Violating that most sacred of capitalistic maxims about there being no free lunches, Microsoft -- that most capitalistic of software companies -- is rolling out a no-cost .Net online training program for Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking developers.
Called "Desarrollador Cinco Estrellas," which in English means "Five-Star Developer," the program will offer a five-level program whose purpose is to motivate and help developers increase their knowledge of Microsoft's .Net platform and related technologies, said Federico Raggi, developer director for Microsoft Latin America, the division that created and manages the program. The program's first training level, or "star," is already available, while the second level will be launched on Monday in both Spanish and at the end of February in Portuguese. The following three levels will be rolled out, respectively, in March, April and May, he said.
In what appears to be an internal Sun Microsystems Inc. memo, Sun engineers criticize the Java platform and the Solaris operating system. The memo, posted on the InternalMemos.com Web site and titled "The Java Problem," says in its executive summary: "While the Java language provides many advantages over C and C++, its implementation on Solaris presents barriers to the delivery of reliable applications. These barriers prevent general acceptance of Java for production software within Sun. A review of the problem indicates that these issues are not inherent to Java but instead represent implementation oversights and inconsistencies common to projects which do not communicate effectively with partners and users."
Microsoft developers now have a new tool to help them catch security bugs in their own code. The software giant plans to announce on Monday that a plug-in created by security firm Sanctum, scheduled for release in March, will be the first to easily integrate with Microsoft's development platform Visual Studio .Net. The tool, AppScan Developer Edition 1.5, can be run on Web applications in real time to catch common programming flaws.
"The cool thing with the integration with Visual Studio is that, because it's there in your face, you run it early and you run it often," said Michael Howard, senior program manager for Microsoft and the author of the company's textbook on secure programming. "You can find issues before they get far down the development path, before they become expensive to remove."
WMP 9, Windows Movie Maker 2 Off to Fast Start
Microsoft announced this week that Windows Media Player (WMP) 9 and Windows Movie Maker 2 are off to record-breaking starts with 14 million and 3 million downloads, respectively, in their first 30 days of availability. With more than five downloads every second, WMP 9 nearly doubled the number of downloads that the previous digital-music jukebox software record holder, WMP 7, experienced. I've been working with both products for months and still find them to be the best overall solutions in their respective categories. If you're into digital media, take a look at these products; they just might surprise you. Besides, Microsoft isn't force-feeding the products with a new Windows version, which is a good sign.
Intel Centrino to Ship in Mid-March
Intel will release its next mobile CPU chipset family, the Centrino, on March 12. The chipset, formerly code-named Banias, also includes dedicated silicon for 802.11b wireless networking and features Pentium 4-level performance with better battery life and power-management functionality than the current-generation Pentium III-M chips offer. Intel says that numerous PC makers will be on board with new notebook and Tablet PC designs when Centrino hits the market next month. If you're a mobile warrior or are looking for a new portable computer, you might want to wait for the Centrino generation of machines.
Canadian carrier Rogers AT&T Wireless is picking up Microsoft software-based devices, in a deal that will mark the debut in Canada of Microsoft's Smartphone 2002 operating system. Rogers will sell a number of Microsoft-centric wireless services and devices, targeting business customers first, a Microsoft representative said Thursday. The first to appear will be a Siemens SX56 handset, powered by Microsoft's Pocket PC Phone Edition operating system. The phone is set to go on sale in a few weeks, the representative said.
In addition, Rogers plans to become the first of Canada's four major wireless carriers to sell a Smartphone 2002-based cell phone, which typically have more functions than handsets running Pocket PC phone edition, according to Rogers. The carrier did not release the price of the Siemens phone or additional details about the launch of the Smartphone 2002 handset.
Microsoft wants to assure big companies that its upcoming Windows Server 2003 operating system is ready to handle complex business applications. The software giant on Thursday detailed a series of features it has added to Windows Server 2003 to improve the reliability of the server operating system and cut down on the amount of planned downtime for servers. Windows Server 2003, which is due in April, will compete with variants of the Unix operating system from companies like Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems and IBM.
With the release of Windows Server 2003, Microsoft will be casting the operating system as an alternative to Unix as well as a compelling reason for its customers to upgrade from older versions of Windows. The company has delayed the release of the operating system three times, partly due to an effort to hone its security and reliability.
Microsoft has successfully called in the help of U.K. police to stop an e-mail scam that urges users to call a special number to get help securing Windows. The number, which actually connected the caller to a real Microsoft number but charged a bit more, was disconnected Thursday around noon U.K. time. A Microsoft spokesman confirmed the Redmond, Washington , company is "working with U.K. law enforcement to investigate the e-mail scam." "We don't think it is appropriate that somebody should defraud our customers and of course it is our obligation to pursue any such action," the spokesman said.
Microsoft has released early versions of database security applications in reaction to the Slammer worm that wreaked havoc on the Internet last week. The software tools, posted on Microsoft's Web site, give systems administrators a way to check the company's SQL Server 2000 database for the Slammer worm and to address vulnerabilities. The fixes focus on versions of the database that run on network servers and on another version, called SQL Server Desktop Engine, that runs on desktop PCs.
SQL Server Desktop Engine 2000 is used by Microsoft and third-party software developers as a database server embedded in other applications. Microsoft offers it as an alternative file store for Office XP applications and for its Visual Studio.NET programming application.
Graphics chipmaker Nvidia said Thursday that it has settled "all issues" with Microsoft over the pricing of chips used in the Xbox game console. Ahead of its earnings results next week, Nvidia said that months of arbitration related to its graphics chipset had ended with an agreement that's "a win for both companies." In May, Nvidia disclosed that it was quarreling with Microsoft over chip prices. Nvidia now can take its partnership "to the next level," CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said in a statement. Robbie Bach, a senior vice president at Microsoft, delivered a similar message.
Fargo, N.D., may not enjoy a reputation as a hotbed of high-tech, but this remote heartland city happens to be the headquarters for one of Microsoft's most ambitious initiatives in years. The plan is nothing less than to build a $10 billion unit specifically charged with selling software into the small and medium-sized businesses market. But as a relative latecomer, Microsoft has its work cut out making good on its goals.
Not only is the small and medium-sized business segment being targeted by other enterprise application makers, but the market has stagnated over the last two years. Still, that has not dissuaded Microsoft from acquiring Great Plains Software and Navision, a European counterpart of Great Plains based in Denmark, to constitute the Microsoft Business Solutions unit.