Microsoft PR: Looking Under The Hood 389
mtr writes "An interesting article uncovering some embarassing and amusing PR practices of our friendly software giant had been recently published by Michael Zalewski. The author recovered change tracking information from all the DOCs published on microsoft.com, and came up with something to cheer you up. It's funny when it happens to others - but even better if it fires back on themselves.
Read the full story here."
Cue Lawyers! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Cue Lawyers! (Score:3, Insightful)
To do anything about this site now would probably draw the attention of people who don't read
However now that
I bet they wait a few days until something more mainstream runs the link before they take any action. When they take action they will be firin
Re:Cue Lawyers! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Cue Lawyers! (Score:4, Insightful)
So if you want THAT bit of history, best get it soon.
How about the DMCA? (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, claiming that Word's editing features are a security mechanism and that bypassing them is illegal would be ridiculous.
Unfortunately, no more ridiculous than, say, claiming that pdf e-books are a security system are that even foreign nationals bypassing them are US criminals.
His Name is "Michal" (Score:4, Informative)
It's called "Silence on the Wire" and he is One Smart Dude (TM).
Full disclosure - I work for No Starch Press.
Re:His Name is "Michal" (Score:5, Informative)
The program he used is called wvWare [sourceforge.net], obviously a handy little tool. He also gives links to some documents that supposedly yield interesting results. They are reproduced here:
1 [microsoft.com],
2 [microsoft.com],
3 [microsoft.com],
4 [microsoft.com],
5 [microsoft.com]
So get cracking and have fun!
Re:His Name is "Michal" (Score:5, Informative)
eim.doc had hilarious references to "the Digital Nervous System" all over it, which had been deleted and replaced with more down-to-earth language.
From PrintCluster.doc:
From LaMagnaBio.doc:
From XO_final.doc:
(The press release appears to have been published without fact-checking.)
Mastek EPM.doc is HUGE and has all sorts of junk in it.
Re:His Name is "Michal" (Score:5, Insightful)
Linux-based systems are much more subject to hacker attacks than systems built on the Microsoft solution for Windows Web hosting(support on file?)
The point you Linux fanboys are missing in your frenzy to publicly jerk off over relatively boring internal discussions is that they're at least interested in important questions like whether they're making apples-to-apples comparisons and whether they have supporting documentation on file.
You may disagree with their message and methods, or with their conclusions, and you probably won't even concede the validity of their definition of "apples-to-apples", but this is far more responsible than a great deal of the raw bullshit which is accepted as fact 24x7 here on slashdot, and certainly more responsible than Microsoft is ever given credit for around here.
2 Steps: 1) Write complete fantasy. 2) Fact check. (Score:3, Insightful)
What is important is not that someone at Microsoft is interested in fact-checking. That's obvious; they don't want to get fired.
What is important is that these examples show clearly how Microsoft's evaluation of itself comes into being. First, someone who knows nothing about technical matters, and absolutely does not care about technical matters, quickly writes a complete fantasy. Then the fantasy is sent to some people who have a clue, who eventually eliminate the worst of the inventions.
The examp
Have employees who understand the company, or die. (Score:3, Insightful)
This is a very serious issue. Companies that employ enough people who actually understand the business of the company have a chance to survive and prosper. Companies who try to use cheaper, poorly educated employees, die. The death may happen slowly, and is usually difficult to see because of energetic attempts to hide the truth, but the death occurs. (Novell - now apparently rebuilding -, Harvard Graphics, Word Perfect Corporation, Corel, PowerSoft and many, many others are examples.)
Microsoft's numer
If only... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:If only... (Score:5, Informative)
The Memory Hole [thememoryhole.org] has lots of goodies. The following was of particular personal interest:
DOJ Attorney Diversity [thememoryhole.org]
Re:If only... (Score:5, Funny)
Finally! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Finally! (Score:5, Funny)
Now even Microsoft is in on the tired^H^H^H^H^Hclassic "^H" joke!
The " joke? I don't get it.
Re:Finally! (Score:3, Insightful)
You didn't get his.
Re:Finally! (Score:3, Funny)
fuck
stty erase ^H
dammit
tcsh
Friendly software giant? (Score:5, Funny)
Embarassing not (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Embarassing not - Yes (Score:4, Funny)
The most effective PR people know how to shade the truth/lie in such a way that the message, regardless of how misleading, cannot be challenged as being inaccurate.
