Gadgetopia

O'Reilly Network: MS DRM is pure smoke: These guys used Microsoft tools to strip Microsoft DRM from an audio file.

Q&A: Microsoft Accelerator Boosts Six Sigma Practices: Microsoft is pushing a set of add-ons for Office and Project that make the software play nice within a Six Sigma methodology framework. For instance: A lot of Six Sigma teams spend an inordinate amount of time creating Microsoft PowerPoint reports, such as ...

Microsoft, Sun agree to extend support for Microsoft's Java: Never saw this coming. "Microsoft will offer technical support for its version of Sun's Java programming language through September 2004, nine months longer than previously planned, under an agreement being announced Tuesday. The agreement is between Microsoft and longtime rival Sun ...

Microsoft.com Web Services: Microsoft has opened up a bunch of their content as a Web service. "The Microsoft.com Web Service is an XML Web service that will enable you to integrate information and services from MSDN, Technet, other Microsoft.com sites, and Microsoft Support." It's not anonymous you need to ...

Just Say No to Microsoft: A comprehensive list of alternatives to Microsoft products, listed by product name. Great resource. Microsoft isn't evil. But it is too powerful, and consumers are being harmed by it. They're limiting the available software, and charging us more and more for it. [...] No one ...

Microsoft Reader - Welcome, Readers!: New free books from Microsoft: I Am Madame X, Open Innovation, and The Joy Luck Club.

News: Microsoft tests its own 'dog food': Interesting look at how Microsoft rolls out beta software throughout its own organization.

New name flap for Microsoft -- but this time its legal right is clear: Microsoft recently announced they would rename their Anti-Spyware product to "Windows Defender." However, a developer in Australia was already using that name for his software. His software wasn't active (he has stopped developing it a year ...

Key Events in Microsoft History: I found this Word document in Microsoft's download center. It's actually quite good. Review important dates and events in the history of Microsoft Corporation from 1975 to the present.

Microsoft millions back SCO case: More on the Microsoft money rolling in the back door of SCO. The SEC filing confirms that Microsoft, which has much to gain from dissuading businesses from adopting Linux, has paid at least two sums to SCO to licence Unix, the second for $8m. [...]James ...

Microsoft and Harrah s unveil high-tech interactive bar table : The Microsoft Surface video that came out last year was the butt of many jokes ( the future of computing will be a big-ass table ), but lookie here Microsoft and Harrah s Entertainment introduced a high-tech interactive bar table Wednesday that lets patrons ...

Microsoft Reader - Welcome, Readers!: The latest free books from Microsoft: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Flying Book, and Face in the Frost.

Microsoft Efforts Don't Slice Spam: News from PC Magazine: Microsoft is embarking on an ambitious anti-spam campaign, but many are accusing Redmond itself of making the problem worse: "...Microsoft itself is taking heat for assisting the targets of its actions. Apparently much unsolicited e-mail comes from the company's own services ...

Is Opera in Microsoft's future?: Dvorak says Microsoft should dump IE altogether and buy Opera lock, stock, and barrel. This week Microsoft announced that it wouldn't upgrade the Internet Explorer for the Macintosh, leaving that market segment to apparently languish and gravitate towards the Safari browser and Firefox. Microsoft does ...

Microsoft: Legit Windows or no updates: I found this via Techdirt which comes to the same conclusion I have: the more Microsoft does things like this to prevent piracy, the more Microsoft alternatives will thrive. Aiming to crack down on counterfeit software, Microsoft plans later this year to require customers ...

Microsoft Research Downloads: I'm as guilty as anyone of claiming that Microsoft doesn't invent anything, and instead just rides off the coattails of others. But take a look at some of the things they're working on at the Microsoft Research Site.

Microsoft says proxy battle not worth it: And that s the end of that. In a letter to Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer confirmed that Microsoft was willing to offer $33 a share, but that Yahoo was holding out for at least $37 a share, or $5 billion ...

Closing Microsoft: Fascinating concept here: just close down Microsoft. Bill Gates said he wants to keep running the company until it's no longer fun. Dvorak opines that this time has come, and he explores how you would just shut down a company like Microsoft. Absurd, but interesting. As this is ...

Is Microsoft Still a Monopoly?: Here's a really interesting article postulating that Microsoft, well, sucks. Well, maybe not that harshly, but the article argues that Microsoft isn't a monopoly anymore, and goes on to point out many areas where Microsoft isn't even close to the top of the game. But ...

