Say What? The Week’s Top Five IT Quotes

“Due to hostility toward security researchers … a number of us from the industry (and some not from the industry) have come together to form MSRC: the Microsoft-Spurned Researcher Collective.”

A post by the MSRC in which the group says it will anonymously release proof-of-concept exploit code for Microsoft vulnerabilities in retaliation for the software giant’s recent criticism of Google security researcher Tavis Ormandy. Ormandy released proof-of-concept code that demonstrates how to exploit a vulnerability in Windows XP. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) later said that more than 10,000 attacks were based on that code. (Datamation)

“For me, the Net is a wonderful learning network, and for some it is a lifeline, and for others it is a tether to their boss or a source of harmful misinformation, disinformation, and distraction.

Technology author Howard Rheingold, one of several tech luminaries who participated in the Imagining the Internet, an Elon University/Pew Internet Project study that pondered the impact of the Net’s growing social sites and services. (Datamation)

“Everyone wants to make this about sex. Danielle had an extensive network of business people. And she added clarity about what was going on in the business world … I know in my heart what this relationship was about: clarity in the business environment.”

Former IBM senior vice president Bob Moffat talking about his affair with alleged inside trader Danielle Chiesi. The government used wire taps and other surveillance and investigative techniques to uncover an elaborate scheme in which Moffat dispensed inside information about IBM (NYSE: IBM) and its partners including AMD and Intel. (Fortune)

“Oracle’s aggressive marketing is not a substitute for important details like a Sparc roadmap. Customers we speak with continue to question Oracle’s lack of investment and long-term road maps for systems and are switching to IBM in droves.”

An IBM spokesman, responding to comments by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison that his firm’s Exadata server racked up 30 sales wins over competing IBM systems in a three-month period earlier this spring. (InformationWeek)

“The overall trend for Second Life is stagnation.”

Philippe Kerremans, who helps virtual firms track visitors on the once highly touted “virtual world” Second Life, which has attracted not just consumers but also companies interested in e-commerce, marketing and developer relations efforts. (Bloomberg News)