his neighbor's (cough) ass (cough): check.
Damn it, I WILL NOT BE DENIED! What's left? Interspecies sex? Are Bill Gates' kids old enough to date?
Wait, wait.....I got it! He photocopied his bum and mistakenly hit "Reply All" when the e-mail should have gone to Ballmer as part of the secret Microsoft submission ritual.
TA DA!!!!!
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
On his application for the job, in the line indicating sex, he wrote in the word "YES" and checked it. MS didn't notice till they went to digitize their HR paperwork to store on their FILECABINET LIVE initiative.
As CIO, his mistake was a "technology refresh" where he overnight replaced every PC with a 512 MB RAM Celeron laptop running Windows Vista Penultimate Edition.
I suspect that public termination is a deterrent to other members of the company, not a warning to other companies. This kind of termination is an example to others that whatever he did (office love affair?) will not be tolerated. It takes balls to terminate someone this high up. Kudos to the HR department and whoever signed the paper.
On the other hand kudos to the guy for having an office love affair. Too bad you got caught.
He came into the office one day and said, 'You know, I've been thinking, we make some right sh*t don't we?'
spoonerize "magic trackpad"
I know what he did.
He got a Mac.
surfed for porn. kept it on his pc. gets discovered when showing off pictures during a presentation. ....that, or he was caught by Balmer with an iPod/iPhone.
"I see that by "schooled in espionage" you meant "paranoid"..."
I think that by "schooled in espionage" he meant "joke".
you are not supposed to promote your lover way beyond his or her level of competence.
Well... good for you.
Are you adequate?
I'm sure his contract has a clause stating that he doesn't get a payout if he's terminated for cause.
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
I don't care what the damn reason is. I'm sure they'd escort my ass the hell out the door too if I did whatever you did. The difference is, Scott, that you get to weep all over the steering wheel of your Porsche on the way home, wallow in a bathtub full of money when you get there and stare at your real Monets hanging on the wall. So fuck you, man.
BTW kids, the CIO role in MS is not a top exec spot. It's second tier. MS doesn't give shit for people who don't move PRODUCT. He MUST have been stealing. Guaranteed.
Figures, this thread is full of "MS IS FULL OF HORRIBLE PEOPLE" posts.
They found out he did something wrong and canned his ass. They didn't try to hide the violation, let him "step down" etc. They FIRED him.
Turns out this guy had a poster of Linus Torvalds taped to the inside of his locker.
"You're terminated, fucker."
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
Apparently not.
Every post I see that says "I will get modded down" gets modded Funny.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Please report to the nearest citizen reeducation station for a much needed humor implant.
Being the CIO, he is responsible for computer security within the company. /duck
He violated due diligence by certifying the use of an insecure operating system at Microsoft, notably Windows Vista.
OldZoot
enough is too much
Ironically, getting fired from Microsoft might be the best thing that ever happened in that guy's life. I mean, just imagine how it must feel to work for a *bleep* like Steve Ballmer? To have a big, paranoid, evil corporation slowly eating away at your soul, eroding your mind and destroying your personal self? No money in the world is worth it. Really.
Beauty is in the beholder of the eye.
Hello,
/.
I wanted you to be sure you witnessed the first and last "Sports Center" tag to ever be used on
like:
"Cooler than the other side of the pillow"
and
"Booyah!"
instead of getting his damn job done.
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
failed the chair throwing test?
His computer dual booted to four distros of Linux and no Win OS.
His web browser was Firefox.
His mail program was gmail.
His Office suite was Star Office.
His personal website ran PHP and Apache on a Sun box.
His cell phone was an iPhone.
He told Ballmer he was "just a stupid little panty waste".
I figure any one of those would get you canned...
Carpe Scrotum - The only way to deal with your competition.
Jack Thompson sent a letter.
He should have read the ToS before he broke open the shrink-wrap on his office.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Gee, I bet you're a lot of fun at parties!
Er, on what basis? You can't sue someone for wrongful termination just because you don't like why you were fired, and then hope the jury sees it your way. There isn't some principle written into the law that says you can only be fired if a jury of your peers agrees it was "fair."