Microsoft Hiring Hypocrisy: An interesting thought on Microsoft hiring policy from Don Park. ...I thought it was amusing that a company started by Bill Gates, a dropout like me, requires its engineers to have a degree. Thinking that it might be a fluke, I checked some software architect positions at ...

Microsoft's PHP initiative: This is interesting. Microsoft has recently released the second technical preview release of FastCGI for IIS, a new component for Microsoft's Web server platform. This release is available immediately for download to Windows Vista, IIS including IIS 6.0 in Windows 2003 Server and IIS 5.1 in ...

MSDN Product Feedback Home: This is an interesting development over at Microsoft: By submitting suggestions and reporting bugs on the latest builds of Visual Studio 2005 and other technologies, you're talking directly to Microsoft development teams. You can collaborate with Microsoft developers, MVPs, and beta testers to identify problems and ...

Microsoft Acquires Giant, Plans Antispyware Release: Giant's site has essentially been replaced by a big press release. I didn't use any of their products, but they included Spam Inspector, which I hear was quite good. I wonder how many of Bill's four million emails a day it could head off? ...

Microsoft claims software like Linux violates its patents: I thought Microsoft was trying to bridge the gap to the open-source world lately? This is a really horrific idea. Did the SCO fiasco not warn them off a plan like this? [ ] there s a shadow hanging over Linux and other free ...

Microsoft's Mac Hebrew snub prompts Israeli AntiTrust complaint: It seems like a small thing, but this has resulted in a suspension of Microsoft contracts with the Israeli government through the end of next year. "Microsoft's refusal to provide Hebrew support in its Macintosh Internet Explorer browser or Office suite has ...

Microsoft's Patent Problem: Add this to our list of soap operas. "Microsoft suffered utter defeat at a crucial pretrial hearing in what appears to be the highest-stakes patent litigation ever one in which a tiny company called InterTrust Technologies claims that 85% of Microsoft's entire product line infringes its ...

Is Microsoft Behind SCO's $50 Million Cash Infusion?: Rumors are flying that Microsoft has found a new way to funnel money to SCO back-door financing on the war with Linux. "Hot on the heels of The SCO Group's announcement that BayStar Capital has invested $50 million in the company, ...

Microsoft: A Killer App That Could Kill the Competition: An interesting look at Microsoft's new foray in to the anti-virus business. They're planning to bundle anti-virus software with the new version of Windows, which, analysts say, will decimate all the competition. "It's a great time to be in the antivirus ...

Palm Will Team With Microsoft for the Next Version of the Treo Organizer: Stick a fork in Palm Source, they appear to be done. Microsoft will achieve one of its longest-held ambitions on Monday when its rival Palm Computing plans to announce that it will use Microsoft's Windows Mobile software ...

Linux, Open Source Remain Thorns in Microsoft's Side: Microsoft says Linux and open-source are its second-biggest concern. Microsoft's chief financial officer John Connors outlined the five largest risks and drivers to Microsoft's business going forward. ... 'The general economic environment is risk and driver number one, Linux and non-commercial software ...

Report says Time Warner held AOL sale talks with Microsoft: God help us. Time Warner Inc. may be looking into the possibility of selling its AOL unit to Microsoft, according to a published report Friday.

Microsoft: Bounty hunter: Considering they swallow $10 million in bad press for every Blaster or Sobig, this is quite a deal for them. "As the first part of the program, Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates) announced two $250,000 rewards, a total of $500,000, for information that leads to the arrest of ...

Microsoft offering heads-up on security patches to some customers: How nice. Microsoft Corp. has quietly begun giving some of its largest customers early warning of security problems with its products. [...] While Microsoft said the effort is meant to help businesses plan better, critics complain the program is inherently exclusive ...

7 Reasons Why Microsoft is DOOMED!: I don t normally post things like this, but I read it, and somehow I can t argue with the guy s logic. Name one area where Microsoft is really innovating anymore. The Zune was a bust; the XBox is getting beaten by the Wii on price, ...

Guess what? Microsoft won: A good commentary on the fact that Microsoft is stronger than ever, despite its legal hassles of late and the never-ending predictions of its demise. "To be sure, Microsoft received some unexpected help from the vagaries of the business cycle. A recession came along at just ...

Am I the only one who wonders how Microsoft IT folks handle the computer systems and network of that large of a company? If so, only I will appreciate the huge resource that is How Microsoft Does IT.

Is Microsoft's Silverlight likely to shine?: Microsoft is pushing Silverlgiht as a "flash killer." Am I cynical if I say, "Yeah, good luck with that..." Silverlight is a free plug-in from Microsoft that allows Windows and Linux PCs as well as Macintoshes to display fancy animated ads, run minisoftware or ...

