Vista Cash Back -- Redmond Channel Partner

Barney's Blog

Vista Cash Back

Kim Kido bought a Vista PC, presumably with the intention of using and enjoying the new Microsoft operating system. But Kido hated Vista, and after carefully reading the tiny print of the legalese-laden license agreement, Kido demanded a refund from HP.

The bad news for HP? Kido is a blogger, and her entire story of two months worth of e-mail and telephone calls ended up on Valleywag. Kido eventually got her $200 back, and HP got far more than $200 worth of bad press.

Posted by Doug Barney on July 28, 2008

Featured

Microsoft Dismantles RedVDS Cybercrime Marketplace Linked to $40M in Phishing Fraud

In a coordinated action spanning the United States and the United Kingdom, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) and international law enforcement collaborators have taken down RedVDS, a subscription based cybercrime platform tied to an estimated $40 million in fraud losses in the U.S. since March 2025.
CrowdStrike's Acquisition of SGNL Aims to Strengthen Identity Security

CrowdStrike signs definitive agreement to purchase SGNL, an identity security specialist, in a deal valued at about $740 million.
Microsoft Acquires Osmos, Automating Data Engineering inside Fabric

In a strategic move to reduce time-consuming manual data preparation, Microsoft has acquired Seattle-based startup Osmos, specializing in agentic AI for data engineering.
Linux Foundation Unites Major Tech Firms to Launch Agentic AI Foundation

The Linux Foundation today announced the creation of a new collaborative initiative — the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) — bringing together major AI and cloud players such as Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and other major tech companies.