[News] [Rival] Microsoft Desperate for Cash, Uses Blackouts
Roy Schestowitz
Hash: SHA1
Microsoft blackouts… Software Freedom
,----[ Quote ]
| Are you a user of Microsoft Windows? Are you a user of a non-licensed copy of
| Microsoft Windows? Does it happen to be Windows XP Professional? Have you
| seen “blackouts“?
|
| Apparently, from about the end of last month (August 27 2008, to be precise),
| users of pirated copies of Microsoft Windows XP Professional that also happen
| to be connected to the Internet will see their screens go black, and have no
| icons visible.
|
| [...]
|
| Its a most interesting tactic. Annoy the user by allowing them to change
| their background, and 60 minutes later, give them grief again. After all, an
| original copy of Windows XP Professional only costs RM580. That’s about 227
| litres of unleaded petrol, at the current rate of RM2.55/L. Or nearly 6 tanks
| of petrol, in a more fuel efficient car. No wonder, people prefer paying RM5
| for pirated media.
|
| [...]
|
| Don’t worry about piracy. Don’t bow down to another corporations silly moves.
| Think open standards. Think freedom. Just go open source.
`----
http://www.bytebot.net/blog/archives/2008/09/18/microsoft-blackouts-software-freedom
Before the Microsoft Munchkins argue that Microsoft is rich, they must read the
reports below.
Recent:
Ex-Microsoft boss sentenced
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/371393_msftcourt19.html
Former Microsoft Manager Gets 2 Years In Jail
http://news.portalit.net/fullnews_former-microsoft-manager-gets-2-years-in-jail_1427.html
SEC Foresees Rise in Fraud Cases
,----[ Quote ]
| Laying out his priorities, the new enforcement chief for the Securities and
| Exchange Commission in San Francisco said Thursday he expects an upswing in
| fraud cases against public companies.
`----
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202424479239
Microsoft loses 90 Billion Dollars
http://slated.org/microsoft_loses_90_billion_dollars
Microsoft sees slide in profits
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7366106.stm
Related:
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft, the world’s most valuable company, declared a profit
| of $4.5 billion in 1998; when the cost of options awarded that year, plus the
| change in the value of outstanding options, is deducted, the firm made a loss
| of $18 billion, according to Smithers.
`----
http://etheridge.ca/articles/economist-options.html
Microsoft's Accounting Under Scrutiny
,----[ Quote ]
| The company has still not made enough information public to provide analysts
| with detailed information on the profitability of its MSN Internet business,
| Mr. Galvin said, adding, ''There's still room for them to obfuscate.''
`----
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A03E1DC173DF932A35754C0A96F958260
Microsoft - Undeserving of Libertarian Praise
,----[ Quote ]
| One strategy that Microsoft has employed in the past is paying for the
| silence of people and companies. Charles Pancerzewski, formerly Microsoft's
| chief auditor, became aware of Microsoft's practice of carrying earnings from
| one accounting period into another, known as "managing earnings". This
| practice smoothes reported revenue streams, increases share value, and
| misleads employees and shareholders. In addition to being unethical, it's
| also illegal under U.S. Securities Law and violates Generally Accepted
| Accounting Practices (Fink). Mr. Pancerzewski claims he was forced to retire,
| for raising the issue of deferred earnings with Microsoft executives, thereby
| making plausible deniability more difficult for said executives. He has since
| sued Microsoft, who responded by settling out of court, but also sealing the
| records to prevent public disclosure (Fink).
`----
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/8/20/11034/3908
Microsoft Agrees To Refrain From Accounting Violations in SEC Settlement
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has agreed to refrain from accounting violations to settle federal
| regulators' allegations that it misrepresented its financial performance, the
| government announced Monday.
|
| Under a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the software
| giant neither admitted to nor denied wrongdoing. No fine was imposed.
|
| The SEC alleged that Microsoft's accounting practices from July 1994 through
| June 1998 caused its income to be substantially misstated.
`----
http://www.crn.com/it-channel/18819490
"Microsoft Tax," MSN Enters the Black Hole, New Names for NT
,----[ Quote ]
| The lawsuit, filed last year by Mukilteo City Councilman Charles
| Pancerzewski, alleges that he was forced to resign as Microsoft's general
| auditor in January 1996 after working for the company's internal auditing
| department for more than four years. The suit claims that a "significantly
| younger man" with little auditing experience was picked to replace
| Pancerzewski, who was finally forced out because he discovered Microsoft
| might have been violating government regulations. Once Pancerzewski left the
| company he was replaced by the younger man, who his attorneys believe
| was "less prone to raise issues of possible legal improprieties which could
| threaten or embarrass Microsoft or its management.
`----
http://www.msboycott.com/news/98_06_22.shtml
SEC Investigating Microsoft Practices -- Earnings Manipulated, Former Employee
Contends
,----[ Quote]
| "The CFO to whom Charlie was reporting his concerns about illegality was the
| biggest advocate for the very illegality that was going on," Vial argued in
| court a year ago.
`----
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19990701&slug=2969514
Microfraud?
,----[ Quote ]
| THE ALLEGATIONS WERE shocking: For years, Microsoft has systematically
| distorted its profit figures in an effort to consistently beat Wall Street
| expectations and keep its stock price steadily rising. The false reports
| would violate SEC regulations, and amount to outright fraud.
|
| More shocking was the source of the allegations: Microsoft's chief of
| internal audits, Charlie Pancerzewski, who reported directly to the company's
| chief financial officer.
|
| Most shocking of all was what happened to Pancerzewski when he reported the
| suspicious bookkeeping to his supervisors, Microsoft CFO Mike Brown and chief
| operating officer Bob Herbold, in the spring of 1995. Soon afterward,
| Pancerzewski—who for nearly five years had received stellar performance
| evaluations—received his first-ever unsatisfactory one, and was eventually
| forced to resign.
|
| Two months ago, Microsoft quietly settled a lawsuit containing these
| allegations, filed in 1997 by Pancerzewski under the Whistleblowers
| Protection Act. The auditor claimed he was wrongfully terminated after
| telling his supervisors that Microsoft might be breaking securities and tax
| laws. The lawsuit made its tortuous way through several rounds of pretrial
| motions until last fall, when US District Judge Carolyn Dimmick denied
| Microsoft's final plea for summary judgment, finding credible evidence that
| Microsoft may have violated SEC rules, as Pancerzewski alleged. Shortly
| thereafter, Microsoft and Pancerzewski settled out of court. Terms of the
| agreement were sealed, but one source who claims familiarity with the case
| says that Microsoft paid Pancerzewski $4 million.
`----
http://web.archive.org/web/20070308032343rn_2/www.seattleweekly.com/1999-01-06/news/microfraud.php
Ecuador Tax Agency Closes Microsoft Branch Offices For 7 Days
,----[ Quote ]
| "We have twice requested balances, payment reports and complete tax
| information, but the company hasn't given it to us, so in accordance with our
| laws we have proceeded with the closure," the SRI official in charge of the
| proceeding said.
`----
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200710041610DOWJONESDJONLINE000810_FORTUNE5.htm
Microsoft Office raid in Hungary
,----[ Quote ]
| "Such behavior could lead to the exclusion of competitive products from
| the market and violate European Union rules, according to the authority
| known as the GVH."
`----
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/26/ap3957835.html
Microsoft exec dumped stock prior to Red Ring announcement
,----[ Quote ]
| To make matters more murky, the sales were not registered with the Securities
| and Exchange Commission within the mandatory two days of the transaction, a
| result of an alleged "administrative error." Microsoft has since remedied the
| issue by following the "procedures required of late-filers."
`----
Microsoft's Bach sold more stock before Xbox news
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp. executive Robbie Bach sold $3 million more in company stock
| during the period leading up to an announcement about a costly flaw in its
| Xbox video game console than previously reported, according to a filing
| Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
`----
Insider Trading Hasn't Affect Microsoft Stock - Yet
,----[ Quote ]
| MarketWatch.com reports that Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's
| Entertainment and Devices division, sold $6.2 million of Microsoft
| stock just prior to announcing that Microsoft was going to have to
| extend XBox 360 warranties to three years because of extensive
| failures. The filings note that this was not part of any
| scheduled diversification or selling program; this was a
| conscious, unscheduled sale by the guy in charge of releasing
| news that could affect the value of Microsoft stock.
|
| [...]
|
| Insider trading is a very serious violation of the law; just
| ask Martha Stewart, who served five months in prison for
| avoiding losses of $43,000 through trades that just had suspicious
| timing (no insider trading was actually proven). This is $6.3
| million that went straight into Robbie Bach's pocket.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/070713/40947_id.html?.v=1
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Jerry McBride
> Microsoft loses 90 Billion Dollars
>
> http://slated.org/microsoft_loses_90_billion_dollars
>
How can you LOSE 90 Billion Dollars and stay in business or keep your
investors buying your stock??? Amazing!
--
---
From the Gentoo Linux powered Desktop of Jerry McBride
Brad
"Jerry McBride" <jmcb...@mail-on.us> wrote in message
news:91tcq5x...@supertux.my.domain...
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>> Microsoft loses 90 Billion Dollars
>>
>> http://slated.org/microsoft_loses_90_billion_dollars
>>
>
>
> How can you LOSE 90 Billion Dollars and stay in business or keep your
> investors buying your stock??? Amazing!
How can anyone be retarded enough to believe that Microsoft "lost" 90
billion dollars.
Hint for you retard - Microsoft has made billions in profit every single
year for the last decade.
Roy Schestowitz
Hash: SHA1
____/ Brad on Friday 19 September 2008 16:18 : \____
>
> "Jerry McBride" <jmcb...@mail-on.us> wrote in message
> news:91tcq5x...@supertux.my.domain...
>> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>
>>> Microsoft loses 90 Billion Dollars
>>>
>>> http://slated.org/microsoft_loses_90_billion_dollars
>>>
>>
>>
>> How can you LOSE 90 Billion Dollars and stay in business or keep your
>> investors buying your stock??? Amazing!
>
> How can anyone be retarded enough to believe that Microsoft "lost" 90
> billion dollars.
>
> Hint for you retard - Microsoft has made billions in profit every single
> year for the last decade.
False.
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft, the world’s most valuable company, declared a profit
| of $4.5 billion in 1998; when the cost of options awarded that year, plus the
| change in the value of outstanding options, is deducted, the firm made a loss
| of $18 billion, according to Smithers.
`----
http://etheridge.ca/articles/economist-options.html
- --
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | GPL'd Reversi: http://othellomaster.com
http://Schestowitz.com | RHAT Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
16:20:01 up 1 day, 23:59, 2 users, load average: 0.82, 0.80, 0.82
http://iuron.com - Open Source knowledge engine project
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Brad
"Roy Schestowitz" <newsg...@schestowitz.com> wrote in message
news:3431595.L...@schestowitz.com...
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> ____/ Brad on Friday 19 September 2008 16:18 : \____
>
>>
>> "Jerry McBride" <jmcb...@mail-on.us> wrote in message
>> news:91tcq5x...@supertux.my.domain...
>>> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>>
>>>> Microsoft loses 90 Billion Dollars
>>>>
>>>> http://slated.org/microsoft_loses_90_billion_dollars
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> How can you LOSE 90 Billion Dollars and stay in business or keep your
>>> investors buying your stock??? Amazing!
>>
>> How can anyone be retarded enough to believe that Microsoft "lost" 90
>> billion dollars.
>>
>> Hint for you retard - Microsoft has made billions in profit every single
>> year for the last decade.
>
> False.
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Microsoft, the world's most valuable company, declared a profit
> | of $4.5 billion in 1998; when the cost of options awarded that year,
> plus the
> | change in the value of outstanding options, is deducted, the firm made a
> loss
> | of $18 billion, according to Smithers.
> `----
>
> http://etheridge.ca/articles/economist-options.html
>
Big stinking deal. Some company that nobody has ever heard of (Smithers)
uses some made-up accounting scheme that nobody in the world uses and
concludes that 10 years ago they think that in theory and on paper MS lost
some money. Just because some bunch of looneys want to use their own way of
calculating profits doesn't mean they are right.
This ought to be a hint for you... if MS wasn't making money then explain
how they've managed to stay in business for all this time. Ever see the
Redmond campus? I doubt you have. There are hundreds of beautiful buildings
that have all been bought and paid for. Hardly something that companies that
lose billions of dollars can afford to do.
But go ahead and be the fool. Keep thinking that MS isn't making a profit.
If you try hard enough perhaps you might also be able to fool yourself into
believing Santa Claus into existence.
