Ahh, so someone at Microsoft made a mistake and didn’t correctly use an image from Niall Kennedy’s feed from Flickr (or didn’t pay attention to the Creative Commons license agreement). So, what did Niall do? Did he call up one of his former co-workers at Microsoft and explain that he was pissed and get the problem taken care of nicely and behind closed doors? No.
He replaced the image with a porn image, Todd Bishop at the Seattle PI reports.
I’m sure that gets everyone 16 and under to laugh, but is that really the best way that Niall could have gotten the image taken down?
I don’t think so. Unprofessional, especially for someone who used to work at Microsoft.
Remember Niall, maybe someday this Web 2.0 bubble will end and you might need to go back to a company and look for a job. I know that doesn’t seem probable right now, but I’ve been there.
Burn bridges if you want, but I’ve learned over and over that people remember this kind of treatment and it certainly never disappears from Google. All three of my last job interviews had people looking over Google for unprofessional stuff like this to bring up in the interviews. And, all big companies have people who used to work at Microsoft so that bridge you’re blowing up? Might turn out to be the one you need to cross in the future.
UPDATE: Someone on the RSS team just IM’ed me and said that the RSS team was never contacted about this issue.
Scobleizer 
I’m in agreement here. Seems rather cruel. I mean that doesn’t really hurt MS the entity, but the poor guy who made the error. And, it’s not like it’s not an easy error to make as blogs FEEL personal and non-commercial, even when that’s not the case.
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I’m in agreement here. Seems rather cruel. I mean that doesn’t really hurt MS the entity, but the poor guy who made the error. And, it’s not like it’s not an easy error to make as blogs FEEL personal and non-commercial, even when that’s not the case.
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I just think that it doesn’t really hurt the MS fame about having a little disrespect for what is open(as in free speech).
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I just think that it doesn’t really hurt the MS fame about having a little disrespect for what is open(as in free speech).
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Osman: well, if Niall wasn’t a Microsoft employee I might have agreed. But, now all a potential hiring manager will see is conduct after leaving, which will raise all sorts of red flags.
I don’t get what being nice and professional has to do with free speech anyway. This wasn’t a free speech issue. It was an intellectual property control issue. Easily taken care of, if you want, with a single email to the right guy.
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Osman: well, if Niall wasn’t a Microsoft employee I might have agreed. But, now all a potential hiring manager will see is conduct after leaving, which will raise all sorts of red flags.
I don’t get what being nice and professional has to do with free speech anyway. This wasn’t a free speech issue. It was an intellectual property control issue. Easily taken care of, if you want, with a single email to the right guy.
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Oh boo hoo for Microsoft. Someone described what Niall has done as ‘unprofessional’…
…yeah so what? It’s not like Niall was working for them in a ‘professional’ capacity at the time. Do we have to be ‘professional’ and on our best behaviour *all* the time?
Sure you might be ‘burning bridges’ by exercising that choice to be unprofessional, but equally I’d to think that people would hire/not hire me based on my work not on what I choose to do in my spare time and on my personal blog.
Sure these issues, and that aspiration, are nothing new – but I does frustrate me that people feel the need to keep their *entire life* ‘squeeky clean’ in order not to fuck up their potential career.
We’re human beings, and a bit of out-of-work mischeif doesn’t make me any less capable of doing a given job.
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Oh boo hoo for Microsoft. Someone described what Niall has done as ‘unprofessional’…
…yeah so what? It’s not like Niall was working for them in a ‘professional’ capacity at the time. Do we have to be ‘professional’ and on our best behaviour *all* the time?
Sure you might be ‘burning bridges’ by exercising that choice to be unprofessional, but equally I’d to think that people would hire/not hire me based on my work not on what I choose to do in my spare time and on my personal blog.
Sure these issues, and that aspiration, are nothing new – but I does frustrate me that people feel the need to keep their *entire life* ‘squeeky clean’ in order not to fuck up their potential career.
We’re human beings, and a bit of out-of-work mischeif doesn’t make me any less capable of doing a given job.
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Ben: yes. Most people will find that being professional serves them long term better than being a jerk.
And, what you do IN PUBLIC to former employers (or future ones), does define professionalism for many of us.
Thanks to Google it all sticks around.
So, if you don’t want your unprofessionalism to be considered when you need a job (and not all of us are in the boat where we never need to worry about that) then keep it off the Internet and out of Google.
Now, being “unprofessional” for some of us means more work. Just see http://www.gapingvoid.com for examples of such.
But, word does get around when you’re a jerk to other people and it does make your professional life harder.
And I know you know what I’m talking about, Ben. 🙂
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Ben: yes. Most people will find that being professional serves them long term better than being a jerk.
And, what you do IN PUBLIC to former employers (or future ones), does define professionalism for many of us.
Thanks to Google it all sticks around.
So, if you don’t want your unprofessionalism to be considered when you need a job (and not all of us are in the boat where we never need to worry about that) then keep it off the Internet and out of Google.
Now, being “unprofessional” for some of us means more work. Just see http://www.gapingvoid.com for examples of such.
But, word does get around when you’re a jerk to other people and it does make your professional life harder.
And I know you know what I’m talking about, Ben. 🙂
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Does the fact that the image was replaced with a pornographic one make it worse? What if he had replaced it with some text that say, I don’t know… Microsoft are thieves! or anything other than porn. Would it make a difference? Maybe the porn makes it seem worse (seedy) and garners more of a reaction from people.
But in general I agree with you Robert. He could have simply mentioned in his blog that they used an image of his without regard for the licensing of that image. That would have been enough negative press against Microsoft and Niall gotten his point across without seeming vindictive.
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Does the fact that the image was replaced with a pornographic one make it worse? What if he had replaced it with some text that say, I don’t know… Microsoft are thieves! or anything other than porn. Would it make a difference? Maybe the porn makes it seem worse (seedy) and garners more of a reaction from people.
But in general I agree with you Robert. He could have simply mentioned in his blog that they used an image of his without regard for the licensing of that image. That would have been enough negative press against Microsoft and Niall gotten his point across without seeming vindictive.
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Actually Microsoft servers have been sending e-mails from my domain to the Junk Mail folder for some time now. I had a few options, and posted a big Creative Commons logo on an image. Nothing pornographic was shown in the picture, just a guy’s back with a big CC logo covering his rear.
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Actually Microsoft servers have been sending e-mails from my domain to the Junk Mail folder for some time now. I had a few options, and posted a big Creative Commons logo on an image. Nothing pornographic was shown in the picture, just a guy’s back with a big CC logo covering his rear.
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Oh, and I received no IM or e-mail from Robert to check these facts either.
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Diego: if it were me, I’d just send an email to Dean Hachamovitch. Niall should know his email address, or be able to find it.
If they didn’t pull it down (or pay a licensing fee) then I might try something smart.
But he sure did miss a good opportunity to really have some fun.
Imagine if he put a “Firefox is a better browser than IE” message on it?
I mean, if you’re gonna blow up the bridge, at least do it in style!
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Oh, and I received no IM or e-mail from Robert to check these facts either.
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Diego: if it were me, I’d just send an email to Dean Hachamovitch. Niall should know his email address, or be able to find it.
If they didn’t pull it down (or pay a licensing fee) then I might try something smart.
But he sure did miss a good opportunity to really have some fun.
Imagine if he put a “Firefox is a better browser than IE” message on it?
I mean, if you’re gonna blow up the bridge, at least do it in style!
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“Oh, and I received no IM or e-mail from Robert to check these facts either”
Funny…didn’t Robert just rail on something about this recently…about calling and checking facts or something?
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Niall: Touche! It was in mainstream media, though, and I didn’t see any fact refutation on your blog.
But, if you ever need to call someone at Microsoft, the phone number is 425-882-8080. Or, call Frank Shaw at Waggener Edstrom, who runs PR. He has a blog.
But, did you leave a comment on their blogs saying “I have a PR problem and a legal problem for you that I need to get through to someone about?”
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Niall: Touche! It was in mainstream media, though, and I didn’t see any fact refutation on your blog.
But, if you ever need to call someone at Microsoft, the phone number is 425-882-8080. Or, call Frank Shaw at Waggener Edstrom, who runs PR. He has a blog.
But, did you leave a comment on their blogs saying “I have a PR problem and a legal problem for you that I need to get through to someone about?”
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“Oh, and I received no IM or e-mail from Robert to check these facts either”
Funny…didn’t Robert just rail on something about this recently…about calling and checking facts or something?
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PXLated: good point, but there are several reports of this on the Internet and the Seattle Post Intelligencer does fact checking before even publishing blogs.
The image that Niall used was the “goatse” one which was partially covered up. But that image is pornographic and the message it sends is FAR deeper than a simple ‘please don’t use my images’ one.
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PXLated: good point, but there are several reports of this on the Internet and the Seattle Post Intelligencer does fact checking before even publishing blogs.
The image that Niall used was the “goatse” one which was partially covered up. But that image is pornographic and the message it sends is FAR deeper than a simple ‘please don’t use my images’ one.
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Niall, Although the details don’t make you sound as bad, I have to agree with Robert that it wasn’t the best thing to do.
This is too tight a network of people to potentially burn bridges.
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Niall, Although the details don’t make you sound as bad, I have to agree with Robert that it wasn’t the best thing to do.
This is too tight a network of people to potentially burn bridges.
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I say good on him for doing it. I’m sure Microsoft does not contact people personally if they are using a non validated version of Windows (breaking the licensing agreement) so why is it so wrong for a guy to defend his images that are being used in contradiction to the licensing agreement with similar tactics as WGA?
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I say good on him for doing it. I’m sure Microsoft does not contact people personally if they are using a non validated version of Windows (breaking the licensing agreement) so why is it so wrong for a guy to defend his images that are being used in contradiction to the licensing agreement with similar tactics as WGA?
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Scoble, I use this technique all the time. Typically my personal codes of conduct are that I warn them once, and if the image is still not given credit or taken down, then I replace it with a porn image. I was about to do it to one blogger last month but then realized that more than 1 person had linked to that image so I was just left to piss and moan over a douchebag who stole my photography.
