Re: Microsoft takes on ACT

[Ted Dennison <dennison@telepath.com>]

chris.danx wrote:


> There was another article about microsoft new licensing schemes forcing
> schools to only use windows on all of their hardware, even macs!  I
> attribute this to two things, one schools are run by techno-illeterates and


I'd think it more likely that they just find financially-strapped 
organizations like schools easier pickings for financial blackmail.

In the slashdot thread about that, there was an accusation posted by an 
AC that Microsoft came in and shut down a head-start program he had 
volunteered at in a very poor area of Iowa becuase they couldn't come up 
with documentation proving licenses for all the software on their 
(donated) computers. Since it was from an anonomous account, it has to 
be taken with a grain of salt. But some folks believed it without 
question. I consider it a really bad sign that folks would even consider 
this to be plausable behavior out of a company. That's just despicable 
beyond belief.

> Also there is the fact that the pc sector seems saturated, almost everyone
> who wants (or can afford) a pc has one, meaning a great big chunk of their
> marker is disappearing day by day.
> 
> Looks like they're getting desparate and clutching at straws!  (the idea the


I had read one article in Motley Fool (I forget where, sorry) about how 
Microsoft has basicly been living off of funny-money for the last 
several years. Something about giving stock options as pay to their 
employees, then writing off the difference on their taxes when the stock 
value goes up.

...Ahhh...found the link. Here: 
http://www.fool.com/portfolios/rulemaker/2000/rulemaker000217.htm

The problem with doing this kind of thing, as folks like CFS here in 
Tulsa a few years back, and Enron a little more publicly have shown, is 
that if your company's value rests primarily on transient things like 
its stock value, it can all go away when the wind changes direction. And 
when it starts to go, it goes *fast*. So when Microsoft stock starts to 
slip, as it has done recently, its not like your GM or GE stock slipping 
a bit. Things could get Bad.

So anyway, what we *could* be witnessing here is desparate attempts to 
prevent an Enron-style progressive collapse of the company, by finding 
new revenue streams during a bad economy. Just a theory.