In essence, there are some very narrowly and specifically defined grounds for a wrongful termination suit, namely discrimination based on your sex, race or age, or if you were fired in retaliation for "whistle-blowing" to any of several government agencies. There may be others, too. But the point is that unless a legislature has defined specific grounds for a wrongful termination suit, you can be fired for any reason or no reason at all, and you have zero recourse unless the company failed to honor your employment contract.
Especially when, as is probable in this case, the guy agreed when he was hired -- in writing, or by the act of showing up for his first day of work -- that he would abide by certain clearly-stated corporate principles, e.g. not boffing people who report to you, and then was caught not doing so. A lawsuit that can't allege sex or race discrimination, and which has to overcome violation of his conditions of employment, probably won't even come before a jury -- a judge would toss it as soon as the defendant asked him to.
He was fired the day of the Android press conference. Maybe he was caught doing something illegal/improper to get information out of Google regarding Android. If MS security was investigating, and all the evidence they had to work with was information proprietary to Google, then heir investigation would've closed with the information being confirmed in Google's press conference.
At that point it becomes a serious legal burden to keep him on staff, no matter how high up he is.
that the CIO had been throwing chairs in his office... Unfortunately, Ballmer heard the noise and wanted to sue him for patent infringement, upon which the CIO tried to defend himself with a SuSE Linux installation CD, saying: "you see, I'm a Novell customer, you promised not to sue those". Eventually, Bill Gates caught a glimpse of the Linux CD in the CIO's hands and the rest is history. Or maybe the CIO's name showed up in the network report of using Google search, or the system report showed he had iTunes installed?
at Balmer! Blamer didn't apprieciate it so they "threw" him out.
The Truth is a Virus!!!
They discovered he owned a DVD pirated version of Redhat.
Wash your mouth out!
Since when is slashdot not porn (for geeks)?
Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
I guess he'll never be promoted to chair-man of the board.
Imagine a young single woman named Eula getting hired by Microsoft, one day yelling in the back of a car, "Violate me! Violate me!" If the guy is also a MS employee, do you think he'll get canned?
...I think that this particular post happens to be particularly insightful. If I was betting money on the reason for him getting fired, it'd be on that.
He bought a mac, installed linux on it, end of story.
~Vexed and loving it!
My guess is snuff, kiddie pr0n, or necrophilia. Or he may have really crossed the line and gotten into the furry stuff.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
is still pretty derideable. Not so much because he's running microsoft into the ground or anything. Overall, Microsoft is doing pretty well, and I'd probably say their stock and outlook is a bit undervalued by most people.
However, he's screwed up on two major fronts and kind of failed to repent on at least one of them.
1. He let the vista development get strung out like it did. This probably isn't largely his fault, but as CEO he should have realized something was going very wrong and forced the development team to start removing features instead of pushing back the launch date. Windows is still Microsofts most important product, and he should have kept a better eye on it.
2. He seems to have some vendetta going with Google, for reasons that are totally beyond me. I honestly don't see how or why Microsoft and Google are in competition, and I tend to think that Microsoft is wasting a lot of money pretending that they are a serious search and ads company like Google or Yahoo. Maybe they'll prove me wrong in the long run, they did with the XBox, but I tend to see their web initiatives as a distraction from more promising products.
3. He seems to have encouraged a very inefficient corporate culture with a lot of levels of management and lots of meetings. I don't think the Google style flat management structure is an appropriate approach for a company the size of Microsoft (or a company the size of Google for that matter), but I think that something has to be done to address how sluggish the company has gotten. Something like Apple style skunkworks projects for some of their key projects would probably make sense.
There are plenty of people around here (myself included) that use competing products. We're talking about Macs, Firefox, Google, iPhone, iPod, PlayStation, etc. Yeah, some of it is competitive analysis and such, but a lot of it is just due to personal preference, and it is draconian to think that an employer would force such measures on their employees. Obviously MS would like everyone to drink nothing but Kool-Aid, and will suggest people buy Zunes, use Live Search, etc. and I think that's fine and healthy. I would expect Google and Apple to do the same thing with its employees, allowing them to run/own/use the competition's products.
