Blocking Unwanted Posters--MSFT is inteested in blocking their employees from posting

I agree those posts shouldn't be here--but MSFT is more interested in censoring constructive criticism or in the case of a very notable instance this week, pulling down posts and censoring their own bloggers. Also have you noticed what is marketed to the pre-teen segment of the market on MSN Music. The lyrics are considerably "more pornographic from the rap and hip-hop being proferred by Microsoft and MSN.

I'll illustrate this:

Windows Live Drive Info Pulled by MSFT
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/16/windows-live-drive-info-quickly-deleted-post-from-team-member/

"Stuart Padley is a Microsoft developer who keeps a personal blog here. He doesn't post very often (his last post was October 2005), but on Sunday he wrote a post called "Working on Live Drive?" and says that he was hand picked by Ray Ozzie (or Ray Ozzie's technical assistant, it isn't clear) to join "a small team of renegade hardcore architect/developer/test types" and work on Windows Live Drive. The post was quickly deleted, but was noticed.

The original post was at this URL, which is now a dead link. The original text was cached, of course, and can be viewed at Bloglines here. A screen shot of the full text is also below.

In addition to talking about joining the team, Stuart also points to discussions about Live Drive on Wikipedia and Fortune, saying "I don't think either of these descriptions are correct" but that both contain "elements of truth". There isn't much more information, although he seems to stress that this is a hand picked commando team (my words), which suggests that Microsoft is taking this product seriously. Stuart also say that he'll be focusing on answering questions about Live Drive on this blog. I'm pretty sure that won't be happening.

The most interesting aspect of this story is that someone yelled and got the post pulled down. Microsoft should know there is no better way to get someone's attention in the blogosphere than pulling down a post. Robert Scoble calls this "breaking into jail" and I agree. If you are going to give your developers blogs, let them post. Nothing Stuart wrote was particularly confidential - we all know this is coming.

I have an email in to Microsoft PR for a comment. No word yet. For additional backup material, here is our post on Google Drive, and this is our (now somewhat dated) overview of the online storage space."

Don't Pull Down Posts
http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/2006/08/17/rule-1-dont-pull-down-posts/

http://www.techmeme.com/060817/p8#a060817p8

Actually Gary I could write a Ph.D. thesis comparing MSFT's corporate posture in a panoply of ways to the World's Oldest Profession. When Ralph Reed was hired for $27,000 per month who among other things helped Tom Delay and Jack Abramoff broker sweat shops and slave trade in the Mariana's Island how else would you have characterized it. Ballmer only fired him when it hit the Seattle newspapers.

I'd be glad to help you with the red light dynamics here.

Congress--HookersLobbyists for MSFT --PimpsMSFT --Johns

The pimps are often on K Street which including MSFT PR Flaks at Wagner Edstrom and McCann Ericson World Wide Pimps although in an unrelated event Steve Ballmer Protoge was fired for putting up signs on the August Redmond Campus that said "Pimp Your Office (MSFT sells "It's Hard to be Pimp" that Grammy Award winning song via MSN music downloads).

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Microsoft defends ties to Ralph ReedCritics want conservative consultant fired

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/221811_msftreed27.html

Monday, April 25, 2005

Microsoft retreating in fear of red state retribution "Shall We Call it Micro-too Soft?"

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/221467_robert25.html

A Bug in Windows GOPMicrosoft is ending its relationship with choirboy-lobbyist Ralph Reed, but the company's ties to others in the seemingly infinite loop of the Republican lobbying scandal are deep-in D.C. and Seattle.
http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/0522/050601_news_microsoft.php

CH

"Gary Ritter"

"Chad Harris"

Actually, Chad, I have a bit of an inside scoop on this one. Not ENTIRELY reliable, since the person with the info is someone who hates the guy's guts, but it follows suit with things that have gone on before. One of the reasons the post was pulled was because Stuart was NOT a member of a developement team put together by Microsoft to develope LiveDrive. He was using this blog post as part of his resume`, which had some false information in it, and he had sent it around to some competitors in the same market, and MS pulled it.

Maybe so, Raven. I'm not there. If I perpetuated disseminating anything false by copying posts on Pradley, sorry for that.

Maybe the reason Steve Ballmer's protoge, Martin Taylor left had nothing to do with signs all over the campus that said "Pimp My Office" while MSFT sells "It's Hard to Be A Pimp" on their MSN Music site. Maybe the signs offended them because they thought it was too hard to be a pimp and pimp your office.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/6236

http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2006/06/locked-doors-martin-taylor-markz-and.html

http://www.proudlyserving.com/archives/2006/06/the_microsoft_c_6.html

Besides being the land of non-intuitive menus, and goofey messages that are anything but clear and confident--setup on 5472 says upgrade is not supported very clearly and it is, although I wouldn't trust it, it must be intriguing to work in a place like this:

"I parked my car, grabbed my stuff, and went to the usual entrance to my building. I waved my badge, waiting for the prompt click! that unlocks the door...."

But I have seen them pull comments and postings off several times in the last year. One minute they were there, and the next not. Downloads as well. I see them censor and lash out all the time. They preach innovation, but in fact are very very controlling and vindictive if they think they're being criticized. That's why Vista is such a lipsticked limping pig right now at 5472and their RC1 branches they've been teasing people with all last week, knowing they would be nailed turkey builds when they dropped and people got hold of them 56XX, 5506 or whatever. It's sad that RC1 will drop to the public and then they will slap RC1 on something close to it within less than a month of that.

And despite all these courses that people don't care how well it functions on here as long as it's secure, I do believe they will notice, and they will care.

The last several builds make me wonder what a build has to do to fail internal testing. But then a company that will pay Ralph Reed $27,000 or so a month and persist in trying to use Wegner Edstrom and McCann Ericson Worldwide spin, will release just about anything and call it Windows. Google Ralph Reed and Abramoff and you'll get the message or just google Ralph Reed New York Times or Washington Post. Not indicted because the Texas statute was stupidly allowed to run by so-called experienced attorneys, and the feds at Gonzales "Justice" are afraid it rattles into the White House so they ignore it.

Enjoy RC1. The optimisim in the course that maybe the next build will save everything is delusional.

Robert’s right: Windows Vista needs more time
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=1414

http://news.com.com/2061-11199_3-6100866.html

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/

http://www.longhornblogs.com/

http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/2006/07/31/mclaws-is-right-on-windows-vista-ship-date/

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2006/08/01/windows-vista-just-aint-gonna-be-ready/

http://chris.pirillo.com/2006/05/28/65-more-windows-vista-mistakes/

Perillo's Critique After Allchin Interview and Request from Allchin
http://chris.pirillo.com/2006/05/24/windows-vista-feedback/

Robert [McLaws] and Robert[Scoble] Duh!
http://chris.pirillo.com/2006/08/01/robert-and-robert-duh/

McLaws is Right on Windows Ship DateJuly 31, 2006Robert Scoble MSFT's Most Well Known Blogger on the PlanetVB MVPMSDN Radio 9 Film Maker

Windows Vista Lipstick on a Pig
http://chris.pirillo.com/2006/07/18/windows-vista-lipstick-on-a-pig/

Groundswell of MSFT MVPs and Major Book Authors --Yo Wakeup Redmond CampusVista Teams--Take the several months you need to get this turkey out ofintensive careor it will die.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Orchant/?p=173

Vista Needs More Time: The Entry I Didn't Want To Write
http://www.longhornblogs.com/robert/archive/2006/07/31/Windows_Vista_Needs_a_Beta_3.aspx

CH











"Raven Mill"