One more thing on Gates’ tirade

DF has the Gates Newsweek interview well covered. I just want to address this question from that interview:

Are you bugged by the Apple commercial where John Hodgman is the PC, and he has to undergo surgery to get Vista?
I’ve never seen it. I don’t think the over 90 percent of the [population] who use Windows PCs think of themselves as dullards, or the kind of klutzes that somebody is trying to say they are.

Excuse me, Sir Mr. Richest Man in the World, wasn’t it your own firm that insulted your own customers with this ugly marketing campaign:

Talk about insulting! I guess accusing your customers, who have spent millions billions of dollars on your software and have put up with hundreds of thousands of bugs, of being stupid for using your own software is ok.

Is Microsoft cutting back pay?

This scene seems like something that would happen at a Dollar Tree corporate gathering than at a proud and well-established tech firm:

Microsoft dropped balloons, some of which had prizes for free laptops, Xboxes and Zunes — sending employees scrambling to pop them.

Just before the balloons fell, Marr cautioned the khaki-clad crowd to go easy on the balloons. “I have seen people with sharp objects and I swear I saw someone with a switchblade in the back.”

When the balloons came down, thousands of employees made a mad scramble to pop them, climbing over each other and knocking down chairs.

Isn’t there a classier way to reward employees? Cringe inducing.

Shining moments in Apple rumorery

September 2003

Fox:

The inevitable has happened: The Beatles have sued Steve Jobs over Apple iTunes and the Apple iPod — at least the band’s company, Apple Corps., has sued Apple Computers.

BBC:

He [Geoffrey Vos] argued the US computing giant violated the deal by selling music online and its argument that it used the apple mark only in connection with a delivery system was “plainly wrong”.

Mr Vos told the court that calling iTunes a mere electronic device was a “perversion” of the 1991 deal.

September 2004

Daily Variety:

“People are expecting this to be the biggest settlement anywhere in legal history, outside of a class action suit. The numbers could be mind boggling.”

Forbes.com:

Word among the legal community is that an out of court settlement could be imminent and that it will massively dwarf the $26.5 million paid to the Fab Four’s company in 1991 in a row over trademark use.

The positively giddy and totally whacky Register:

In addition to a monster pay-out, speculation about the Apple-Apple settlement centres on Paul McCartney taking a seat on Apple Comp.’s board or the Corp. taking a wodge of Comp. shares.

May 2006

USA Today:

Apple Computer has beaten the Beatles’ Apple Corps in a court battle over the iTunes Music Store. The suit came down to a logo, the Associated Press reports. “Apple Corps contended that the computer company had broken a 1991 agreement in which each side agreed not to enter into the other’s field of business. But Judge Edward Mann ruled that the logo was used in association with the store, not the music, and thus was not a breach of the agreement.”

BBC:

Apple Corps must pay its rival’s legal bill, estimated at £2m, but the judge refused an interim payment of £1.5m pending further hearings.

February 2007

WSJ

Under a new deal that replaces one reached in 1991, Apple Inc. will own all of the trademarks related to “Apple” and license some of those back to Apple Corps Ltd., the Beatles’ record label. The trademark lawsuit between the companies will be withdrawn. Terms of the settlement are confidential.

Microsoft security warning

Via Slashdot:

“Microsoft is warning users to be on the lookout for suspicious Excel files that arrive unexpectedly — even if they come from a co-worker’s e-mail address. In an advisory, Microsoft confirmed a new wave of limited “zero-day” attacks was underway, using a code execution flaw in its Microsoft Office desktop productivity suite. Although .xls files are currently being used to launch the spear phishing attacks, Microsoft said users of other Office applications (Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, etc.) are potentially at risk.”

So, let me get this straight. I shouldn’t accept excel files that come from my co-workers? Gee, it’s a good thing that a majority of companies worldwide don’t depend on emailing Excel, Word, or PowerPoint documents with each other.