Yes, the world's wealthiest man also gets unwanted commercial e-mail offering help to get out of debt or get rich quick. "It's ridiculous," Bill Gates wrote in an e-mail message sent Tuesday.
Spam is a plague that threatens to undo much of the good that e-mail has achieved, the Microsoft chairman and chief software architect wrote in an e-mail sent to subscribers of Microsoft's Executive E-Mail list on Tuesday. Executive E-Mail is a public mailing list hosted by Microsoft.
Gates explained some of the work Microsoft is doing to combat the influx of spam, noting there is "no easy fix."
Microsoft next month is expected to release the beta of its WSE (Web Services Enhancements) Version 2.0, a free tool kit for developers building Web services on the .Net platform. Although WSE 2.0 is yet to be released even in beta, Keith Ballinger, program manager for XML messaging at Microsoft, discussed the technology at Microsoft's Tech Ed conference in Dallas earlier this month.
Ballinger said WSE is "a product that builds on top of the .Net Framework and the Web services APIs in the .Net Framework." Microsoft released the first version of WSE in December, and the second will be released in beta in midsummer, he said.
Microsoft updated some of its Web development offerings last week, with an upgraded ASP.Net Web Matrix tool, the official release of the ASP.Net Starter Kits and a new ASP.Net Hosting program.
Shawn Nandi, product manager for Microsoft's ASP .Net, said the Redmond, Wash., company has updated its Web Matrix application development tool for ASP.Net to reflect developer feedback for the year-old tool. Nandi said new features in the tool include support for Microsoft Access databases and for Microsoft's J# Java-based development environment.
When a big industry leader like Microsoft makes a big announcement, always expect several smaller announcements from companies using or supporting whatever Microsoft announced. The new Windows Mobile 2003 software for Pocket PC operating system and the new Windows Mobile brand is no different. Already today companies like Dell, JVC, Toshiba's Computer Systems Group (CSG), Cenuco, and Symbol have announced products that will run the software.
Over the past several years, corporate America has warmed to open-source software programs such as the Linux operating system and the Apache Web server. Today, software from the open-source community, a worldwide group of developers who share their code freely with one another, competes head-to-head with programs from industry titans such as Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. However, a legal battle between the Utah-based SCO Group and IBM could throw cold water on the relationship.
SCO is suing IBM for billions of dollars claiming that Big Blue took code from SCO's Unix operating system and added it to Linux. SCO has since revoked IBM's license to use its AIX version of Unix and requested that the judge permanently halt IBM's entire Unix business. Unfortunately for those watching the case, the facts are extremely complex and SCO has been tight-lipped about its evidence. The result is that analysts have pronounced the case everything from the "the end of Linux" to a "complete farce."
Microsoft on Monday reorganized its platforms group, combining the Developer and Platform Evangelism Business, the Windows Server System Business, and the Enterprise Storage and Management Business under the existing Servers and Tools Profit & Loss center (P&L), which will be headed by senior vice president Eric Rudder.
However, Paul Flessner, who was senior vice president of the server platform division and who led the Server and Tools P&L, will "return to his roots of engineering management and will lead the Exchange, SQL and eBusiness Divisions, while reporting to Rudder," a Microsoft spokesman told eWEEK on Monday.
Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates will outline Microsoft's end-to-end homeland security strategy on Wednesday during a one-day conference, "IT Leadership in a Security-Focused World" in Washington, D.C. The conference is being co-sponsored by the Information Technologoy Industry (ITI) Council and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). IBM's senior VP for technology and manufacturing, Nick Donofrio, also is slated to keynote the event.
Since Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates sent a memo 18 months ago urging the company to focus on making its software trustworthy, the company has devoted developers and money to security in its software products.
But Microsoft has given short shrift to a second concern outlined in the so-called "Trustworthy Computing" memo - protecting privacy - except when forced by the government. With the hiring of a new privacy chief, the software company is hoping to improve its privacy record and keep government regulators at bay.
Peter Cullen will join Microsoft July 14 as its chief privacy strategist, leaving his position as corporate privacy officer for Royal Bank of Canada. Cullen is replacing former chief privacy officer Richard Purcell, who left earlier this year.
A former Microsoft employee was arrested on Monday for allegedly ordering more than $17 million of software via an internal purchasing system and then selling it to keep the proceeds for himself. Richard Gregg, 43, was also indicted on Monday on 62 counts of mail and computer fraud, according to court papers.
Gregg allegedly ordered 5,436 pieces of software worth more than $17 million at retail price, which he sold for a profit, according to an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington.
Gregg, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, was fired from Microsoft in December 2002, at the same time when another Microsoft employee was also terminated on suspicion of ordering software and reselling it for a profit.
Microsoft is assembling a team of experts charged with battling the accelerating spread of spam as unsolicited e-mail clogs in-boxes worldwide, including that of Bill Gates, founder and chairman of the world's largest software maker. At risk is the usefulness of e-mail itself, which has allowed people to communicate more quickly and efficiently, said Kevin Doerr, who has been named to direct Microsoft's spam-fighting strategy.
"Where it hurts most is customer satisfaction. But when it starts to change behavior, we could have consumers turn away from email, and that has huge implications," Microsoft's Doerr told Reuters on Monday.