Roy Schestowitz
Hash: SHA1
____/ Brad on Friday 19 September 2008 16:49 : \____
*LOL*
Smithers is "some company that nobody has ever heard of"?
> This ought to be a hint for you... if MS wasn't making money then explain
> how they've managed to stay in business for all this time. Ever see the
> Redmond campus? I doubt you have. There are hundreds of beautiful buildings
> that have all been bought and paid for. Hardly something that companies that
> lose billions of dollars can afford to do.
Enron has nice buildings too. And pension plans. Oh, the pensions!
> But go ahead and be the fool. Keep thinking that MS isn't making a profit.
> If you try hard enough perhaps you might also be able to fool yourself into
> believing Santa Claus into existence.
Live and watch (the system is now collapsing due to scandals and frauds being
discovered:
http://beranger.org/index.php?page=diary&2008/09/18/07/14/53-thursday-reading
http://beranger.org/index.php?page=diary&2008/09/18/13/41/05-one-more-take-on-the-wall-street
Better yet, learn about it now:
http://www.billparish.com/msftfraudfacts.html
- --
~~ Best of wishes
"The danger is that Microsoft is using strategic monopolistic pricing in the
education market, with the government’s assistance, to turn our state
university systems into private workforce training programs for Microsoft."
--Nathan Newman
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Moshe Goldfarb.
> Smithers is "some company that nobody has ever heard of"?
I thought he was the butler in any one of a 1000 horror movies from the
40;s and 50's....
--
Moshe Goldfarb
Collector of soaps from around the globe.
Please visit The Hall of Linux Idiots:
http://linuxidiots.blogspot.com/
Please Visit www.linsux.org
Tim Smith
Jerry McBride <jmcb...@mail-on.us> wrote:
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
> > Microsoft loses 90 Billion Dollars
> >
> > http://slated.org/microsoft_loses_90_billion_dollars
> >
>
>
> How can you LOSE 90 Billion Dollars and stay in business or keep your
> investors buying your stock??? Amazing!
The same way Apple lost 50 billion in the last couple of months, and IBM
lost about 20 billion--in other words, they didn't.
Note it's a link by Roy to [H]omer's site, so you can almost guarantee
that if you dig slightly deeper, you'll find they story is not what they
say.
In particular, if you check Microsoft stock, you'll find that about four
months before that 90 billion "loss", the stock shot way up,
representing about a 90 billion dollar "gain". But in Roy/Homer Land,
stock gains don't count. So, if the stock shoots up $90 billion, then
goes back down $90 billion, they ignore the former.
They also ignore the fact that a market cap change, to the extent it
represents a gain or loss, is a gain and loss to the stockholders, not
the company.
To put it in terms that might be more familiar to the average person,
suppose you buy a house for $250 thousand. On rumor that a major
development is going to take place in your area, housing prices shoot
up. Your house reaches a market value of $350 thousand. You've now
"gained" $100 thousand! Yipee!
Then, a couple months latter, the news breaks that the development is
not going to happen. Your house drops back to $250 thousand. You've
now "lost" $100 thousand.
Note that through that whole gain and loss, you income would have
remained the same, you bills the same, you bank account the same. All
that happened is that your worth on paper when up and then went down.
--
--Tim Smith
Homer
> ____/ Brad on Friday 19 September 2008 16:49 : \____
>> This ought to be a hint for you... if MS wasn't making money then
>> explain how they've managed to stay in business for all this time.
>> Ever see the Redmond campus? I doubt you have. There are hundreds
>> of beautiful buildings that have all been bought and paid for.
>> Hardly something that companies that lose billions of dollars can
>> afford to do.
Good to know Microsoft core employees like you are so worried about
GNU/Linux that you track COLA.
> Enron has nice buildings too. And pension plans. Oh, the pensions!
The US is in debt to the tune of *$9.7 Trillion*, thanks mainly to their
Oil Exploration, ahem - I mean "War on Terror" in Iraq, and yet the good
people in the US continue to wake up, eat a healthy breakfast of grits
and maple syrup, and go to work every morning. Funny how that works.
I guess it's all about checks(sic) and balances. Ballmer wears the
checks, and the creative accounting department juggles the SEC filing.