-- jchenx
So yeah, I have been greppping the main stream media for the last twenty four hours, and the best i can find is this : microsoft stock price drops marginally (video, safe for work). I mean seriously. An executive at a major company gets fired and the talking heads don't think this is news worthy? What am I missing here? And by "grepping" I mean seriously searching for the sound "microsoft" being mentioned on any national television or radio news. Do you know if they have and I have just missed it? Not that I own stock or anything. Bob if at first you don't succeed, redefine success
I guess it's lucky, then, that Melinda French was a frisky 20-something single when she and Bill started shagging. And out of that union came Bob...
Da Blog
Or he could try the BBC.
Stop yer' speculatin'. It's the oldest reason in the book: fidlin' with a subordinate and then givin' her a big ole promotion: http://www.pollsb.com/polls/poll/3617/microsoft-fires-cio-stuart-scott-possibly-for-inter-office-affair-with-his-subordinate
I think he was fired because he was moonlighting with ESPN, and being the most annoying guy on SportsCenter.
(ESPN is a cable television network that focuses mainly on sports, since you don't know. It is that channel you occasionally watch poker on late at night, and SportsCenter is a show other people watch sometimes. Naturally I don't expect anyone to mod my post up for being funny, because no one here will get it.)
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
Instead of saying "Microsoft sucks." (we all already know this)
Try saying "[Your flavor of OS] is great, here's why!" (perhaps we might learn something.)
As to the other arguments I seem to have spawned, I found something out. Every time I ended up running Linux or BSD, I ended up LEARNING something. The only thing I learned about computing, or crypto or anything else is this... "if they get physical access to your machine, it ain't your machine or your data ANY MORE... however, if you're running any OS that starts with Win... it ain't your data or your machine ANYWAYS! Read the EULA and the bug reports that go superficially fixed."
That's my 10 cents.
" What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler
In no particular order:
Hmmm
Maybe he let some external organization or other access internal Microsoft records for some purpose or other...
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
Mystery solved?
http://www.trenchmice.com/scoop/433/microsoft-cio-underling-took-family-leave-before-firing/
We should discuss them, but descending into the "ritual mudslining" you just mentioned ends up losing us the little credibility we "geeks" have with those who sign the purchasing orders or checks.
Everytime we recall what is bad, we should be suggesting more evidently what OS has a track record of NOT doing this. Instead of a 20 piece website about why M$ sucks, why not a 20 piece website why such suckage doesn't occur in (your flavor of OS here).
Even the idiotic flame wars between the distros. WTF?! As if the distros had enough turf to fight over, instead of biting at the big boy's heels...
So having had some background in geekdom and in pin striped salesmanship (don't ask), I find that its EASIER to sell YOUR idea or product by pushing it more than slandering your opposition. Bring up their failures, answer questions but PUSH YOUR PRODUCT.
Why do you think M$ has survived the "Linux Onslaught" so far? Because they give Linux VERY LITTLE of their limelight. "We are aware of it but not concerned." Is this true? Sure they are aware of Linux and BSD (they used the BSD net tools didn't they?) but they are outright lying about their level of concern. I mean hell they got a "Linux and OSS Strategy Group" (or whatever it is they call it nowadays). This kind of stuff should be learned from.
This is what I meant. RedHat on the other hand has been bungling their own attempts. Slow servers, etc. I like Gentoo and will continue to use it. I like LFS, but again its the "ricer" factor... its easy to tweak. Ubuntu, Debian and Kubuntu have been my "kiddie grade" linuxes, good for all things I don't do (for the more "mainstream computer user" types among us.)
I like the pro liberty concept amongst some of the Linuxes, their usage generally suggests, sure, its free, but it A, takes work and B, takes responsibility. Getting all that done can be expensive on those of us who aren't trained to handle either of those options.
" What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler