Computerworld's Win 7 RAM Source Was a Sham
Supposed research firm CTO was actually an InfoWorld blogger.
Last week we relayed a story from Computerworld that cited its Devil Mountain Software source as finding that 86 percent of Windows 7 PCs in the over 20,000 machines it monitors would frequently encounter low memory situations.
Despite the entire Internet community jumping on Devil Mountain Software, the company's blog stood by its claims. But things started to fall apart for DMS's exo.performance.network (XPnet) when ZDNet suspected that Craig Barth was actually an InfoWorld/IDG Network columnist (Computerworld is also a part of IDG). Before ZDNet published its suspicions, InfoWorld's Eric Knorr announced that IDG had severed ties with its contributor Randall C. Kennedy, who "had been misrepresenting himself to other media organizations as Craig Barth, CTO of Devil Mountain Software…"
"DevilMountain Software is a business Kennedy established that specializes in the analysis of Windows performance data," Knorr explained. "There is no Craig Barth, and Kennedy has stated that this fabrication was a misguided effort to separate himself (or more accurately, his InfoWorld blogger persona) from his Devil Mountain Software business."
Following the reveal, ZDNet went ahead and published its story detailing the connections found between Barth and Kennedy, making them the same person. Gregg Keizer, who wrote many of the stories for Computerworld that cited Barth, explained his position in a new article.
"The two, Barth and Kennedy, are one and the same. The problem was that I didn't know that. The problem was that Kennedy didn't tell me he was Barth, that I didn't figure out Barth was he, and that together, they were DevilMountain," Keizer wrote. "I have spoken with the man I knew as Barth between 15 and 20 times since December 2007. There was a phone number and a man behind the phone number. The guy seemed to know his technical stuff."
"But on Friday, after I confronted Barth with evidence that linked him to Kennedy -- I didn't yet know they were one and the same -- he assured me that although the two had worked together in the past, and in fact, now worked together at Devil Mountain, any allegations that he and Kennedy were the same person were ridiculous," Keizer continued. "Two hours later, I received an e-mail from Kennedy, who I'd e-mailed separately."
"Time to level with you," Kennedy wrote. "The individual Craig Barth doesn't exist. It's a pseudonym I created a decade ago while writing news copy for Windows NT Magazine. I resurrected it a few years back in an effort to separate my sometimes controversial editorial contributions to InfoWorld from the hard research content I was developing as part of Devil Mountain Software."What began as a simple e-mail exchange of benchmark data two years ago snowballed, as all such white lies tend to do, into the mess we have today," he added.
Kennedy and XPnet appears to still stand behind its Windows 7 RAM data, a more pressing real-world implication of Devil Mountain Software's activity deals with the privacy of its clients that use the firm's performance benchmarking software.
In a follow up article, "Barth" revealed that Devil Mountain Software's Clarity Suite was being used at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston, as well as on Wall Street trading floors. The financial firms wouldn't confirm whether or not it used DMS's products, but regardless, it's either a violation of client privacy (perhaps with unauthorized use) or a complete fabrication.
- Microsoft Windows,
- computerworld ,
- randall ,
- kennedy ,
- craig ,
- barth
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Yeah but, it's in the Internet ... so it's true. ;-)
Rule 34 followed by 42.
Bets on if M$ goes after this guy for damages?
the original article's testing methodology was too vague and make way too many assumptions to be taken seriously anyways.
i'm sure most of tom's hardware readers already found a lot of problems and faults with the article to begin with.
"Despite the entire Internet community jumping on Devil Mountain Software, the company's blog stood by its claims."
You mean, despite the entire internet community jumping on you, because it's simply astounding how such ignorant information could be passed on by a 'professional' columnist working for an IT enthusiast site.
"Despite the entire Internet community jumping on Devil Mountain Software, the company's blog stood by its claims."You mean, despite the entire internet community jumping on you, because it's simply astounding how such ignorant information could be passed on by a 'professional' columnist working for an IT enthusiast site.
You sir, hit the nail on the head.
I knew it wasn't true. I've worked on and examined a hundred windows 7 machines and even the 1 gb netbooks aren't overly starved for ram
Don't forget to update the article from last week.
What does this guy stand to gain by discrediting a great OS like Windows 7?
its all about the he said she said bullshit .....
apple profited from it
... and also many readers found problems with their new W7 install...
I knew it was total BS
What does this guy stand to gain by discrediting a great OS like Windows 7?
Page hits.... therefore cash.
if they don't give you the peramiters that they tested in to get their data you can bet it's a steaming pile of bs. Glad this got out in the open though.
Hmmm, It still didn't stop Marcus Yam posting as if it was fact!You guys need to validate things like this before posting them, otherwise you're every bit at fault as Computerworld is, in fact probably worse because you supposedly have the technical knowledge to verify and disprove the statements.Its about time you actually acted as Journalists and not as Blog plagiarists.
Thanks for the tip. My department is responsible for news, and we have to make sure we deliver info to you guys as fast as possible, while trying to be as accurate as possible. We quoted Computerworld, which up until now, many have regarded as a reputable source, wouldn't you say so? And as such, we usually aren't afraid of quoting reputable sources because they're well, usually reputable.
If we had to do background checking for every piece of breaking news, there would be no breaking news. That's why we have follow-ups, like this article.
Stop putting your foot in your mouth and acting as though you know how it is to do our job. Calling us "blog pagiarists?"
Let me tell you, personally, what I owe you: zero.
What I owe the Tom's Hardware community as a whole:
- Timely information (News = fast/responsive)
- Try to be as accurate as possible
- Try to follow-up
So before you hammer out your insults, get some perspective.
/ Tuan
its all about the he said she said bullshit .....
Such a great cleaning song.
"Despite the entire Internet community jumping on Devil Mountain Software, the company's blog stood by its claims."You mean, despite the entire internet community jumping on you, because it's simply astounding how such ignorant information could be passed on by a 'professional' columnist working for an IT enthusiast site.
What'd the five fingers saytathe face? SLAP! lol... when I read that article about the high RAM usage I almost peed. I used Win7 RC1 for over a year with 6gigs of RAM and never had a problem (obviously).
Such a great cleaning song.
I think she just warned you.
Thanks for the tip. My department is responsible for news, and we have to make sure we deliver info to you guys as fast as possible, while trying to be as accurate as possible. We quoted Computerworld, which up until now, many have regarded as a reputable source, wouldn't you say so? And as such, we usually aren't afraid of quoting reputable sources because they're well, usually reputable.If we had to do background checking for every piece of breaking news, there would be no breaking news. That's why we have follow-ups, like this article.Stop putting your foot in your mouth and acting as though you know how it is to do our job. Calling us "blog pagiarists?" Let me tell you, personally, what I owe you: zero.What I owe the Tom's Hardware community as a whole:- Timely information (News = fast/responsive)- Try to be as accurate as possible- Try to follow-upSo before you hammer out your insults, get some perspective./ Tuan
With that, I might add, you just got SCHOOLED SON!
Delete this message....
So my posting gets deleted when I point out the anti-windows undertones to Marcus's articles. I was even being nice (no cursing) in expressing my opinion.
In all fairness;
-Thank you Marcus Yam for listening to the hundreds of "WTF?? my win7 runs fine", "It's called Superfetch!!" comments stirred up from the first article.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/w [...] ,9701.html
I appreciate that you stuck with the story, and de-bunked this source.
I definitely like the fact that the News Article writers aren't ghost writers with no visible signs of life. Please stay in contact with your readers and speak your mind! Lord knows this place needs it.
With that, I might add, you just got SCHOOLED SON!
Wait, hopefully what I said was taken correctly. I was applauding Tuan for speaking up. Let's just make that clear.
Wait, hopefully what I said was taken correctly. I was applauding Tuan for speaking up. Let's just make that clear.
It's okay, we understand.
In all fairness; -Thank you Marcus Yam for listening to the hundreds of "WTF?? my win7 runs fine", "It's called Superfetch!!" comments stirred up from the first article. http://www.tomshardware.com/news/w [...] ,9701.htmlI appreciate that you stuck with the story, and de-bunked this source.
I've been a news man since the late 1990s, and I do to the best of my ability to cover all interesting and relevant news that I can. Personal accusations and emotional attacks garner no attention from me, but I always appreciate rational and constructive comments.
Thanks for reading.
I already knew this story was BS from the first time it was mentioned. Too many people have ran Windows 7 in ridiculously low amounts of RAM.
My experience with 7 has been nothing but positive.
If we had to do background checking for every piece of breaking news, there would be no breaking news.
This one's just simple fact checking, no background check required to know it's FUD.
Stop putting your foot in your mouth and acting as though you know how it is to do our job.
Yeah, but some of us do, and when you add a slant to simple news copy, people do notice.
Let me tell you, personally, what I owe you: zero.
Nice, could you be more irreverent when the community speaks out. Way to go after a single poster though. Could I be next?
This one's just simple fact checking, no background check required to know it's FUD.Yeah, but some of us do, and when you add a slant to simple news copy, people do notice.Nice, could you be more irreverent when the community speaks out. Way to go after a single poster though. Could I be next?
No I wasn't talking to you, and no you're not next since you displayed self control and remained critical yet polite.
/ Tuan
No I wasn't talking to you, and no you're not next since you displayed self control and remained critical yet polite./ Tuan
I wouldn't go as far as polite, but thanks
In all seriousness though, when the only logical consensus is that this was FUD, there's an real opportunity in the fact Marcus took this and ran the wrong way with it in the original article.
Anyway, one more link to add to the mix, and my favorite take on this Memorygate scandal...
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/n [...] trange.ars
I wouldn't go as far as polite, but thanksIn all seriousness though, when the only logical consensus is that this was FUD, there's an real opportunity in the fact Marcus took this and ran the wrong way with it in the original article.Anyway, one more link to add to the mix, and my favorite take on this Memorygate scandal...http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/n [...] trange.ars
I disagree with your view that I "took this and ran" in any way other than one that is unpleasant to a vocal group who reads our publication. I relayed the information as it was presented in the Computerworld article. Any inaccuracies that were present in our story stemmed from the errors of the publication that we sourced. It's a fault in the system, which is regrettable, but I don't work here just to mislead our readership.
A little verification, or maybe a note like "we'll run a few tests and we'll be back " at the end of the article could have been the grain of salt everybody was expecting.
You guys have all kind of benchmarks posted on your site, one more could not have been so much to run.
And, sometimes, a little "sorry, I admit I messed up this time" instead of jumping on the critical readers will go a long way in keeping/restoring credibility (please note the kind of feedback these readers are getting above).
Just my 2 cents... please feel free to jump on me, too.