Evil Companies
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| Author | Topic: Evil Companies |
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Guardian
Member # 2080
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written Saturday, August 2 2003 12:31
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Choose the single evilest company on the planet. Poll Information This poll contains 1 question(s). 67 user(s) have voted. You may not view the results of this poll without voting. function launch_voter () { launch_window("http://www.ironycentral.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=poll;d=vote;pollid=VUbszMEBucOb"); return true; } // end launch_voter function launch_viewer () { launch_window("http://www.ironycentral.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=poll;d=view;pollid=VUbszMEBucOb"); return true; } // end launch_viewer function launch_window (url) { preview = window.open( url, "preview", "width=550,height=300,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status,menubar=no,scrollbars,resizable,copyhistory=no" ); window.preview.focus(); return preview; } // end launch_window  [/url]  [/url]Posts: 1918 | Registered: Sunday, October 13 2002 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Saturday, August 2 2003 13:01
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All four of 'em. Hard to decide - I heard loads of evil stuff about Wal-Mart, and I know the privacy policies of AOL and Microsoft well enough not to use Internet Explorer (which, btw, sends every URL you request to M$ Headquarters, as I just heard), or ICQ (the new version of which is a forced update - you can't run the old one anymore - and has a huge ad square at the top), or AIM. I haven't heard anything bad about IBM though... Edit: Wait, I just noticed, special post number once again. Was quite a bit of time, too, since 42...  [ Saturday, August 02, 2003 14:48: Message edited by: Arancaytar ] -------------------- "And all should cry, Beware, Beware! His Flashing eyes, his Floating hair!" S. T. Coleridge --- "It is as if everyone had lost their sense Consigned themselves to downfall and decadence And a wisp it is they have chosen as their beacon." Reinhard Mey. --- Quote of the Week: "I have a high opinion of myself, which makes up for my total lack of intelligence." Anon. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 3285
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written Saturday, August 2 2003 13:20
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AIM is less evil then ICQ, thanks to an Add-on that you can get which kills all the ads and adds some improvments as well. That and it's chat program is better then ICQ's. But for the most part I use Trillian instead to avoid the Evils of certain IM programs. I'd put AOL, Microsoft, and Wal-Mart in a tie. I don't know of anything bad about IBM, so I can't rank it. Posts: 19 | Registered: Tuesday, July 29 2003 07:00 |
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Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
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written Saturday, August 2 2003 13:33
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Why is IBM evil now? It's not their fault they're the only sane company offering personal computers. -------------------- In a word, gay. --Bob the Impaler Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Saturday, August 2 2003 14:24
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Seems like IBM is not as bad as the other three, since no one has rated it down yet...  And M$ is just evil. [ Saturday, August 02, 2003 14:27: Message edited by: Arancaytar ] -------------------- "And all should cry, Beware, Beware! His Flashing eyes, his Floating hair!" S. T. Coleridge --- "It is as if everyone had lost their sense Consigned themselves to downfall and decadence And a wisp it is they have chosen as their beacon." Reinhard Mey. --- Quote of the Week: "I have a high opinion of myself, which makes up for my total lack of intelligence." Anon. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 2669
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written Saturday, August 2 2003 15:00
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What, no oil companies? No investment banks? No George Soros? Those are the ones with the power to destabilize entire countries in a matter of hours. -------------------- ... Posts: 647 | Registered: Wednesday, February 19 2003 08:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2080
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written Saturday, August 2 2003 19:13
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Um, Walmart destroys towns. Microsoft and Aol are run by people who want to own you. And IBM was just there for the for the sake of having an even number of companies. quote:What does sanity have to do with quality? Apple's insane, but they offer great computers. Posts: 1918 | Registered: Sunday, October 13 2002 07:00 |
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Senile Reptile
Member # 547
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written Saturday, August 2 2003 20:06
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Compaq, for me at any rate, was quite a decent company. All of my computers that I've gotten past the 166 mhz one have been Compaq, and I've never had problems. Their customer support was also incredibly helpful and courteous. I say was because they got bought out by HP, a company which I dislike quite a bit. And Dell too. Anyone have a link to this "Trillian" contraption? -------------------- Polaris Posts: 1614 | Registered: Wednesday, January 23 2002 08:00 |
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Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
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written Saturday, August 2 2003 20:40
