Well, the government will collect and squander the taxpayers' money one way
or the other. It can fund some feel-good program to buy votes, or upgrade
software that brings absolutely no benefits whatsoever.

Microsoft, for all its size, doesn't have a powerful political lobbying
machine. Compare this to other large companies like ExxonMobil, Boeing,
eBay, or any of the Big Three automakers. If Microsoft started using its
deep cash reserves like the NRA does, things would look very different
today.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"Roger" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 6 Mar 2007 11:11:05 -0000, "John Russell"
wrote:


"Roger" wrote in message
. ..
On Tue, 06 Mar 2007 02:20:45 -0500, Roger
wrote:

On Mon, 5 Mar 2007 18:54:43 -0500, "First of One" root@localhost
wrote:

Yep, and of course the EU and the South Korean government aren't buying
that.

Then again, there's a running joke in the Dailytech forums that the EU
is
conjuring up new fines for Microsoft just to bail out the Airbus A380

I seriously doubt they could get that much out of MS even if they sold
off the company and took all the sale as cash.

They (MS) also took a hit today when the Feds said no to upgrading for
at least 6 months or more. Comment was they had no valid reason and
nothing to gain by upgrading.

Why couldn't they say it was waste of taxpayers money? You get the
impression they are bothered about the inconvenience to themselves, not
the
cost to the taxpayer!

Now what on earth would make you think that:-))


Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com