Re: The Barkto Incident

[Mitch Stone <mstone@vc.net>]

In reply to Paul Rickard's message sent 4/12/98 1:01 PM:

>	Who says the plants are being paid? I'd dare say there are enough
>gung-ho militant employees in the company to have an all-volunteer force
>of stink bomb throwers. Maybe some company executives or department
>heads suggested that it would help to have the newsgroups filled with
>pro-Ms ideals, or maybe there's just a bunch of Microsofties working on
>their own. The company gives stock options to the majority of its
>employees now, maybe they just figure that by spending a few hours a day
>confusing the newsgroups they're protecting their assets. And it doesn't
>have to just be ms employees, what about all the suppliers and
>distributors that profit from the company's dominance? Could be some of
>those groups spending a little free time trying to throw a monkeywrench
>into the opposition.

I wasn't suggesting they were being paid. Microsoft expects its employees 
to be on duty 24/7, so any time they might spend on newsgroups and 
mailing lists would be time away from hacking code, or whatever they do 
between the Pepsis and Doritos. (Though come to think of it, judging by 
the quality of their code, maybe they are spending too much time surfing 
the net.)

   Mitch Stone
   Editor, Boycott Microsoft
   http://www.vcnet.com/bms 
 +---
   An ounce of hypocrisy is worth a pound of ambition.--- Michael Korda