Digital Cowboy

Eaglewood asked if I had backed down from criticizing Microsoft because they had pushed me. I wish I was that important. No one at Microsoft knows who I am. What follows is a slightly enhanced version of a comment on the last post in which I responded to Eaglewood. I’ve copied it here because I want to be sure that everyone who reads here sees it:

No, Eaglewood. Even if Microsoft did come at me, I wouldn’t back down. I took it down because there were people, whose opinions matter to me, that took it differently than I intended it. Also, it not only could be, but was, misconstrued. I take all of the blame.

It was written in frustration and after rereading it, I realized that it was over the top of the obnoxious peak, even for me. (That’s saying something.)

I’ll never stop criticizing Microsoft and I’ll be ruthless with them. Microsoft has set the personal computer industry back by decades with their incompetence and greed. They are a huge drag on the U.S. economy. I despise everything they’ve ever produced and I think they should all go get real jobs that utilize their skills. (For Ballmer and Gates I would suggest sending resumes to Tony Soprano since it’s clear that neither of them know anything about technology except how to steal it, usually with intimidation and/or force.) As a company, they are parasites. That’s not surprising; any organization always takes on the character of its leader. Be sure to let me know when Bill Gates actually earns anything.

But that post was, quite unintentionally, offensive to decent people that matter to me.

Incidentally, in over 15 months blogging and nearly 375 posts, that is the first time I’ve ever removed one. There have been many I’ve regretted and a few of those could actually cause me legal problems. I’ve never removed them. My general philosophy is, “Once you publish, it cannot be unpublished.”

But this was different. It was personal and removing it was part of my way of apologizing for being too crass for even me.