Leading Author and Architect Brings 15 Years of Experience in COM, XML and SOAPTo Microsoft's XML Web Services Initiative. Don Box, a leading educator, recognized authority on the Component Object Model (COM), co-author of the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) specification, and coiner of the term "COM is Love," has joined Microsoft Corp. as an architect in the Microsoft .NET Developer and Platform Evangelism Group. Box joins a renowned developer organization that includes the talents of distinguished engineers Anders Hejlsberg, inventor of Turbo Pascal and C#; Brad Lovering, a key architect of the Visual Basic, Visual J++ (TM) and Visual Studio .NET development systems; and Stanley Lippman, one of the pioneers of the C++ computer programming language. Box will help develop Microsoft's XML Web services architecture.
Microsoft said Friday that its $100 million investment to build its online advertising sales force is beginning to pay off in Europe, even as the global online advertising slump appears to be worsening. Although it did not detail revenue for its money-losing portal business, Microsoft said that the MSN European business unit grew sales by over 40 percent last quarter. It attributed the growth spurt to a $100 million corporate initiative begun in the fall to promote the Internet to advertisers.
"Our primary revenue stream continues to be online advertising," said Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president for MSN. "I'm probably as bullish as anyone in the world on its potential."
Dell Computer said fourth-quarter revenue and earnings would be stronger than expected, thanks to increased demand for its computers and growth in its consumer business. The company now anticipates quarterly sales of about $8 billion, up from predictions of $7.6 billion. Earnings are expected to be 17 cents per share, compared with the outlook of 16 cents per share that Dell had given previously. The consensus estimate, according to First Call, was for Dell to earn 16 cents per share on sales of $7.65 billion.
Gates: Every few years I have sent out a memo talking about the highest priority for Microsoft. Two years ago, it was the kickoff of our .NET strategy. Before that, it was several memos about the importance of the Internet to our future and the ways we could make the Internet truly useful for people. Over the last year it has become clear that ensuring .NET is a platform for Trustworthy Computing is more important than any other part of our work. If we don't do this, people simply won't be willing--or able--to take advantage of all the other great work we do. Trustworthy Computing is the highest priority for all the work we are doing. We must lead the industry to a whole new level of Trustworthiness in computing.
When we started work on Microsoft .NET more than two years ago, we set a new direction for the company--and articulated a new way to think about our software. Rather than developing standalone applications and Web sites, today we're moving towards smart clients with rich user interfaces interacting with Web services. We're driving the XML Web services standards so that systems from all vendors can share information, while working to make Windows the best client and server for this new era.
Online vandals are using a two-month-old security hole in Sun Microsystems' Solaris and other Unix operating systems to break into servers on the Internet, a security expert said Tuesday. Researchers witnessed the attack when one intruder broke into a Solaris server under intense observation as part of the Honeynet Project, an initiative to develop ways to turn spare computers into digital fly traps to study and document actual Internet attacks.
"One of our honey pots got whacked with it," said Lance Spitzner, project manager for the Honeynet Project. "As far as we know, it was the first time we saw (this flaw) used in the wild."
The flaw, commonly referred to as a "buffer overflow," allows a specially crafted packet of Internet data to cause a computer to give an online vandal full access to its capabilities. Details of the software hole, which affects Solaris, IBM's AIX, HP-UX and other Unix operating systems, were published in November.
In an email message to the company's 40,000 employees Wednesday, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates announced a major strategy shift across all of the company's products that will emphasize security and privacy over new features. Gates described the change as "trustworthy computing," and said that it was now the company's highest priority. Microsoft has come under fire in recent days for the number and severity of the security and privacy problems in its products.
"This is more important than any other part of our work," the email reads. "If we don't do this, people simply won't be willing--or able--to take advantage of all the other great work we do. When we face a choice between adding features and resolving security issues, we need to choose security. Our products should emphasize security right out of the box."
Due to the unexpectedly high demand for the Visual Studio .NET download, some subscribers are experiencing delays getting access to MSDN Subscriber Downloads. We are increasing our server capacity now to better meet the demand. Thank you for your patience.
I been writing software for five years now, and I haven't seen better Developer Tool as Visual Studio .NET. I been using Release Candidate for some time now, and is amazing. VS.NET and the mind of developer actually become one, it can almost anticipate developer thoughts. Is so good!
DirectX 9 Soon!
NeoWin
We appreciate your interest in testing DirectX 9.0 and look forward to working with you in the near future. The DirectX 9.0 beta releases will be available via download on Microsoft's BetaPlace web site when the beta program begins.
For those of you new to testing DirectX, the BetaPlace web site will provide you with all of the necessary information to beta test DirectX. It will include beta downloads, a bug reporting form, testing guidelines and general beta information from the DirectX team.
We know everyone is excited about getting started and we appreciate your patience. We will send email to you at the time of our first release with instructions on how to download the beta and access the newsgroup. We look forward to working with you soon.
When he's excited--and he's easily excitable--Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has a habit of saying things at least three times for emphasis. "Windows, Windows, Windows" was the call to battle of the mid-1980s to popularize the company's now-ubiquitous operating system. Now, Ballmer has a new rallying cry as Microsoft seeks to establish its .Net Web services technology: In a widely seen video leaked to the Web, a sweat-soaked Ballmer stalks the podium at a Microsoft conference and, with evangelical fervor, chants "developers" no fewer than 14 times.
After weeks of dismissing queries about its next-generation software development toolkit, Microsoft has quietly released Visual Studio .NET. MSDN Professional subscribers and above can download various versions of the product from the Microsoft Web site effective immediately and Visual Studio .NET will ship publicly next month at a developer trade show. Visual Studio .NET is a comprehensive suite of development tools including Visual Basic .NET, Visual C++ .NET, and Visual C# .NET. The product is designed specifically for creating .NET Web services based on XML, SOAP, and related technologies.