Microsoft and Nokia shills caught astroturfing again

On Sat, 24 Dec 2011 05:19:09 +0000, Homer wrote:

Clearly we're well beyond the point of having to debate whether or not
Microsoft astroturfing is a "conspiracy theory". It's a palpable fact.

But none of the above surprises me in the least, it's just nice to see
it spelled out in black and white now and then, to vindicate the stand
against gangsters like Microsoft.

The sad thing is, no matter how much you polish a turd, it remains a turd.
Interesting article, why doesn't Microsoft/Nokia's behavior surprise me?

RonB
Registered Linux User #498581
CentOS 5.7 or VectorLinux Deluxe 6.0
or Linux Mint 10

Homer wrote:

Busted:

[quote]
Last Friday, I wrote an article about the newly launched Nokia Lumia
800. The article was aimed to educate and inform readers and buyers
about this latest smartphone from Nokia so that they could make a smart
decision. However, this review ruffled some feathers and we saw an
orchestrated pile of comments. The common factor in all these comments
was use of abusive language that explains the motive.

However, the surprise came when I decided to check the origin of these
comments. The first comments that appeared were posted by none other
than the employees and associates of Nokia and Microsoft. Especially one
commentator, Harish, who later realised his mistake of posting comment
from his official IP address (from India) and changed it later, is the
one who had written the maximum (nine so far) abusive posts. I wonder,
if this is called good PR practice at Nokia and whether they believe
that everything can be bought like the ad-extravaganza they created in
newspapers and TV channels?
[/quote]

http://www.moneylife.in/article/nok...ne-review-

draws-ire-from-nokia-and-microsoft-employees/22283.html

The trolls in COLA scoff at the suggestion they're also hired shills,
but clearly this is fairly common. In fact I'd bet most pro-Microsoft
nastygrams on the Web come directly from Microsoft. Average Joe knows
too little about GNU/Linux to really care, certainly not to the point
of launching a vicious tirade against it. Most Android users probably
don't even know its Linux underneath, and Windows users merely endure
the daily rigours of Windows, they're disinclined to "evangelise" it.
So who are these vicious attack dogs, that spring-up in such a timely
fashion, every time someone writes anything negative about Microsoft,
it's products or "partners", or anything positive about GNU/Linux?

[quote]
Waggener Edstrom Worldwide Rapid Response Team

...

Burson-Marsteller
Washington, DC
[/quote]

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/...tacts.mspx

Waggener Edstrom explains its "Perception Management" services:

[transcript]
Uncontrolled buzz can dramatically change perceptions of your brand.

...

The Narrative Network mines online dialogue and traditional media, even
foreign language media, for mentions of your brand, your company, your
key executives and your competitors. Then using a social networking
algorithm, it associates what they say about your brand.

...

While we monitor your narrative network over time, or before and after a
product launch or PR announcement, we will find new branches of a story
[graphic flashes the phrase "Negative PR"].

This allows us to measure effectiveness of the PR messaging, and insert
new messages or themes into your brand storyline, and deploy the right
resources to keep the story on message, or adjust tactics to manage
perceptions.
[/transcript]

http://www.waggeneredstrom.com/nn/demo/index.html

And as for Microsoft's other shill agency, Burson-Marsteller:

[quote]
BUSTED: It Was FACEBOOK That Hired A Former CNBC Reporter To Spread Lies
About Google

The social network secretly hired a PR firm to plant negative stories
about the search giant, The Daily Beast's Dan Lyons reveals—a caper that
is blowing up in their face, and escalating their war.

For the past few days, a mystery has been unfolding in Silicon Valley.
Somebody, it seems, hired Burson-Marsteller, a top public-relations
firm, to pitch anti-Google stories to newspapers, urging them to
investigate claims that Google was invading people’s privacy. Burson
even offered to help an influential blogger write a Google-bashing
op-ed, which it promised it could place in outlets like The Washington
Post, Politico, and The Huffington Post.

The plot backfired when the blogger turned down Burson’s offer and
posted the emails that Burson had sent him. It got worse when USA Today
broke a story accusing Burson of spreading a “whisper campaign” about
Google “on behalf of an unnamed client.”
[/quote]

http://www.businessinsider.com/face...ies-2011-5

And who is Facebook's closest ally?

[quote]
As Google grows ever more powerful in techdom, and Microsoft's influence
slips, the Redmond software giant is building closer and closer ties to
Facebook. The Facebook-Skype deal today is more evidence that Microsoft
and Facebook are in lockstep as they fight their mutual foe, Google. And
it comes even while Microsoft awaits regulatory approval to conclude its
Skype acquisition.
[/quote]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-2...skype-and-

microsofts-savvy-investment/

Clearly we're well beyond the point of having to debate whether or not
Microsoft astroturfing is a "conspiracy theory". It's a palpable fact.

But none of the above surprises me in the least, it's just nice to see
it spelled out in black and white now and then, to vindicate the stand
against gangsters like Microsoft.

Asstroturfer offerings
-


I've just read the contents of the fbo.gov solicitation RTB220610

The US government wants asstroturfers and with it sophisticated
asstroturfing technology to drown out democratic free speech,
and then hide from those whom it seeks to victimize.

It was point no.3 that caught my eye:
0003- Static IP Address Management

What that means is the same as what I've been saying for a while about
doofi, flatcake and clog are true.

They are not individuals but a whole asstroturfing team
behind each sock puppet.

There isn't enough memory between the sock operators to know
or remember what had been said earlier so you know the
conversations are being typed out by multiple individuals
impersonating each other.
It was notable gaffs by the goofy doofy sock that first gave it away.