An experienced communications specialist would come out with the statement:
"The Senator is taking a hiatus from active service to better understand how to reduce his own reliance on foreign products while minimizing any potential financial repercussions."
which is much better than saying:
"The Senator is drying out at the Betty Ford clinic after realizing that he can no longer afford to drink Chivas by the boatload."
myke
Re:Embarassing not - Yes (Score:5, Funny)
"The Senator is taking a hiatus from active service to better understand how to reduce his own reliance on foreign products while minimizing any potential financial repercussions."
Please, that is SO pre Bush Administration. Their stye of communications would give the following press release:
"There is no Senator, there never has, and there never will be. And if their was, the notion that he is in rehab is insulting and unpatriotic. You must be a member of the Taliban"
Re:Embarassing not (Score:4, Insightful)
Correction: The majority of PR people are paid to present the positive side of the truth regarding their company. PR people are not paid to present the negative side of the story unless the press has already found out about it.
Re:Embarassing not (Score:3, Funny)
If there wasn't so many people falling under the societal spell that "corporations = evil", without actually thinking it through,
Um, isn't '=' an assignment operator?
Hey! (Score:5, Funny)
Is that sarcasm?
Re:Hey! (Score:5, Funny)
Pining... (Score:5, Funny)
This makes me harken back to the days of yore...
Re:Pining... (Score:4, Insightful)
This is, unless you are Microsoft, whose apps essentially become part of the OS when installed, it could still be almost that simple today. It's absurd that you need special apps to make up for the fact that uninstall programs often just fail (ORK? Norton Antivirus?)
Re:Pining... (Score:3, Informative)
Ah ... (Score:2, Funny)
Tool? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Tool? (Score:5, Informative)
web page tracking (Score:5, Interesting)
The key difference here is that the tracking reveals internal versions that were obviously never meant to be public. The idea that a draft would attribute a quote to a nameless executive is particularly appalling!
Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
It happens all the time.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, but isn't this case more like the PR team from your company attaching the CEO of someone else's company to their own quotes? Sure, if that person then agrees, it's OK, and I'm sure that's done too. But it does devalue such testimonials a bit in my eyes.
Re:Why? (Score:2)
Re:Why? (Score:5, Informative)
Does anyone seriously think Bill, Bush, Gore, Gates, Thatcher, Scott, Arnold, etc. really have time to research and prepare up to a dozen dozen speeches every week on topics ranging from youth education, the state of the automobile industry, and how the new initiative will enhance health care in a region?
PR firms and flacks write speeches all the time because they are the ones with the time and training to parse highly specilised information into something Joe 6 p.m. nightly news reporter can understand, while making disasters look good for the company or government. Executives, however, are tasked with leading/spearheading/announcing important things when they happen and providing overall organizational leadership and management.
It would sometimes be nice if $leader fully understood the consequences of bituminous petro extraction and writes the entire speech himself before he speaks about it before their association, but I'd rather have $leader worry about leadership and management things which I might be paying him for through holdings or taxes.
Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
However, if he does possess all of these skills (i.e. is a natural leader), he would be well-advised to make use of them. Not only will his employees appreciate the honesty and ability, but clients, constituents, etc. will, too. Everyone responds better to candid PR than to packaged and polished lip service. Packaged PR carries a lower standard of truth.
A leader should always be held accountable for consequences. Some situations may call for delegation, but overall that leader must be intimately familiar with his domain. That's what management and leadership are all about, and that's why they get paid the big bucks.
Re:web page tracking (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:web page tracking (Score:3, Informative)
Re:web page tracking (Score:3, Informative)
is anyone else a little hesitant? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:is anyone else a little hesitant? (Score:2)
Call me crazy, but .cx domains are so...'99.
Re:is anyone else a little hesitant? (Score:5, Funny)
The article is about Microsoft. What, were you afraid it might be a picture of Bill Goatse?
Re:is anyone else a little hesitant? (Score:4, Funny)
Hmmm (Score:5, Funny)
Call me paranoid, but all those "xxx, Chief Information Officer/Vice President at Avensis" quotes make it look as if they were fabricated prior to even figuring out who to talk to at the company, not to mention determining what his/her name would be.
Could it be that the Author of the memo heard a taped recording of the comments, and transcribed them without knowing the guy's name, thus leaving placeholders?
I don't think that even M$FT would stoop so low as to intentionally misquote someone. They'd never get away with it.
wbs.
Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Interesting)
These aren't the quotes you're looking for... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:These aren't the quotes you're looking for... (Score:5, Insightful)
Then what the newspaper is doing isn't journalism, it's advertising.
Re:These aren't the quotes you're looking for... (Score:3, Interesting)
No, usually a press release is used verbatim because the journalist is on a tight deadline and didn't have time to write the article. Most journalists don't mean to do this and most newspapers don't like this, but when a deadline is looming and you only have one hour to finish an article -- something gotta give.
Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Interesting)
Having participated in this sort of work before, a "quote" is created by whatever marketing agency Company "X" hired to create the white paper, arrange press exposure, etc. They will write stuff up and make "quotes" which are then reviewed and approved by the executive being "quoted" (often as many as 10 or 15 revisions).
I've seen "interviews" where the whole thing is carefully scripted; the "interviewer" and the executive only see the final copy the day before (or even day of) the interview video is shot.
Stunts gone wrong (Score:5, Funny)
It would be fantastic to find out that MS is actually some kind of joke gone wrong. Like,
"Hey, lets make a really bad operating system and see what happens."
"Holy cow, they are buying it!"
"Man, thats insane, lets make another one and see if they still fall for it."
"Jesys, can't these people learn? I know, lets hype up something that doesnt exist and then not bother releasing it."
"Woah, demand is so high we can afford to pay for it to be made."
"Why not, but insert some easter eggs that make it crash. That should let them realise it's all a big farce."
Re:Stunts gone wrong (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Stunts gone wrong (Score:4, Interesting)
Win98 was a trimmed down offering? I thought it was their flagship product at the time. What else would the homeuser have used? NT Workstation? I doubt it. Hell we used 98 for workstations in our enterprise environment for years without any major problems. As far as ME goes I always figured it was a (shitty) remake of Windows 98 designed to suck more money out of old code before they went to the NT Kernel (ala XP) for the end user.
I'm sure they make enough money on XP Home too -- just not as much as XP Pro. Outlook Express and IE are insurance for the future -- kill off all the other e-mail clients and web browsers and you'll have the community by the balls sorta thing.
What's so nasty about XP Home for Mom & Pop users? Why would Mom & Pop pay extra for XP Pro? It's not like Home (in my experience -- your mileage may vary) is any less stable then Pro. It's just missing a few features.
For the record I purchased Pro for my home computer -- but I got it under a OEM license though my old job -- the full (non-upgrade) version "only" cost me $129.00 iirc. No sane home user is going to fork down the $270-$300 for a (non-upgrade) legal version of XP Pro. Most home users aren't going to even bother to pay the $99.00 to get the upgrade to Pro from their OEM -- which is what Dell charged the last time I quoted a PC with them.
Already slashdotted (Score:5, Informative)
slashdot has incredible news! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Mod Parent Up (Score:3, Insightful)
I would hope that people who read about this think " I wonder if anything compromising is in my documents". Perhaps then they will begin to realize that for all it's abilities there are risks to using office. Perhaps they will seek out other options.
So i guess what I am saying is that while this article is a silly anti-microsoft writeup on the surfa
Re:Mod Parent Up (Score:5, Insightful)
>> no new information
May not be interesting to you, but I enjoyed the read.
Why do you complain about this, when it would take less effort to close the browser?
It's like those people that complain about things they don't like but really don't affect them. Take the old^H^H^Hpeople who complain to the FCC about Howard Stern. If they're that offended, why do they continue to list? Turn the station.
Tip to parent: Try the back button if you don't like what you see.
Sorry, I know this is offtopic but... (Score:3, Funny)
I'd like to help you, but... (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdotted...here's a mirror (Score:4, Informative)
wow... (Score:5, Funny)
Mirror Provided (Score:4, Informative)
Some of the conclusions are dubious (Score:5, Insightful)
For example xxxx CEO of blah said yyyy
may simply be the result of the employee drawing up the report not knowing the full name or title of the person who made the statement.
As for exact facts and figures about a customer being included, this looks like they got asked not to include them, or decided against it, and complied.
Where's the story here? There's plenty of more interesting things that go on. This is just pure MS bashing. Bashing any company you dislike for genuinely bad business practices this way is a fantastic way to come across as a lunatic with a chip on your shoulder, but not a good way to be taken seriously when pointing out a company's flaws.
