twitter's Journal: Poison Pen Collection

This is going to be a list of big publisher shills. Those are people who take their marching orders from big companies but pretend to be independent experts. A quote from M$'s internal documents is appropriate here:

Working behind the scenes to orchestrate "independent" praise of our technology, and damnation of the enemy's, is a key evangelism function during the Slog. "Independent" analyst's report should be issued, praising your technology and damning the competitors (or ignoring them). "Independent" consultants should write columns and articles, give conference presentations and moderate stacked panels, all on our behalf (and setting them up as experts in the new technology, available for just $200/hour). "Independent" academic sources should be cultivated and quoted (and research money granted). "Independent" courseware providers should start profiting from their early involvement in our technology. Every possible source of leverage should be sought and turned to our advantage.

M$, RIAA and other big publisher efforts on Slashdot are plain enough. They hate freedom of all kinds but especially hate those that allow people to compete against them. Sotware, network and spectrum freedom take a beating from big publisher shills because they threaten their gateway status over our entertainment, news and press. Free conversations have a tendency to expose frauds like this.

The funny thing is how much more obvious these people are in their own element, where the audience is so much less technically inclined. I'm not often exposed to these toxic viewpoints because I don't watch much TV or read a lot on dead trees. Others do and the malice, ignorance and arrogance they encounter and report is breath taking. The talking points overlap but the presentation comes only with heavily filtered feedback. Some of these people have simply been misdirected, others are deeply cynical and corrupt. When they start out, it's hard to tell. Older trolls are more obvious.

So here is another twitter list. Those marked with * may simply have been manipulated as documented here. The others are willing allies of M$ rather than the objective journalists they should be. All of them should be ignored. If they were honest and well informed, Bill Gates would have them fired.

Dana Blankenhorn, M$ fanboy from ZDNet.

• Redefines how anti-trust law "rolls" with this response to Groklaw's call for investigation of obvious vendor coercion. This one is dumb enough to record for posterity.

Ed Bott

• Was part of George Ou's viscous attack on researcher Peter Guttman, to defend Vista's digital restrictions.

Bruce Byfield * pretends to be reasonable but he exaggerates free software conflicts and throws mud on all sides. Slams of Groklaw and Boycott Novell speak for themselves.

• Defends OOXML, says bad things about Richard Stallman, Gnome, Boycott Novell, Pamela Jones of Groklaw and Alberto Barrionuevo of Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure. It is only fair to link Boycott Novell's answer.
• Same thing as above. Different date but less opinionated.
• Defends Novell/M$ deal and tries to characterize free software advocacy as irrational naivete. Classic "talking about open-source business is like talking about 'compassionate conservatism'"
• FUD for Debian, much of which conflicts with the words of wisdom in the last reference.
• Free Software advocates who oppose M$ are part of a "culture of hate", self important and scary fanatics.

Richard Stallman and Bruce Perens pointed out a long time ago that freedom is a scary thing to talk about. M$'s court proven plots against their competitors and free software are scarier still to people soaked in the hundred billion dollar marketing machine. Only a real coward however will ignore these issues.

Dennis Byron, SeekingAlpha.

• OOXML Troll.
• Claimed Free Software was invented by IBM to harm M$. It is incredible that people echo this SCO sound byte long after SCO's case has been destroyed in court.
• Tried to equate free software with terrorism. "If it wasnï½t for the implied association with terrorism it would be funny," he said. I'll second that.

David Coursey , someone who really loves M$ and hates software freedom and standards.

• Treatment of Peter Quinn tells you everything you want to know about Coursey. Really hates ODF.
• Big Vista Booster, "Vista may approach the reliability levels usually associated with Unix-based operating systems. So says my friend Rob Enderle." We all know how that turned out, but Dave still stands up for Vista. He blames hardware while paradoxically admitting that nothing has changed at M$ in the last ten years.
• M$ DRM booster, "a useful, even necessary new technology for business networks."

Laura Didio , paranormal investigator and SCO backer.

Rob Enderle

• Hater of GNU/Linux and supporter of SCO
• Promised M$ damage control and to lie in columns in email to M$ revealed in the Vista capable suit. People at M$ punished him for honesly noticing what was wrong Vista marketing plans.
• Defended M$'s lawsuit against TomTom, a case which promises to end M$'s bogus patent extortion against free software.

Mike Elgan, Windows Magazine and Computer World

• Well documented attacks on Apple

Jeff Gould* Peerstone Research / Interop News. A man who's confused about or hates software freedom.

• Hates Ubuntu, "Sometimes I wonder whether Ubuntu is really an open source software company any more." It goes downhill from there.
• M$ "Interoperability" Boosting. Says of a middle ware development, "we could be on the threshold of a sea-change in Microsoft's attitude toward open source." Yawn.
• Hates your freedom. Confuses marketing about Lotus Notes use of ODF to conclude, "What's odd about the open source debate these days is that it's no longer really about "free and open source" vs. "commercial and closed source," and craps all over IBM, Google, Red Hat and other free software users.
• Smear for Red Hat, Oracle and GPL.
• Hates the FSF and GPL. "The Free Software Foundation has the self-appointed duty of producing the next version of the GPL, true enough. And by controlling the content of that version it can obviously influence which companies and software projects will want to adopt it." "Novell is going to be a Linux player for many years to come. If not, I'll eat my hat." That hat might taste better with salt.
• May be the strange Slashdot trollAlexGr

Preston Gralla

• Well documented, idiotic attacks on GNU/Linux. As usual, the biggest trolls have never used GNU/Linux and know nothing useful. Why people like this are considered experts and given influential columns is a mystery.

