January's Toast to Tech Evil

comforteagle writes "In this month's mocking toast To Evil! Danny O'Brien laments the holiday habit of trying to hide one's evilness from Father Christmas, but finds those evil tech companies can't help being who they are. 'I'm really hoping that in their next batch of cinema adverts, the MPAA addresses this, and shows a grumbling adware developer instead of a Hollywood set-painter. The piracy issue, it affects us all: the construction guy, the lighting guy. And me, the guy who installed all that crap on your mum's computer. And also an awful lot of Los Angeles-based cocaine dealers. Why doesn't anyone think of them?'"

Danny and Conan...

[mirko]

this month's mocking toast To Evil! Danny O'Brien...

I understood that Conan O'Brien (not sure if it's spelled this way) had some fun about another Evil in Las Vegas last week...
Might be some family vendetta against evil.

the construction guy, the lighting guy...

[The Grassy Knoll]

And don't forget the motorcycle cop and the red indian. They were my favourites.

.

Re:New /. outcry...

[grasshoppa]

Say what you will about drug dealers, they are about the most honest "professional" people I've ever met. you tell them what you want when you want it, and they tell you whether they can do it or not. None of this, "I gotta talk to ...x" or "Let me check with my vendor" crap.

I tell ya, they are a breath of fresh air to an IT manager-type.

No icon in ther header

[Airline_Sickness_Bag]

This thread doesn't have an icon. You need to get an "evil" icon for topics like these. Until then, just use the Microsoft or SCO icon.

Great idea

[AtariAmarok]

"Perhaps have a Karma system for companies: Every time a positve or negative story appears add or subtract 1 point."

Great idea. The business news could give daily "Slashdaq" index reports:

"In today's Slashdaq, Microsoft fell to a record low -11,454 points. Apple's rating is still at a steady 323 despite a loss of 13 points after reports of them sueing "ThinkSecret"."

Re:No icon in ther header

[AndroidCat]

They set the evil bit. Doesn't your software handle that? Mine plays creepy pipe organ music, which has always been an icon of evil.

Re:Hall of Evil

[AndroidCat]

Start a site damnedcompany.com (available) to list the companies that are completely damned by their evil actions to eternity in hell.

But the ads work!

[Anonymous Coward]

Just the other day my friend was at a movie and , during the 30 minute "captive audience" advertising segment the stuntman ad came on. Up until then he had never even considered downloading movies but the ad made him realize that instead of paying $15 to see a half hour of ads or spending about $6 to rent a video which may or may not suck (and would still include the ads), he could just download the movies ad-free in the comfort of his own home for pennies (about $1 for each movie he decides to keep). He even devised a lovely USB storage solution for his new homebrew DVD jukebox.