Re:Some of the conclusions are dubious (Score:3, Interesting)
But we've evidence that's not true. Read the MS press release reported on slashdot earlier today which quoted P.Diddy: "[I] believe that the system's cultural influence as a social entertainment brand has only just begun."
Re:Some of the conclusions are dubious (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Some of the conclusions are dubious (Score:3, Insightful)
The fact that a company has been caught out fabricating quotes by its own insecure document formats. Is this proof that they are evil incarnate? Maybe not. Is it embarassing for them? Yes. Is it amusing? Yes.
Informative line about Home Depot (Score:5, Funny)
"Home Depot: evaluated both, chose Windows for 8,200 Windows desktops, 42,000 Windows embedded for POS devices,... "
Several devices that I have bought at Home Depot have been a POS, but I wsn't aware Windows was embedded in them. Is windows in every POS that Home Depot sells or just certain items?
Re:Informative line about Home Depot (Score:3, Funny)
Most of what is done on the Home Depot computers is run an old dos program on Windows 2k in a command prompt/terminal window. It is teh sux.
But to answer your
bwahhhahaha (Score:3, Funny)
This is what a PDF is for (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess Microsft thinks its better to ignore the problem than solve it, if the solution is not yours. What's the worst that could happen? ;)
Re:This is what a PDF is for (Score:3, Informative)
but that would make sense.
Thats what you get for bad design... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Thats what you get for bad design... (Score:4, Informative)
both of those solutions seem like the suck. word's colloboration feature is useful and popular because it's so simple--no extra steps+a flat file. all it seems to lack is an obtrusive "retain change information? yes/no" dialog when you save, because then people might actually remember to strip the doc before publishing it.
Nothing to see here...move along. (Score:2, Informative)
About the exec quotes (Score:5, Informative)
Did you actually think the pr people were interviewing the ceo for a press release?
Re:About the exec quotes (Score:4, Insightful)
And did you actually think anyone reads those press releases? Given the realities of the process, a more productive use of time would be to count grains of sand at the beach with a boxing glove.
Re:About the exec quotes (Score:5, Interesting)
Um... yes? The entire point of this practice is to decieve people into thinking that the CEO/VP/whoever actually said that stuff (even if they did sign off on it personally, after reading it personally, which is probably not how it happens, it's still not the same as saying it). Now that I'm aware of it, I won't be fooled anymore, but people who don't work in PR are not aware that PR people do this.
Re:About the exec quotes (Score:4, Insightful)
This probably sounds naive to most of you, but I really think such practices are deceiving. Many people know that this is happening, and for those it doesn't help anyway, since they see right through it. Other people are not aware of those practices, and for them it's just lying.
Re:About the exec quotes (Score:3, Insightful)
In my view, there is very much difference. And why? What is really the point of doing that? Is it really so much better to write 'The CEO was quoted saying this new product will leverage blah blah blah' instead of just 'This new product will leverage blah blah blah'? Especially if everybody who reads it knows there is no difference between the two?
There is no spoon. (Score:5, Insightful)
While it is certainly possible to ascribe less than pure motives to all the instances documented in the story, if one applies Occam's razor, one can come up with a simpler but not as interesting explanation : this is the way big business works. In a multi-national corporation, different people collaborate. They have different personalities, and some are more antagonistic than others. Some people are asked to produce marketing materials and others are asked to review them for factual accuracy. Ultimately, before a document is published, several reviewers will go through it, and it would be shocking if edits were not made.
For example, the first example talks about changing the "deploying" to "evaluating". What exactly is damning about this? Perhaps when the marketing material was written, Aventis had plans to deploy and this got changed later. Or maybe, there are some reasons why Aventis, even though it is actually deploying, may not actually want their names used as a reference for the tablet PC. There are a million and one innocuous (sp?) reasons why the change was made, but yeah, they arent as fascinating as the interpretation made on the site.
Another example - the Robbie Bach / Sandy Duncan mixup. Organizational chains are quite tangled in large corporations and can change quite frequently. The author might simply not have had the right information on who was actually in charge - especially if both were Senior Vice Presidents and connected with XBox.
Proves one thing, if results are bad: hush (Score:3, Interesting)
If not, that's where PR breaks down, (see Dubya)
That's also why PR for damage control after something went wrong is wasted money from the start. It always breaks down. But they'll spend it anyway. The lesser of sciences tend to have the strongest dogma's. And this PR/MBA stuff is certainly a disgrace to science to be ranked with it.