Jason Hiner, Editor in Chief of Tech Republic. Windows Fanboy.

• Goes on radar with this crazy piece praising XP, Vista, Ed Bott and Bill Gate's notorious Open Letter to Hobbyists all in one confused article. Expect bad stuff from Tech Republic under this loony.

Dan Lyons, SCO backer and GNU/Linux hater for Forbes.

• Well documented Fake Steve Jobs attacks on Apple
• Well documented GNU/Linux hater.

His "Attack of the Blogs" article is amusing because he became a bloger himself as magazines like Forbes lost mind share.

Paul McDougall , some kind of nit picking idiot as described explained by P.J.

Walt Mossberg . His position at the Wall Street Journal once made him an amazingly influential pusher of M$ junk. Consistently dismisses and slams GNU/Linux for problems Windows also has.

• Most of this was summed up nicely by Micahel Jordan in 2007.
• Ignorant and proud. Has no technical background but pretends this is to his advantage because he represents the average non technical user. In any other field of reporting but M$ pundit a refusal to investigate or know details would be laughed off.
• He pretends to be objective by recommending Apple as "an alternative" when it actually meets his shallow criteria perfectly. Apparently, M$ provides lots of negative feedback for his Apple mentions but considers Mossberg to be under their thumb.
• In 2007 he recommended Vista as, "the best version of Windows that Microsoft has produced," more secure and, "worthy, but largely unexciting, product." He couched this with plenty of weasel words but history has since proved that Vista was not what normal people wanted.
• The same year he dismissed GNU/Linux twice, here and here in this longer rant. His problems were largely entertainment and related with a single Dell model. This would be like dismissing automobiles because you once had a bad experience with a Fiat and was quickly lampooned.
• Hated netbooks until they came with Windows XP, by then an obviously inferior 7 year old OS. Suddenly a 10" keyboard became, "small keyboard is very nicely done ... comfortable and accurate." Other objections similarly vanished.
• He's been playing the same game since 2002 and it's getting tired. In his slam of Zaurus he says, "As for Linux, I have nothing against it." Nothing except M$ can sabotage sync and he will blame Linux. He also missed Sharp's innovative reflective display, which works well in full sunlight, while sneering about backlighting.
• In 1998, while the anti-trust trials were in full swing, he was emailing Bill Gates, "I'm not up on all the details of the the situation because it hasn't been my responsibility to cover it," and, "I hope you can gain a settlement." A reader should not trust someone that close to their beat.

Florian Mueller, aka Microsoft Florian. He's not a lawyer, he's not a developer and he's not a journalist or blogger, he's a lobbiest for Microsoft and now a member of the SCO Gang. Florian earns a place here and in my troll zoo for having spammed both the technical and non technical press.

Maureen O'Gara

• Caught "Planting" stories for M$
• Consistent SCO supporter, was paid very little very late for her efforts and reputation.
• Stalked and slandered PJ of Groklaw
• Eventually disgraced

John Obeto

• Boycott Novell write up. Bribed Windows 7 promoter, calls people things like "religious zealot," "idiot," "moron" and "nad-less troll."

George Ou, ZDNet and M$ property.

• Winner of a Zoon award for Apple FUD.
• Disgraced defender of Vista DRM. Really, even his straw man argument turned out to be true.

Eric Savitz, Barrons. Someone who often pushes M$FT as a "growth stock."

Jack Schofield , The Guardian

• You, dear reader, are the people who don't have girlfriends or proper jobs, who live on pizza in their parents' basement, and rarely see the sun; who have an encyclopedic knowledge of Star Wars but no common sense.

Alexander Wolfe , Editor of Information Week and another person pretending to be reasonable while flaming everyone. This guy is such an idiot, it's a wonder Information Week publishes anything useful.

• Well documented FUD from him and others at Information Week
• Long time hater of Richard Stallman. I get a splitting headache trying to parse the philosophical distinction between "open source" and "free software." ... he's made a career out of policing the semantics of free software. ... blinded by ... internecine dispute... an enigma wrapped inside a software zealot ... Quotes from 2008 and 2004 proudly mixed by the author.
• Free software is a failure and always will be because "zealots" are annoying. Linux hasn't moved the needle beyond a single-digit desktop market share since it hit the scene in 1991, and never will. ... Groklaw noticed him saying the same kinds of things.
• SCO backer, M$ tech lover. Today, the GNU Project continues with sorely needed efforts such as Classpath, which seeks to build a set of essential libraries for supporting the Java language, and DotGNU, a multiproject plan to craft a complete replacement for Microsofts .NET strategy.

Kim Zetter, Wired Magazine *

• Zoon award for Bogus iPhone Security Story

Don't worry, this is just a start. There will be more. Mary Jo Foley, Joe Wilcox, Paul Thurrott, and many others will be added to the list as I come across the material. Enjoy!