Unprofessional or not, if you’re not getting a paycheck from them, then fuck it, they should know better (but I still believe in giving a warning first). As for burning bridges, perhaps… but I imagine Microsoft burned down their bridge with Niall before he made sure to blow up any remaining pieces. Perhaps some ex-Microsofties might be offended and never want to talk to Niall, but I imagine most are giggling on the inside.
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Scoble, I use this technique all the time. Typically my personal codes of conduct are that I warn them once, and if the image is still not given credit or taken down, then I replace it with a porn image. I was about to do it to one blogger last month but then realized that more than 1 person had linked to that image so I was just left to piss and moan over a douchebag who stole my photography.
Unprofessional or not, if you’re not getting a paycheck from them, then fuck it, they should know better (but I still believe in giving a warning first). As for burning bridges, perhaps… but I imagine Microsoft burned down their bridge with Niall before he made sure to blow up any remaining pieces. Perhaps some ex-Microsofties might be offended and never want to talk to Niall, but I imagine most are giggling on the inside.
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Ariel: well, if you’re right, this issue will never come up again. If you’re wrong, though, we’ll never hear about the jobs that Niall doesn’t get offered.
I’ve already seen people lose opportunities for far less than this, so I’d rather be on the safe side of this line.
In either case, the team says that they never heard from him. Usually Microsoft lawyers are pretty good about getting back on stuff like this because they want to avoid lawsuits and PR stains, if possible.
But, do what you want in public. It’s your life, not mine.
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Ariel: well, if you’re right, this issue will never come up again. If you’re wrong, though, we’ll never hear about the jobs that Niall doesn’t get offered.
I’ve already seen people lose opportunities for far less than this, so I’d rather be on the safe side of this line.
In either case, the team says that they never heard from him. Usually Microsoft lawyers are pretty good about getting back on stuff like this because they want to avoid lawsuits and PR stains, if possible.
But, do what you want in public. It’s your life, not mine.
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I totally think that in hindsight a Firefox logo would have been funnier/cooler…
Also…
“But, did you leave a comment on their blogs saying ‘I have a PR problem and a legal problem for you that I need to get through to someone about?'”
Huh? There’s no way you would get a serious response.
I’m actually curious about though. In about a month after this thing has blown over I’m going to pick a random MS blog and post that comment and see what happens.
Would be an interesting experiment to see if MS legal reviews their own blogs.
One problem is figuring out who to even call. If Niall wanted to receive compensation for the use of his image it would have taken months.
Now of course he could have done a DMCA takedown. That would have been interesting.
The point I’m trying to make is that if MS’s IP were “stolen” they would have been on you in a second but when the reverse is true it’s David vs. Goliath and a bit harder to seek justice.
Good thing I don’t take many pictures of MS employees. 🙂
Kevin
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I totally think that in hindsight a Firefox logo would have been funnier/cooler…
Also…
“But, did you leave a comment on their blogs saying ‘I have a PR problem and a legal problem for you that I need to get through to someone about?'”
Huh? There’s no way you would get a serious response.
I’m actually curious about though. In about a month after this thing has blown over I’m going to pick a random MS blog and post that comment and see what happens.
Would be an interesting experiment to see if MS legal reviews their own blogs.
One problem is figuring out who to even call. If Niall wanted to receive compensation for the use of his image it would have taken months.
Now of course he could have done a DMCA takedown. That would have been interesting.
The point I’m trying to make is that if MS’s IP were “stolen” they would have been on you in a second but when the reverse is true it’s David vs. Goliath and a bit harder to seek justice.
Good thing I don’t take many pictures of MS employees. 🙂
Kevin
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Also….. link baiting by controversy. 🙂
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Also….. link baiting by controversy. 🙂
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“But, do what you want in public. It’s your life, not mine.”
Oh, I completely agree on your side there… hence, I would’ve given Microsoft a warning before pulling something like that. And even then, I’d probably want to file a lawsuit before doing the porn-switcharu. Porn-switcharus should be left for MySpace hipsters who steal your images. More humorous that way.
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“But, do what you want in public. It’s your life, not mine.”
Oh, I completely agree on your side there… hence, I would’ve given Microsoft a warning before pulling something like that. And even then, I’d probably want to file a lawsuit before doing the porn-switcharu. Porn-switcharus should be left for MySpace hipsters who steal your images. More humorous that way.
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Robert, want to review your facts at all?
I contacted Sean Lyndersay, the author of the post, this morning telling him he might want to swap out the image and let him know each of both the CC violation and the Flickr ToS violation. After the image was removed from the Microsoft blog I swapped the original photo back in. Sean replied to my e-mail with his own interpretation of non-commercial.
I’ll be seeing Dean next week.
Seriously, do you have any questions you’d like to ask directly? I post a link to my contact info on every post. Feel free to ask questions.
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Robert, want to review your facts at all?
I contacted Sean Lyndersay, the author of the post, this morning telling him he might want to swap out the image and let him know each of both the CC violation and the Flickr ToS violation. After the image was removed from the Microsoft blog I swapped the original photo back in. Sean replied to my e-mail with his own interpretation of non-commercial.
I’ll be seeing Dean next week.
Seriously, do you have any questions you’d like to ask directly? I post a link to my contact info on every post. Feel free to ask questions.
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Heh, well it certainly raises the awareness of respecting licensing, eh? It was sophomoric, effective, and funny. Got the press, too.
Tomorrow will be a new thing.
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Heh, well it certainly raises the awareness of respecting licensing, eh? It was sophomoric, effective, and funny. Got the press, too.
Tomorrow will be a new thing.
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You have got to be kidding me. Microsoft illegally uses one of Niall’s photos and you are calling him unprofessional!? Come on admit it. It was funny! Any company that wouldn’t hire me for doing something like that isn’t worth working for or with for that matter. We are wasting perfectly good pixels here folks.
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You have got to be kidding me. Microsoft illegally uses one of Niall’s photos and you are calling him unprofessional!? Come on admit it. It was funny! Any company that wouldn’t hire me for doing something like that isn’t worth working for or with for that matter. We are wasting perfectly good pixels here folks.
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Microsoft, attempting to steal something? That’s a new one for sure.
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Microsoft, attempting to steal something? That’s a new one for sure.
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Maybe he should have replaced it with a photo of Britney Spears… um, on second thoughts, that would certainly be considered porn. 🙂
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Maybe he should have replaced it with a photo of Britney Spears… um, on second thoughts, that would certainly be considered porn. 🙂
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Right now, I’m wondering if someone’s started a website with these “porn pictures used to replace images on Flickr used without proper licensing”, because it sounds like a natural niche.
But what strikes me queerest (in the strange, not gay) sense is that Flickr isn’t for pornographic images.
I like Thomas Hawk’s take on it:
http://thomashawk.com/2005/05/flickr-and-porn.html
Me tho, I wouldn’t have done pr0n… I would’ve done something more chic, like an “alternate history” image. Like say if someone copped a photo of trees I took, I’d change the type of trees, or maybe the season, or put birds on them.
All sorts of avenues for creativity.
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Right now, I’m wondering if someone’s started a website with these “porn pictures used to replace images on Flickr used without proper licensing”, because it sounds like a natural niche.
But what strikes me queerest (in the strange, not gay) sense is that Flickr isn’t for pornographic images.
I like Thomas Hawk’s take on it:
http://thomashawk.com/2005/05/flickr-and-porn.html
Me tho, I wouldn’t have done pr0n… I would’ve done something more chic, like an “alternate history” image. Like say if someone copped a photo of trees I took, I’d change the type of trees, or maybe the season, or put birds on them.
All sorts of avenues for creativity.
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I’m 47 years old, have an MBA and know lots of hiring managers. 100% of them google prospective employees names, read their blogs, read their MySpace pages, read what others have written about them. I hear what what are called “horror stories” all the time. It’s easy to present yourself well on a resume and in a cover letter, which many people don’t even write themselves. Employers want to know the real you, and a LARGE number of potential employers are turning hiring managers off big-time, esp. the 20-somethings.
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I’m 47 years old, have an MBA and know lots of hiring managers. 100% of them google prospective employees names, read their blogs, read their MySpace pages, read what others have written about them. I hear what what are called “horror stories” all the time. It’s easy to present yourself well on a resume and in a cover letter, which many people don’t even write themselves. Employers want to know the real you, and a LARGE number of potential employers are turning hiring managers off big-time, esp. the 20-somethings.
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Niall – tried to follow your contact link and received:
“precondition failed”
Strangely enough when followed from your about page at the root it worked.
So I’ll leave this comment here before trying you on Skype.
After reading through your comments, Niall, I’m not sure what the order is here. Did you contact Sean after you swapped out the image with porn or before?
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Niall – tried to follow your contact link and received:
“precondition failed”
Strangely enough when followed from your about page at the root it worked.
So I’ll leave this comment here before trying you on Skype.
After reading through your comments, Niall, I’m not sure what the order is here. Did you contact Sean after you swapped out the image with porn or before?
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Interesting perspective, Dawn. An anon commenter on Todd’s Seattle PI piece said something similar (though a lot less nicely).
I wonder if they are making their hiring decisions off the dumb moves 20-somethings are making on the web they are going to have a hard time finding people to hire. Especially if they can track down all these people’s aliases.
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Interesting perspective, Dawn. An anon commenter on Todd’s Seattle PI piece said something similar (though a lot less nicely).
I wonder if they are making their hiring decisions off the dumb moves 20-somethings are making on the web they are going to have a hard time finding people to hire. Especially if they can track down all these people’s aliases.
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I guess the 20-somethings are just a lot more visible now. Those 40/50-somethings just can’t be Googled and have their drug taking, protesting, free lovin’ days show up in the results. 🙂
As TDavid said, would that mean great people are being overlooked for stupid things they do? Look at that president that didn’t inhale. Would he be overlooked for an IT job just for that?