This stuff looks more like a wannabee's homework though. Funny to read I must say.
Do It Yourself Google Search (Score:5, Interesting)
Over 22,000 word files on their site. Assuming they are all still there, that is a lot of cleaning up to do. I wonder what else people will find.
Perhaps more Microsoft employees should Check this link out [microsoft.com]
OpenOffice.org can't read them :( (Score:3, Informative)
I dub the effect "Mistakenography" (Score:4, Funny)
Does anyone else see the potential humor factor in sending the people memos with deliberately corrected info?
It's a whole new realm of sarcasm.
The CXX comments are no big deal (Score:4, Interesting)
> Officer/Vice President at Avensis" quotes make it look as if
> they were fabricated prior to even figuring out who to talk to
> at the company
Everyone knows Microsoft deserves bashing for what they do, but this isn't one of those times. I've had to do my share of edits to press releases, and it's not unusual for the quote associated with an executive is written by a PR person. All big companies do this.
Is using speechwriters dishonest, too? (Score:3, Insightful)
Some CEOs ARE clueless and stupid about their own products, but the practice of having a writer show how
Nothing new here, same with NT way back when. (Score:5, Interesting)
The Byte article quoted CAC higher-ups about how NT greatly improved security, file and print serving, and that all student labs had switched over wholesale. At this time, the file serving was handled by a Banyan Vines network, and printing being spooled by old Mac SE/30's.
By that fall, Windows NT was finally introduced to the labs, and the nightmare of having 100% BSOD boxes and useless labs had begun. When I graduated in the fall of 1996, printing was still handled by Macs, but usually PowerMac 6100's by that point. NT had lost all credibility at Penn State, and Microsoft had used them to hoodwink many large organizations with a totally fallacious article in Byte.
-- Len
Thanks to Google... (Score:4, Interesting)
-- Len
Forget M$, What About Everybody Else? (Score:3, Funny)
Kerry: The Republic leadership are fascist motherf^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H out of touch with their genitals^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H the American people.
Bush: Kerry is a drunken^H^H^H^H^H^H^H vacillating liberal who likes crack whores^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H will raise taxes.
Nader: I am still committed to causing confusion^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H providing an alternative in the political process.
I just sent a suggestion to Google that they should index deleted and revised text in Word documents. Wouldn't that be fun?
Inside Look (Score:3, Interesting)
"Call me paranoid, but all those "xxx, Chief Information Officer/Vice President at Avensis" quotes make it look as if they were fabricated prior to even figuring out who to talk to at the company, not to mention determining what his/her name would be.
MS did a draft press release regarding a product we produced using MS technology and they quoted my boss in it. I happen to know that he signed off on the quotes and didn't actually write any of them.
I guess I really am sort of scared of MS because I clicked the Log Out button before posting this. That said, I guess if the CEO signs off on it it's no different that celebs using Ghostwriters.
You are all missing the point (Score:5, Interesting)
This illustrates the underlying problem. Features such as this that require seperate tools to sanitize them will tend to not produced sanitized documents.
The author of the article said that the result of this "exposure" demonstrates a likely need for inline filtering in mail and web publishing systems to correct this MS oversight and stubbornness.
Had many of you read the
[Post version 2.0]
I hate MS, but there is nothing sinister here (Score:5, Interesting)
I looked at the all the samples in the first page of the story, and I have to say that I didn't see anything that didn't look like normal editing decisions being made by writers and editors in the PR business. I was a newspaper journalist for years and I'm a political consultant now. I've received and written tons of news releases over the years. Unless there is some horrid "smoking gun" hidden on one of the interior pages, there is nothing sinister or unusual in the least about what the guy found.
What I saw looked more like examples from a PR writing textbook about how things are changed to reflect an editor's preferences to soften a story or to change its focus. Quotes are almost ALWAYS written by PR people and then approved by the person being quoted. In some cases, the quote is used as is. In others, the person will say that he prefers to say something different. The quotes as written give everyone an idea of the TYPE of quote needed for a certain spot in order to fall into line with the rest of the piece.
Ultimately, this is no different than anything else which is written and then changed along the way. New information comes along. There are differences in opinion about how something should be "spun." Editors use judgment about what will work best. A ton of things happen, but that is normal.
As I said, I can't stand MS and I think the company is blatantly dishonest in many of its practices, but these seem to be reasonably innocent examples of PR people attempting to do their jobs. If you understand how PR works, you will know that there is nothing unusual here.
