WinInsider

According to the newspaper, AT&T Broadband, Chief Executive C. Michael Armstrong traveled to Redmond, Wash., to discuss Microsoft's interest in AT&T Broadband, and met with executives at Walt Disney in Los Angeles about possibly investing in or combining some assets with AT&T Broadband, citing people with knowledge of the talks. Armstrong and other AT&T officials are actively talking with companies across the country in an attempt to spark a bidding war among the nation's big media companies for its nearly 14 million cable TV subscribers, the report said.

Monday, a new more widely available Beta 2 version of 'Talisker,' Microsoft's OS for devices such as handhelds and automated factory equipment, will be released. Microsoft plans to announce on Monday a new, more widely available test version of "Talisker," the code name for the next version of its Windows CE operating system. Beta 2 is designed to be the last test version before the final code is released later this year. Talisker and previous versions of Windows CE are similar to Microsoft's Windows operating system for PCs but used in other devices, such as handheld computers and factory automation equipment. The company released the first test version in April.

I have just got word from two independent sources that WXP will be released to manufacturing August 15-th. My nickname for it is NT V5.1. It's the NT-kernel that now has made it into the consumer space with a whole slew of add-ons, new goodies and other ways for MS to get to a subscription-model instead of just selling a box. You have to prepare that this is going to happen in the future. It's like paying for the phone or water but now it's "MS-tone". Better start preparing your budgets for that event. The other two possibilities are refuse to upgrade and freeze your environment at the level it is now, or vote with your feet and move to another platform.

Some Windows XP beta testers dispute the legitimacy of Kodak's claims, however. Kodak's criticism appears to have been quelled by Microsoft changing one dialog box affecting how Windows XP handles imaging devices, such as digital cameras and scanners. Kodak agreed that its software would not automatically become the default for any digital camera attached to a PC--including competitors'--and to publicly support Windows XP.

Kodak also plans to pull back some of the pressure it placed on Charles Schumer, a democratic senator from New York, to question whether Windows XP's photo features are anticompetitive. The companies are expected to announce the resolution of their differences Monday.

Prosecutors in the Microsoft antitrust case asked a federal appeals court yesterday to deny Microsoft's request for a delay in deciding punishment for the company's illegal behavior.

It's unclear when the appeals court will rule on Microsoft's request. The court is technically in recess until the fall, but its judges are able to make decisions by telephone, fax or e-mail, if necessary. But the court also could do nothing, preferring to wait until the Supreme Court decides whether it will take the case, legal analysts said.

Microsoft first wants the Supreme Court to decide whether the original judge in the case was biased when he ruled against the company more than a year ago. U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson gave numerous interviews to the press in which he criticized the company, during and after the trial, although they were not published until he issued his ruling.

Four suspected software pirates arrested in Los Angeles this week with counterfeit Microsoft products were running a big, sophisticated operation but failed to fake the anti-piracy hologram on the disks, a company security executive said on Saturday.

On Thursday, the FBI seized $10.5 million in counterfeit Microsoft software and arrested four men who allegedly smuggled several different versions of fake software products from Asia and sold them at deep discounts. A fifth man is still at large.

PC buyers may be greeted with Windows XP, Microsoft's long-awaited new operating system, far earlier than they expected. Microsoft has given PC makers the green light to ship Windows XP as soon as one full month before the operating system's official Oct. 25 launch date. Computer makers plan to debut PCs and notebooks with the new operating system in late September, a move that could help jump-start stagnant sales. How soon customers could receive the PCs from the manufacturers is not clear. The early release would benefit Microsoft by beating any possible injunction that would delay the new operating system's debut, analysts said. Getting Windows XP to market may have been behind Microsoft asking the Supreme Court to take its antitrust appeal. The action could make it more difficult for the Justice Department and 18 states to seek an injunction against the upcoming operating system.

As my University exams ended I found that I have more time then a sane person can bare, so I have decided to extend functionality of my web site to new level, before I waste my brain away. Not that it wasn't already being wasted by something that University calls "computer science", which has nothing to do with real software development. But that is another story. So I began adding search, personalization, send-to-friend, e-mail, feedback pages, plus awesome outlook style forum among other usual suspects. But soon I realize that the site was missing the most important aspect. And that it had no mission. It was just a site that I used for school stuff, assignments, notes, projects, and presentations. And even then no teacher showed up to see any of it, fools. Nevertheless I had a vision. As most of you, I spend much of my free time browsing around looking for any IT info that I can read, mostly about Microsoft. Having somewhat of a know how in ASP, databases, XML, DHTML, and whole bunch of other random letters; and interest for Microsoft I put these things together, and boom, News Whistler here it comes.

You may ask, why about Microsoft? Well beside the fact that I see this company, as one that made technology/software what is it today; always innovating. There is so much garbage about lunix, unix, sun, java, aol, oricle, and the rest of the gang, that another site about garbage like that would not make any difference. Joining with the ranks of ActiveWin, WinInfo, NeoWin, and others I hope to combat the IT idiotic, that it seems to be spared over the IT world.

So why the name, News Whistler? For me, it means someone who spread the news. Also it was somewhat brought to my attention by the code-name of Windows XP. I learned that most people find site name "News Whistler" confusing (makes not scene) as they think that has something to do with WinXP code name. But likely I am getting a feeling that this name will be temporary. My creativeness is mostly limited to software development; I couldn't come up with better name. As the site continues to grow, I might need to change Web Hosting Provider to something more responsive. I been looking for one that has plans to support ASP.NET on IIS 6.0 (Windows .NET Server), but as far, I have not found one; as there are only few that support .NET. With the change of hosting provider I might also change the site name. So if you have any ideas for new name let me know.

News Whistler is relatively new site, but I hope with my unique knowledge of internet/software development and my interest in Microsoft I will be able to jam-pack this site with many features hard to come by anywhere else. Soon users of PDA's with wireless Internet connection will be able to read news on their mobile devices. Also you will find between 5-15 news postings per day, to keep you full of current IT news. In future I hope to implement .NET features into this site to allow for greater personalization and access to news when it happens.

This article had been much overdue. Recently I been working on program that will notify you of any news postings on News Whistler, I hope to have it done by the time I post this article. When I am finish writing it I post it here. From now on I will keep the "article" section mostly for product/services reviews.

Another manner is that there has been little (almost none) activity on the forum and not many news comments have been written. Now I know what some of you might be thinking, by not witting any comments we are saving all those bites of hard drive space, that written messages would take-up in the database. As I appreciate the thought, I know that still this site is growing and perhaps there is not that much critical mass to start discussions. But if you have any comments, please make a use of the "New Comment" feature. (Unless it is been broken, and no one let me know).

Lastly I would appreciate your feedback about this new IT site, so I could improve upon and I would tell me how is this site doing.

cheers
Mike

A Netcraft Web survey reports that IIS's market share is increasing despite the dominance of market-leader Apache. In July, IIS's market share rose to almost 26 percent, up 5.5 percent from June. Apache still maintains a significant lead with a market share of about 59 percent, down a little more than 4 percent from June. Remember Netscape?

From: WinInfo Short Takes: Week of August 13

Intel will go Hollywood next week to demonstrate its fastest Xeon processor yet. The chipmaker will show off a 2GHz version of its high-end Xeon chip at the Siggraph computer graphics trade show starting Tuesday in Los Angeles, Intel executives confirmed. The 2GHz Xeon will star in demonstrations of single- and dual-processor workstations. PC makers IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Dell Computer also are expected to demonstrate new Xeon-based systems slated for release later in the quarter.