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I guess the 20-somethings are just a lot more visible now. Those 40/50-somethings just can’t be Googled and have their drug taking, protesting, free lovin’ days show up in the results. 🙂
As TDavid said, would that mean great people are being overlooked for stupid things they do? Look at that president that didn’t inhale. Would he be overlooked for an IT job just for that?
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Sounds like two wrongs do not make a right.
I see folks use images and writing on sites without attribution all the time. Could say that’s unprofessionnal. Yet the solution need not be vindictive (I’m with Diego).
Typically all I need to do is email the folks using the content and remind them to use proper attribution.
Like Ben, I too bristle at the word “professional” because it often connotes conformity and silencing our self.
Play nice in the sandbox, and it is a small world seems like the gist of Robert’s post…and I agree.
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Sounds like two wrongs do not make a right.
I see folks use images and writing on sites without attribution all the time. Could say that’s unprofessionnal. Yet the solution need not be vindictive (I’m with Diego).
Typically all I need to do is email the folks using the content and remind them to use proper attribution.
Like Ben, I too bristle at the word “professional” because it often connotes conformity and silencing our self.
Play nice in the sandbox, and it is a small world seems like the gist of Robert’s post…and I agree.
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He he Diego are you implying 40-somethings aren’t taking drugs, protesting, and free lovin’? Sure, I have a friend that lost a client when they found their Burning Man pics. Yet it was their loss, he is in all respects of high integrity and very smart.
That’s a completely different issue than revenge for having your stuff non-credited.
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He he Diego are you implying 40-somethings aren’t taking drugs, protesting, and free lovin’? Sure, I have a friend that lost a client when they found their Burning Man pics. Yet it was their loss, he is in all respects of high integrity and very smart.
That’s a completely different issue than revenge for having your stuff non-credited.
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Evelyn, no I wasn’t implying that. 🙂 I guess I was more referring to some that may have done so in their 20s but not, in their 40s are not, and therefore do not show up on Google.
Didn’t mean to put all 40+ people in the same bucket. Sorry 🙂
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Evelyn, no I wasn’t implying that. 🙂 I guess I was more referring to some that may have done so in their 20s but not, in their 40s are not, and therefore do not show up on Google.
Didn’t mean to put all 40+ people in the same bucket. Sorry 🙂
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Hmmm… Let’s see, a big company, either be accident or intention (doesn’t really matter), that lobbies for laws protecting intellectual property, spends millions of dollars devising ways to thwart piracy, and bends over backwards to stymie fair use of content on it’s newest gadget, uses someone else’s work without attribution or compensation, and when they’re called publicly called on it, the victim is considered “unprofessional?” Sounds like a few too many people have sipped the corporate Kool-Ade™ around here.
As someone who has had work stolen myself, I feel Microsoft should be bending over backwards to placate Niall Kennedy. After all, it was *his* rights that were violated, not Microsoft’s! Try to remember that, okay?
Eric
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Hmmm… Let’s see, a big company, either be accident or intention (doesn’t really matter), that lobbies for laws protecting intellectual property, spends millions of dollars devising ways to thwart piracy, and bends over backwards to stymie fair use of content on it’s newest gadget, uses someone else’s work without attribution or compensation, and when they’re called publicly called on it, the victim is considered “unprofessional?” Sounds like a few too many people have sipped the corporate Kool-Ade™ around here.
As someone who has had work stolen myself, I feel Microsoft should be bending over backwards to placate Niall Kennedy. After all, it was *his* rights that were violated, not Microsoft’s! Try to remember that, okay?
Eric
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Eric – I think what you have is the actions of “one” blogger, not Microsoft the company. Too often I think Microsoft the company is lumped in the actions of a small number of people (or single person).
Niall should know better how this stuff works since he actually worked there. Microsoft has tens of thousands of employees and the actions of one on an official blog shouldn’t be compeletely representative of the company as a whole.
Yes, I realize employees are representing the company, but it wasn’t a post about how to steal images on Flickr from Niall Kennedy. If that was the case, then get the torches, otherwise, what we have here is fail to communicate.
I doubt seriously anybody at Microsoft would advocate, support or encourage unauthorized hotlinking.
I’m sure that internally some fur flew over this incident.
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Eric – I think what you have is the actions of “one” blogger, not Microsoft the company. Too often I think Microsoft the company is lumped in the actions of a small number of people (or single person).
Niall should know better how this stuff works since he actually worked there. Microsoft has tens of thousands of employees and the actions of one on an official blog shouldn’t be compeletely representative of the company as a whole.
Yes, I realize employees are representing the company, but it wasn’t a post about how to steal images on Flickr from Niall Kennedy. If that was the case, then get the torches, otherwise, what we have here is fail to communicate.
I doubt seriously anybody at Microsoft would advocate, support or encourage unauthorized hotlinking.
I’m sure that internally some fur flew over this incident.
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Now if we’re talking about some splogger from China or Russia, I’m all for teaching them a lesson Niall-style.
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Now if we’re talking about some splogger from China or Russia, I’m all for teaching them a lesson Niall-style.
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The beginning of a new term? You got Nialled! 🙂
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The beginning of a new term? You got Nialled! 🙂
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TDavid,
Respectfully, your response contains the crux of the matter, though you overlook it:
“Niall should know better how this stuff works since he actually worked there. Microsoft has tens of thousands of employees and the actions of one on an *official* blog shouldn’t be compeletely representative of the company as a whole.”
Yes, it was an individual employee that did this. Yet it was an individual on Microsoft’s time, posting on Microsoft’s blog that made the mistake. Therefore, it *was* Microsoft that is responsible for the error. As you said, it was posted on one of Microsoft’s “official” blogs.
If we are to hold employees (or ex-employees) of companies professionally and personally responsible for what they say on their *personal* blogs, then companies should expect to be held to the same standards on their *corporate* blogs. If it’s wrong for John Q Public to do, then so it is wrong for Company X to do — whether or not it was an accident (which it most likely was).
Eric
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TDavid,
Respectfully, your response contains the crux of the matter, though you overlook it:
“Niall should know better how this stuff works since he actually worked there. Microsoft has tens of thousands of employees and the actions of one on an *official* blog shouldn’t be compeletely representative of the company as a whole.”
Yes, it was an individual employee that did this. Yet it was an individual on Microsoft’s time, posting on Microsoft’s blog that made the mistake. Therefore, it *was* Microsoft that is responsible for the error. As you said, it was posted on one of Microsoft’s “official” blogs.
If we are to hold employees (or ex-employees) of companies professionally and personally responsible for what they say on their *personal* blogs, then companies should expect to be held to the same standards on their *corporate* blogs. If it’s wrong for John Q Public to do, then so it is wrong for Company X to do — whether or not it was an accident (which it most likely was).
Eric
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I had something similar happen to me where someone was stealing my bandwidth via hotlinking an image.
Instead of porn, I simply replaced the image with a graphic with the words “Stop stealing my pictures”.
Things were resolved in a matter of minutes…
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I’m a fan of making the hot-linker feel shamed, rather than scandalized. A frowny-face and “When you ignore image licenses, God kills a kitten” sort of thing.
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I had something similar happen to me where someone was stealing my bandwidth via hotlinking an image.
Instead of porn, I simply replaced the image with a graphic with the words “Stop stealing my pictures”.
Things were resolved in a matter of minutes…
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I’m a fan of making the hot-linker feel shamed, rather than scandalized. A frowny-face and “When you ignore image licenses, God kills a kitten” sort of thing.
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Frankly its silly. But its not at all surprising considering the fact that Niall was vitriolic about MSFT when he quit. He wasnt gonna miss out an opportunity like this. Look at his comment at #7. He says his mails are going to junk mail folder and so he didnt bother mailing. I dont know what he is implying here.
Besides, I dont understand how this would amount to stealing. It wasnt even used commercially.
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Frankly its silly. But its not at all surprising considering the fact that Niall was vitriolic about MSFT when he quit. He wasnt gonna miss out an opportunity like this. Look at his comment at #7. He says his mails are going to junk mail folder and so he didnt bother mailing. I dont know what he is implying here.
Besides, I dont understand how this would amount to stealing. It wasnt even used commercially.
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Niall: thanks for giving me more info. So you just told him this morning? Wow, that’s giving the team enough time to react. You know that everything inside Microsoft takes longer than a morning to get done.
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Niall: thanks for giving me more info. So you just told him this morning? Wow, that’s giving the team enough time to react. You know that everything inside Microsoft takes longer than a morning to get done.
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Remember, copyright violation is THEFT. We’re told so over and over again by the mainstream media. So the real story here is:
Microsoft is a thief.
Microsoft steals.
And then Microsoft’s cronies blame the victim of their theft.
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Remember, copyright violation is THEFT. We’re told so over and over again by the mainstream media. So the real story here is:
Microsoft is a thief.
Microsoft steals.
And then Microsoft’s cronies blame the victim of their theft.
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I think it’s a mistake to think that all people will have the same reaction to what this guy did.
Sure, some people will think – “Oh, that’s really unprofessional, I would never hire this guy”.
However, others will just think, “He was within his rights to post whatever pictures he wants on his Flickr feed. And if he wants to have a little fun with that, good for him.”
The truth is: this kind of thing can work both ways…
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I think it’s a mistake to think that all people will have the same reaction to what this guy did.
Sure, some people will think – “Oh, that’s really unprofessional, I would never hire this guy”.
However, others will just think, “He was within his rights to post whatever pictures he wants on his Flickr feed. And if he wants to have a little fun with that, good for him.”
The truth is: this kind of thing can work both ways…
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Simon: that is probably true. But, I’d recommend not playing roulette with your career this way. I remember when there simply were no jobs to be had (back in 2002/2003). Maryam was out of work for 18 months back then.
So, you want to reduce the chances you’ll be hired by even 10%? Go for it. Doesn’t sound like smart career management to me, though, particularly in this world where the word-of-mouth network is hyper efficient and where EVERYTHING you do can be called up on Google.
