No Neutrality

Watch Your Step--Professional Editors At Work!

UPDATE: They fixed it already.

***

So just in case it gets fixed by the time you hit the link...

I browsed to MSNBC looking for story on the supposed verbal "slip-up" Jane Fonda made in talking about the play, Vagina Dialogues, when I was greeted with this headline:

Can we please agree on English as the official language once and for all?

MSNBC Web Site

Get Up On Your Soapbox

Microsoft has finally entered the Internet video fray with "Soapbox" on MSN.

Here's a sample:
Video: I-90

Hopefully Soapbox won't pick up YouTube's eggregious habit of censoring.

What Goes Around Comes Around...

[DISCLAIMER: I am involved with the Microsoft Corp. but am in a no way a paid spokesperson for the company or even included in its dealings with the EU. The following opinion is solely mine and does not reflect the position of the Microsoft Corp.]

Pardon me if I'm not exactly weeping in sympathy for the EU:

Vista is scheduled for worldwide introduction early next year. If this excludes Europe, such a delay could affect a wide range of companies, including other software developers writing programs to work with Vista as well as computer makers and retailers planning marketing campaigns around Vista.

This is the direct consequence of the bullying tactics by the European Commission toward the Microsoft Corp.The lordly, high-handed manner in which the EU Commission has bullied Microsoft is supposed to be taken with a "Thank you, Sir! May I have another?" compliant attitude, but it looks like Microsoft is actually fighting back (for once) and the EU Commission doesn't like it.

Google Me Once, Shame On You...

Looks like Google is at it again.  I'm wondering when the average conservative user will get smart and realize that patronage of Google is only enriching an organization that then uses its dominance to push the Liberal agenda.  Call Microsoft what you will, but Google has far outstripped even the much-hated software giant in Redmond, WA, when it comes to blatant bias.

UPDATE:
Well open mouth and insert foot!  No sooner did I post this than a good friend pointed me to THIS foolishness.  I guess Microsoft was feeling the competitive heat.  At least they are just partaking in a parade instead of actually putting their politics in their product.  Sigh...

UPDATE II:
I just realized that in the interest of avoiding any appearance of having an axe to grind, I should let it be known that I currently work for the Redmond-based software giant.  I didn't think of it as a conflict of interest to blog about technology issues in favor of MS because I've always admired the company well before I came to it (which fellow DBPJ'er, Jeff, can attest to).  My main reason for not disclosing this had more to do with keeping my privacy.  But wanting to avoid the same fate as Armstrong Williams, I hereby disclose my "secret"!

P.S. DON'T ask me questions about your Windows PC either! Doh!

Google This!

I knew there was a reason I switched to MSN Search instead of Google.  Not only because the Microsoft Research Center, one of the most heavily funded computer science research centers in the WORLD, helped the MSN group with a new, re-tooled version of MSN Search, but because I'm sick and tired of throwing my money at Leftists like those at Google who take my money and then thumb their noses at me.

Little Green Footballs relays the scoop on the most recent display of Google bias.  Seems that Rightmarch.com conducted an experiment to see if they could draw out the bias that has evidenced itself before at Google.  In a nutshell, they took an anti-Tom Delay ad that is running on Google and substituted the name Pelosi (D-California).  When they applied to run the ad, Google rejected the ad with the explanation,

Google policy does not permit ad text that advocates against an individual, group or organization.

Michelle Malkin has previously noted a USA Today article that shows Google staff run overwhelmingly Democrat in their political tastes if you can judge by the fact that 98% of their private political contributions went to Democrats in the 2004 elections.  (An interesting irony, by the way, is that they are supporting the very party that is most likely to push to tax the Internet, the lifespring of the search engine giant.)

I suppose the Google Ad staff need to read their own code which reads:

The core message is simple: Being Googlers means striving toward the highest possible standard of ethical business conduct. This is a matter as much practical as ethical; we hire great people who work hard to build great products, but our most important asset by far is our reputation as a company that warrants our users' faith and trust. That trust is the foundation upon which our success and prosperity rests, and it must be re-earned every day, in every way, by every one of us.

Unless you're a Republican/Conservative.  Then we don't want your trust or your business.

Well I'll be Googled!

I thought only the evil Software Satan had security flaws?  I'm sure somehow Microsoft is at the bottom of this!

A new variant of the MyDoom worm is another indication of how malicious hackers are beginning to use search engines such as Google and Yahoo to harvest e-mail addresses and find IT systems that are vulnerable to attacks.

I spoke too soon:

"We are, of course, concerned," Olson said. "Worms that use tools like Google, Yahoo, MSN Search or AltaVista to seek out vulnerable systems or e-mail addresses make for a much more efficient attack."

Ahh, that's more like it!

[Computerworld Security Holes News]

You Don't Say!

Well, well! MSNBC decides to up its stakes in Blogopoly!  Maybe others caught it, but in the whirlwind of sickness and work that was my life last week, I missed that MSNBC has deployed it's own free Blog service.  The service is in two parts:

1. Note that along with "E-mail This" and "Print This" features that are at the bottom of every MSNBC story, there will now be a "Blog This" link.
2. This will take you to your own MSN Members blog space (if you don't have one set up, it will prompt you to do so) and inside an editor with the subject line already set to the article you are blogging.

This is a great step forward and somewhat shrewd marketing.  For one, it is an acknowledgement of the huge phenomenon of blogging.  MSNBC is evidently NOT going to be left in the Dark Years of the Information Age.  But in addition, the "Blog This" feature is only available on MSNBC.  You can still use the MSN Member space to blog about articles from anywhere, but you won't have the slick quick link to your editor.  I'm curious if MSNBC news teams will mine this store of user commentary and discussion for their own usage?

Oh, and you can syndicate your Blog via RSS, too.  And all of this for free.

Not bad...not bad at all!