Microsoft in hot water over Wikipedia edits: Microsoft was sick of having their Wikipedia edits to the ODF and OOXML articles reverted, so they tried to pay an "independent" party to change them. Microsoft acknowledged it had approached the writer and offered to pay him for the time it would ...

Microsoft loses $521 million verdict over browser patent "A federal jury in Chicago awarded the University of California and a browser technology company $521 million after finding that their patents were infringed by Microsoft Corp."

Microsoft dominance of OS market grows, IDC study says: Everyone keeps saying that this or that will be "the thing that breaks the Microsoft monopoly." They've been saying it about Linux for years, and I heard the same things about the Apple X-Serve. Sadly, none of that seems to be ...

Microsoft to Give Music a Whirl: This market is getting awfully crowded. Microsoft plans to introduce a song-downloading service next year that will compete with similar offerings from Apple Computer, Roxio's Napster and others. News of the service was first reported Monday by The Wall Street Journal. A company spokeswoman ...

Hardware as art: Microsoft meets Philippe Starck: Since Apple seems to have pulled a Microsoft, we'll balance that out with this story of Microsoft pulling an Apple. No, they're not going to over-price their products in a concerted attempt to achieve and remain at single-digit market share (sorry it ...

Microsoft Office Real-Time Communications Server 2003: Behold Microsoft's new corporate instant messaging platform. "RTC Server enables an enterprise to deploy a managed IM solution with functionality including logging, archiving, file transfer, audio/video conferencing, and application sharing."

MSFreePC: This site is run by the Lindows crew. "Microsoft was found guilty of anti-trust violations based on claims brought by the U.S. Department of Justice. Microsoft recently agreed to a $1.1 BILLION settlement to resolve numerous lawsuits alleging that Microsoft's behavior violated antitrust and unfair competition laws. This settlement ...

Microsoft set to launch iTunes Music Store competitor: Come everyone, pile in. The boat can surely fit one more. Microsoft, hoping to take a bite out of Apple Computer's highly popular online music service, is gearing up to launch its own Web site for selling songs over the Internet. [...] ...

Microsoft targets Google "Microsoft Corp. may be the most recognized software company on the planet, but when it comes to searching the Internet, people are much more likely to 'Google it.' Microsoft wants to change that, and it's betting millions that someday it will be as well known for ...

Microsoft to pay AOL $750 million | CNET News.com: This is a bit of a downer because I thought AOL was edging closer to using Mozilla or another Gecko-based browser as their default. Seven more years on IE? That alone was probably worth the money to Microsoft. "As part of ...

theSpoke: Here's another blogging / social networking app from Microsoft. From Microsoft Watch: So far, The Spoke seems to be in an early public test phase. There are about a dozen registered community members, or "hubbers," participating in the message boards. Within the past few days, Microsoft added a Real ...

Report: Microsoft leading race to partner with AOL: If you listen closely, The Imperial March just start playing in the background. Microsoft has emerged as the front-runner in talks surrounding the potential sale of a stake in America Online, a report says.

Microsoft ex-staffer pleads guilty to theft: Another guy has just been indicted for stealing $17 million worth. "Kori Robin Brown, 31, a former administrative assistant at the company's Xbox video console and games division, ordered more than $6 million worth of Microsoft's SQL Server database software and sold it for ...

Microsoft labor woes another issue for the software giant: Microsoft is having problems attracted top talent, apparently. I think they're old enough to be the IBM of software companies, these days. Google and such are the "new guard." Microsoft employees are growing more and more disillusioned with stagnating salaries and ...

Creating Your Own Research Service for the Microsoft Office 2003 Research Library: Office 2003 has an enterprise search engine built into the apps. Microsoft Office 2003 Editions add a powerful new tool to the Office task pane: the Research Library.By default, the Research Library allows you to type in a ...

Port25: This is interesting. I had heard that Microsoft had such a thing on the campus, but who would of thought they'd publish a bunch of stuff from it? Port 25 is open. The people, insights, and analysis from the Microsoft Open Source Software Lab.

I created a Microsoft Passport account some time ago so my son could play Asheron's Call on MSN's Game Zone (a fad which lasted about a day-and-a-half). With Passport, I could set it up so his account was a "child" account under my Password account, apparently giving me some control ...

Lindows concedes name game to Microsoft in three countries: I like the idea of Lindows, but I really do think Microsoft has a point here. We all portray Microsoft as a big, bad corporate machine, but we nod knowingly when Apple defends its iPod in the same way. Lindows.com, a ...

