Ballmer and Bach are on a special list. Hint, it starts with an "S".

Both will be history soon unless the share price breaks $30.

Quick breakdown of performance metrics of Mr Joe Wilcox :

1) Capable of producing non-Microsoft related news = 30%

2) Capable of constantly hammering Microsoft = 60%

3) Capable of recycling outdated entries = 10%

Therefore , we decided to keep Mr Joe wilcox as he satifies the above yardsticks

BoD,
It's interesting how Microsoft can still manage to gain market share at this point.

The large companies are willing to say they support intellectual property rights until they find out somebody has a claim on all the money they made by snuffing some lone inventor's life work. It happens far too often and most of the little guys don't have a champion to carry their story to a larger mass that can ensure the guy at least gets a fair shake.

Cringely's article on Burst and Microsoft and Apple needs to be required reading for every one-eyed slug that wants to be a long. It will open the mind to recognize how quickly those fine upstanding industrialists turn into raving ranting lunatics ready to grind the small cap companies into powder.

The courts are upholding the patent rights because the examination process in the Patent Office is rigorous, the "that's so obvious" claim is the rallying cry of loud-mouths with threatened livelihood, and "that's been done before" applies to the simplistic views most readers have shielding their fragile intellect from the complexities of reiterative design and dead-end experimentation.

Read the Cringely article I posted an excerpt from and Cringely states Apple all but said "yep we're infringing" while Burst was suing Microsoft. They found it easy to be honest (their lawyers tell them to be honest when they're in a spectating crowd but lie like the dickens when the authorities are asking) when they just knew Microsoft would be able to squash little Burst. Now, the shoe is on the other foot and Apple is screaming bloody hell.

Microsoft trumpeted Silverlight like it was the limo-driver for the second coming... until the industry demanded they ship it. Then MSFT had to settle with Eolas (whom the industry just KNEW MSFT could crush in court) just so they wouldn't endure complete humilation.

Eolas could have held their feet to the fire and been able to get a great deal more out of MSFT. The Eolas case was solid and MSFT was using the same tactics they used against Burst and the same tactics they're using in their response to VCSY.

The US Courts know the US Government commissions the patent office to safeguard American technology and innovation. Companies like MSFT Apple and the like are multi-national opportunists ready to skin their own momma's cat if somebody's looking for stew meat. The only thing that ensures a solid capitalist foundation is to allow small business (which vastly out-sizes the biggest industries) the dream of capitalizing on their vision.

Bill gates couldn't bring the XML vision to fruition with Billions of dollars. VCSY had the damn thing when MSFT was sputtering sputum about "owning XML".

VCSY's position in the 744 case is solid and their negotiating position is even stronger with 521 blocking MSFT from transporting XML across http (and Apple and Google and all the others).

Anyone who contends against that has an open invitation to throw all the smarts they have behind as much narrative as they would like. There's plenty money out there to finance a champion and I would say they need to make a case because the public knows now.

A good read from the Yahoo/Msft board(by Portuno)

Re: The mortgage banker can't deal with the information...

So all that time from Early 2005 when Lucovsky left Microsoft and went to Google recy has stayed low key... but always unable to resist the drive his ego provides to come out once in a while and post.

The theory is he knows who what and why someone wanted VCSY crushed from 2000 to 2004 and onward. The theory says he is an operative working to stop VCSY conversation. I believe he convinced traders that VCSY would be ineffective and eventually destroyed so the intellectual property could be appropriated without fear.

Unfortunately for those he advised, VCSy did not collapse and now demands a court of law hear their claims against Microsoft for infringing one of their software patents.

Oddly enough, Microsoft's response to the VCSY charges sound just like the reasonings Microsoft put forward to defend their actions in Burst v Microsoft and Eolas v Microsoft.

Funny that Apple is also using Microsoft's defense now against a legal assault by Burst when Apple previously said they knew it was an infringement. They said these things when they thought Microsoft would be able to beat the charges. MSFT settled with Burst.

Now, Apple is on the spit.

Note MSFT settled with Burst in March 2005:

Right at the time when Lucovsky officially started with Google.

What's that got to do with anything? Read about Burst's technology for delivering video and other high-bandwidth streams in bursts. This technology is a fundamental intellectual property for Silverlight. Eolas IP (MSFT settled this year) provides Silverlight with automation properties.

Why do you think Google bought you-tube?

By the way, the injunctive relief placed by the court against MSFT when it originally lost the Eolas case was removed after the settlement (or Silverlight would have a big manual start button in the middle of the screen), allowing automated IE video control.

Thus, this comment from a blog article announcing the Eolas settlement:

Posted by unregistered user at 9/2/07 9:16 p.m.

I hope this means that we won't have to "activate" controls in IE any more. That is one of the worst user experiences Microsoft offers

How open source saved a school district’s IT department
California district slashes expenses, improves productivity with open source software

http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2007/092107-california-school-it.html?fsrc=rss-linux-news

A File Format Timeline, MS Office and open standards

http://www.robweir.com/blog/2007/06/file-format-timeline.html

Microsoft to Allow PC Makers to Downgrade to XP

http://it.slashdot.org/it/07/09/21/224222.shtml

Quote from the article; "They're still pushing the new version of Windows very hard, but the option now exists for PC resellers to offer the now venerable OS. This is especially interesting as the article points out that OEM licenses for XP officially run out at the end of January."
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Some of the comments on this link say it all.

chip, why do you think everyone is ignoring the importance of the VCSY/Microsoft lawsuit? Do you think it's in their best interest to play dumb?

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=806
"Windows Vista Service Pack 1 even tries to hide the Ultimate Extras shame"
"Forget the “cutting-edge programs,” the “innovative services” and “unique publications” because there aren’t any. If you’re still holding out hope for any exciting Extras, you might as well give up now because it doesn’t look like we’ll be seeing any. Face up to it, if you bought Windows Vista Ultimate because you hoped to get your hands on cool Extras, you were conned, and being conned sucks."

Microsoft in row over lobby tactics

http://money.guardian.co.uk/news_/story/0,,2174794,00.html

Quotes from the link;

"Microsoft is at the centre of an embarrassing row over an attempt by a lobby firm strongly linked with the Seattle computer giant to rally opposition against rival Google's proposed acqusition of internet marketing firm DoubleClick.

The Observer has seen an email sent by a director at leading lobby firm Burson-Marsteller to a number of top UK businesses. The email urges board members to raise the issue of Google's dominance of search engines with politicians, regulators and the media."

"When asked about the email, Dinkeldein admited the organisation was formed by Microsoft."
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How low can you go Micro$oft?

OpenOffice.org Free Software Proves a Success at WalMart

http://www.linuxelectrons.com/news/application/12215/openoffice-org-free-software-proves-success-walmart

To all readers. Microsoft has been adjudicated as monopolistic and uncompetitive and active in stealing property from smaller companies. This is nothing new and their use of VCSY patent claims in their products can be pinpointed with fair accuracy once you read the patent languages then take a look around at Microsoft blogs and marketing material available over the years.