The asstrotufing teams had already gone into government and offered them
consulting services about what technology and asstroturfing
practices were out there for fbo.gov to decide what they will
purchase in solicitation RTB220610.


:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D



https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportu...orm&idØ8e9d660336be91552fe8c1a51bacb2&tab=core&_cview=1

Solicitation Number: RTB220610
Notice Type: Sources Sought
Synopsis: Added: 2010-06-22 13:42:52Jun 22, 2010 1:42 pm
Modified: 2010-06-22 14:07:11Jun 22, 2010 2:07 pmTrack Changes

0001- Online Persona Management Service.

50 User Licenses, 10 Personas per user. Software will
allow 10 personas per user, replete with background,
history, supporting details, and cyber presences
that are technically, culturally and geographacilly
consistent. Individual applications will enable an
operator to exercise a number of different online
persons from the same workstation and without fear
of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries.
Personas must be able to appear to originate in
nearly any part of the world and can interact through
conventional online services and social media platforms.
The service includes a user friendly application
environment to maximize the user's situational
awareness by displaying real-time local information.


0002- Secure Virtual Private Network (VPN).

1 each VPN provides the ability for users to
daily and automatically obtain
randomly selected IP addresses through
which they can access the internet. The daily
rotation of the user s IP address prevents compromise
during observation of likely or targeted web sites
or services, while hiding the existence of the
operation. In addition, may provide traffic mixing,
blending the user s traffic with traffic from multitudes
of users from outside the organization. This traffic
blending provides excellent cover and powerful deniability.
Anonymizer Enterprise Chameleon or equal


0003- Static IP Address Management.


:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D


50 each Licence protects the identity of government
agencies and enterprise organizations. Enables organizations
to manage their persistent online personas by assigning
static IP addresses to each persona. Individuals
can perform static impersonations, which allow
them to look like the same person over time. Also allows
organizations that frequent same site/service often to
easily switch IP addresses to look like ordinary
users as opposed to one organization.
Anonymizer IP Mapper License or equal

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D


0004- Virtual Private Servers,

CONUS. 1 each Provides CONUS or OCONUS points of
presence locations that are setup for each customer
based on the geographic area of operations the
customer is operating within and which allow a
customer?s online persona(s) to appear to originate
from. Ability to provide virtual private servers that
are procured using commercial hosting centers around
the world and which are established anonymously. Once
procured, the geosite is incorporated into the network
and integrated within the customers environment and
ready for use by the customer. Unless specifically
designated as shared, locations are dedicated for use
by each customer and never shared among other customers.
Anonymizer Annual Dedicated CONUS Light Geosite or equal


0005- Virtual Private Servers, OCONUS.

8 Each Provides CONUS or OCONUS points of presence
locations that are setup for each customer based on
the geographic area of operations the customer is
operating within and which allow a customer?s
online persona(s) to appear toWas it related to drug abuse?

originate from. Ability to provide virtual private
servers that are procured using commercial hosting
centers around the world and which are established
anonymously. Once procured, the geosite is incorporated
into the network and integrated within the customers
environment and ready for use by the customer. Unless
specifically designated as shared, locations are dedicated
for use by each customer and never shared among other
customers. Anonymizer Annual Dedicated OCONUS Light ell troll, i
Geosite or equal


0006- Remote Access Secure Virtual Private Network.

1 each Secure Operating Environment provides a reliable
and protected computing environment from which to stage
and conduct operations. Every session uses a clean
Virtual Machine (VM) image. The solution is accessed
through sets of Virtual Private Network (VPN) devices
located at each Customer facility. The fully-managed
VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) is an environment
that allows users remote access from their desktop into
a VM. Upon session termination, the VM is deleted and
any virus, worm, or malicious software that the user
inadvertently downloaded is destroyed. Anonymizer
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Solution or equal.


Contracting Office Address:
2606 Brown Pelican Ave.
MacDill AFB, Florida 33621-5000
United States
Lets start this troll interrogation again:
Place of Performance:
Performance will be at MacDIll AFB, Kabul, Afghanistan and Baghdad, Iraq.
MacDill AFB , Florida 33679
United States

Primary Point of Contact.:
Russell Beasley,
Contracting Officer

Phone: (813) 828-4729
Fax: (813) 828-5111

Homer wrote this copyrighted missive and expects royalties:

Busted:

[quote]
Last Friday, I wrote an article about the newly launched Nokia Lumia
800. The article was aimed to educate and inform readers and buyers
about this latest smartphone from Nokia so that they could make a smart
decision. However, this review ruffled some feathers and we saw an
orchestrated pile of comments. The common factor in all these comments
was use of abusive language that explains the motive.

However, the surprise came when I decided to check the origin of these
comments. The first comments that appeared were posted by none other
than the employees and associates of Nokia and Microsoft. Especially one
commentator, Harish, who later realised his mistake of posting comment
from his official IP address (from India) and changed it later, is the
one who had written the maximum (nine so far) abusive posts. I wonder,
if this is called good PR practice at Nokia and whether they believe
that everything can be bought like the ad-extravaganza they created in
newspapers and TV channels?
[/quote]

http://www.moneylife.in/article/nok...22283.html

The review:

http://www.moneylife.in/article/nok...22244.html

One comment:

fuck you 3 days ago
What a crap review. You're reviewning a phone you haven't even seen
and haven't even seen ClearBlack amoled but are saying the GS2 is
better...just because?

NEVER REVIEW A NOKIA PRODUCT AGAIN YOU DOUCHE

You can read the rest of the flamefest yerselves.

And it has the advantage of being easily transferable. Poor Qregory
Shearman - showing off that he installed a database once!
Guffaw. Trivial stuff and nothing to be proud of...