Microsoft Embraces Modeling: "The Redmond, Wash., company is developing its own model-driven architecture for a future release of its Visual Studio .Net development environment. The new architecture will be based on the UML (Unified Modeling Language) standard, sources said." This is great! Microsoft has announced that they're going to improve ...

RealNetworks files antitrust suit against Microsoft: I guess I saw this coming, but I find it hard to have sympathy. Real Player is the most annoying piece of software ever devised. It's like an over-eager puppy, jumping up on you every time you do something system tray icons that ...

Given that Microsoft products appear to be full of security holes, more and more thought is being given to migrating to other platforms. However, this has problems of its own. Macs are expensive, and Linux isn't quite ready as a desktop platform. This leaves a lot of people in limbo ...

Microsoft to hackers: Take your best shot: I'm fascinated to see how this is going to work out. After suffering embarrassing security exploits over the past several years, Microsoft Corp. is trying a new tactic: inviting some of the world's best-known computer experts to try to poke holes in Vista, ...

Announcement: Upcoming Content Revision to MSDN Subscriber Downloads: Microsoft is going to stop distributing a whole slew of programs in the wake of the Java settlement. It's trying to purge itself of anything that uses the current JVM. Due to a settlement agreement reached in January 2001, the following products ...

Source: EU to fine Microsoft 497 million euros: How much you wanna bet the price of Windows is going to go up? European Union states Monday backed a proposal to fine Microsoft a record 497 million euros ($613.5 million) for abusing its dominance of PC operating systems, an EU member ...

Is Microsoft preparing a flying car?: Read this quote, then visit the link for the punchline. No future is complete without a flying car, but it's the invention that, like Longhorn, never arrives. However, many readers write in with evidence from Microsoft Norway that such a vehicle may be in ...

First-Gen Zune Getting All The New Features: This is How You Treat Your Customers: Wow, Microsoft is getting some good press over this. And Apple for perhaps the first time in history looks really bad by comparison. The first generation 30GB Zune—which 1.2 million of you already purchased—is ...

Profanity, partner's name hidden in leaked Microsoft code: This is kind of funny. It's not clear whether numerous profanities that are written into the code -- invisible to front-end users of the programs were put there by Microsoft developers or those who got their hands on the files after ...

Search wars hit desktop computers: This will be interesting. Microsoft has the infrastructure in place already their Indexing Service works in the background all day long. I've been able to do some great things with it in on ASP-based servers (good tutorial on it here, BTW). John Connors, Microsoft's ...

Microsoft to sell Office, security software subscription for $70 a year: This has been rumored for years. I think it s a response to the growing competition from things like OpenOffice, Google Docs, and the general lagging need for a productivity suite anymore. Office used to be simply required for a ...

Microsoft tries free office suite: Utterly fascinating in the crack that it opens in Microsoft s business model. It ll be interesting to see where this goes. Free copies of some of Microsoft s office software will soon be available. The software giant said it would make ad-supported copies of the Works package ...

MIcrosoft courting Google : Yikes. "Microsoft Corp., seeking a foothold in the Internet search business, approached Google within the last two months to discuss a partnership or even a merger, according to a published report Friday. [...] The report, quoting company executives and others briefed on the discussions, said Google ...

Packing a Wallop: This is very new on the Microsoft radar. Apparently it's a blog index tool like Daypop and Technorati. "Microsoft researcher and social interface expert Lili Cheng showed off new technology under development code-named 'Wallop.' Wallop is software that intelligently groups projects, data and people information and displays ...

Xbox hackers attempt to blackmail Microsoft: This can't be a good idea: "A group of Xbox-security researchers say they have found a way to run Linux on the Xbox games console without a mod chip and will go public with the technique if Microsoft won't talk to them about releasing ...

Microsoft Revamps Mac Office Packages: "The company this month will ship a 'Student and Teacher' version [of Office] as well as a Professional release that includes Virtual PC."

Bill Gates to step down from Microsoft: Wow. But he's always been great from a philanthropic standpoint, so he'll do well just running his foundation. Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Thursday he will transition out of a day-to-day role at the company he co-founded to spend more time on ...

Boycott Microsoft Search!: I guess I don't see the point. "Microsoft is building a Web search engine, and they intend for it to become the industry standard. Given Microsoft's track record during the browser wars, there is every reason to believe the company will again use its monopoly power to ...

Microsoft Codenames: Here's a list of Microsoft software project codenames. EVeryone knows about "Longhorn," there days. And a lot of people know that Windows XP was called "Whistler." Goign further back, a handful know that Windows 95 was code-named "Chicago." But "Impala"? "Starfighter"? "Airstream"? As anyone who had worked with ...

