by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2011/06/27 07:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2011/06/27/10163649.aspx
Regular readers may recall my conspiracy theory series and some of its early parts.
Like Anti-Microsoft conspiracy theories are fun #3 (aka Why the hell can't they just update Uniscribe?).
You may have seen some of the other parts, it depends on your clearance level....
:-)
Anyway, I wanted to point out recent news stories like Yemen passport holder sparks US flight security scare.
Which make it clear that Microsoft's efforts to foil the terrorists continue apace!
Okay, hold on. That's all way too silly.
Never mind.
Maybe we should talk about the notion of anti-Microsoft conspiracy theories for a bit.
Do people really buy these anymore?
I don't mean the "tin foil hats to block the satellites" crowd, I mean the regular people.
If one argues that it was misbehavior and/or the appearance of misbehavior that led to the whole "Microsoft is Evil" thing that drives the less crazy conspiracy theories, it seems like the conceptual torch has largely been passed.
Mostly it seems folks have moved on to the "crazy" stuff Apple and Google and Facebook are doing. You know, as they find their own ethical compasses to determine the right balance between making customers happy (by giving them compelling features) and freaking customers out (by breaking laws and/or trust).
I mean, we all know that each of these companies wield a huge amount of influence, and we know that each has had missteps. I've witnessed enough from the inside of such situaions that I'm willing to give each company some leeway when it comes to ascribing evil motives -- I mean, most of the time even the people with vision don't see the full consequences. We usually just read about it after someone steps in it, on some gaffe or another.
I really don't want to write about anti-Apple or anti-Google or anti-Facebook conspiracies though. There's no point (you can get plenty of that elsewhere).
So probably I'll just stick with the Microsoft stuff.
Though conspirascy theories seem less and less interesting....
Alex Cohn on 2 Jul 2011 8:09 AM:
What is the connection between Yemeni passport and Microsoft?
Michael S. Kaplan on 2 Jul 2011 9:56 AM:
Depends on whether you believe in the conspiracy or not!