For the nine states and the District of Columbia still pursuing the antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., the company has the following special, limited-time offer:
Join in the settlement signed last week by the Justice Department and nine other states and the company will pay all litigation costs they have run up so far, including attorneys fees. The states have 10 days to accept the offer.
A Microsoft spokesman described the offer as a formality, but it is the latest in a series of moves by the company to woo states that declined to sign on to the settlement deal. Although several of those states left open the possibility that they would agree to the deal after further study, so far they are pushing ahead with preparations for court hearings on how the company should be penalized for breaking antitrust laws.
The new /GS option in the new Microsoft Visual C++.NET compiler will help reduce the instances of exploitable buffer overruns in your Windows application code.
Buffer overruns are a huge security problem in the software industry, and if you have them in your code you are asking for trouble. If you're lucky, an attacker will just shut down your application with an access violation. If you're not so lucky, the attacker can inject and execute malicious code.
There are many ways to help mitigate such threats (see my Best Defense article, "Testing Buffer Overruns"), including education and peer code reviews. Now with the release of Microsoft Visual Studio.NET beta 1, Microsoft has introduced another buffer security tool for the Windows platform: Visual C++.NET's new compile-time option.
Dell Computer Corp. on Monday launched a more powerful computer aimed at small and medium businesses, a market for which its low-price, Intel-microprocessor based computers have appeal. Dell, which became the No. 1 maker of personal computers this year by waging an aggressive price war, said that it is shipping a $1,400 computer server based on a Pentium III 1.13 gigahertz, or 1.13 billion cycles per second, processor made by Intel Corp.
On Friday, a day later than expected, Microsoft released Windows .NET Server Beta 3, its final beta of the next version of Windows 2000 Server. Windows .NET Server expands on the Windows 2000 product line by introducing a new low-end product, Windows .NET Web Server, and renaming and configuring other versions in the product family; Windows 2000 Server becomes Windows .NET Standard Server and Advanced Server becomes Enterprise Server; Datacenter Server retains its name but adds support for 128 GB RAM, up from 64 GB in the Windows 2000 version. Additionally, both Enterprise Server and Datacenter Server are available in 64-bit versions.
At a speech before antitrust lawyers Friday, US Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust chief Charles James defended his agency's settlement with Microsoft, stating that the agreement was fair and consistent with the narrow focus of the company's illegal activities.
"This is no ordinary case," he reminded the audience, noting the perception that the US government was simply attacking the world's richest man (Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft), regardless of the legality of the charges against his company. James also brushed aside criticism of the DOJ's agreement, which leaves Microsoft free to continue doing business without addressing its past behavior. "This was not an assault on the existence of [Microsoft's monopoly," he said. "There was no mandate to range broadly across the information industry. It was a middleware case, a middleware case, middleware case."
Offering new evidence of the problem piracy poses to software giant Microsoft Corp., law-enforcement authorities announced Friday they had seized counterfeit goods valued at about $100 million, including about $60 million of fake Microsoft products, as part of an 18-month sting operation in Southern California. Microsoft trumpeted the bust as a victory in its intense campaign against piracy, but the company is struggling with the problem despite antipiracy features in new products such as its just-introduced Windows XP operating system.
Intuit's grip on small-business accounting has been virtually unchallenged for years, but Microsoft wants to grab some customers from Intuit's hold. Since Intuit introduced its QuickBooks software in 1992, the company has seen its small-business accounting business grow to almost 3 million users. The company, largely identified with taxes and personal finance, relies on small-business accounting for a significant chunk of its livelihood: QuickBooks generated almost 18 percent of Intuit's revenue in the quarter reported last week. At this point, there are almost no other packaged-software competitors competing directly in the market. But QuickBooks could soon see pressure from above.
To celebrate the launch of Windows XP, we are releasing
two new episodes of XPTV today. Enjoy!
Episode 4 - A rabid home shopping host, an uncertain engagement, and an entertainment mystery.
Episode 5 - A meat-eating vegetarian, the Studs of Microsoft, and a wedgie caught on camera!
Microsoft is making its first foray into the gaming console market, releasing the high-powered Xbox system to crowds of eager gamers. With only an estimated 300,000 units of the $299 console available for launch Thursday, initial shipments are expected to sell out quickly. Microsoft has been talking up Xbox for nearly two years, originally unveiling it at a game developers conference in March 2000. Company officials have offered several peeks at the console and heavily promoted it to developers. The console beats the rival Nintendo GameCube to the market by mere days, and also competes with Sony's PlayStation 2.
A federal judge in Seattle denied class certification Friday for employees suing Microsoft over alleged racial and gender discrimination, ruling the software giant's managerial system was sound. Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft had rejected charges that it gave current and former African-American and female employees subpar pay, promotions and evaluations.
In a 26-page order, U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman concluded: "Microsoft's managerial system is not inherently flawed, and...the statistical data belies (sic) the existence of any class-wide pattern of discrimination."