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Simon: that is probably true. But, I’d recommend not playing roulette with your career this way. I remember when there simply were no jobs to be had (back in 2002/2003). Maryam was out of work for 18 months back then.
So, you want to reduce the chances you’ll be hired by even 10%? Go for it. Doesn’t sound like smart career management to me, though, particularly in this world where the word-of-mouth network is hyper efficient and where EVERYTHING you do can be called up on Google.
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Yes, he should have done a DMCA takedown and spent a fortune on lawyers. Or he could have asked them to take it down and it would have gotten ignored in the tumult.
If it was a member of the public who linked, Niall might not have minded. But we’re talking about a 1600 lb corporate gorilla which spends the GDP of some european countries forcing Digital Rights management down our throats, who has the money, who has the expertise and who should know better.
Embarrassed? Microsoft should be making a REAL effort to apologise and offer some sort of reconstitution and you, Robert, as a content creator should be demanding they do so on your own blog rather than defending your old boys network.
At the end of the day, not being hired for a job because he protected your own assets from a thief is probably not going to lose Niall any sleep. I wouldn’t want to work for a company that condoned theft either.
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Yes, he should have done a DMCA takedown and spent a fortune on lawyers. Or he could have asked them to take it down and it would have gotten ignored in the tumult.
If it was a member of the public who linked, Niall might not have minded. But we’re talking about a 1600 lb corporate gorilla which spends the GDP of some european countries forcing Digital Rights management down our throats, who has the money, who has the expertise and who should know better.
Embarrassed? Microsoft should be making a REAL effort to apologise and offer some sort of reconstitution and you, Robert, as a content creator should be demanding they do so on your own blog rather than defending your old boys network.
At the end of the day, not being hired for a job because he protected your own assets from a thief is probably not going to lose Niall any sleep. I wouldn’t want to work for a company that condoned theft either.
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Most of this thread just makes me sick.
I’d hire Mr. Niall Kennedy in an instant, if ever I was in the fortunate position to do so. I admire people who don’t take sh*t from anyone and give it straight back.
I want to work with ballsy, hungry, driven, take-no-prisoners employees with a strong sense of ethics and integrity. People who don’t give a damn about the “optics” of being a bastard at times, and who don’t cry when they’re criticized and who don’t fake being “nice” when they’re actually devious political back stabbers.
These are the kinds of people who build great things in their lives. Yes, they piss off a lot of people, but they don’t screw people over, steal or lie. They don’t smile politely and wink when their stock options are rigged in their favor. They say No.
The kind of person I’d never hire? Someone who actually thinks that being “professional” and never pissing people off is a ticket to success. Those people are sheep, and you can never trust them to tell it like it is because you never know whose feelings they don’t want to hurt.
Clearly, I feel strongly about this and I am definitely not a corporation man.
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Most of this thread just makes me sick.
I’d hire Mr. Niall Kennedy in an instant, if ever I was in the fortunate position to do so. I admire people who don’t take sh*t from anyone and give it straight back.
I want to work with ballsy, hungry, driven, take-no-prisoners employees with a strong sense of ethics and integrity. People who don’t give a damn about the “optics” of being a bastard at times, and who don’t cry when they’re criticized and who don’t fake being “nice” when they’re actually devious political back stabbers.
These are the kinds of people who build great things in their lives. Yes, they piss off a lot of people, but they don’t screw people over, steal or lie. They don’t smile politely and wink when their stock options are rigged in their favor. They say No.
The kind of person I’d never hire? Someone who actually thinks that being “professional” and never pissing people off is a ticket to success. Those people are sheep, and you can never trust them to tell it like it is because you never know whose feelings they don’t want to hurt.
Clearly, I feel strongly about this and I am definitely not a corporation man.
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Forgive the naive for interrupting; but, IMHO, it appears that a sour taste was left in the mouths of those caught siphoning someone else’s brew who caught them at it, and spiked the barrel. It seems that there would have been no noise generated at all if the initial siphon had never been implemented— What was in the barrel could have changed at any time without notice. Yet now, when the result of the siphoning is a little less sweet, the complaint is against the owner of the barrel. If the “porn” had been directly posted by Mr. Kennedy himself on the blog, the issue would have been something different than what it is. He only changed what was rightfully under his own control, and let the pirates continue to take— to their own undoing… At least, that’s what I am led to understand through what’s come out. The impropriety under review should not have him as a focus at all; rather, the image taken served to illustrate in “pictures” an ill-advised effort by those caught with the goods. It would appear that someone is complaining about something they took not being what they thought they were getting; and this, in public…
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Forgive the naive for interrupting; but, IMHO, it appears that a sour taste was left in the mouths of those caught siphoning someone else’s brew who caught them at it, and spiked the barrel. It seems that there would have been no noise generated at all if the initial siphon had never been implemented— What was in the barrel could have changed at any time without notice. Yet now, when the result of the siphoning is a little less sweet, the complaint is against the owner of the barrel. If the “porn” had been directly posted by Mr. Kennedy himself on the blog, the issue would have been something different than what it is. He only changed what was rightfully under his own control, and let the pirates continue to take— to their own undoing… At least, that’s what I am led to understand through what’s come out. The impropriety under review should not have him as a focus at all; rather, the image taken served to illustrate in “pictures” an ill-advised effort by those caught with the goods. It would appear that someone is complaining about something they took not being what they thought they were getting; and this, in public…
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Inline linking aka hotlinking aka bandwidth theft is a regular, and growing, problem:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inline_linking
If somebody links to one of my images, hosted on my server, where I pay for the bandwidth, then I will brand that graphic with great big letters that say “DO NOT STEAL BANDWIDTH” or “THIS IMAGE IS THE PROPERTY OF…” That is the risk that bandwidth thieves take when they link to graphics in such a way, and they only have themselves to blame.
If the blog author did not realise that inline linking without permission is unethical and costs their victim money, then this fact reveals a lack of education on the part of Microsoft that should be addressed. Microsoft can well afford to host their own images and should have a policy in place that bans inline linking to graphics that are not hosted on their server, and for which they do not pay the bandwidth costs. They should also ensure that their bloggers are not impeding on the rights of others.
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Inline linking aka hotlinking aka bandwidth theft is a regular, and growing, problem:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inline_linking
If somebody links to one of my images, hosted on my server, where I pay for the bandwidth, then I will brand that graphic with great big letters that say “DO NOT STEAL BANDWIDTH” or “THIS IMAGE IS THE PROPERTY OF…” That is the risk that bandwidth thieves take when they link to graphics in such a way, and they only have themselves to blame.
If the blog author did not realise that inline linking without permission is unethical and costs their victim money, then this fact reveals a lack of education on the part of Microsoft that should be addressed. Microsoft can well afford to host their own images and should have a policy in place that bans inline linking to graphics that are not hosted on their server, and for which they do not pay the bandwidth costs. They should also ensure that their bloggers are not impeding on the rights of others.
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I think people are missing the point here.
I don’t think Robert (in his original post long ago and waaaay up there at the top) is saying that Microsoft did not do something wrong… I think he is saying that Niall was being unprofssional in his response and that he was burning bridges that he might “need to cross in the future”.
Now – we can see two things from this post and its responses:
1) Lots of people have different standards and personal codes as to what is acceptable / professional behaviour and what is not. I personally think it was a prank, a bit childish but not really harmful to Microsoft – more damaging really to the person who linked the image in the MS blog… not the way to behave _if_ you want to work in the corporate IT sector today. Employers in major (and many minor) companies _do_ google employees and they _do_ check other sources to see if they can guage a person’s personality and behavioural patterns. If I were a prospective employer I wouldn’t be so worried that Niall played a prank on someone stealing his bandwidth – I’d be concerned that he has no respect for a former employer. If you can fall out with one employer (and let it blow up publically in any way) you can fall out with the next just as easily… Therefore you are a permanent risk!
2) Robert Scoble’s post from the other day http://scobleizer.com/2006/11/28/uk-press-complaints-commissioner-no-means-of-redress/ has been proven correct. Scoble did not do his research as thoroughly was he would have to if he were a journalist (if your facts come from other mainstream media and you are not going to check them thoroughly you don’t just cite them you make clear at each point that “if [such and such a source] is correct] then he behaved childishly” or “So, what did Niall do? Did he call up one of his former co-workers at Microsoft and explain that he was pissed and get the problem taken care of nicely and behind closed doors? [According to such and such a source] No.”) However if a blogger does not do this then the person being discussed on the blog (Niall Kennedy in this case) can reply and make his case clearer… Hence, if one day, someone googles Niall Kennedy and sees from Scoble’s blog that he did X, Y and Z – they also see that he responded and clarified the situation.
Now my big question for Niall would be: if Robert Scoble quoted media sources that have got the facts wrong, what is he doing to get those facts amended in the mainstream media where they will do just as much (if not more) harm to his career?
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I think people are missing the point here.
I don’t think Robert (in his original post long ago and waaaay up there at the top) is saying that Microsoft did not do something wrong… I think he is saying that Niall was being unprofssional in his response and that he was burning bridges that he might “need to cross in the future”.
Now – we can see two things from this post and its responses:
1) Lots of people have different standards and personal codes as to what is acceptable / professional behaviour and what is not. I personally think it was a prank, a bit childish but not really harmful to Microsoft – more damaging really to the person who linked the image in the MS blog… not the way to behave _if_ you want to work in the corporate IT sector today. Employers in major (and many minor) companies _do_ google employees and they _do_ check other sources to see if they can guage a person’s personality and behavioural patterns. If I were a prospective employer I wouldn’t be so worried that Niall played a prank on someone stealing his bandwidth – I’d be concerned that he has no respect for a former employer. If you can fall out with one employer (and let it blow up publically in any way) you can fall out with the next just as easily… Therefore you are a permanent risk!
