Can I have my evil back?

December 15, 2005 By

Ross Mayfield talks about evil and marketing. I’ve been telling my friends that two kids from Stanford stole our evil and we want it back, damn it!

I didn’t realize that Wikipedia is evil, though. Damn, there goes my whole belief system. Oh, turn around evil and you get live. Hmmm, the opposite of evil is live. Yeah, don’t play that record backward. You might hear Steve Jobs saying that he’s loving Intel. ;-)

Speaking of Wikipedia, Dan Gillmor points to Nature Investigation that finds it comes close to Britannica in terms of the accuracy of its science entries.

Now that certainly isn’t evil.

Oh, and putting “Microsoft is Evil” finds 5,860 results on MSN Search. Putting “Google is Evil” in only finds 3,650 results. Ahh, we’re almost twice as evil as Google. Whew, our evil is safe for another day.

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  • http://www.ms-inc.net/ Jon

    I think you’re on to something! Sarcastically (or even enthusiastically) claiming its ammunition as our own ammunition has always been about the best possible way to undermine mindless emotional hatred and bigotry. That’s a mouthful, eh? lol

  • http://www.ms-inc.net Jon

    I think you’re on to something! Sarcastically (or even enthusiastically) claiming its ammunition as our own ammunition has always been about the best possible way to undermine mindless emotional hatred and bigotry. That’s a mouthful, eh? lol

  • Karim

    LOL

    I see a movie called “How Scoble Got His Evil Back…”

    Perhaps “evil” is a natural consequence of dealing with what one man once famously called “frickin’ idiots.” While it is true that not all evil people are geniuses, it is not clear whether all geniuses are evil….

    Plus I’ve always wondered whether those two Stanford kids’ admonition to “don’t *be* evil” left enough legal wiggle room to *do* evil. One may paint without claiming to be a painter per se. Similarly, perhaps one may commit evil without actually *being* evil. Perhaps I should ask a lawyer….

  • Karim

    LOL

    I see a movie called “How Scoble Got His Evil Back…”

    Perhaps “evil” is a natural consequence of dealing with what one man once famously called “frickin’ idiots.” While it is true that not all evil people are geniuses, it is not clear whether all geniuses are evil….

    Plus I’ve always wondered whether those two Stanford kids’ admonition to “don’t *be* evil” left enough legal wiggle room to *do* evil. One may paint without claiming to be a painter per se. Similarly, perhaps one may commit evil without actually *being* evil. Perhaps I should ask a lawyer….

  • J. Random Poster

    People consider MS evil for several reasons.

    First of all, there’s the simple fact of the criminal acts that MS has been convicted of. Secondly, there are the many other criminal acts which MS bought its way out of, such as the software piracy of CP/M, Stacker, Apple, and others. Thirdly, there’s the fact that MS has a habit of going apeshit when anyone else makes money (Google being the latest case in point).

    Lastly, there’s MS’s nasty habit of strangling new businesses in the crib by issuing vaporware announcements. The example that springs to mind, is the way that MS killed the whole pen-based computing industry by pretending that “pen windows” was a serious effort, rather than the joke that the “tablet PC” has turned out to be.

    But, as bad as MS has been for the industry and its customers, the end is in sight. Just like IBM in the mid 1980′s, MS is rapidly losing its coercive power. Windows Vista will be the most obvious crack in the façade, as your customers realize that after six or seven years of promises, all you’ll really ship will be XP with a skin that tries to look a bit more like the Mac (again).

    I hope my timing is good, buying those long-term puts on MSFT. I have one friend who got rich shorting MSFT a couple of years ago, and you’ve still got quite a ways to fall. Have a nice trip!

  • J. Random Poster

    People consider MS evil for several reasons.

    First of all, there’s the simple fact of the criminal acts that MS has been convicted of. Secondly, there are the many other criminal acts which MS bought its way out of, such as the software piracy of CP/M, Stacker, Apple, and others. Thirdly, there’s the fact that MS has a habit of going apeshit when anyone else makes money (Google being the latest case in point).

    Lastly, there’s MS’s nasty habit of strangling new businesses in the crib by issuing vaporware announcements. The example that springs to mind, is the way that MS killed the whole pen-based computing industry by pretending that “pen windows” was a serious effort, rather than the joke that the “tablet PC” has turned out to be.

    But, as bad as MS has been for the industry and its customers, the end is in sight. Just like IBM in the mid 1980′s, MS is rapidly losing its coercive power. Windows Vista will be the most obvious crack in the façade, as your customers realize that after six or seven years of promises, all you’ll really ship will be XP with a skin that tries to look a bit more like the Mac (again).

    I hope my timing is good, buying those long-term puts on MSFT. I have one friend who got rich shorting MSFT a couple of years ago, and you’ve still got quite a ways to fall. Have a nice trip!

  • http://www.thinkjose.com/ thinkjose

    If we can’t make fun of ourselves then why bother at all.

    Thanks for the laughs – great insight by the way and evil is so relative anyways.

  • http://www.thinkjose.com thinkjose

    If we can’t make fun of ourselves then why bother at all.

    Thanks for the laughs – great insight by the way and evil is so relative anyways.

  • Christopher Coulter

    Top six ways for MFST to be less evil.

    1. Dump Wagged, get new blood in. Wagged is half MFSTs problem, imho, in terms of perception. Arrogant as all out, appointing legions of dimwit college kids as SME’s.
    2. Centralize, stop being so ever-changing-story chaotic.
    3. Pick a roadmap and stick to it. Stop lying.
    4. Stop double-charging, aka Software Assurance.
    5. Overhaul marketing away from the geeks and early adopters.
    6. Do some Launch of something, anything, that is glitch-free and not a trainwreck of epic portions. The only Launch I can think of that fits that mold would be Halo 2, and technically that’s not even real MFST.

  • Christopher Coulter

    Top six ways for MFST to be less evil.

    1. Dump Wagged, get new blood in. Wagged is half MFSTs problem, imho, in terms of perception. Arrogant as all out, appointing legions of dimwit college kids as SME’s.
    2. Centralize, stop being so ever-changing-story chaotic.
    3. Pick a roadmap and stick to it. Stop lying.
    4. Stop double-charging, aka Software Assurance.
    5. Overhaul marketing away from the geeks and early adopters.
    6. Do some Launch of something, anything, that is glitch-free and not a trainwreck of epic portions. The only Launch I can think of that fits that mold would be Halo 2, and technically that’s not even real MFST.

  • Christopher Coulter

    * Well the Halo 2 metal-case IP lawsuit, didn’t make it perfectly flawless. But close enough.

  • Christopher Coulter

    * Well the Halo 2 metal-case IP lawsuit, didn’t make it perfectly flawless. But close enough.

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