Microsoft Warns Explorer Users of Worm: According to this article, Microsoft's response to a new worm that exploits a browser flaw is: "'The damage is simply an annoying e-mail,' Sundwall said." Well, yeah, that's what worms do, after all. But wasn't this the same as Melissa, ILOVEYOU, and Code Red? ...

Dan Geer, the CTO of a consulting firm called @Stake, co-wrote a paper (PDF) criticizing Microsoft's market dominance. The paper has been getting a lot of press. Here's an excerpt: "Over the years, Microsoft has deliberately added more and more features into its operating system in such a way that ...

Microsoft Blog Policy Coming Down the Pike?: A few weeks ago, we wondered when this would happen. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, given that the GotDotNet blogs are hugely popular and Sun has launched its own blog site. Some Microsoft employee blogs are hosted on ...

Microsoft Live aims to kill off Skype: Yeah, good luck with that. (Oh, those are so famous last words, aren't they? Someone said that about IE back in 1997, I'm sure...) Microsoft today launches its final version of Windows Live Messenger software, as it lines up to challenge VoIP telephonist ...

Microsoft blamed for Tablet PC steep sales decline "This is another classic case of IT firms thinking they know what technology people will like, and failing to take off the blinkers. Canalys said that sales represent a fraction of notebook sales, and claims Microsoft and its hardware partners need to ...

German city picks Linux over Microsoft: We've known about this deal for a while, but what's interesting is the lengths Microsoft went to win and was still rebuffed. Microsoft offered last-minute concessions that would have made Windows and Office cheaper than switching. USA TODAY obtained city records that revealed Microsoft: ...

SQL Server 2005 Driver for PHP: Lo and behold, Microsoft has written a PHP extension. It s a data access component for SQL Server which PHP already has, so I guess I m not sure how it improves things, but it s pretty cool coming from Microsoft, anyway. The SQL Server Driver for PHP ...

Viruses Aimed at Microsoft Rise Sharply-Symantec: How nice. The number of new viruses and worms aimed at Microsoft Corp.'s ubiquitous Windows operating system rose 400 percent between January and June from the same year-earlier period [...] Nearly 5,000 new Windows viruses and worms were documented in the first half of ...

Geeky Microsoft wants a TV makeover: Apple has always been very strong with product placement, and now Microsoft wants the same thing. "Microsoft is promoting its Windows products on popular TV shows like Fox's '24' and HBO's 'The Wire,' airing this fall, as part of the software company's push to ...

Lawsuit Takes on Microsoft Security Flaws: This kind of snuck in under the radar. There have been rumors for years about Microsoft being held accountable for the havoc its systems wreak when they get hit with another virus. "The company today confirmed that it had received a proposed class-action lawsuit ...

GotDotNet.com is an official Microsoft site (check the copyright at the bottom). It's a "community site" related to all things .Net. What's interesting is the number of blogs that Microsoft hosts there blogs from its own employees: Andrew Conrad, Korby Parnell, etc. In fact, "blogs" is the first option ...

Microsoft to Automate 'Avalon' Coding With 'Sparkle': What a lot of people don't remember is that when Flash came out, back when it was called FutreSplash, Microsoft saw the writing on the wall and tried to shut down Flash before it started with something called LiquidMotion. It died hard and ...

Microsoft preps slimmed-down Content Management Server: Apparently $42,000 per processor was a bit too steep for most folks. Especially considering that Microsoft CMS wasn't considered the best package out there it was just priced like it. "The Standard Edition of Content Management Server will have all the functionality of ...

Sun to unveil MS-displacing software for business desktops: This is good to hear. "In a move aimed squarely at Microsoft, Sun Microsystems on Tuesday will unveil a suite of software for businesses that want to dump or just can't afford the Windows operating system on their companies' desktop ...

Microsoft Shares a Bit More Source: I like ClearType, though I'm not sure the point of licensing FAT. Aren't there better systems out there? ...two new IP licensing programs: one for its ClearType technology, which allows text to be read on an LCD monitor in a crisper way, and the ...

Microsoft Reader - Welcome, Readers!: Microsoft is promoting its Reader software by letting people download free eBooks for three months. I installed Reader which does some interesting DRM mojo before it starts up (you need to "activate" it with a Passport account) and I downloaded and can read ...

At Web sites, Windows outpaces Linux: The survey was done by Netcraft, so it's independent. "A survey has found that use of Microsoft's latest server software is growing quickly in the Web site hosting market, and that much of the new business is at the expense of Linux. ... Microsoft ...

