No good spam-fighting deed goes unpunished, or that's how things seem when you're Microsoft. After initiating high-profile lawsuits against spammers and pleading with Congress for tougher regulations, Microsoft itself is taking heat for assisting the targets of its actions. Apparently much unsolicited e-mail comes from the company's own services including Hotmail, and critics charge that junk mailers have exploited Microsoft's WebDAV tool.
WebDAV-Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning-is an open set of HTTP protocol extensions that enable people to edit files collaboratively on a remote Web server. "It allows us to deliver a richer Web-based e-mail service," explains Larry Grothaus, MSN product manager.
Oracle's attempt to acquire PeopleSoft is under attack by a conservative legal action group that is urging federal antitrust regulators to block the deal. The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., has asked the U.S. Department of Justice, which is now reviewing Oracle's hostile $6.3 billion bid for the rival software company, to stop the deal, the group said Tuesday.
"This attempted hostile acquisition would significantly reduce competition in large enterprise applications, inflict severe financial damage on PeopleSoft customers who have heavily invested in the company's software applications, and inappropriately pressure the 40 percent of PeopleSoft customers who use database products from IBM and Microsoft to switch to Oracle," the group's letter to the Justice Department stated.
In preparation for the next generation of mobile devices using its XScale chips, Intel Tuesday released new compiler (define) software. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip making giant said its new Intel C++ Compiler for Microsoft eMbedded Visual C++ is designed to help developers write applications for Intel Personal Internet Client Architecture-based PDAs, cell phones and other wireless devices. The release marks the first time Intel has issued compliers for its XScale processors. Intel already has a host of compiler software for its Pentium 4, Xeon and Itanium 2 chip families.
'Phoenix' optimization and analysis framework to build on top of Redmond's .Net Framework. Next week, Microsoft plans to offer an update on new compiler technology that is being co-developed by the company's Programmer Productivity Research Center (PPRC) and the company's developer tools division. The company will detail its "Phoenix" software optimization and analysis framework at the annual Microsoft Faculty Summit, which kicks off on Monday in Redmond.
"Phoenix is the next generation .NET optimization framework which will be the basis for code generation for all future Microsoft optimizing compilers," such as Microsoft's Visual Basic, Visual C++, and Visual C# ones, according to a description of the Faculty Summit session on the technology.
Microsoft's core business software drove the financial gains the company reported in its fourth quarter, according to the company's financial statements. Microsoft's overall revenues were up by 11 percent in its fourth quarter ended June 30, 2003, compared to its fourth quarter for 2002. The 2002 fourth quarter total was a little over $8 billion, while the company's revenues for Q4 2002 were $7.25 billion, Microsoft reported last week.
Some 82 percent of the $812 million in new revenues came from the company's server software ($283 million more), Windows XP Professional ($200 million more) and Information Worker (read Office, with $182 million more).
Microsoft is releasing updates to the several editions of its Money personal finance manager, adding new tools to manage investments and payments along with trial subscriptions to numerous new and enhanced services.
New Features
The updated editions of Money provide many of the same basic cash-management tools; different editions give access to additional services. The new top-of-the-line edition, Microsoft Money 2004 Premium ($80) targets serious investors; it includes all the new features and services. Money 2004 Deluxe ($60), which handles most daily money-management tasks, features some of the services. Money 2004 Small Business ($90) replaces the current Deluxe & Business version and provides access to several specialized services. Money 2004 Standard ($30) doesn't come with any of the services.
Peer-to-peer file-sharing software developers say user privacy-protection concerns are behind the introduction of features designed to foil scanning by organizations representing owners of copyright-protected material.
The claims come as the music industry in the US ploughs ahead with moves to file a raft of civil lawsuits against people allegedly involved in online file-sharing. Some reports indicate more than 800 federal subpoenas have already been issued. The developers of one variant of Sharman Networks' popular Kazaa file-sharing software, Kazaa K++, say their latest version--2.4.0--blocks the Recording Industry Association of America from "connecting, downloading and uploading to you," as well as changing its default options "to protect your privacy". The developers of another variant--Kazaa Lite--also tout the benefits in their latest release of a "built-in IP blocker" in keeping out "organizations such as the RIAA," as well as "improved privacy protection".
The SCO Group has secured U.S. copyright registrations for Unix System V code and now intends to begin charging customers to run Linux. In a statement released Monday, the Lindon, Utah-based company--which is embroiled in a legal battle with IBM over Linux--said it has received copyrights to Unix and will enforce its ownership of the System V code by requiring customers to license SCO UnixWare, executives said.
The decision undermines claims made by Novell in late May that it, not SCO, has ownership of Unix System V copyrights. With copyrights in hand, SCO said it will authorize companies to run binary code and applications based on Linux 2.4x kernels and higher only if they license SCO's UnixWare proprietary operating system.
Microsoft will ratchet up its push into medium-size businesses by delivering a Standard Edition version of its Content Management Server 2002 by year's end, company officials told InfoWorld on Tuesday.
To be sold largely through the company's network of business partners, the upcoming server is a scaled-back version of the one currently available for enterprises in that it can run on a single-processor server and there will be a 15-user limit.
"We are really designing this for medium [size] businesses that want some of the same benefit from the same Content Management solutions available to large enterprises, but without the large scale requirements. This is an offering both our partners and mid-size users have been looking for for a while," said Trina Seinfeld, product manager for Microsoft's e-business server group, in Redmond, Wash.
The federal government last week awarded a $90 million contract to Microsoft to provide the Department of Homeland Security with desktop and server software.
The move could send a signal to enterprises and other software vendors that the government is happy with Microsoft's progress in improving the security of its software. As part of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, which the Bush administration unveiled last year, officials in all agencies of the federal government are supposed to be using their purchasing power to pressure vendors into producing more secure software.
The message is meant to be: Make better software, or we'll take our business elsewhere. Microsoft, of Redmond, Wash., has apparently received that message. It has begun a companywide initiative to upgrade the security of its software and has put its Windows 2000 operating system through the government's stringent Common Criteria certification process.