Astroturfing again

Post #6,436 by SpiceWare 8/23/01 9:34:59 AM Reply	Astroturfing again From the LA Times, [link\|http://www.latimes.com/business/la-082301micro.story\|Lobbyists Tied to Microsoft Wrote Citizens' Letters] - Letters purportedly written by at least two dead people landed on the desk of Utah Atty. Gen. Mark Shurtleff earlier this year, imploring him to go easy on Microsoft Corp. for its conduct as a monopoly. Darrell Spice, Jr. [link\|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/\|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
Post #6,438 by imric 8/23/01 9:43:32 AM Reply	chuckle Ya beat me to it! Imric's Tips for Living Paranoia Is a Survival Trait Pessimists are never disappointed - but sometimes, if they are very lucky, they can be pleasantly surprised... Even though everyone is out to get you, it doesn't matter unless you let them win.
Post #6,458 by bbronson 8/23/01 12:20:34 PM Reply	I can see the new M$ ad campaign "Microsoft: the preferred choice of dead people two to none" "Microsoft Windows is so easy to use, even dead people enjoy the Windows experience" (But what they won't admit is that it's the frustration of the Windows experience that killed them.) Brian Bronson
Post #6,591 by ben_tilly 8/24/01 10:20:48 AM Reply	Gives new meaning to the phrase... Microsoft? Over my dead body! Cheers, Ben
Post #6,643 by bbronson 8/24/01 3:44:38 PM Reply	Chuckle!!
Post #6,477 by wharris2 8/23/01 1:05:07 PM Reply	That goes beyond astroturf French Zombies are zapping me with lasers!
Post #6,733 by CRConrad 8/26/01 7:16:43 PM Reply	Naah, you must mean... That goes beyond astroturf French Zombies are zapping me with lasers! ..."American Zombies are zapping me with letters to politicians!", right? Christian R. Conrad The Man Who Knows Fucking Everything
Post #6,495 by mmoffitt 8/23/01 2:24:19 PM Reply	Not that I think it will do any good. But, I've always been one to tilt at windmills. I wrote Lugar before about this issue (and Bayh, and Congressman Souder). Only Lugar responded, nice letter, but the content sucked. I just sent Lugar another letter. Here it is: Dear Senator Lugar, During the Microsoft Anti-Trust trial, I sent you a letter that you graciously responded to. In my letter, I urged you to support the Justice Department in its case against Microsoft. I sent that letter electronically from a web page I was directed to from a Microsoft website. In my letter, I urged you to discount any pro-Microsoft mail you received through the means I had sent my letter because Microsoft typically has its own employees misrepresent themselves as "interested third parties" who send correspondences to various legislators in support of Microsoft. I understand from your previous reply that we are at odds on the issue of how to handle the illegal business practices Microsoft has perpetrated on the public and its competitors, most of whom are now defunct or seriously diminished. However, as this recent Los Angeles Times article further illustrates, ([link\|http://www.latimes.com/business/la-082301micro.story\|http://www.latimes....1micro.story]), any pro-Microsoft mail that you receive should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism as to its true origins. In general, the information technology world refers to this type of shenanigans from Microsoft as "Astro-turf movements".
Post #6,551 by Ashton 8/23/01 9:15:16 PM Reply	Nice.. to the point. Spread it further, please?
Post #6,650 by mmoffitt 8/24/01 4:30:30 PM Reply	Hmmmm.... Raises another question in my mind, "Is anyone listening who isn't already convinced?"
Post #6,739 by Ashton 8/26/01 9:09:01 PM Reply	Among congress-critters? safest to presume extreme unawares
Post #6,756 by Andrew Grygus 8/27/01 1:34:44 AM Reply	Well . . . . . [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com/shoe.html\|Shoe] [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]
Post #6,764 by Ashton 8/27/01 6:59:01 AM Reply	Ahhh.. miss Shoe in local paper; Frank & Ernest too :(
Post #6,788 by SpiceWare 8/27/01 11:18:50 AM Reply	I miss legible comics Last time I looked at a paper I was shocked at how much smaller the comics have become. Bill Watterson has a section in Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary where he discusses how comics used to have the entire page to be layed out in, and how they've just become "talking heads" due to the shrinkage. Darrell Spice, Jr. [link\|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/\|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
Post #6,810 by a6l6e6x 8/27/01 12:50:24 PM Reply	Ditto: Miss Shoe in local paper; Frank & Ernest too :( Especially when there are crap strips that could be removed to make room. Alex Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel. -- Anne Frank
Post #6,898 by Ashton 8/27/01 8:18:22 PM Reply	MBA-s again? crap-strips a real 'bargain' maybe? I recall that one of the reasons - maybe main one - Watterson gave for leaving then, was the horrible shrinking of space. Add to that of late (at least SF Chronicle - the ONLY paper left for all of San Francisco..) - comic section is so small it is buried in the custom ad-let-'zines, has a folded ad around it AND - one you have to tear-off of the first page, itself! I must soon get that snail-mail 100% rag note off to Owner: hey! Wake Up!! HALF my reason for purchase of the Sunday ad-monition is for Decent Comics, the last bastion of actual political satire left in Murica, 'cept for the rags pitched to converted fringe groups. Little by little.. the homgenization is slipped in with each merger, each large city disinterested in preserving 'newspapers' (pl.) - each strip mall turned into a Walmart + BlockB + StarBux. Poco a poco. A. Boycott Walmart.. It's the decent, the Murican, the Christian Thing to do..
Post #6,901 by a6l6e6x 8/27/01 8:46:23 PM Reply	Yep. Charlotte has only one paper, also. Same crap part of first page of Sunday comics. Knight-Ridder or Hearst - no difference. Alex Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel. -- Anne Frank
Post #6,902 by inthane-chan 8/27/01 8:58:33 PM Reply	That's why I'm transitioning to web comics. Along with a few stalwarts I've picked up online... "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Post #6,903 by a6l6e6x 8/27/01 9:10:04 PM Reply	Good idea! Here's a [link\|http://www.ucomics.com/shoe/viewtmsho.cfm?uc_full_date=20010823&uc_comic=tmsho&uc_daction=X\|Shoe] one I like. And, you can click on the calendar days of the month and change month. Alex Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel. -- Anne Frank
Post #7,277 by mhuber 8/30/01 6:00:30 PM Reply	Half the reason for buying the paper? You mean there's some other reason? White guys in suits know best - Pat McCurdy
Post #7,278 by Another Scott 8/30/01 6:06:23 PM Reply	Coupons!
Post #7,280 by Ashton 8/30/01 7:06:29 PM Reply	Well.. re the Saturday ed. - NY Times X-word = 100% :-\ufffd

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