The war in Iraq is giving chief information officers pause about IT spending, according to a survey by investment bank Merrill Lynch. Although less than one-fifth of the surveyed American and European CIOs said they would slow technology spending with the start of the U.S.-led war against Iraq, fewer still said they would increase spending even if the war were to end quickly, according to the recent survey.
Seventeen percent of the CIOs said that the war's start would put a drag on their spending. A quick end to the conflict, meanwhile, would not provide much incentive to tech buyers--90 percent of those surveyed said that such a turn of events would not cause them to increase their IT spending.
Kevin Johnson took over the job of group vice president for Microsoft's worldwide sales, marketing and services group, Microsoft said Tuesday. Johnson, an 11-year veteran at Microsoft, fills in the post left open by Orlando Ayala, who recently stepped into the newly created position of group vice president of Microsoft's worldwide small and mid-market solutions and partners group.
Johnson remains on the Microsoft Business Leadership Team and will report to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. He will have responsibility for all Microsoft salespeople worldwide and manage Microsoft's marketing and services initiatives, customer and partner programs and product support and consulting services.
Microsoft has quietly slipped out an updated release of DirectX 9.0, containing small bug fixes. Most notably corrected in version 9.0a is an issue that caused MSN Messenger to malfunction when DirectX 9 was installed. DirectX 9.0 made its debut last December featuring improved performance and security, along with a new high-level shader language designed to simplify development. However, graphics chipsets and games have only recently begun to take advantage of the DirectX 9 APIs.
Although not yet listed on the DirectX Web site, version 9.0a is available for download via Web installer. Microsoft notes the release also corrects problems with some multiplayer games and resolves other minor bugs.
The University of Leeds in the United Kingdom has received partial funding from Microsoft to teach would-be developers to write secure code. The class will be available to 100 undergraduates at Leeds starting January 2004. Nick Efford, who is designing the syllabus, said it will differ from classes at other universities. "They have traditionally emphasized network security, cryptography and things like that," he said. "Our course is emphasizing secure coding and software security. We will still cover cryptography, but that will not be our focus."
Efford said the course will cover areas such as vulnerabilities of software, design principles and coding techniques. "We will illustrate all of these with case studies, classic security problems that have emerged...for example, Melissa and Slammer...looking in each case at what gave rise to the problem in the first place and how it was dealt with."
With the release of its first Real-Time Communications (RTC) Server (code-named Greenwich) beta out the door, Microsoft is prepping a series of upgrades to its Instant Messaging (IMB) clients to complement its server plans. The company will issue new versions of MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger in the coming weeks, according to sources close to the company, and it released a new version of MSN Messenger for Mac OS X yesterday that includes features none of its Windows counterparts yet have.
Jeff Raikes, group vice president of Microsoft's Information Worker Business Group, discussed the software vendor's product and channel plans with CRN Industry Editor Barbara Darrow at the company's recent Convergence 2003 show in Orlando, Fla.
CRN: How would you characterize the Windows Server 2003 and Office 2003 launches compared to the last big blitz, the Windows 95 and related launches?
RAIKES: Obviously, Windows 95 was big because in part it was a turning point for the industry. People were moving to a 32-bit API and a new graphical user interface and [a version of] Office specifically designed for that [interface], as well as 32-bit. But our industry is much bigger now. In some respects, they're both very significant, but significant in different ways.
Microsoft is waking and smelling the coffee -- and it isn't Java. Last month, for the first time publicly, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates acknowledged that Linux is "very pervasive." Microsoft also spells out the threat from Linux and open source in its most recent 10-Q quarterly SEC filing. In the document, Microsoft states that "to the extent the open source model gains increasing market acceptance, sales of the company's products may decline, the company may have to reduce the prices it charges for its products, and revenues and operating margins may consequently decline."
Microsoft this weekend revealed that it has limited a feature of its MSN Hotmail service in order to better combat spam, or junk email. Effective immediately, Hotmail subscribers are limited to sending 100 emails each day, which is far more email than most Hotmail users send daily. However, that limit will help Microsoft prevent spammers from using the service to spread junk mail. This tactic follows a similar change last year that prevented Hotmail users from sending email to more than 50 people at a time.
Two Microsoft executives who joined the inaugural session of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) panel on Web services just two weeks ago have already quit the standards body, raising questions about the software giant's desire to create interoperable technologies. Allen Brown, one of Microsoft's W3C representatives, and Greg Meredith, from Microsoft's Research, joined the group, attended the first meeting on March 13, and then abruptly resigned. Spokespeople from the W3C expressed confusion and disappointment over the decision.
Microsoft Business Solutions, Microsoft Corp.'s small business software division, on Wednesday introduced its Business Network, a hosted software offering that officials said will enable small businesses to share supply chain information with large partners.
Microsoft Business Network, which the Redmond, Wash., developer announced at its Convergence 2003 user show in Orlando, Fla., allows small businesses to enter inventory, order and other data in Microsoft Office applications, which transforms the data into XML. It then passes the XML through Microsoft's BizTalk integration software and maps it to the specific EDI formats used by 50 top retailers.