Good article on CNET on how Microsoft is under pressure in the Asian market. Microsoft has always maintained a 'one-price' policy, meaning Windows costs the same no matter where you go, regardless of local currency or economic conditions. This makes Microsoft products very expensive in some nations. Now, with more ...

Developers Developers Developers Developers: This is one area where Microsoft has excelled: getting people to build software for its operating system. I have worked in an IT shop with the subscriptions Joel details below. It's overwhelming to have that much software. "If you're a software company willing to commit to ...

MSR Netscan - Usenet Social Accounting Search Engine: Microsoft is testing a new tool to collate Usenet postings. It's pretty simply in theory you bulk load Usenet postings into a database, then mine the results to make everything easier to wade through. This demo examines postings from Microsoft's own ...

Authenticity of new Bush military papers questioned: The question of whether the damaging military records on President Bush are accurate or not is coming down to a Word formatting question. Independent document examiner Sandra Ramsey Lines said the memos looked like they had been produced on a computer using Microsoft ...

Microsoft removes ActiveX activation warning from IE: The Eolas debacle has apparently ended. Microsoft paid them off and hopes to update all IE versions by April 2008. For an undisclosed sum, the software maker has licensed the patented technology in question from Eolas, allowing it to modify IE6 and 7 ...

Microsoft, Competitor Reach Settlement: Here's the last gasp of a dying man Be is a dead company, having sold about everything to Palm last year. "Microsoft Corp. agreed Friday to pay $23.3 million to Be Inc. to settle an antitrust lawsuit that claimed the software giant negotiated deals with ...

Michael Chaney's Personal Web Page at Doublewide: Since Microsoft apparently forgot to renew the hotmail.co.uk domain, to disastrous consequences, I think it's only fitting that we look back on the time they forgot to review hotmail.com back in 1999. Here's the story from the guy who fixed that problem with ...

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 Details Begin to Leak: It stuns me that of all the things Microsoft is thinking about putting into IE7, improved CSS support is not one of them. Partner sources say Microsoft is wavering on the extent to which it plans to support CSS2 with IE 7.0. ...

Microsoft Millionaires Grapple With Wealth: Apparently those Microsofties that got rich in the boom are having problems "dealing with their wealth." Consider this guy who was a gofer at age 27 and hated his job. Ten years later... "...Thatcher joined one of the iconic clubs of the 20th century. He ...

A good rant by Russ McGuire on WorldNetDaily about the recent worm problems and how MS makes it possible for hackers (aka: internet terrorists) to make life miserable on the net. "Bottom line, thanks to the powerful tools (or should I say weapons) that Microsoft has built into their products, ...

Microsoft to Acquire Groove Networks, Combining Talents to Create Anytime, Anywhere Collaboration Products and Services: This is kind of a no-brainer. Micrsoft owned 25% of Groove, and it was only a matter of time until Groove got built into Windows. Microsoft Corp. announced today that it will acquire Groove Networks ...

SourceForge.net: Project Info - Windows Installer XML (WiX) toolset: Apparently Microsoft posted this source over at SourceForge. The Windows Installer XML (WiX) is a toolset that builds Windows installation packages from XML source code. The toolset supports a command line environment that developers may integrate into their build processes to ...

SharePoint and the Platform Play - How to Tie a Company into your Whole Stack: Interesting post that expounds on the true purpose of Sharepoint: tie you to Microsoft forever. Sharepoint seems very innocuous, but I've heard people from Microsoft say that Sharepoint is the single most strategic product the ...

Afraid to tell people what books their developers are really reading?: O'Reilly finds a magazine ad for Microsoft showing a developer sitting at his desk. Apparently the books sitting on the developers desk have been altered to downplay O'Reilly's domninance of tech publishing. There's a picture. The ad, with the ...

One of the things that drives me nuts about Microsoft is the licensing. The other day, I found myself wishing for a book or a class on Microsoft licensing so I could understand it...then I realized how utterly absurd that was. Understanding licensing should not be a core competency of ...

Microsoft, Lindows scrap over claims site: Microsoft is not happy about the site Lindows put up encouraging people to file recovery claims against Microsoft. "Microsoft has demanded that Linux seller Lindows.com take down a Web site that offers to process customer claims from the settlement of a California class-action suit ...

Ben Armstrong in Microsoft's Virtual PC Group is using his power for nefarious purposes: Resurrecting Microsoft Bob. I immediately set about trying every operating system I could find under Virtual PC. However – I was not able to get my hands on a copy of Microsoft BOB until the Connectix ...

