Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft is Bribing Teachers Again, Maybe Others Too

Learning in Thailand



Summary: Microsoft is bribing schoolteachers to recommend B0ng (Microsoft's Google scraper); pro-Microsoft decision at the German Foreign Office "smells like bribery" says a developer, Mirco "MacSlow" Müller

"Microsoft pays teachers to promote Bing to their students," writes a reader of ours who links to this new page. Bribes for search market share (buying the market rather than earning it) are nothing new from Microsoft [1, 2], but this is an all-time low, adding to the Gates Foundation's intervention in education for its own selfish needs and bribing of professors (we made a mirror after the original report had vanished).



According to this new blog post about the German Foreign Office going back to Windows, there is again a suspicion of Microsoft bribes and its source is quite reliable:

This smells like bribery in action if you ask me.

[...]

From reading summaries on the real reasons, it apparently came down to drivers (for printers and scanners), which they probably bought at Lidl or Aldi (german discount-chains), instead of spending a minute or two on the web researching what devices are properly supported. Another issue was educating staff about different office-applications and making them deal with a slightly different UI-layout *rolling.eyes* WTF… after ten years they could not adapt to something new!? Who are they trying to kid?

This is leads to an terrifying conclusion. IT-staff and clerks working at our foreign offices are less computer literate than my parents and friends (all non-geeks). Or the other way around, people like my parents and friends could work at the foreign offices and help saving valuable tax-money. (ok this last paragraph is stretching it a bit far, but you get my point)


As we showed here before (linking to reports from the commercial press), Steve Ballmer tried to sort of bribe Munich after it had declared plans to move to GNU/Linux [1, 2]. At Microsoft, "bribe" is not a dirty word (although it typically gets euphemised); history teaches that it's just a business strategy. See our EDGI pages (leaked Microsoft documents).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Credit Suisse collapse obfuscated Parreaux, Thiébaud & Partners scandal
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Government Sites That Use Centralised CAs Are Still Remotely Controlled by MElon and GAFAM at the Oval Office
Even governments outside the US
Eternal Vigilance
I too received more death threats than I can recall over the years
Asking Journalists to Pay for Merely Reporting Violent Abuse Against Women (and Telling Them to Kill Themselves)
As regular readers are likely aware by now, for material we published years ago some likely broke man without a proper job (except in a company made up or invented by him) wants money
Judgment translated to English in FINMA & Debian trademark fiasco
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Brigading (in Social Control Media) Did Not Silence the Creator of GNU/Linux
there are no impending talks at the moment
 
Links 25/02/2025: US Backs BRICS at UN, Ukraine's Defence Enters 4th Year
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/02/2025: Marginalia and LOWWIRE
Links for the day
New Richard Stallman Interview Published by Free University of Bozen-Bolzano a Day After His Talk There
We're not seeing any difficult or controversial questions
The Musk Slipped, Countries Need Digital Independence
What's happening in Germany this month might result in quicker adoption of Free software
Spanish Version of the Free Software Foundation's Book "Introduction to the Command Line"
The "GNU Press Shop [is] temporarily closed"
Dr. Andy Farnell Publishes Second Part of Series About Freedom Fighters (It Started With Richard Stallman)
A few minutes ago Dr. Farnell published the second part
Things That Were Presumed Public Enemy #1 (or Foremost Threat)
The world's most powerful military is now governed by clowns who don't know what the heck they're doing
Microsoft is Admitting That It Has No Viable Business Model, Starting to Experiment
Microsoft's proprietary spyware with ads cannot really compete with Calligra and LibreOffice
Bluewashing: IBM Replaces Red Hat With IBM (Bobby Leibrock) at the Top
Based on his education, Bobby is just some suit; he thinks of money, not tech
Links 25/02/2025: Mass Layoffs at Starbucks, Kaspersky Banned on Australian Government Systems
Links for the day
Links 25/02/2025: Strawberry Lemonade, Introducing Fiss, and YouTube Acting Aggressive
Links for the day
UK: Twitter Falls to Lowest Traffic Levels in 5 Years (Start of Lockdowns), Down From More Than 37% to Only 6.5%
Months ago Twitter (aka "X") was blasted by the British government for inciting right-wing violence
Confirmed: IBM Layoffs Will Strike Consulting Quite Hard
the flagging of staff is a way to signal to them it's time to go or get the boot
Sami Tikkanen Explains What Happened to Computer Science Education in Finland and Elsewhere
The 'broligarchs', a collective which typically created anything of their own, do not want the general population to possess skills that let it be anything other than passive consumers
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 24, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, February 24, 2025
Truth is Not About Appeasing the Feelings of Men Who Hurt Women
True information is just what it is
Links 24/02/2025: Compromised Laptops and EU Shift to the Right (Boosted by Social Control Media Interventions)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/02/2025: Politics, Monarchy, and AuraRepo Prism VCS Suppor
Links for the day
Links 24/02/2025: Germany Looks to Distance Itself From US, Environment at Risk, Mass Layoffs at Zendesk
Links for the day
[Meme] It's Over, Microsoft
an obligatory meme
Even Worse Than LLM Slop and Linkspam From UNIXMen
UNIXMen is basically a defunct spamfarm at this point (the author is "sarwarSEO")
Proprietary Software is Bad for Your Health, Not Just Your Finances, Privacy and So On
It would be interesting to see some charts, based on some long-term study, comparing the general health (blood pressure, BMI etc.) of people who use proprietary stuff and people who do not
Gemini Links 24/02/2025: Osiris 0.1.0 Release (File Sharing in Gemini Protocol), NetBSD 10.1 on the Pi
Links for the day
Microsoft Admits Business Perils as Windows Continues to Fall
‘Microsoft missed the biggest business model…’
Technical Specifications at Times of Tyrannies
Specifications (specs) must evolve with the times
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 23, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, February 23, 2025
In Case Rust Censors It (Rust Has Long Been All About Censorship), Here's a Critical Look at Rust's Goals
In the case of Rust, instead of "the liberation of the digital society" we have empowerment of Microsoft GitHub and of GAFAM in general. Guess who funds this...
Gemini Links 23/02/2025: Respectful Platforms Manifesto and Internet Archive
Links for the day
The Significance of the Timing of the Ridiculous Letters From Brett Wilson LLP, Acting on Behalf of People From Microsoft
A preliminary look at the timeline and what it tells us
Politicians Ought to Invite Dr. Richard Stallman and Prof. Eben Moglen to Speak About Policies, Licensing, Digital Sovereignty
Is there something in Europe other than RMS' talk this coming Monday (that we're not yet aware of)?
The So-called 'IT' Industry Became Somewhat of a Fraud Where People Equate Usage and Power Wasted With "Value" or "Success"
When did 'IT' become a weapon rather than technology/science?
Things to Like About London
Many important or "powerful" people leave near there
Links 23/02/2025: Democracy Backsliding and German Election
Links for the day
Joining APRIL(.org), AGM weekend, Paris, 15-16 March 2025
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 23/02/2025: Zuckerberg Despised, US Government Does Not Obey Judges, France Grapples With Terrorism
Links for the day
Links 23/02/2025: Apple Back Doors, Ukraine Updates, and Gemini Leftovers
Links for the day
Recent Improvements in Techrights
minimalism works fine when the main goal is to relay information
Slopwatch: Brian Fagioli, Brittany Day (linuxsecurity.com), and Microsoft Misinformation, False Marketing
Serial Sloppers
Censored: Debian Zizian transgender vigilante comparisons in open source Linux communities
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, February 22, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, February 22, 2025