Leaked Microsoft E-Mails: The Gift that Keeps On Giving
It's just what I wanted! How did they know?
Seriously, are you guys following the trail of de-cloaked internal Microsoft e-mails that's coming out of this class-action lawsuit over the whole Vista Capable thing? Slashdot keeps picking up the news stories -- for example, here, here, here and here. They just keep on coming. I live in the Mac-verse, mostly, so I don't actually have strong opinions about Vista, or much of a horse in this race. But oh God the drama!
A lot of the kerfuffle seems to have to do with Microsoft lowering the specs necessary for a PC to get a Vista Capable rating, a move designed to help out their close corporate chums Intel, but which had the effect of screwing certain other partners, and -- it could be argued -- consumers.
Here for example is Microsoft/s Jim Allchin -- at the time Microsoft's Windows czar -- e-mailing Ballmer:
... I was away and I get back to see this mess.
I was told this all started with a call between you and Paul [meaning Intel CEO Paul Otellini]. I will have to get to the bottom of this and understand how we could be so insensitive in handling the situation.
Ballmer comes back with this:
I had nothing to do with this Will [meaning Will Poole, another Windows-related exec] handled everything I received a message that paul was going to call Will said he would handle it Paul called I had not even had a chance to report his issues when Will told me he had solved them (it did not sound like he had) I am not even in the detail of the issues
You better get will under control thanks
Thanks!
It goes on and on like that. I'm not even saying I think it's funny. I just think it's amazing that people e-mail each other like this.
It definitely won't be funny if anybody ever files a class-action lawsuit against Time and people got to read my e-mails. There would be nothing funny about that.
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It might be a little funny...
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To: selman@simpson.com
From: levg@time.comSelman,
I don't know what kind of crap you're pulling, but when we took you in during the writer's strike, I was promised a cameo on The Simpsons. Now that you've got your old job back, you've forgotten all about our deal. I can get any of these geeks who comment to blog about this crap for free. (Honestly, how many more posts am I going to have to do about Watchmen??) So I better see a sketch of what I'm going to look like on the show soon, and I want lots of scenes with Homer.
Get it done!
Lev -
Oops. Didn't think about them coming up as real email links. Hope this isn't a small joke that goes horribly wrong. Apologies in advance to anyone who actually has those emails.
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Should completely have been leverus@time.com, but otherwise props.
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Gah! Hit me with a spiky club, I followed you right off the cliff. -_-;
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Dammit, I can't recall that 'chunky-something' address that Selman referenced a ways back. Comedy fail...
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@Kemper - outstanding work!
It's actually quite frightening that some of the biggest corporations in the country send emails back and forth like this. After years of having proper work etiquette and decorum drilled into our heads - and then to see this type of behavior at the top. Kinda makes you stop and think...WTF?!?!?!
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The tone and attitude being presented from those emails is bad enough, however, I am most amazed that the CEO of America's largest software developer lacks a keyboard with punctuation keys.
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Those ones were tame by comparison. The ones blasting Microsoft from other companies were hilarious. They completely dropped the ball there and got bitched at hard.
Also Ballmer doesn't know how to type, which is somehow perfect
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Ballmer types like he's a stool pigeon getting interrogated in a room with two hard boiled cops and a bright light.
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I suppose we shouldn't see Ballmer's emphasis on confusing layout, disregard for visual cues, ignorance of human interaction standards, and unedited first-draft rehash of others' work as a metaphor for Windows.
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