2) Robert Scoble’s post from the other day http://scobleizer.com/2006/11/28/uk-press-complaints-commissioner-no-means-of-redress/ has been proven correct. Scoble did not do his research as thoroughly was he would have to if he were a journalist (if your facts come from other mainstream media and you are not going to check them thoroughly you don’t just cite them you make clear at each point that “if [such and such a source] is correct] then he behaved childishly” or “So, what did Niall do? Did he call up one of his former co-workers at Microsoft and explain that he was pissed and get the problem taken care of nicely and behind closed doors? [According to such and such a source] No.”) However if a blogger does not do this then the person being discussed on the blog (Niall Kennedy in this case) can reply and make his case clearer… Hence, if one day, someone googles Niall Kennedy and sees from Scoble’s blog that he did X, Y and Z – they also see that he responded and clarified the situation.
Now my big question for Niall would be: if Robert Scoble quoted media sources that have got the facts wrong, what is he doing to get those facts amended in the mainstream media where they will do just as much (if not more) harm to his career?
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Sam – I responded to your comment on my blog too. I’m surprised anybody needs to defend Microsoft — common sense management 101 here yes/no? — on the actions of one employee. Have any of you flaming Microsoft over this ever been a manager or owner of a company with employees and had one of your employees do something stupid?
This isn’t drinking company Kool-aid, it’s the reality of being a manager and/or owner of a company with employees. Managing people means people make mistakes and managing those mistakes. Was this done by the employee with malice? It seems to me from the facts we all have, this wasn’t done maliciously and the image has been removed. Yes, the employee should have known better, yadda, yadda.
Employees making mistakes has happened to me many times and I’m sure it happens at Microsoft routinely. It happens from time to time in any company, regardless of posted, well known policies and procedures. There are also even more litigious employee infractions to deal with like sexual harassment, theft of company property, etc.
As I said above in #35, I’m sure some fur has flown internally. The Microsoft company response to the employee in question — and again, it’s one employee — shouldn’t be a blog transparent response for the rest of the world to see.
And Eric – I agree with most of what you said in your response. I never said Microsoft the company wasn’t responsible here (in fact I’m saying almost the same thing as you), just asking that (some) people keep this situation in perspective.
Too many times on the web the response for Microsoft — wrong or right — is get out the pitchforks. Yes, sometimes the company deserves criticism and I’ll jump aboard that train when it is reasonable. I don’t think blaming Microsoft the company here completely is a reasonable response. If we set the bar too high then every company with employees is in trouble when their employee hotlinks an image.
Finally, I doubt we’ll see any public response from Microsoft on this one, nor should we, but I do think that the parties involved, including Mr. Kennedy and Yahoo (since they own Flickr and thus it was them who had their bandwidth used) should receive a direct response and apology for the incident.
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Sam – I responded to your comment on my blog too. I’m surprised anybody needs to defend Microsoft — common sense management 101 here yes/no? — on the actions of one employee. Have any of you flaming Microsoft over this ever been a manager or owner of a company with employees and had one of your employees do something stupid?
This isn’t drinking company Kool-aid, it’s the reality of being a manager and/or owner of a company with employees. Managing people means people make mistakes and managing those mistakes. Was this done by the employee with malice? It seems to me from the facts we all have, this wasn’t done maliciously and the image has been removed. Yes, the employee should have known better, yadda, yadda.
Employees making mistakes has happened to me many times and I’m sure it happens at Microsoft routinely. It happens from time to time in any company, regardless of posted, well known policies and procedures. There are also even more litigious employee infractions to deal with like sexual harassment, theft of company property, etc.
As I said above in #35, I’m sure some fur has flown internally. The Microsoft company response to the employee in question — and again, it’s one employee — shouldn’t be a blog transparent response for the rest of the world to see.
And Eric – I agree with most of what you said in your response. I never said Microsoft the company wasn’t responsible here (in fact I’m saying almost the same thing as you), just asking that (some) people keep this situation in perspective.
Too many times on the web the response for Microsoft — wrong or right — is get out the pitchforks. Yes, sometimes the company deserves criticism and I’ll jump aboard that train when it is reasonable. I don’t think blaming Microsoft the company here completely is a reasonable response. If we set the bar too high then every company with employees is in trouble when their employee hotlinks an image.
Finally, I doubt we’ll see any public response from Microsoft on this one, nor should we, but I do think that the parties involved, including Mr. Kennedy and Yahoo (since they own Flickr and thus it was them who had their bandwidth used) should receive a direct response and apology for the incident.
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Beyond the fact that it burns the bridge back to Microsoft, I’m pretty certain such publicity compounded with previous instances [http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000297.html] suggest a recurring behavior that other employers and partners are likely going to avoid.
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Beyond the fact that it burns the bridge back to Microsoft, I’m pretty certain such publicity compounded with previous instances [http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000297.html] suggest a recurring behavior that other employers and partners are likely going to avoid.
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Niall: “Nothing pornographic was shown in the picture, just a guy’s back with a big CC logo covering his rear.”
Were there two hands on the sides of the CC logo pulling it open?
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Niall: “Nothing pornographic was shown in the picture, just a guy’s back with a big CC logo covering his rear.”
Were there two hands on the sides of the CC logo pulling it open?
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“I’d hire Mr. Niall Kennedy in an instant, if ever I was in the fortunate position to do so. I admire people who don’t take sh*t from anyone and give it straight back.”
Dominic – agreed. Scoble (no offense) seems to be taking the role of the nagging father figure by warning us to bend over or, god forbid, risk 10% of getting hired in the future. Scoble should see that he has risked at least 10% of his career by simply having a blog and having the balls to occasionally call out and talk shit on companies. And if you think that’s any different than having a photo switcharu, you’re wrong. Companies take it very personally whether it’s through words or photos. Niall is known for his photography, so this was his ode to a shit-talking blog post. Doesn’t make it “right” but that’s besides my point.
Someone just today sent me something about how we should ban hiring people who “fuck up”, to which I went off on an opposing rant:
http://www.shakewellbeforeuse.com/2006/12/if_youre_going_to_fuck_up_fuck.php
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“I’d hire Mr. Niall Kennedy in an instant, if ever I was in the fortunate position to do so. I admire people who don’t take sh*t from anyone and give it straight back.”
Dominic – agreed. Scoble (no offense) seems to be taking the role of the nagging father figure by warning us to bend over or, god forbid, risk 10% of getting hired in the future. Scoble should see that he has risked at least 10% of his career by simply having a blog and having the balls to occasionally call out and talk shit on companies. And if you think that’s any different than having a photo switcharu, you’re wrong. Companies take it very personally whether it’s through words or photos. Niall is known for his photography, so this was his ode to a shit-talking blog post. Doesn’t make it “right” but that’s besides my point.
Someone just today sent me something about how we should ban hiring people who “fuck up”, to which I went off on an opposing rant:
http://www.shakewellbeforeuse.com/2006/12/if_youre_going_to_fuck_up_fuck.php
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“Scoble (no offense) seems to be taking the role of the nagging father figure by warning us to bend over or, god forbid, risk 10% of getting hired in the future.”
It’s a lot easier to say “to hell with 10 percent of my future job prospects” when you’re young. Scoble’s paternal instinct is something you crazy kids with your “F the Man” tattoos and your hip-hop music and low-rider jeans with the butt flosser underwear sticking out the top should think about every once in a while. You’ll thank me when you have kids and a mortgage.
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“Scoble (no offense) seems to be taking the role of the nagging father figure by warning us to bend over or, god forbid, risk 10% of getting hired in the future.”
It’s a lot easier to say “to hell with 10 percent of my future job prospects” when you’re young. Scoble’s paternal instinct is something you crazy kids with your “F the Man” tattoos and your hip-hop music and low-rider jeans with the butt flosser underwear sticking out the top should think about every once in a while. You’ll thank me when you have kids and a mortgage.
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I hear Dominic. I don’t want to work with yes-people that just tell you what you want to hear either.
Here’s the section from the group agreements for a weekly “Daring to Live an Authentic Life” group that I used to faciliate/run (I say ‘used to’ because it’s not I that runs it now, but We.) Yes, you can be both professional/kind AND straightforward/true to your integrity.
“TRUTH AND INTEGRITY: Group members agree to be authentic and truthful. Speaking the truth involves risk and can only occur safely in a compassionate environment.
Due to the topic of this group “Daring to Live an Authentic Life,” this is especially important. There is a way to communicate with compassion and diplomacy and not suppress our intense feelings, avoid “elephants in the room”, or skirt difficult issues.
Often in our interactions with others we have conditioned and trained ourselves to squash what we need to say out of habit – and an overt sense of “politeness”, fear of judgment, or our need for approval.
This is a rare opportunity to practice authentic conversation in a safe environment. Speak with integrity, respect, and dignity for other people. Remember honesty is not the same as bluntness. Be kind.”
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I hear Dominic. I don’t want to work with yes-people that just tell you what you want to hear either.
Here’s the section from the group agreements for a weekly “Daring to Live an Authentic Life” group that I used to faciliate/run (I say ‘used to’ because it’s not I that runs it now, but We.) Yes, you can be both professional/kind AND straightforward/true to your integrity.
“TRUTH AND INTEGRITY: Group members agree to be authentic and truthful. Speaking the truth involves risk and can only occur safely in a compassionate environment.
Due to the topic of this group “Daring to Live an Authentic Life,” this is especially important. There is a way to communicate with compassion and diplomacy and not suppress our intense feelings, avoid “elephants in the room”, or skirt difficult issues.
Often in our interactions with others we have conditioned and trained ourselves to squash what we need to say out of habit – and an overt sense of “politeness”, fear of judgment, or our need for approval.
This is a rare opportunity to practice authentic conversation in a safe environment. Speak with integrity, respect, and dignity for other people. Remember honesty is not the same as bluntness. Be kind.”
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A few clarifying comments.
First, it was a clear mistake on my part not to link back to Flickr or attribute Niall for the use of his photo. I had fully intended to attribute to the photo to Niall, and simply forgot while writing the post.
In updating the post, I immediately apologised publicly for that mistake (TDavid: it’s still there: you can go and read it).
