Newspaper exposes "Steve Barkto" as MS agent
John - Murphy
article on the agent provocatour, alias, Steve Barkto. The article
quotes William Zachmann as saying he tracked down Mr. "Barkto" on
his Compuserve forum, after this new member made disparaging remarks
about IBM, and in particular, OS/2.
Mr. "Barkto" is not a major customer of IBM, but an employee or agent
of Microsoft. The account which this mole used, was paid for by the
good old folks at MS.
I wrote an letter to Congressman Norm Mineta (D-San Jose) asking that
the U.S. Dept. of Justice look into unfair trade practices of MS. In
particular, the relationship between computer system manufactures,
and MS.
I wonder how many messages we get on this USENET and others, that
originate from the corporate headquarters of Microsoft?
John Murphy
Commerical Brokers Insurance
San Jose, CA
>
>
Paul R. Coen
>
> Well, my reading of the summary file shows that Segal did not admit
> to the used of a credit card for this account (in the first 85%
> of the summary). I wonder if this part of the story is the standard
> muck up of any news story.
>
I believe that he did eventually say that it could have been picked up by
him as a block of accounts (in packs) that they were going to do something
or other with, and that the account had obviously been misappropriated.
Timothy J. Bogart
I just got to the 97% complete level in the zipfile on the Barkto affair.
Now I see where Segal admits the account was owned by MS. Whew!
George Nelson
>In article <jeffcCM...@netcom.com>, je...@netcom.com (Jeff Cohen) writes:
>>
>> It will be interesting to see who (if?) gets fired as a result of this.
>> This is certainly adequate grounds for dismissal. Note in particular
>> the credit card was issued to a manager.
>
>Does anyone know what level "manager" denotes at Microsoft?
From Rick Segal's (the involved MS employee) Canopus messages, the
chain of command is:
Bill Gates
J. Lazarus (VP)
un-named
Rick Segal
George Nelson
nel...@radar.nrl.navy.mil
--. My own opinions, not my employer's
Jeff Cohen
>Sunday, March 20, the San Jose Mercury News published a front page
>article on the agent provocatour, alias, Steve Barkto. The article
>quotes William Zachmann as saying he tracked down Mr. "Barkto" on
>his Compuserve forum, after this new member made disparaging remarks
>about IBM, and in particular, OS/2.
>
>Mr. "Barkto" is not a major customer of IBM, but an employee or agent
>of Microsoft. The account which this mole used, was paid for by the
>good old folks at MS.
Here's a highly relevant quote from the same article:
Microsoft--which acknowledges its credit card was used but insists
that it was without authorization or the knowledge of the manager
to whom it was issued--instructed its legal department to investigate
what it calls an "embarrassing" incident.
It will be interesting to see who (if?) gets fired as a result of this.
This is certainly adequate grounds for dismissal. Note in particular
the credit card was issued to a manager.
--
==============================================================================
Jeff Cohen | #include <standard.disclaimer>
je...@netcom.com |
==============================================================================
Paul R. Coen
> This is certainly adequate grounds for dismissal. Note in particular
> the credit card was issued to a manager.
Does anyone know what level "manager" denotes at Microsoft?
Timothy J. Bogart
Tom Hatton <hat...@socrates.ucsf.edu> wrote:
>t...@sugar.NeoSoft.COM (Timothy J. Bogart) writes:
>
>>In article <jeffcCM...@netcom.com>, Jeff Cohen <je...@netcom.com> wrote:
>>>In article <CMz89...@unix.portal.com> jmu...@shell.portal.com (John - Murphy) writes:
>>>Here's a highly relevant quote from the same article:
>>>
>>> Microsoft--which acknowledges its credit card was used but insists
>>> that it was without authorization or the knowledge of the manager
>>> to whom it was issued--instructed its legal department to investigate
>>> what it calls an "embarrassing" incident.
>>>
>>>It will be interesting to see who (if?) gets fired as a result of this.
>>>This is certainly adequate grounds for dismissal. Note in particular
>>>the credit card was issued to a manager.
>
>>Well, my reading of the summary file shows that Segal did not admit
>>to the used of a credit card for this account (in the first 85%
>>of the summary). I wonder if this part of the story is the standard
>>muck up of any news story.
>
>MS offers up what amount to free packs of CIS accounts, and they were,
>in this case (details in the hundreds-of-Kb-file) on Segal's credit
>card, but this was claimed to be not unusual. Hence, the defence goes,
>anybody that MS handed these accounts to could have been Herr Barkto.
Yes, the admition came later in the file. As to the account, not
'anybody that MS handed these accounts to' had access to Segal's
credit cards. These 'accounts' were the standard starter pack like
you get with a modem.
>However, there were stylistic similarities in the Segal and Barkto
>postings (word usage, something about ellipses and other punctuation,
>... :-) so it is Segal who was El Barkto, say the Fearless
>Prosecutors.
>
>We'll see how it pans out, but I don't think it'll be pretty either
>way.
>--
>Tom Hatton
>hat...@cgl.ucsf.edu
>(415)-476-8693
Joseph Malloy
The 'manager' in question is Rick Segal (who admitted that a Microsoft
sponsored credit card in his name was used in the affair, though he's
denied being "Barkto"). His is (soon-will-be was?) director of developer
relations, if I recall correctly.
Timothy J. Bogart
>Here's a highly relevant quote from the same article:
>
> Microsoft--which acknowledges its credit card was used but insists
> that it was without authorization or the knowledge of the manager
> to whom it was issued--instructed its legal department to investigate
> what it calls an "embarrassing" incident.
>
>It will be interesting to see who (if?) gets fired as a result of this.
>This is certainly adequate grounds for dismissal. Note in particular
>the credit card was issued to a manager.
Well, my reading of the summary file shows that Segal did not admit
to the used of a credit card for this account (in the first 85%
of the summary). I wonder if this part of the story is the standard
muck up of any news story.
Anybody?
Timothy J. Bogart
Wow. When I was a kid, I used to fish. I can remember how those
things flopped around when out of water....
Thanks for the update.
Tom Hatton
From my reading of the Barkto file, it seems that R. Segal claims that
MS offers up what amount to free packs of CIS accounts, and they were,
in this case (details in the hundreds-of-Kb-file) on Segal's credit
card, but this was claimed to be not unusual. Hence, the defence goes,
anybody that MS handed these accounts to could have been Herr Barkto.
Rick R Kitts
The persons name is Rick Segal, head of developer relations. I can
find out his exact title if need be.
---Rick