Scobleizer - Latest Comments in Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

owen — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 20:06:59 -0000

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...

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

owen — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 20:03:11 -0000

"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???

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

kewlgizmos — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 21:20:25 -0000

i guess niall has a wicked sense of humor or a bad temper. not sure which one.

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

JCK — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 17:40:35 -0000

"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.

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

Adrian Madrid — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 15:10:16 -0000

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

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

Mike — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 14:14:54 -0000

Actually, I'm 27 and I think it's quite hilarious.

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

Tomis — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 13:23:08 -0000

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.

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

A.Lizard — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 18:33:35 -0000

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.

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

Greg — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 11:49:37 -0000

I wouldn't worry too much about Niall's employment prospects. Giving Microsoft the finger will enhance his prospects with the majority of humans.

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

strategicalliance — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 07:55:19 -0000

office challenges...pray that it all works out

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

Cars — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 07:54:05 -0000

Hhhmmmm........

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

Larry Flynt — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 07:16:01 -0000

BTW. From where did Niall steal the porn picture.

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

hawaii — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 00:32:59 -0000

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.

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

cameraware — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 00:31:36 -0000

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. :)

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

mydigest — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 19:18:17 -0000

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

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

Dave Bennett — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 18:12:06 -0000

Sounds like a bummer.

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

Robert Scoble — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 17:05:15 -0000

>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.

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

Andrew Hitchcock — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 14:56:24 -0000

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.

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

Dave Bennett — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 13:37:17 -0000

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!

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

Dave Bennett — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 13:33:58 -0000

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!

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

Robert Scoble — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 13:16:29 -0000

Dave: I don't work for Microsoft. Thanks for noticing.

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

Dave Bennett — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 13:04:34 -0000

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.

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

xolith — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 12:02:25 -0000

Awesome!

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

Robert Scoble — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 11:54:38 -0000

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).

Re: Niall sends Microsoft team a porn message

Corinne — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 10:19:05 -0000

Out of all the millions of images he could have chosen to post, he chooses a porn image?
That's just weak. And unprofessional.