Microsoft Throws Hat Into ID Management Ring: I had no idea what "ID management" was until I read this: "Like most other ID management solutions, MIIS is expected to give administrators a single point from which to manage all of their users' identity information and a way to quickly push ...

Boing Boing: MSN Spaces = soylent green: Boing Boing points out something pretty flippin' important about MSN Spaces: Microsoft owns anything you post there. If you post a picture, Microsoft can technically sell that picture to anyone for whatever reason, receive money for it, and never pay you Dime One. ...

Microsoft, Apple Sign 5-Year Software Pact: Some interesting news out of MacWorld. Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said in an interview Tuesday that the company won't sell or support Windows itself, but also hasn't done anything to preclude people from loading Windows onto the machines ...

XML Paper Specification: Overview: XPS is Microsoft's planned competitor to PDF. I wonder if Dell is miffed about the name? The XML Paper Specification describes the XPS Document format. A document in XPS Document format (XPS Document) is a paginated representation of electronic paper described in an XML-based format. The ...

Google complains about Microsoft search engine: This argument is a tough sell. The New York Times reports that Microsoft's new Internet browser includes a search box in the upper-right corner that is typically set up to send users to Microsoft's MSN search service. Google contends that this puts Microsoft in ...

Daniel Robbins, the founder of my beloved Gentoo Linux, bowed out of the Gentoo community last year, setting up a non-profit organization to responsibly manage Gentoo and all of the intellectual property that surrounds it. He, along with others, created a very popular Linux distribution that provides unique benefits over ...

USATODAY.com - Linux took on Microsoft, and won big in Munich: This is an in-depth look at why the German city of Munich blew off Microsoft and actually paid more money to the team of SuSE and IBM to put 14,000 Linux desktop machines into service. "The vote wasn't just ...

Will Microsoft Wallop Friendster?: Wired peels back the curtain on Wallop. "In fact, Wallop is Microsoft's venture into the red-hot social-networking arena, using the common Microsoft tack of piecing together existing technologies and packaging them for the novice user. Those technologies include Friendster-style social-networking capabilities, super-simplistic blogging tools, moblogging, wikis ...

Since everyone but the janitor started blogging at Microsoft, they've been aggregating their blogs into one big honkin' feed that I call The Fire Hose, since reading it is like trying to drink from a fire hose. I find some interesting stories occasionally, but I probably missed 50 since I ...

Microsoft MVPs revolt: I wish them luck, but there ain't a chance Microsoft is ever going to do anything that backs away or compromises .Net in any way. Over 100 Microsoft MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals) have signed an online petition that demands Redmond resume development and support of "classic" Visual ...

Wired News: Microsoft Software in Every Car?: Okay, they had me here right up until that last sentence. "We'd like to have one of our operating systems in every car on Earth," said Dick Brass, vice-president of Microsoft's automotive business unit. "It's a lofty goal." Cars with the Microsoft software ...

It's possible to ditch Microsoft Office: I actually used OpenOffice (used as opposed to played with, which I've done a number of times) the other day to write a document. It was fantastic. In many respects, better than Word. I'll admit that a lot of my desire to use Linux ...

Forrester: Windows Platform Bests Linux For Application Development: Don't go jumping to conclusions Microsoft did commission this study. "On Tuesday, Forrester Research's Giga Information Group unit is expected to release the results of a study commissioned by Microsoft finding that applications developed and deployed on Windows are cheaper to ...

Microsoft to take over MikeRoweSoft.com: Never underestimate the power of bad publicity and the ability to give free stuff. [Mike Rowe's father] said Microsoft would cover Mike's costs of changing to a new Web site and redirecting traffic from the old site. Microsoft also had agreed to help the teen ...

AutoAlbum: A System for Browsing Through Personal Digital Photographs: This is a Microsoft research project. There's a demo on the site it's interesting. AutoAlbum and PhotoTOC are browsing user interfaces that help solve this problem. [...] Thumbnails of all images in the shoebox directory is shown on the right ...

Asian Pirates Sell Microsoft's Next Windows System: Longhorn is in the wild in Asia already. Underscoring the scale of U.S. companies' copyright problems in Asia, CDs containing software Microsoft has code named "Longhorn" are on sale for six ringgit ($1.58) in southern Malaysia. Microsoft's current version of Windows, XP, sells ...

Microsoft Xbox To Use PowerPC Chip: I hope they don't end up regretting this like that guy from Apple did. "Microsoft's second-generation Xbox game console will contain a PowerPC microprocessor, sources confirmed Monday. In a statement issued by Microsoft on Monday, the company said that Microsoft had licensed 'leading edge ...

