In mid-2003, AT about the same time as Office 11 is slated to ship, Microsoft will launch its OneNote application for capturing, organizing, and collaboratively sharing information. Chris Pratley, group program manager for authoring services for Microsoft Office, met with InfoWorld Test Center Director Steve Gillmor to discuss OneNote and its features.
InfoWorld: What was the idea and impetus behind developing OneNote?
Pratley: OneNote is an application that we started thinking of almost two years ago [to] help people deal with little scraps of information and things that they get that are not full-blown documents. In doing the planning of Office 11, we reorganized around scenarios rather than around applications. Since [my group] was thinking about authoring, we were trying to think about the whole process of authoring rather than just the act of writing a document. That includes collecting raw information [and] organizing it to prepare to write some document.
Microsoft is zeroing in on dates for the beta release of its next-generation SQL Server database, code-named Yukon. The company is working to provide 1,500 customers and partners with the Yukon beta code by February or March, development team members told one analyst. Based on feedback from that code drop, the company will determine release candidate and general availability dates, said Mark Shainman, analyst at Meta Group.
Publicly, Microsoft has said it hopes to ship a Yukon beta in the first half of 2003, with final commercial product due by the end of the year. A Microsoft spokeswoman would not comment on specific dates.
Microsoft TV said Friday that it will introduce its new interactive programming guide to 20,000 digital cable subscribers in Oregon, its first entrée into a market dominated by Gemstar-TV Guide International. Microsoft TV, a division of the Redmond, Wash.-based company, teamed with Willamette Broadband and Uvision, two Oregon-based digital cable operators, which will use Microsoft TV's interactive program guide in place of TV Guide Interactive, the on-screen version of the well-known print publication. On-screen programming guides help people sift through the hundreds of channels and pay-per-view options afforded through digital services.
.NET provides a number of tremendous benefits that will make developers more productive, reduce the number of bugs, speed application development, and simplify deployment. IT managers are understandably wary, since .Net is a new technology that requires a moderately steep learning curve. For most organizations, however, the benefits will far outweigh the negatives. And with .Net, you'll see great productivity gains for future development projects.
Web service support
Microsoft is on the Web service bandwagon in a major way, and it's never been easier to develop Web services than it is with .Net. You can create simple Web services with Notepad and not even have to run them through a compiler; simply call them and .Net compiles them and even generates a test page so you can verify they are working. .Net has all the plumbing needed and generates all the files you need, such as the WSDL file.
Two small cable television operators will use Microsoft's interactive program guide covering 20,000 subscribers in the Oregon area, the software giant said on Friday. Uvision LLC and Willamette Broadband will start providing the guide in the first quarter of next year. Interactive program guides help viewers navigate the scores of additional channels and features like video-on-demand made possible by digital cable.
State wants fees from Microsoft, but company unlikely to pay legal costs if state appeals. The state attorney general's office would like to use the legal reimbursements that Microsoft owes states from the computer giant's antitrust case to pursue an appeal. But if West Virginia pursues an appeal, Microsoft is unlikely to include the state when it hands out checks.
State Sen. Vic Sprouse, R-Kanawha, has criticized McGraw's appeal as a waste of money. He says West Virginia should accept its reimbursement and drop the case. "The other states are smart enough to recoup their legal fees," said Sprouse, the Senate minority leader and a member of the Finance Committee.
In rolling out Release Candidate 2 of Windows .NET Server 2003 on Thursday, Microsoft Corp. also offered the bulk of its user base a first look at a new tool for the prickly problems of Group Policy management. Users who sign up for the Corporate Preview Program to get RC2 of Windows .NET Server 2003 will also get the Beta 2 version of the Group Policy Management Console. Microsoft first introduced the GPMC to a limited group of testers in August.
Microsoft's new Group Policy Management Console will provide some of those same functions. The new tool combines new capabilities for Group Policy management with Group Policy-related elements of several existing tools. It consists of a Microsoft Management Console snap-in and scriptable interfaces for managing group policy.
Seriously, guys. Could I make up anything funnier than this? US District Court Judge J. Frederick Motz compared Microsoft's behavior toward Sun Java to Tonya Harding hiring a thug to "kneecap" Nancy Kerrigan during the 1994 Olympics trials. The comments came on the last day of hearings to determine whether Sun will take Microsoft to court over charges that the software giant illegally retarded the market growth of Java, a Sun-created cross-platform programming language and run-time environment, by bundling an incompatible Java version in its monopoly Windows operating system. Motz, however, seems unlikely to grant Sun a preliminary injunction against Microsoft, which would force the company to bundle Sun Java in Windows immediately. The Judge will rule on Sun's preliminary injunction request in 10 days, but he has already suggested that the company drop its injunction request and go straight to trial.
A federal dustrict court judge Thursday heard closing arguments in a preliminary phase of a private antitrust case in which Sun Microsystems is suing Microsoft, ending three days of testimony in a case that ultimately could affect the distribution of Sun's Java technology. U.S. District Judge Frederick Motz, who is presiding over the case, said Thursday he would attempt to make a decision on the preliminary injunction within the next 10 days, though it could take longer, representatives of Sun and Microsoft said.
Microsoft also is relying on the now-settled federal antitrust suit against Microsoft. In that case, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly rejected a similar request to force Microsoft to ship its products with Sun-backed Java support on grounds that it would not be a benefit for competition.
"This remedy is unwarranted, it would be unprecedented and is unsupported by the law," said Jim Desler, Microsoft's legal spokesman, in a phone interview from Baltimore Thursday. "The burden was on Sun to provide evidence, and we don't believe they provided the necessary evidence."
Microsoft Business Solutions, a division of Microsoft Corp., announced Thursday the next iteration of its Small Business Manager suite, geared toward helping small organizations manage their business functions. SBM 7.0 provides a number of new features, including enhanced integration within the modules as well as integration to third-party applications, streamlined sales and purchasing, and tighter inventory and fiscal control.
For its developer community, Microsoft has added an SBM tool kit to 7.0 that enables developers to more easily link disparate, vertically aligned apps to the suite. The inventory control features in 7.0 integrate with sales, purchasing and financial tasks. Businesses can choose from multiple cost methods, assign multiple cost methods, assign multiple price levels to an item, track serial and lot numbers, run physical inventory checklists, track costs and quantities, and perform adjustments.