Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Shoots Own Foot In Iceland
David Gerard writes "The Microsoft Certified Partner model is: an MCP buys contracts from Microsoft and sells them to businesses as a three-year timed contract, payable in annual installments. Iceland's economy has collapsed, so 1500 businesses have gone bankrupt and aren't paying the fees any more. But Microsoft has told the MCPs: 'Our deal was with you, not them. Pay up.' The MCPs that don't go bankrupt in turn are moving headlong to Free Software, taking most of the country with them. (Warning: link contains strong language and vivid imagery.)"
and BSOD you!
What would Bjork do?
Oh god, a 500 error! MY EYES! THEY BURN!
Does this rag smell like chloroform to you?
You know what, I'm not even going to bother clicking on a link composed of obscenities, even if it is about Microsoft making another PR blunder.
I'd like some anti-Microsoft news that at least appears reputable, and not overly sensationalized "ZOMG Balmer blew up M$ eats babies" crap like the stuff I've seen here for the past few weeks.
Give me something to read, please, not something designed to assimilate me into another angry mob.
"Hey, I only joined the military for the free college tuition. I never said anything about shooting people!"
These MCP's were all happy to sign up, resell MS's products and take their cut for doing almost nothing. Now they're not selling and they don't want to pay their bill? Puh-lese. The cheese section is apparently in Iceland, along with the whine.
"imagery" is the stuff you see inside your head when you read that strong language.
How we know is more important than what we know.
xkcd is everywhere...
"The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request."
Maybe Microsoft revoked their license on the webserver? Possible?
LOL.
Ah well, it seems somebody over there saw this article and decided to pull it to save grace.
I think it's rather impressive that Microsoft hasn't run out of feet to shoot. Nor bullets, apparently. Then again, they may have amassed an ample supply of peg-legs in their fight against piracy.
Here's my translation for ya:
[rumor] Microsoft [rumor] Economic Crisis [rumor] I can't confirm this but [rumor]. Open Office is better than Microsoft Office. [rumor] [bad logic] [rumor] [rumor] Pitiful prediction.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Oh god, a 500 error! MY EYES! THEY BURN!
Here you go, ya' big baby!
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
We'll shoot this foot
What?
Oh god, a 500 error! MY EYES! THEY BURN!
Are you kidding? This is Slashdot, a 500 error practically constitutes foreplay. Strong language indeed! :-)
Insert witty comment here
Quote "The easiest switch would be to go to OpenOffice.org from Microsoft Office. This switch is easy because not only is OpenOffice.org superior software in every respect ...".
Looks like a nice impartial artice.
"Do you think we could wipe out world hunger forever if scientists figured out how to make AOL's Free CD's edible?"-
Looks like a nice impartial artice.
You had to read 13 paragraphs of an article titled "Microsoft Skull-fucks Iceland's Economy, Contracts Syphilis" to decide it's not impartial?
My pics.
The MCPs that don't go bankrupt in turn are moving headlong to Free Software
Software resellers are moving headlong to Free Software? What is their business model supposed to be?
I'm going to assume this line is trying to say "The MCPs that don't go bankrupt in turn are going to bankrupt themselves for the Free Software cause, for no particular reason".
Anyone can "stand up for what they believe", but it takes a very brave individual to change what they believe. - Loundry
OpenOffice.org from Microsoft Office. This switch is easy because not only is OpenOffice.org superior software in every respect, itâ(TM)s also feature-compatible with Microsoft Office
Hm. no Can't agree with Open Office being superior. At the least a significant amount of re-learning is require. I know every time I use it I find it a frustrating experience.
And no if Word is the baseline then OO Writer is not feature complete. Once I learnt to use it the outline view in Word was the killer feature, which made editing large documents doable. Without outline view I could not imagine working on documents of a comparable size.
As for spreadsheets their are two keybindings I need. Insert current data and insert current time. Apparently their are third party macros for this. But tts something that's never available without additional effort when I try to use calc.
So no OpenOffice is not a simple drop-in replacement for Microsoft Office. Then Again if it where a drop-in replacement then Microsoft would undoubtedly be suing.
read my mind at http://the-willows.blogspot.com/
Still viewable via ye olde Coral Cache: http://smari.yaxic.org.nyud.net/blag/2009/03/06/microsoft-skull-fucks-icelands-economy-contracts-syphilis/
Funny you should say that. According to the blogger, the only thing these MCPs are seeing in their heads is Microsoft's cock.