Personally, I fully support Niall’s (and flickr’s) rights here (including, for that matter, Niall’s right to change or remove the image).
I found out about the change from a co-worker and had removed the image from the post just before Niall emailed me.
Rogers: yes, the picture you’re thinking of is the one that was posted.
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A few clarifying comments.
First, it was a clear mistake on my part not to link back to Flickr or attribute Niall for the use of his photo. I had fully intended to attribute to the photo to Niall, and simply forgot while writing the post.
In updating the post, I immediately apologised publicly for that mistake (TDavid: it’s still there: you can go and read it).
Personally, I fully support Niall’s (and flickr’s) rights here (including, for that matter, Niall’s right to change or remove the image).
I found out about the change from a co-worker and had removed the image from the post just before Niall emailed me.
Rogers: yes, the picture you’re thinking of is the one that was posted.
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Always pays to host your own images and play by the rules.
Blogging 101.
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Thats really worth a laugh. But maybe thats only true because micr*soft is involved.
Would it be funny if a no-name webhosting company did this? I think people would never recognize.
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Thats really worth a laugh. But maybe thats only true because micr*soft is involved.
Would it be funny if a no-name webhosting company did this? I think people would never recognize.
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Always pays to host your own images and play by the rules.
Blogging 101.
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Wow. This is what I call a Naked Conversation of ever there was one.
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Wow. This is what I call a Naked Conversation of ever there was one.
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I interpret Niall’s behavior not as a prank or a childish response, but as an honest, passionate (and possibly angry) reaction to someone disrespecting his rights. It was a you-f**K-with-me-I’ll-do-it-straight-back response.
I’m sure he thought long and hard before he did it. And I’m sure to some extent he regrets doing it, but he also knows he’d feel a lot worse if he’d done nothing.
Some people are just wired that way. They’re proud. Frankly, they make the world much more interesting than it otherwise would be.
Since Robert is travelling, I won’t go too far on this point, but I thought the whole point of blogs was authenticity.
When people start saying you shouldn’t burn bridges and should always be nice even if you don’t want to be, I start to question how authentic they are. It’s a form of self-censorship that runs counter to the spirit of blogging.
It makes me question Robert’s motives for questioning Niall’s transparently obnoxious behavior. Would he have said the same thing if the person responsible was potentially going to be a future employer?
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Via Skype tect chat, I spoke to Niall this morning (see the link in comment #60 for details) and got more details behind the story from the horse’s mouth.
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I interpret Niall’s behavior not as a prank or a childish response, but as an honest, passionate (and possibly angry) reaction to someone disrespecting his rights. It was a you-f**K-with-me-I’ll-do-it-straight-back response.
I’m sure he thought long and hard before he did it. And I’m sure to some extent he regrets doing it, but he also knows he’d feel a lot worse if he’d done nothing.
Some people are just wired that way. They’re proud. Frankly, they make the world much more interesting than it otherwise would be.
Since Robert is travelling, I won’t go too far on this point, but I thought the whole point of blogs was authenticity.
When people start saying you shouldn’t burn bridges and should always be nice even if you don’t want to be, I start to question how authentic they are. It’s a form of self-censorship that runs counter to the spirit of blogging.
It makes me question Robert’s motives for questioning Niall’s transparently obnoxious behavior. Would he have said the same thing if the person responsible was potentially going to be a future employer?
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Via Skype tect chat, I spoke to Niall this morning (see the link in comment #60 for details) and got more details behind the story from the horse’s mouth.
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“I interpret Niall’s behavior not as a prank or a childish response, but as an honest, passionate (and possibly angry) reaction to someone disrespecting his rights.”
What about goat man’s rights? His picture was copyrighted too. I’ll bet he’s feeling violated right now.
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“I interpret Niall’s behavior not as a prank or a childish response, but as an honest, passionate (and possibly angry) reaction to someone disrespecting his rights.”
What about goat man’s rights? His picture was copyrighted too. I’ll bet he’s feeling violated right now.
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Sure, Niall could have been more tasteful in how he expressed being upset, but Robert, I wonder as to the goals of your post? If any of your message was genuinely to help Niall, I think you are way off the mark. “Easily taken care of, if you want, with a single email to the right guy.”
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Sure, Niall could have been more tasteful in how he expressed being upset, but Robert, I wonder as to the goals of your post? If any of your message was genuinely to help Niall, I think you are way off the mark. “Easily taken care of, if you want, with a single email to the right guy.”
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Robert,
Have you even tried to contact Microsoft to change something without your blue badge and access to active directory address book ?
It’s worth to try.
Niall did everything correctly. If you think that kissing Microsoft ass till end of your days is good strategy to be hired back – nobody will try to change your opinion – keep doing this.
For human resources there must be different hiring criteria: Will this person be able to work good and in creative way – not kissing ass of his managers to get nice annual review score.
For you better to keep doing good job at PodTech – otherwise you will never that fame that you got from posting under Microsoft badge.
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Robert,
Have you even tried to contact Microsoft to change something without your blue badge and access to active directory address book ?
It’s worth to try.
Niall did everything correctly. If you think that kissing Microsoft ass till end of your days is good strategy to be hired back – nobody will try to change your opinion – keep doing this.
For human resources there must be different hiring criteria: Will this person be able to work good and in creative way – not kissing ass of his managers to get nice annual review score.
For you better to keep doing good job at PodTech – otherwise you will never that fame that you got from posting under Microsoft badge.
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It seems that similar arguments of career safe guarding have been used in the past with Microsoft, such employees not using “game guides” during their own personal game time. Google likes to recruit from Burning Man, other companies may stay away from the fire and nudity.
If you’d like a long read of the events from my point of view I’ve posted my own account to my blog.
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It seems that similar arguments of career safe guarding have been used in the past with Microsoft, such employees not using “game guides” during their own personal game time. Google likes to recruit from Burning Man, other companies may stay away from the fire and nudity.
If you’d like a long read of the events from my point of view I’ve posted my own account to my blog.
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Err like who cares? and what happenned to the post Microsoft Mr Bleizer ?
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Err like who cares? and what happenned to the post Microsoft Mr Bleizer ?
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Niall, did Sean Lyndersay respond to your e-mail or did it actually go to his junk mail folder?
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Niall, did Sean Lyndersay respond to your e-mail or did it actually go to his junk mail folder?
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Wow! That image was anything but tasteful. I don’t think the “CC” logo really hides anything. There’s no doubt that Sean Lyndersay made a mistake and there’s also no doubt that ultimately, it’s Microsoft’s responsibility but what was this all about? Seems like it was done more out of spite.
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Wow! That image was anything but tasteful. I don’t think the “CC” logo really hides anything. There’s no doubt that Sean Lyndersay made a mistake and there’s also no doubt that ultimately, it’s Microsoft’s responsibility but what was this all about? Seems like it was done more out of spite.
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sk,
I think it was from “Email” link (contact.aspx) at blog.
Also – take a look at this from other point of view. He has account at Flickr, he is free to do anything he wish with it – upload/delete/change pictures at it.
Why should he care if somebody has linked to HIS pictures ?
It’s big mistake at web-world – linking instead of hosting on your own host.
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sk,
I think it was from “Email” link (contact.aspx) at blog.
Also – take a look at this from other point of view. He has account at Flickr, he is free to do anything he wish with it – upload/delete/change pictures at it.
Why should he care if somebody has linked to HIS pictures ?
It’s big mistake at web-world – linking instead of hosting on your own host.
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Just a reminder to read the comment #68, Niall’s response.
One salient point:
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Just a reminder to read the comment #68, Niall’s response.
One salient point:
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Well, I took a look at the picture. Really LMAO @ the description of this image as “pornographic”!
por·nog·ra·phy: n. Depiction of erotic behaviour intended to cause sexual excitement.
I’m not even sure if this image qualifies as “offensive”. It’s more anatomical than anything.
This is just an (amusing) storm in a teacup…
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Well, I took a look at the picture. Really LMAO @ the description of this image as “pornographic”!
por·nog·ra·phy: n. Depiction of erotic behaviour intended to cause sexual excitement.
I’m not even sure if this image qualifies as “offensive”. It’s more anatomical than anything.
This is just an (amusing) storm in a teacup…
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@Niall Kenned.
If the image was not insulting or offensive why not post it on your blog, but only link to it. Porn or not, do you think that MS blog readers deserve this picture while your readers not?
MS blogger may be wrong, but this could not use as your excuse, you are responsible for what you have done. At least you should apology to MSDN blog readers
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@Niall Kenned.
If the image was not insulting or offensive why not post it on your blog, but only link to it. Porn or not, do you think that MS blog readers deserve this picture while your readers not?
MS blogger may be wrong, but this could not use as your excuse, you are responsible for what you have done. At least you should apology to MSDN blog readers
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http://www.msfirefox.com/
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http://www.msfirefox.com/
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Ok folks, here’s a little something that you learn in kindergarten – if it’s not yours and you take it, it’s called STEALING, Geesh, what’s so hard to understand about that. It doesn’t matter if he had something on his website about whether or not you needed permission to use something off his site. The basic fact is that it wasn’t Microsoft’s site, ergo it’s stealing. That means that no dessert for Microsoft, a time out in the corner and a spanking. And a written apology to Niall.
Secondly, I’ve read that he replaced it with a pornographic image – no he didn’t. The naked back is not pornographic.
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Ok folks, here’s a little something that you learn in kindergarten – if it’s not yours and you take it, it’s called STEALING, Geesh, what’s so hard to understand about that. It doesn’t matter if he had something on his website about whether or not you needed permission to use something off his site. The basic fact is that it wasn’t Microsoft’s site, ergo it’s stealing. That means that no dessert for Microsoft, a time out in the corner and a spanking. And a written apology to Niall.
Secondly, I’ve read that he replaced it with a pornographic image – no he didn’t. The naked back is not pornographic.
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“I don’t think so. Unprofessional, especially for someone who used to work at Microsoft.”
As a former Microsoft-y myself, I have to say that — having experienced the kind of self-absorption that runs rather rampant within the company — the Niall stunt probably was more effective than you may think.