It's just like the Big Top, with Ballmer as the clown, and half the
carneys gluing coconuts to posts to rip off the rubes, whilst the other
half switch all the unserviceable equipment round like a game of musical
chairs, to fool the inspectors. Its amazing what you can accomplish with
smoke and mirrors. Eventually their flimsy Big Top is going to collapse
though, then we really will all have a good laugh.
--
K.
http://slated.org
.----
| By bucking Microsoft for open source, says Gunderloy, "I'm no
| longer contributing to the eventual death of programming."
| ~ http://www.linux.com/feature/142083
`----
Fedora release 8 (Werewolf) on sky, running kernel 2.6.25.11-60.fc8
04:23:34 up 35 days, 1:36, 5 users, load average: 0.01, 0.04, 0.02
Tim Smith
Hey, Homer...why do you completely ignore August through November 2007,
when Microsoft's market cap *rose* ~$90 billion dollars? You make a big
deal of the six months *following* that period, when it dropped $90
billion, back to approximately where it was?
--
--Tim Smith
Roy Schestowitz
Hash: SHA1
____/ Homer on Saturday 20 September 2008 03:23 : \____
> Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
>> ____/ Brad on Friday 19 September 2008 16:49 : \____
>
>>> This ought to be a hint for you... if MS wasn't making money then
>>> explain how they've managed to stay in business for all this time.
>>> Ever see the Redmond campus? I doubt you have. There are hundreds
>>> of beautiful buildings that have all been bought and paid for.
>>> Hardly something that companies that lose billions of dollars can
>>> afford to do.
>
> Good to know Microsoft core employees like you are so worried about
> GNU/Linux that you track COLA.
>
>> Enron has nice buildings too. And pension plans. Oh, the pensions!
>
> The US is in debt to the tune of *$9.7 Trillion*, thanks mainly to their
> Oil Exploration, ahem - I mean "War on Terror" in Iraq, and yet the good
> people in the US continue to wake up, eat a healthy breakfast of grits
> and maple syrup, and go to work every morning. Funny how that works.
>
> I guess it's all about checks(sic) and balances. Ballmer wears the
> checks, and the creative accounting department juggles the SEC filing.
> It's just like the Big Top, with Ballmer as the clown, and half the
> carneys gluing coconuts to posts to rip off the rubes, whilst the other
> half switch all the unserviceable equipment round like a game of musical
> chairs, to fool the inspectors. Its amazing what you can accomplish with
> smoke and mirrors. Eventually their flimsy Big Top is going to collapse
> though, then we really will all have a good laugh.
Microsoft may be like a man on speed, 'living it up'. One day it may wake up
and realise the the cardiac damage leaves it just 6 months to live (at most).
"Ironically the $45 billion bet on Yahoo, partly funded by debt, comes just
as Microsoft is finally starting to make good on its decade-old promise of
earning money beyond Office and Windows.
[…]
"In the end (returning to this blog’s ostensible subject) this is a very
good deal for open source. It takes Microsoft’s eye off the competitive ball.
It tells everyone inside Big Green to forget about intrapreneurship. It eats
up the cash Microsoft had to threaten Linux with.
"But this is going to end as all tragedies must, with tears. Steve Ballmer
is getting taken for the biggest ride of his life, and one day he’s going to
find himself dumped out of the limo by the side of the road wondering what
happened."
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2007
I like that last bit. Pretty mind describes lots of the fraud that's being
exposed at the moment, with the SEC going AWOL.
- --
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | GPL'd 3-D Othello: http://othellomaster.com
http://Schestowitz.com | RHAT GNU/Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
08:00:01 up 2 days, 15:39, 2 users, load average: 0.49, 0.74, 0.75
http://iuron.com - help build a non-profit search engine
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Roy Schestowitz
Hash: SHA1
____/ Roy Schestowitz on Saturday 20 September 2008 08:05 : \____
Bruce Perens' site has some good article about this at the moment (recommended
read):
http://technocrat.net/d/2008/9/19/49728
http://technocrat.net/d/2008/9/19/49727
- --
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | Play Reversi: http://othellomaster.com
http://Schestowitz.com | Free as in Free Beer | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
Load average (/proc/loadavg): 1.21 1.03 0.89 3/259 2479
http://iuron.com - semantic search engine project initiative
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Moshe Goldfarb.
For the same reason his "COLA Stats" program ignores the facts.
Facts bother some people.
Especially Homer.