Dvorak Sees MS Conspiracy Against BitTorrent 373
kilgortrout writes "Dvorak has an interesting editorial up, where he links the recent stories of alleged 'security problems' and 'spyware problems' bittorent has been having with the recent MS announcement of research into a file sharing app called 'Avalanche'. concluding it's all part of an orchestrated MS disinformation campaign against BitTorrent." From the article: "The problem is that no big company controls it, and Microsoft, asleep at the wheel, let it slip too long to do much about it. So now I suspect Microsoft is playing dirty to discredit the thing. There is no other explanation for the recent series of coincidental stories and events." Especially interesting in light of Bram Cohen's take on the situation.
Ummm (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless they were a... *gasp* coincidence.
Why would bittorrent be the P2P app that scares MS? What about Napster, or Kazza? Those were around years ago. This makes no sense to me.
But can you get pornography from Avalanche? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sheer Brilliance (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft can MAKE Avalanch happen (Score:5, Insightful)
Step 1. Include support in IIS (via Patch)
Step 2. Include support for it in IE (via Patch)
Step 3. DONE!
Re:Ummm (Score:5, Insightful)
Bittorrent is anywhere, I can post a torrent link here and have 1000s of people all getting the latest and greatest(!?) version of Windows.
Also, don't forget, its now becoming routine for people to download nice cd/dvd sized ISO files
They didn't care when it took hundreds of hours per disk.
A Dvorak flood? (Score:3, Insightful)
I hope not. I read Dvorak from 1984 onward when he was in his PC Magazine glory. Fun times, stupid boldfacing of seemingly random characters and all. But man, has this guy gone downhill. Now he seems to be throwing darts at a board labled, "Insult Apple," "Insult Linux," "Insult Random Somebody," and then sit back and wait for the hits. Posting links to /. is to just fall into his lazy scheme.
Let's not make this a regular feature, that's all I'm asking. I know where to find Mr. Dvorak's words, and I know enough not to wander there.
I agree (Score:3, Insightful)
answering your own question (Score:3, Insightful)
Except that maybe it is all just coincidence, just like he says. Not everything is a conspiracy, sometimes things just happen.
Somebody must care what he says! (Score:3, Insightful)
Forced into using DRM (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, on the same note, it's in our best interest to put a large amount of effort into relying on free information and non proprietary technology as much as possible.
Spyware and virii (Score:3, Insightful)
If you are running a win32 variant, you basically need patches on almost a daily basis. The closed nature of the software demands you get these patches from Microsoft. (Which must have one hell of a bandwidth bill and could actually use a BT like technology for cost reasons alone.)
There is nothing like having a distribution channel your customers (read cattle) must make use of. Works just like our own government does. Attach something they don't really want or need to a spending bill (or totally important security patch) and you are off to the races!
Of course they can make it happen. The bigger question is will they get it right?
obvious? (Score:5, Insightful)
If you haven't noticed, the outsiders (a.k.a
Joe-Users, common people, ignorant sheep, etc) didn't believe Microsoft was insecure - at least until the most recent exploits.
They think that Microsoft is Good, and also that machines are just good because they have "Intel Inside".
They do NOT know about Microsoft's monopolic practices (and I'm not talking about embedding IE inside Windows), the FUD of SCO vs Linux, the danger of software patents, etc. etc.
But I remember one thing from my old days of computer user. My dad bought PC Magazine and used to read John C. Dvorak's columns. Who were written for common people, not for unix über-geeks.
Sure, his statements might be obvious to us. But not for the outside world. And I'm glad that he tells this stuff so common people can find out.
(Now if only he spoke against software patents...)
Re:But can you get pornography from Avalanche? (Score:3, Insightful)
Indeed, Blizzard [blizzard.com] uses Bittorrent to distribute patches for World of Warcraft [worldofwarcraft.com].
Re:Why does MS care? (Score:2, Insightful)
All the Dvorak bashing aside... (Score:4, Insightful)
Why is this important? This article will now be referenced on all the major news sites, and will work as counter-FUD. That's the good thing with sensationalist guys like Dvorak. He writes interesting and scandalous things (from a journalist point of view) and sometimes he actually get it right.
Re:BitTorrent IS the dominant protocol on the Net (Score:5, Insightful)
No explanation? (Score:5, Insightful)
Except for "coincidence".
Re: Sheer Brilliance (Score:1, Insightful)
I've heard it mentioned ocassionally, but don't know what this 'goatse' thing is all about.
Anyone got a link, so I can look into the matter?Re:This is Microsoft RESEARCH! (Score:3, Insightful)
I suggest you read the paper -- it's a nice idea, even if it has not yet been perfectly evaluated.
People around here seem to share Dvorak's gross misunderstanding of what research papers are all about. They are NOT product announcements!
Re:This is Microsoft RESEARCH! (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm not trying to flame, but do you have any fucking clue what parc (mac/windows gui&mice+more), Bell Labs(Big bang research, phones, unix, so much more), ibm research (hard drives, memory, halography, ad nauseum) do?
Oh and lets look at MSR:
uhh, they uhh, they made this cool calender with address book i saw on cnet once in 2000, i don't think it's been released. oh and something with making phones work with computers. also they told us once that computers are badly organized and they had a better way to make everything work.
hmmm.
no seriously, MSR is less than a fucking joke, and tend to stay away from any research that could actually make any kind of difference in the world. The closest i've seen is some papers showing how new algorithms would make searching or file storage better with nothing to actually back it up. You don't do real research when you have a monopoly, innovation undermines your monopoly because it causes change, which is always perceived to be bad for you.
Oh yeah, most of those companies gave their work away to the community as part of their research program. MSR gives their shit to billg to stick in his super-digital house and show off how cool it is to reporters, but never let it into the real world, kinda like the ark in Raiders.
MS Research, talk about a contradiction in terms.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It killed a company I worked for. (Score:3, Insightful)
MSR does some wonderfull language research. (Score:3, Insightful)
C# and
But do not take my word for it, go see for yourself: http://research.microsoft.com/ppt/ [microsoft.com]