I’m continually amazed that Aunty provides a platform for his uninformed ramblings There’s a great post over at Slashdot (in response to this article which in turn is a follow up to this one):

Thompson has a track record of writing articles that are either ill-informed or technically incorrect and then defending himself with the lame excuse that his is an ‘opinion piece’. I can never understand why Slashdot (or the BBC for that matter) give him the space he clearly doesn’t deserve. He tries to present himself as something of a guru, but probably couldn’t get a job as a junior IT helpdesk worker (apologies to all the highly competent helpdesk guys out there).

He’s the poster-boy for the phrase “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing”. If you look at his resume it’s clear that he tried to make it as a techie, but didn’t have what it takes, and so became a “commentator”. It’s funny - there used to be a feedback section on his BBC column, but it mysteriously disappeared a few months ago, shortly after he posted some badly researched drivel about problems copying his archived email from Windows to OS X and got shot down in flames by almost everyone who responded.

b)

Google already operates in China with the government’s consent, and is even a part-owner of biggest native search engine, Baidu.

That’s really taking liberties with the truth. Google.com is [u]accessible[/u] within China, provided you find the appropriate proxies, and certainly not with the government’s consent; this article in the Wall Street Journal (may be subscriber only, sorry I’m posting from work) suggests that Google’s interest in Baidu is not friendly:

Google has paid a price for coming late to China. While the company’s leaders debated its strategy there, Baidu.com Inc., a local rival in which Google last year bought a small stake, surged; it now ranks as China’s most popular search site. That has left Google facing a rare uphill battle in the Internet search business it helped define. At a board meeting in July, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt cited “serious local competition” as a reason China topped his list of concerns, according to a court document.

“Probably we should have come earlier, but certainly better late than never,” says Kai-Fu Lee, a longtime Microsoft Corp. official whose high profile in China was one of the reasons Google hired him in July to help run its new Chinese operation. Microsoft has filed a lawsuit against Google and Mr. Lee in Washington state court alleging Mr. Lee violated a noncompete agreement.

Since Mr. Lee joined Google, the company has signed up a string of local partners to sell its online ads. Mr. Lee has been setting up a research and development center in Beijing and toured 25 Chinese universities to drum up interest in working there. Google is also preparing a marketing blitz.

So, c), Bill’s argument is basically oppressive regimes and information censorship are OK as long as we’re friendly to the governments that advocate them and it’s not bad thing if we can make some money out of it too. Well done, Bill.

: P

p.s. apologies if some of the bbCode screws up - Alex, your blog needs a preview button…