WinInsider

Since Microsoft introduced Windows Product Activation (WPA) the crackers have gone through a series of WinXP beta builds, finding new ways to at least circumvent the protection system. But now, taking an entirely different approach, Germany's Tecchannel has demonstrated that WPA as shipped in RC1 is full of gaping holes, and can be fooled almost completely. (posted also by ActiveWin)

Microsoft Corp. is quietly pulling back support for Java in its new products, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition on Wednesday. The move deals a new blow to a rival technology that played a starring role in the software giant's continuing anti-trust battle with the government. The newspaper said pre-release copies of Microsoft's new Windows XP operating system, which goes on sale this fall, drop the software needed to run Java-based programs.

Thank you Activewin for breaking this story.

The MSN® network, the world's leading consumer network with more than 230 million unique users globally, announced that new features and functionality will soon be available to users of the MSN Hotmail® service, the world's most popular Web-based e-mail service. More than 110 million users of MSN Hotmail worldwide will be able to use the new cleaner and simpler user interface designed to help them easily manage their mail, and improved mail filter tools.

I been ruing this site for few weeks now and so far it seems to be stable. By now you probably have noticed that this is mostly Microsoft-Pro News Site. In my first upcoming article I be explaining why is so, and what can you expect from this site.

View past Site Update News

Intel, Linksys and other network equipment makers announced Tuesday that they are supporting Microsoft-backed software that connects consumer-electronic devices together.

Microsoft's Universal Plug and Play (UpnP) software uses Internet protocols to allow devices such as computers, scanners and printers to automatically discover each other so they can communicate. Sun Microsystems builds rival software called Jini that is based on the Java programming language.

RealNetworks fell short of analysts' estimates in its second quarter Tuesday and said its chief financial officer will resign. The streaming media company disappointed Wall Street, earning $2.4 million, or 1 cent a share, on sales of $47.9 million. First Call consensus pegged the streaming media software developer for a profit of 2 cents a share on sales of $51.5 million. Separately, RealNetworks announced that Chief Financial Officer Paul Bialek has stepped down from his post for personal reasons but will remain with the company as a strategic adviser. Bialek will continue as the company's CFO until a replacement is found.

Note from webmaseter: too bad :)

Intel beat analyst expectations in what was an otherwise dismal second quarter, with net income down 76 percent from a year ago. In a statement released Tuesday, the chipmaker reported net income, excluding acquisition-related costs, of $854 million, or 12 cents a share. Analysts polled by First Call expected 10 cents a share. The earnings figure was a 76 percent drop from the same period a year ago and a 22 percent decline from the first quarter of 2001. Revenue for the quarter totaled $6.3 billion, down 24 percent from the same period a year ago and down 5 percent from the first quarter of 2001.

Later this week, Microsoft will announce its quarterly earnings, an event that is already taking on an aura of disbelief in financial communities, given the company's recent preview, in which it said that its revenues were stronger than anticipated. But the secret behind Microsoft's success, even during such trying economic times, is simple: The company makes products that continue to sell tens of millions of units a month. And this time around, the product driving record revenues is Windows 2000.

In an email address to employees Monday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that he is "pumped up about Windows XP," the OS the company will release this October. Ballmer, who has historically been the hyper-enthusiastic counterpart to Bill Gates' more somber persona, has made a habit of routinely sending inspirational messages to employees ever since he took over the top spot at the company. This week's missive is clearly designed to get Microsoft's workforce behind their latest OS push, in a grass roots way that is interesting for a company this size.

MSXML 4.0 Parser and SDK
The Microsoft® XML Parser 4.0 Technology Preview has a number of improvements compared to the April release: XSD validation with SAX and DOM, schemaLocation attribute; Schema Object Model (SOM); faster XSLT engine; new faster SAX parser; true side-by-side functionality. Old non-conformant technologies are removed: old XSL with XSLPattern; uuid namespaces for XDR; proprietary XmlParser object; normalize-line-breaks property in SAX. There is no more support for replace mode and version-independent ProgIDs.

Windows CE Platform Builder 3.0 Core
Request for WCELOAD to both flush the registry and provide a hook for OEMs to let them either be called when a module is installed, or to be launched at the end and point them to the .UNLOAD file.

(first seen on ActiveWin)