If asked nicely, the individual responsible may have pulled down the “offending” image. If shown, publicly, how inappropriate the action is, now many within management and throughout a variety of teams are going to be more careful in future.
It wasn’t exactly tactful, but it’s dead certain to more effective than a gently-worded (and quickly ignored) e-mail.
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“I don’t think so. Unprofessional, especially for someone who used to work at Microsoft.”
As a former Microsoft-y myself, I have to say that — having experienced the kind of self-absorption that runs rather rampant within the company — the Niall stunt probably was more effective than you may think.
If asked nicely, the individual responsible may have pulled down the “offending” image. If shown, publicly, how inappropriate the action is, now many within management and throughout a variety of teams are going to be more careful in future.
It wasn’t exactly tactful, but it’s dead certain to more effective than a gently-worded (and quickly ignored) e-mail.
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“And a written apology to Niall.”
Just like Niall owes a written apology to readers of that blog. I don’t think he’s going to do it anyway. A naked back may not be pornographic but it’s definitely not tasteful.
“It wasn’t exactly tactful, but it’s dead certain to more effective than a gently-worded (and quickly ignored) e-mail.”
The e-mail needn’t have been gently-worded. He should have probably e-mailed them first and done this if that didn’t work, you know?
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“And a written apology to Niall.”
Just like Niall owes a written apology to readers of that blog. I don’t think he’s going to do it anyway. A naked back may not be pornographic but it’s definitely not tasteful.
“It wasn’t exactly tactful, but it’s dead certain to more effective than a gently-worded (and quickly ignored) e-mail.”
The e-mail needn’t have been gently-worded. He should have probably e-mailed them first and done this if that didn’t work, you know?
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Yea, yea, Niall, this is going on your permanent file.
Scoble, you’re a douche.
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Yea, yea, Niall, this is going on your permanent file.
Scoble, you’re a douche.
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Microsoft: PLEASE Mr. BUSH, POOR PEOPLE IN CHINA ARE STEALING OUR SOFTWAREZ!!!!!!!!
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Microsoft: PLEASE Mr. BUSH, POOR PEOPLE IN CHINA ARE STEALING OUR SOFTWAREZ!!!!!!!!
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A picture of someone’s barely covered butthole is not in good taste. Ugh. He’s in the right for swapping out, but this is one of those cases where it’s better to be prudent than right. Don’t bite the finger that fed you, Mr. I’m-teaching-the-big-guy-a-lesson-in-IP.
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A picture of someone’s barely covered butthole is not in good taste. Ugh. He’s in the right for swapping out, but this is one of those cases where it’s better to be prudent than right. Don’t bite the finger that fed you, Mr. I’m-teaching-the-big-guy-a-lesson-in-IP.
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Personally I think the proper way of handling this would’ve been:
1. Send an email.
2. Remove the image or replace with something not in poor taste.
3. Jump up and down screaming. Or you know, try contacting Microsoft by phone. I’m sure if you rang their reception and said “one of your websites is violating my copyright, put me through to a lawyer” you’d get things sorted pretty quickly.
For those bringing up the bandwidth issue, if this was a flickr image, he’s not paying bandwidth.
Personally I think this makes Niall look like really immature – I would think twice before working professionally with him, and I’m sure others will too. It’s not about being a yes man, it’s about thinking about the fact that he’s not just alienated himself against Microsoft, but potentially many readers of that blog
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Personally I think the proper way of handling this would’ve been:
1. Send an email.
2. Remove the image or replace with something not in poor taste.
3. Jump up and down screaming. Or you know, try contacting Microsoft by phone. I’m sure if you rang their reception and said “one of your websites is violating my copyright, put me through to a lawyer” you’d get things sorted pretty quickly.
For those bringing up the bandwidth issue, if this was a flickr image, he’s not paying bandwidth.
Personally I think this makes Niall look like really immature – I would think twice before working professionally with him, and I’m sure others will too. It’s not about being a yes man, it’s about thinking about the fact that he’s not just alienated himself against Microsoft, but potentially many readers of that blog
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Violating the rights of the “goatse” picture owner(s) to illustrate how bad you feel about “them” violating your rights… sounds kind of mo^H^H ironic.
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Violating the rights of the “goatse” picture owner(s) to illustrate how bad you feel about “them” violating your rights… sounds kind of mo^H^H ironic.
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I think people are missing the point. If Niall put a picture of a little kitten would anyone have noticed? A porn image may have been in poor taste(don’t know didn’t see it) but it got their attention.
I think that was the point. Professional or not, sometimes you need to do something radical to get the attention of a large corporation. Even if he did work there. Lets see I could make 30 phones calls to get it resolved or put up one porn image. Hmmm how much is your time worth?
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I think people are missing the point. If Niall put a picture of a little kitten would anyone have noticed? A porn image may have been in poor taste(don’t know didn’t see it) but it got their attention.
I think that was the point. Professional or not, sometimes you need to do something radical to get the attention of a large corporation. Even if he did work there. Lets see I could make 30 phones calls to get it resolved or put up one porn image. Hmmm how much is your time worth?
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Yeah, that must of really did a good job in catching Microsoft’s attention. :p
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Yeah, that must of really did a good job in catching Microsoft’s attention. :p
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Out of all the millions of images he could have chosen to post, he chooses a porn image?
That’s just weak. And unprofessional.
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Out of all the millions of images he could have chosen to post, he chooses a porn image?
That’s just weak. And unprofessional.
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Greg: if you worked at Microsoft and it takes 30 calls to get anyone’s attention, you must not have been a very good employee.
He already admitted that he didn’t give the team a chance. You say that’s fine in your book. Geesh, if I screw up, I hope someone gives me a chance to fix my mistakes before making a capital case out of it.
Hell, if it were me I would have asked for a nice licensing fee first. Then I would have thrown up a Firefox advertisement if they didn’t do anything. That would have been FAR funnier AND gotten their attention JUST as effectively (even moreso, me thinks).
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Greg: if you worked at Microsoft and it takes 30 calls to get anyone’s attention, you must not have been a very good employee.
He already admitted that he didn’t give the team a chance. You say that’s fine in your book. Geesh, if I screw up, I hope someone gives me a chance to fix my mistakes before making a capital case out of it.
Hell, if it were me I would have asked for a nice licensing fee first. Then I would have thrown up a Firefox advertisement if they didn’t do anything. That would have been FAR funnier AND gotten their attention JUST as effectively (even moreso, me thinks).
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Awesome!
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Awesome!
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That this can’t be seen as funny but some bad PR stunt, seems to defy logic. If a company takes itself so seriously that it can’t laugh at what a former employee did in jest, then the company needs to really inspect itself.
What Niall did is a reflection of his character, it’s how he operates, whether he thought it was funny or did it out of angst and languor, or even anger is irrelevant. If it did not appear during the time that he worked at Microsoft then he repressed part of his character while working there.
I don’t mean to morally justify what he did, so much as point out that Microsoft should have a good sense of humor about itself in remembering stunts like this.
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That this can’t be seen as funny but some bad PR stunt, seems to defy logic. If a company takes itself so seriously that it can’t laugh at what a former employee did in jest, then the company needs to really inspect itself.
What Niall did is a reflection of his character, it’s how he operates, whether he thought it was funny or did it out of angst and languor, or even anger is irrelevant. If it did not appear during the time that he worked at Microsoft then he repressed part of his character while working there.
I don’t mean to morally justify what he did, so much as point out that Microsoft should have a good sense of humor about itself in remembering stunts like this.
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Dave: I don’t work for Microsoft. Thanks for noticing.
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Dave: I don’t work for Microsoft. Thanks for noticing.
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Scoble:
I didn’t mean to insinuate that you did, I just meant to notice your consideration here:
“Remember Niall, maybe someday this Web 2.0 bubble will end and you might need to go back to a company and look for a job. I know that doesn’t seem probable right now, but I’ve been there.
Burn bridges if you want, but I’ve learned over and over that people remember this kind of treatment and it certainly never disappears from Google. All three of my last job interviews had people looking over Google for unprofessional stuff like this to bring up in the interviews. And, all big companies have people who used to work at Microsoft so that bridge you’re blowing up? Might turn out to be the one you need to cross in the future.”
That perhaps Microsoft would not consider having him back after something like this, in which case I am trusting your perception, you having worked at Microsoft and I having not worked there.
Of course I have no real perspective on what you mean when you say “I don’t work for Microsoft” seeing as how I don’t have any personal perspective on you, so perhaps this whole game is a bit tenuous and strained when thinking about trusting people or some level of truth.
I just meant to say: lighten up eh?
So– yay for philosophical debate and pranks!
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Scoble:
I didn’t mean to insinuate that you did, I just meant to notice your consideration here:
“Remember Niall, maybe someday this Web 2.0 bubble will end and you might need to go back to a company and look for a job. I know that doesn’t seem probable right now, but I’ve been there.
Burn bridges if you want, but I’ve learned over and over that people remember this kind of treatment and it certainly never disappears from Google. All three of my last job interviews had people looking over Google for unprofessional stuff like this to bring up in the interviews. And, all big companies have people who used to work at Microsoft so that bridge you’re blowing up? Might turn out to be the one you need to cross in the future.”
That perhaps Microsoft would not consider having him back after something like this, in which case I am trusting your perception, you having worked at Microsoft and I having not worked there.
Of course I have no real perspective on what you mean when you say “I don’t work for Microsoft” seeing as how I don’t have any personal perspective on you, so perhaps this whole game is a bit tenuous and strained when thinking about trusting people or some level of truth.
I just meant to say: lighten up eh?
So– yay for philosophical debate and pranks!
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PS:
And by perspective I mean hermeneutic of interpretation. I have no idea how to understand the implications of that sentence: as sarcastic, as ironic, as factual, etc…
Hope that seems more lucid now.
Carry on!