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quote:I didn't say that it did. I would assert, however, that Apple's insane leadership harms its quality a lot. The Lisa -- 20 years ago -- should have taught Apple that Jobs ought to have been locked up in a cage and fed using long poles with hooks on them. Now he's the creative force behind the damned company. How about the iMac? A machine with all the mutability of a laptop and all the portability of a desktop? Brilliant idea. It was an even more brilliant idea, apparently, to replace the powerful, direct machines Apple had previously focused on with pretty, power-lacking moron boxen. The iPod? To paraphrase Penny Arcade, "But it doesn't skip!" "Neither does this. It's padded by about three hundred dollars in cash." Yeah, that's just great. A company which can tell its ass from a hole in the ground is 'evil', because we all know Apple is a company which ought to be emulated. Motrax: It's called Google. Look into it. [ Saturday, August 02, 2003 20:41: Message edited by: **** General Custer ] -------------------- In a word, gay. --Bob the Impaler Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00 |
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Lifecrafter
Member # 521
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written Saturday, August 2 2003 20:59
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AOL is not its own company, MS is an ip company, so no one is really hurt by them, Walmart is captialism on the move, IBM is a pretty decent movie. United Fruit is and Evil company. -------------------- I am not really here. Posts: 956 | Registered: Wednesday, January 16 2002 08:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2080
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written Saturday, August 2 2003 21:28
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Apples are still powerful. And iPods are expesive, cause they're basically a really really smal and simplistic computer hooked up to a batery and a harddrive. Anywayz. The iMacs would have been alright, if Steve had not taken away the floppy drive before they were able to put CD-RWs in the things, made upgrading old iMacs impossible, put in non-standard CD-Rom drives and harddrives in them, come up with a way to replace the monitor if it got broken, and some better speakers would have been nice. Other great Apple mistakes: 1. That time they removed the audio in jacks from all their comps except for the iMac. 2. That time they gave Steve his own jet. 3. Making .Mac cost money. 4. Making an OS that is too Unix-based. 5. Not doing much to support old Apple OSes(just like Microsoft) 6. Not giving me a computer. 7. Not making iTunes 3 for OS9 8. Making OSX as great a resource user to a mac as XP is to a PC. Posts: 1918 | Registered: Sunday, October 13 2002 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Saturday, August 2 2003 23:27
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MS might not abuse its employees the way I heard Wal-Mart does, but it's the company that owns the OS used by about 90% of all personal computers - not that that is a reason to call it evil, but it gives the company power. And when it then turns out that there are as many security holes in Windows as there are holes in a fishnet (they're finding them all the time, so why shouldn't there be even more?), then you can't know who else is reading everything you type, including all the passwords. -------------------- "And all should cry, Beware, Beware! His Flashing eyes, his Floating hair!" S. T. Coleridge --- "It is as if everyone had lost their sense Consigned themselves to downfall and decadence And a wisp it is they have chosen as their beacon." Reinhard Mey. --- Quote of the Week: "I have a high opinion of myself, which makes up for my total lack of intelligence." Anon. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 496
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written Sunday, August 3 2003 04:33
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There was no 'none of the above' box, so I didn't vote. I'd have thought companies like Cargill and Monsanto were pretty evil, pushing GM crops on famine victims as a PR exercise, though food politics are pretty indefensible anyway, worse than pharmaceuticals as the need is even more basic. Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ) and subsiduaries is seen as especially reprehensible here (UK), pretty much indifferent to the literally genocidal consequences of its mineral extraction projects (e.g. in Bougainville, until the natives kicked them out), and lodged deeply enough in the Establishment to set MI6 or its proxies (Sandline, etc) on anyone objecting. It's still hard to forgive or forget Union Carbide's killing and blinding of a major Indian city, Bhopal, not least because they're currently suing their victims for protesting this rather than compensating them. Well, the list is endless. These are just a few of my pet peeves in terms of corporate evilness. Posts: 2333 | Registered: Monday, January 7 2002 08:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 1207
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written Sunday, August 3 2003 08:35
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I only know of one Walmart store, and that's cos it's just outside Edinburgh but I pass it on the way in or out once a week. Before it bought over a big Asda hypermarket that was there (and it still says Asda on the outside) I'd never heard of it. Anyway, can someone therfore explain to me what all this "Walmart abuses its employees" is all about then? -------------------- ~ørangutan I want high-bit characters in my displayed name!!! :( :( :( (Or at least an exclamtion point!) Eat pie! BADGER! Posts: 316 | Registered: Saturday, May 25 2002 07:00 |
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Lifecrafter
Member # 521
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written Sunday, August 3 2003 14:57
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Actually, I consider the GM companies to be moral, while those who seek to block the food delivery evil. Remember, the US has a much longer process for approval than Europe does. It generally takes European Drugs a few years after the intial roll out to get american aproval, even if it is a major multinational that is basied in the US. -------------------- I am not really here. Posts: 956 | Registered: Wednesday, January 16 2002 08:00 |
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Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!