Microsoft Expression: I knew this was coming, but I just stumbled on the site this morning. This is the replacement for FrontPage, and the supposed competitor to Dreamweaver. Expression Web is a professional design tool to create modern, standards-based sites which deliver superior quality on the Web. Expression Blend is ...

Microsoft brains take on Google brawn | CNET News.com: Microsoft is awfully serious about this: "Microsoft has hired top scientists in its quest for search algorithms that will allow it to compete directly with Google. ... Microsoft is actively working on new search algorithms it will use to power its ...

Philly schools get Microsoft brotherly love: Bill Gates just bought his first school. (Sorry, Dave :-) "Microsoft is teaming with the School District of Philadelphia to design and build a new high school wired with the latest in educational computing tools. The District and Microsoft announced plans on Friday to ...

Hide Your IPod, Here Comes Bill: This is pretty funny. Microsoft's leafy corporate campus in Redmond, Washington, is beginning to look like the streets of New York, London and just about everywhere else: Wherever you go, white headphones dangle from peoples' ears. To the growing frustration and annoyance of Microsoft's ...

Eolas says it would settle over IE 'In response to newly revealed details of Microsoft's potential plans to redesign its browser, Eolas founder Mike Doyle urged the software giant to leave Internet Explorer alone and pay his company a license fee instead." Further down in this article, it mentions that ...

Microsoft delays consumer launch of Windows Vista: When Sony delayed the launch of the PS3 last week, Microsoft jumped all over it. And now... Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it plans to delay the consumer launch of its much-anticipated Windows Vista operating system to January 2007 from its earlier target ...

No Windows Emulator for G5s "Apple Computer Inc. began shipping its Power Mac G5 desktop this month, but the new system will be incompatible with the Mac's top Windows emulator, Microsoft Corp. confirmed Wednesday. Virtual PC, which Microsoft acquired from Connectix Corp. in February, will not run on the G5, ...

MSN Sets Licensing Deadline for Third-Party IM: Microsoft is going to force licenses be purchased to access the Messenger network. "Last week, Microsoft began notifying some of the affected third parties about the change last week, but Gurry said the company doesn't know the full extent of other clients and ...

My church is building a huge new addition, and part of it is going to be a computer lab. This means that I'll finally have a nice spot to teach some free computer classes, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time. I got to thinking the ...

Microsoft, eBay hook up software and auction data: Not a bad idea, I suppose. Developers can tap into eBay's data and offer them directly to Microsoft's programs, such as Excel and FrontPage, without having to go through a Web browser. Under the joint effort between Microsoft and Ebay, both companies ...

Microsoft search set to take on Google: Because there is no corner of the Web that Microsoft doesn't want to own. You can try it out here. This is what the MSNBot has been trolling for over the last year. Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer told shareholders at the company's ...

Users Blast Microsoft Over Worm Response: Bill's not making any friends in the security community...again. "Widespread problems with the Blaster patch, issues with the Microsoft-supplied workaround, and a general dissatisfaction with the way the vendor handles updates have led administrators and security experts to lay much of the blame for ...

I'm on one of my "shiny object" tangents lately. The latest thing is non-Microsoft software. I don't know why, but I suddenly feel the need to be all counter-culture-ish and find alternatives to the standbys. I've been browsing with Mozilla all week, and I don't think I'll go back to ...

Office hunts for new niches: This is an interesting trend for Microsoft, and one we ve written about before. It involves add-ons that customize a product for a certain vertical. The first seven products from the Accelerator Program will focus on specific business segments and tasks: sales proposals, personnel recruiting, quality-management ...

MSN Search MSNBOT: This is new. MSNBOT is a prototype Web crawler robot developed by MSN Search... More good information over at Scripting News: They [MSN] currently outsource all their searches to Inktomi and LookSmart, with ads embedded through a partnership with Overture. Now that Inktomi is owned by ...

An interesting Google ad appeared on the site today. It may still be there: That's probably wise, to go after people "working" for the competition. I wonder what their CTR is and how they qualify a "successful conversion."

Microsoft Holding Onto Stockpile: Microsoft is sitting on $62 billion in cash and investments. That's billion....with a "B." "In an unusual move, Connors detailed exactly how Microsoft's cash and reserves are broken down. Its total portfolio of $62.7 billion is made up of a treasury-managed portfolio of $53.5 billion, with ...

Prompted by Microsoft's generosity, I've started reading e-books, and I think I'm addicted. I read a book last year called "The Social Life of Information" which put forth all sorts of reasons why e-