So let me get this straight; several MCPs in Iceland decided to dance with the devil, buying three-year software contracts from Microsoft for Office and some other applications. After purchasing said contracts directly from Microsoft, these MCP then turned around and sold the same contracts to other companies in Iceland, charging an annual fee to those companies while, I imagine, paying Microsoft on some type of installment plan. Now, when the economy tanks and the folks who paid last year aren't around this year when the bill comes due, these MCPs are surprised, shocked if you will, that Microsoft wants them to pay for the contracts they purchased directly from Microsoft? Truly, am I missing something here?
It doesn't take even a back-of-the-envelope calculation to see that, if you buy a three year contract from vender 'A' and sell it with an annual maintenance fee to customer 'B', you have in fact become a creditor for customer 'B'. It should therefore come as no surprise to these MCPs that, yes, Microsoft really does want them to pay for the contracts they purchased from Microsoft. I can't imagine anyone at Microsoft stuck a gun to their heads and said, "Sell Microsoft software contracts or die." If you dance with the devil, and willingly did business with Microsoft, than you'd better be prepared to pay for the software contracts you purchased from the company.
Perhaps I'm just not enough of a Microsoft-hater, but I fail to see the 'skull fucking' here. What I do see is an angry rant from, I assume, someone who's likely receiving calls from bill collectors in Redmond. I'm sorry that MCP thing didn't work out for you, and if you want to switch from plugging Microsoft products to promoting Open Source Software, than more power to you. But please don't ask me to overlook the poor business decision you made in becoming a de-facto creditor to your customers. If you don't like the way Microsoft does business in Iceland, you don't have to join their game. Take your marbles and go play in some other park with rules more suitable to your taste.
And the rest of that sentence:
not only is OpenOffice.org superior software in every respect, it's also feature-compatible with Microsoft Office
Look, I like F/OSS software (and dislike MS) as much as the next geek but that's simply not true.
Me lost me cookie at the disco.
402; 416; 410
Possible; I'm not going to try to predict what will happen with the rest of this recession, but in the last year Microsoft stock lost 50% of its value, which is right in line with the NASDAQ as a whole. If you look at this chart, you can see that Microsoft has become a standard blue chip stock.
On the other hand, they don't really have any place to expand their revenue, unless they can get people in developing countries to start paying for windows, and with hardware prices coming down, they are going to have to start charging less in order to remain competitive, so they are looking at reduced revenue on multiple fronts, and not many places to increase revenue.
Would I short them? Heck no. It can take a long time for all of these to come into play, and as Milton Friedman said, the market can remain irrational much longer than you can remain solvent.
Qxe4
Certainly I'm no expert in Icelandic contract law, but frankly, why is this any different than any other form of reseller?
If I am a local grocer (the MCP) in a town, and I have just bought 10 tons of corn from the local farm (Microsoft) on agreement to pay for the corn over the next 3 years, but then suddenly all the area folks (other local businesses) cannot afford to buy corn from me anymore - what kind of nonsense suddenly absolves me of having to pay for the corn?
Sure, maybe Microsoft could be doing more negotiating on the contracts to help keep people in business - but guess what? They're a business too. Just because you don't like them doesn't make their contracts any less valid. Just because it's software and not a commodity doesn't make the contracts any less valid. If you take on the risk (the agreement to pay over 3 years, assuming you have revenue to pay for those 3 years), and your risk goes sour - you damned well better have to eat your sour grapes.
Incidentally, that's what is wrong with the bailouts in the US - the US goverment - ie, G W "Idiotboy" Bush and his Republican cronies told all the Wall Street CEOs - take on all the risk you want with other peoples' money, we got your back if it goes bad.
Down with the career politician! SUPPORT TERM LIMITS
(Warning: link contains strong language and vivid imagery.)
Excellent way to get people to RTFA :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes
402 Payment Required
416 Requested Range Not Satisfiable
410 Gone
Huh, what does it mean??
Or have I just earned a huge whoosh?
And what does it mean by "practically constitutes foreplay"?
Just say "414" and waggle your eyebrows suggestively ...