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PS:
And by perspective I mean hermeneutic of interpretation. I have no idea how to understand the implications of that sentence: as sarcastic, as ironic, as factual, etc…
Hope that seems more lucid now.
Carry on!
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A few months ago I noticed someone hosting one of my CC videos on YouTube without attribution. My first thought was to be a dick and e-mail YouTube to have it taken down. I had a change of mind and decided to sign up for a YouTube account and send the user a message asking him to give me attribution.
People get pissed off when big companies send rude take-down messages and don’t understand New Media. If I had gotten the video removed, it would have created hostility and bad PR for me. The guy quickly responded and offered to remove the video, even though I said it was okay for him to leave it there.
Kindness and words can go a long way; you don’t have to be rude or piss people off to make a point. I’ve learned this lesson myself, but it seems Niall hasn’t.
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A few months ago I noticed someone hosting one of my CC videos on YouTube without attribution. My first thought was to be a dick and e-mail YouTube to have it taken down. I had a change of mind and decided to sign up for a YouTube account and send the user a message asking him to give me attribution.
People get pissed off when big companies send rude take-down messages and don’t understand New Media. If I had gotten the video removed, it would have created hostility and bad PR for me. The guy quickly responded and offered to remove the video, even though I said it was okay for him to leave it there.
Kindness and words can go a long way; you don’t have to be rude or piss people off to make a point. I’ve learned this lesson myself, but it seems Niall hasn’t.
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>That perhaps Microsoft would not consider having him back after something like this, in which case I am trusting your perception, you having worked at Microsoft and I having not worked there.
Actually, I wasn’t thinking he’d go back to Microsoft. But enough other people would see this kind of behavior and be troubled by it.
Former Microsoft employees now work at lots of other companies too, so if you burn a guy who works today at Microsoft, chances are that tomorrow he’ll work at Google or Apple or some other place you might like to work and you’ll never figure out why you didn’t get hired.
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>That perhaps Microsoft would not consider having him back after something like this, in which case I am trusting your perception, you having worked at Microsoft and I having not worked there.
Actually, I wasn’t thinking he’d go back to Microsoft. But enough other people would see this kind of behavior and be troubled by it.
Former Microsoft employees now work at lots of other companies too, so if you burn a guy who works today at Microsoft, chances are that tomorrow he’ll work at Google or Apple or some other place you might like to work and you’ll never figure out why you didn’t get hired.
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Sounds like a bummer.
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Sounds like a bummer.
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My worse side merrily applauds Niall’s “obey impulse, live the moment, damn the consequences” attitude that I find so seductive. As for career consequences, all that is above my head. As a useless git, I have excelled at crashing in flames all my life. Everybody has to have a hobby. Good luck Niall. Get drunk? Cy Quick of mydigest.wordpress.com
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My worse side merrily applauds Niall’s “obey impulse, live the moment, damn the consequences” attitude that I find so seductive. As for career consequences, all that is above my head. As a useless git, I have excelled at crashing in flames all my life. Everybody has to have a hobby. Good luck Niall. Get drunk? Cy Quick of mydigest.wordpress.com
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I think sometimes you gotta do, what you gotta do. But sometimes you pay for what you had to do! Maybe a little, maybe a lot. Best of luck to you Niall. 🙂
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I think sometimes you gotta do, what you gotta do. But sometimes you pay for what you had to do! Maybe a little, maybe a lot. Best of luck to you Niall. 🙂
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I’m with Diego (way the hell up there). Caterina Fake might’ve pulled this on Om, but Niall pranking Microsoft is much more memorable. To “Niall” someone seems like the perfect shorthand to describe swapping an image to sabotage an inline linker. Better than to “Caterina,” anyway.
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I’m with Diego (way the hell up there). Caterina Fake might’ve pulled this on Om, but Niall pranking Microsoft is much more memorable. To “Niall” someone seems like the perfect shorthand to describe swapping an image to sabotage an inline linker. Better than to “Caterina,” anyway.
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BTW. From where did Niall steal the porn picture.
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BTW. From where did Niall steal the porn picture.
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Hhhmmmm……..
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Hhhmmmm……..
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office challenges…pray that it all works out
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office challenges…pray that it all works out
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I wouldn’t worry too much about Niall’s employment prospects. Giving Microsoft the finger will enhance his prospects with the majority of humans.
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I wouldn’t worry too much about Niall’s employment prospects. Giving Microsoft the finger will enhance his prospects with the majority of humans.
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Scoble, you just took a whack at your own credibility. Your post was embarrassingly stupid.
EVERY IT pro knows that making a point to Microsoft regarding its security or operating practices takes the equivalent of a baseball bat to the head to get their attention.
Conversely, when given a choice between courteously getting ignored in a “professional” way by MS and cranking up one’s public act to the point where MS can NOT ignore issues presented by an IT professional, professional responsibility dictates that one do what has to be done.
MS should be glad that the image they used without permission was edited, I would have been careful to make sure the CC license info did NOT interfere with viewers’ full enjoyment of the image.
I presume that you’re also one of those idiots who think that once one tells MS about a critical security vuln in their products, “professional courtesy” means that one should stay silent about it even if MS seems inclined to leave the hole unpatched forever.
You have no business commenting on IT-related issues or professional conduct in a public forum.
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Scoble, you just took a whack at your own credibility. Your post was embarrassingly stupid.
EVERY IT pro knows that making a point to Microsoft regarding its security or operating practices takes the equivalent of a baseball bat to the head to get their attention.
Conversely, when given a choice between courteously getting ignored in a “professional” way by MS and cranking up one’s public act to the point where MS can NOT ignore issues presented by an IT professional, professional responsibility dictates that one do what has to be done.
MS should be glad that the image they used without permission was edited, I would have been careful to make sure the CC license info did NOT interfere with viewers’ full enjoyment of the image.
I presume that you’re also one of those idiots who think that once one tells MS about a critical security vuln in their products, “professional courtesy” means that one should stay silent about it even if MS seems inclined to leave the hole unpatched forever.
You have no business commenting on IT-related issues or professional conduct in a public forum.
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Microsoft stoled the guys image without _asking_ him. Why should he _ask_ them to take it down? I think he did the right thing. Change it to something that will embarrass them. It brings attention to the issue. Microsoft pirated the content!
Of course, all this does in the long term is ensure companies host the content they’ve stolen instead of linking to it.
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Microsoft stoled the guys image without _asking_ him. Why should he _ask_ them to take it down? I think he did the right thing. Change it to something that will embarrass them. It brings attention to the issue. Microsoft pirated the content!
Of course, all this does in the long term is ensure companies host the content they’ve stolen instead of linking to it.
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Actually, I’m 27 and I think it’s quite hilarious.
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Actually, I’m 27 and I think it’s quite hilarious.
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I don’t find the use of pornographic images agreeable in any way but I do find it interesting how you give MS a break when they broke copyright law. How does Ms treat people that break their copyright? Do they give people _any_ breaks? You mention the little guy working in MS and having pity for him. How about the little guy that owns a small business? Does he get a break from MS? Sorry, I don’t have any pity on MS at all. Again, porn wouldn’t have been my choice but I would have used an image of my own with some copy to bring their attention for sure.
AEM
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I don’t find the use of pornographic images agreeable in any way but I do find it interesting how you give MS a break when they broke copyright law. How does Ms treat people that break their copyright? Do they give people _any_ breaks? You mention the little guy working in MS and having pity for him. How about the little guy that owns a small business? Does he get a break from MS? Sorry, I don’t have any pity on MS at all. Again, porn wouldn’t have been my choice but I would have used an image of my own with some copy to bring their attention for sure.
AEM
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“Burn bridges if you want, but I’ve learned over and over that people remember this kind of treatment and it certainly never disappears from Google.” For every manager/interviewer that might balk at this, I think there’ll be 10 who’ll pat him on the back.
This reminds me of an interview I had with Amazon in 1998. The interview with blazingly well with the engineers I spoke to. Things looked great right up until I met with the VP of engineering, a recent hire from Microsoft.
He took one look at the Apple Newton 2100 in my hands and said, “I don’t care what I’m being told about you. I think your choice of PDA tells me all I need to determine that you won’t be working here.”
I don’t feel bad about that interview. That attitude told me all I needed to knwo about working for Amazon, especially while that guy was VP of engineering.
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“Burn bridges if you want, but I’ve learned over and over that people remember this kind of treatment and it certainly never disappears from Google.” For every manager/interviewer that might balk at this, I think there’ll be 10 who’ll pat him on the back.
This reminds me of an interview I had with Amazon in 1998. The interview with blazingly well with the engineers I spoke to. Things looked great right up until I met with the VP of engineering, a recent hire from Microsoft.
He took one look at the Apple Newton 2100 in my hands and said, “I don’t care what I’m being told about you. I think your choice of PDA tells me all I need to determine that you won’t be working here.”
I don’t feel bad about that interview. That attitude told me all I needed to knwo about working for Amazon, especially while that guy was VP of engineering.
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i guess niall has a wicked sense of humor or a bad temper. not sure which one.
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i guess niall has a wicked sense of humor or a bad temper. not sure which one.
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“I wouldn’t worry too much about Niall’s employment prospects. Giving Microsoft the finger will enhance his prospects with the majority of humans.
Comment by Greg — December 12, 2006 ”
Yeah i heard he got a new job in PR at apple???
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“I wouldn’t worry too much about Niall’s employment prospects. Giving Microsoft the finger will enhance his prospects with the majority of humans.
Comment by Greg — December 12, 2006 ”
Yeah i heard he got a new job in PR at apple???
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Quote “When people start saying you shouldn’t burn bridges and should always be nice even if you don’t want to be, I start to question how authentic they are. It’s a form of self-censorship that runs counter to the spirit of blogging.”
I reckon the word blogging is probably interchangeable with evolution here…
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Quote “When people start saying you shouldn’t burn bridges and should always be nice even if you don’t want to be, I start to question how authentic they are. It’s a form of self-censorship that runs counter to the spirit of blogging.”
I reckon the word blogging is probably interchangeable with evolution here…
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