Member # 919
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written Sunday, August 3 2003 17:03
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You left out Nike, so I said Microsoft. That is all. -------------------- And though the musicians would die, the music would live on in the imaginations of all who heard it. -The Last Pendragon TEH CONSPIRACY IZ ALL Les forum de la chance. Incaseofemergency,breakglass. Posts: 3351 | Registered: Saturday, April 6 2002 08:00 |
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Agent
Member # 1359
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written Sunday, August 3 2003 20:09
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I'd say McDonald's, but it wasn't on the poll so I picked IBM because of an evil thing they did with FDDs a long time ago. -------------------- ~ §øСüm©ÿªñ¡Ðë ~ Mission Ridge -- All Your Snow Are Belong to Us. Posts: 1277 | Registered: Monday, June 24 2002 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 496
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written Monday, August 4 2003 07:35
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At least Stateside, Walmart pay staff peanuts (no surprise there!) but also have a minimalist training programme encouraging mindless conformity and zero initiative in junior staff, turning them into monkeys (actually 'Walmartians'). The point about GM in the US is that it has never been tested as Monsanto had enough (election funding) sway with the Clinton administration to get it classified as indistinguishable from non-GM food. Consequently, no one knows the long-term consequences of this new food they're eating. Where negative evidence has come up--e.g. Dr. Puztai's discovery at the Rowett Institute that pasrticular GM potatoes were toxic to rats--such research is typically quickly de-funded and dismissed as 'flawed', 'anti-science', etc with minimal analysis of what's actually been found. More generally on GM, there are more than adequate non-GM crop strains to feed the world already. Famine occurs because food is produced and distributed on the basis of who can afford it rather than who actually needs it, and the GM crop market will only further concentrate food production / distribution in the hands of the likes of Monsanto. Posts: 2333 | Registered: Monday, January 7 2002 08:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 3304
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written Monday, August 4 2003 14:04
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Well, all, some, or none would be evil depending on your definition. All of them are working to make money and gain control of their particular sector (well maybe not IBM anymore). But some would consider trying to become a monopoly is evil which is why there is a negative opinion about some of these companies. On the other hand, the number of security holes in all of microsoft's products is quite worrisome, and possibly evil Posts: 8 | Registered: Sunday, August 3 2003 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 73
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written Monday, August 4 2003 15:10
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I voted IBM. Soon, they're moving many of their positions to Mexico, and laying off many of its employees. Of course, that's great for the Mexicans. Actually, I should have voted WalMart. Too late now. MicroSoft isn't evil. They just don't know how to test their operating systems properly. Unless they put the errors in on purpose, like in the Dilbert comic strip! I doubt it, though. I happen to like Bill Gates. If you worked your rump off to start your own business from scratch, and people suddenly wanted you to donate nearly all of your money to Africans, how would you feel? Sure, he could donate a little more. But people here have argued that he needs to donate most of it. He works for that money. Yes, works. Not worked. Not inherited. Works. He participates actively in the running of the business and the designing of his computers and operating systems. He already donates a ton of money to the African villages to teach them about AIDS and other dangerous diseases, decreasing the death rate. He's not evil. He's just making a very complicated product, that's very difficult to get all the bugs out of. -------------------- My BoE graphics archive is finally getting started! Yay! I hope you like my graphics.My BoE Graphics An absurdly fun Flash game- Refridgerator Raid! --------- The Lyceum- A board for BoE. Yes it is. Really. Stop staring at me! Stop it, I say! Oh, sorry... Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00 |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Monday, August 4 2003 15:16
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Works? Don't make me laugh. Bill Gates stole the business idea and most of the code for the original OS from a friend, who didn't see a cent from any of it. Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
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Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!
Member # 919
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written Monday, August 4 2003 15:25
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Eh, everyone has ghosts in their closets. I'm more concerned with their monopoly, which was acheived... immorally, to say the least. -------------------- And though the musicians would die, the music would live on in the imaginations of all who heard it. -The Last Pendragon TEH CONSPIRACY IZ ALL Les forum de la chance. Incaseofemergency,breakglass. Posts: 3351 | Registered: Saturday, April 6 2002 08:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 73
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written Monday, August 4 2003 15:27
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Steve Jobbs, actually. He stole the click-and-drag interface from him, if what JF tells me is correct. Which it most likely isn't. I see your point. Still, he does work now. He's not still stealing from Jobbs, to the best of my knowledge. -------------------- My BoE graphics archive is finally getting started! Yay! I hope you like my graphics.My BoE Graphics An absurdly fun Flash game- Refridgerator Raid! --------- The Lyceum- A board for BoE. Yes it is. Really. Stop staring at me! Stop it, I say! Oh, sorry... Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00 |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Monday, August 4 2003 16:57
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I was actually talking about MS-DOS in my post, not Windows. And even if he stopped working today, he could still retire on more than a thousand people could expect to earn in their lifetimes. You see nothing wrong with that? [ Monday, August 04, 2003 16:58: Message edited by: Thuryl ] Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2080
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written Monday, August 4 2003 19:10
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Dos was actually bought from some dude Bill knew. Then later, Bill ripped off Apple, who had just gotten done with ripping off Xerox. It's all covered in that song "Every OS sucks" by Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie. Posts: 1918 | Registered: Sunday, October 13 2002 07:00 |