“Former Microsoft executive Kai-Fu Lee has accused the software giant of incompetence in its plans to gain a business footing in China, and testified that an expletive-filled tirade from chairman Bill Gates was a low point before he defected to rival Google,” The Associated Press reports.
“In testimony during a hearing on Microsoft’s lawsuit against Lee and Google, Lee said on Tuesday he wrote a memo to another Microsoft executive saying he was ‘deeply disappointed at our incompetence in China – that we have wasted so many years in China with little to show for it.’ Lee went on to say in the email that he was embarrassed by Microsoft’s business practices and that people in the government joked about Microsoft’s internal politics,” The Associated Press reports. “He testified that one of the lowest moments of his career with Microsoft was a conversation in which Gates yelled at him and said the company had been ‘f—–‘ by the Chinese people and its government. Lee did not clarify the context of Gates’ comments.”
The Associated Press reports, “Redmond-based Microsoft has sued Google and Lee, who is known for his work on computer recognition of language, a key problem in search technology. Microsoft contends that Lee’s duties would violate the terms of an agreement he signed as part of his Microsoft employment contract. Microsoft also accused Lee of using insider information to get his job at Google… Attorneys for Google said in court on Tuesday that much of what Lee knew about the Chinese market came from his previous work experience at Apple Computer and other companies, and that Microsoft was exaggerating the extent of his work for Microsoft on China.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: F bomb this, f bomb that. These are the sounds of implosion, boys and girls. And we are grinning ear to ear. Keep concentrating on Google, guys. It’s all about Google. Google, Google, Google…
Advertisement: Windows XP: F—ing start something f—ed, you f—er.
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Chair hurling Microsoft CEO Ballmer: ‘I’m going to f—ing kill Google’ – September 03, 2005
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I can’t say I blame Gates and Ballmer for throwing so many f-bombs around. I know that I curse at my WinXP machine almost daily, it can be very stressful what with all the viruses, spyware, random crashes, convoluted interface, and the sheer ugliness of the GUI (dithered startup screens are so 15 years ago). That is why I will be switching (back) to Mac after 10 years of windows hell.
China is going to screw the world, Apple included. I would rather have Bill and M$ XP than Mao and his little red book.
Lenovo will mop up Dell, HP and Sony in the PC space, leaving Apple as the only other name-brand PC maker. And once it’s Intel-based, Apple might start getting some big corporate contracts (even if it’s running Windows).
Nice mouth, Bill. You kiss your mother with that mouth?
Bill’s already a multi billionair. He’s nothing but a greedy f______ c___.
So does the rest of the world get to hear about this sort of stuff ? Or any other MDN story ? Or just the 12 mac heads who come here often.
I think Apple have been secretly advertising all along.
What do you use to deny attacks ? I’ve got something called HoneypotX. Once in a blue moon it will alarm me of an intruder and block it. But I am not constantly bombarded.
Come on Steve. Announce the Chinese Music Store tomorrow. I double dare ya.
Hey, Steve could really p— off Bill by licensing Mac OS X to Lenovo for the Chinese market!
“…..Maybe some startup in China is copy-pasting Vista right now…excluding the bugs that is…”
Patsy Storm….
Just what is Vista (Longhorn) without the bugs ??
……DOS ??
Google and Apple have the same feel for me. They both “get it” and really try to do things right.
It is nice to see M$ taken down a peg or two by someone doing things the right way. Maybe the good guys can finish first for a change.
With a billion people, it appears the only people getting effed are the chinese.
Nice one, ‘dood!
Now that’s an attractive photo! A head only a mother could love. LOL!!
I think Billy and Steve B have been into Mommy and Daddy’s liquor cabinet. These guys are a riot!
And, is Google the new IBM?
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MS seems very distracted lately… hope they’re keeping an eyeball on Cupertino…
Oh, just once, Bill might be right. We are all being f**ked by the Chinese, or rather by our governments desire to have China as a ‘trading partner’ at all costs, when the country has all sorts of restrictions – China can invest in US firms and even buy them out – foreign firms can only own minority shares in China. That’s ignoring all the restrictive practices and deliberately undervalued currency used to keep China’s labour so cheap.
Just ask anyone who has lost their unskilled their skilled manufacturing job over the last 7 years – when did Apple started putting ‘Designed in California’ in big letters to cover up for ‘made in China’?
But hey, techies and media people don’t care, it means cheaper goods and it’s never an issue until ‘they’ take our jobs.
re:What do you use to deny attacks ? I’ve got something called HoneypotX. Once in a blue moon it will alarm me of an intruder and block it. But I am not constantly bombarded.
In System Preferences/Sharing?Firewall/Advanced Enable Firewall logging
Check the log a couple of hours later.
“…Gates yelled at him and said the company had been ‘f—–‘ by the Chinese people and its government…”
Awwww, whatsamatter Billy; bad day at the office?
Guess what: not everyone in the world (at least not in China) believes your BS anymore.
Get over it. Loser.
MaWo, ’cause’. As in: Microsoft will be the cause of its own demise.
Bill thinks he’s the one getting it up the arsenal, but the average income in China is around $8 grand per year. Most can’t afford or justify even a Win$in machine, must less a Mac, yet their intelligence, determination, networking, and discipline is slowly kicking all our butts in every avenue.
I think the combination of Google, Linux, Apple, Firefox, and the OpenDoc format are going to slay the beast. Its an assault from all different areas.
Microsoft really doesn’t know what to do now. Its a full scale assault on them.
this place just keeps getting more and more mature
The house of mud, built upon a foundation of sand, is collapsing from its own weight.
There is no way a very generic operating system built for a very generic computer architecture could possibly compete with a competitor’s long term, highly focused, innovation. For Dell to succeed, they should be making their own OS, a Windows emulator, and take a path similar to what Apple has done.
As MS collapses, it will take down Dell, HP and all of the others with it. Their CEOs will quickly bail out with their billion dollar pensions and bonuses. Their employees, numbering in the tens of thousands, will be unemployed. And that will remain standing will be Apple and a few miscellaneous Linux/UNIX-based companies. Apple will be the only one with a consumer-friendly system.
Perhaps in about 10 years, Apple may be seen as a monopoly and have to face splits in its divisions, but until then, I am buying as much Apple stock as possible. Video telecommunications, very high speed wireless data transmission and global communication costs nearing zero, we haven’t even seen the beginning of Apple yet.
MDN – there must be a name for the practice of printing unflattering photos of people next to negative articles about them. I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s weasely and I wish you wouldn’t do it from now on.
well i dont know about you but im really getting the sense that m$ is definately on a nerver-ending, downward spiral. it is the beginning of the end. how long it takes i dont know. in 5 years alot can happen.
One thing though, Google isnt a platform, its a search engine, but in my experience Yahoo creates just as accurate results. so they have gmail now. so what?
Everyone says its all about google google google, but really, theyre an add-on, they can create add ons for OSs but thats it. im not dissing them, but seriously, when microsoft go under, someones going to be on top. maybe google can still provide services for people to use, but google is not an OS. they get paid by selling advertising, thats the bottom line, i just think people are way overrating their importance in the future of computing. just my thoughts.
Power mongers hate losing.
Watch carefully for the day when Billy-G starts dumping massive amounts of M$ stock. One of the worlds richest men has the most to lose and won’t like seeing those billions and billions melt away as the stock market loses interest in the beleagured giant for lack of innovation.
Have they not milked the Office package beyond belief and why would anyone even care about another version of Windoze with wizzed on graphics and a name like Longdong or Mista. F__k MS!