The REAL story here.. (Score:4, Interesting)
But I'm more interested in Aventis Pharmaceuticals. Gates is shifting all his personal wealth into Big Pharma stocks. I haven't been able to find out if he's an investor in Aventis, but he's a huge investor in their direct competitors. I can just see the pitch MS made, they'll offer Aventis a tech testbed platform, and if they don't go for it, they'll offer it to one of Bill's cronys, and Aventis will have difficulty with MS support in the future.
How News Releases are Written (Score:5, Informative)
Once I know I need to write a news release, I work out a plan. This includes goals, target audiences, media tools, means of measurement, key messages and key sources. If I need to involve external sources (the people I quote), I ask those companies for their consent to write a release. Depending on the relationship, they may send me the quotes *or* I might write quotes for them and have them approve them later.
It's often the last minute before the other company's senior execs, marketing staff, PR agency, lawyers, clients, or other stakeholders decide who they'll let me quote. They may have long debates over whether they want their quote attributed to the CEO, VP, client, Martian Sales Director, General Manager for Neptune, etc. It all depends on how they want to position their own quotes. And that's assuming they even wrote them. Whenenver I've had to deal with Microsoft, they've taken a week or more to approve a news release.
Virtually the same scenario takes place at my end. Various stakeholders provide input, and both the quotes and the sources (e.g. CIO) can change.
In my experience, anyone who ends up being quoted has to sign off on the quote. There are review processes. It's not like those people weren't involved.
When a CEO or other exec has a "real" interview with the press, the CEO reads from notes and statements that a marketer wrote. Before the interview starts, a marketer goes over all the notes and helps suggest possible questions and answers. The marketer sits in on the interview and (if cameras aren't present or it's over the phone) may help the exec piece together answers. Everything is heavily scripted. Eventually, the execs know the words by heart, or pretty close.
You can compare this process to the one used for professional speech writing, memos, letters, ghostwritten articles, and briefing notes. In fact, when I was just a co-op student, I was writing briefing notes, "question period responses", and other materials for the Canadian Minister of Immigration. Whether in a corporate or goverment environment, spokespersons rarely speak off the cuff. Except for Dan Quayle.
And, while I'm sure some people are horrified by the process, it has many advantages. Messages are consistent. Speakers/sources are handpicked for credibility, ability to talk, and relevance. All the messages have been pre-screened by legal teams, reducing risk. It's less likely that the exec will over-commit us, say something incorrect about a feature/benefit, or go off-topic. And the investment in marketing is maximized. And that's good for the company.
View in OpenOffice too? (Score:4, Interesting)
Edit/Changes/Show
What do you know?
OpenOffice filters are pretty good.
I guess it's another case that security by obscurity doesn't work?
As to the XXCIO/VP quote (Score:3, Interesting)
Everyone in the company reads and reviews them (except me, of course, for good reason). Quotes are written with a place holder for a name ("XXX" was what I saw most often), just as place holders are used for dates. The release goes back and forth to the client company as many times as it takes to get it signed off on, and somewhere along the line the quote gets attributed (but probably gets heavily edited before then).
The only thing surprising about these is how little editing there is. MS must be cranking them out.
On the converse, every now and then I would hear a statement like "I've got an hour to write a press release, and no idea what it's about." This was said in such a way that I assume it translates to "I've got all night and a case of jolt to finish this problem."
I once made the mistake of proclaiming that there was probably one sentence of content in each press release. This was laughed at, and I was told there was less.
If I ever start a major OSS project, I'm going to call in a favor to get professional press releases written by my ex-coworkers. If I have the money they are even going out on the wire (or at least one of them).
nnooiissee
On eating one's own dog food (Score:3, Interesting)
For an outfit that's so much into domination and control, you'd think it would be a foregone conclusion that all publications would go through a formal release process that includes cleaning out all the leftovers which are not normally visible. But either no one is in charge of designing such processes, or whoever is really really goofed.
I suppose it could be an extension of the whole reactionary movement that grew up in PC-land: formal processes are the sort of thing IBM would do, so they're obviously wrong -- after all, look at how quickly IBM lost all their money and went out of business. (Oh, waitaminute....)
What's Scary... (Score:3, Funny)
Notice the name of the program: ORK.EXE
Who at MS is now working on ELF.EXE - Eliminate Linux Forever?