Thanks to ActiveWin for the link.
European consumers will soon get a first taste of what Bill Gates meant by "Trustworthy Computing." NEC Computing International has announced a trial program in which Packard Bell PCs will be equipped with keyboards that include secure smart-card readers.
The keyboards are designed to hold credit card numbers, PINs and other personal information in encrypted form, without leaking them into the rest of PC where they could be stolen by crackers, malicious programs or other users.
Microsoft on Thursday challenged America Online's commitment to open technological standards even as the nation's largest Internet provider urged a judge to force Microsoft to adhere to such standards. While questioning an AOL witness testifying for nine states seeking antitrust penalties against Microsoft, Microsoft lawyer Richard Pepperman produced an internal AOL e-mail suggesting that AOL joined a high-profile Internet standards group only after it seemed Microsoft would join first.
AOL frequently has been criticized for stopping companies from developing products that work with AOL software. AOL has fought for several years to stop products made by Microsoft, Yahoo and even smaller companies from connecting with its market-leading instant messaging service.
The PC maker plans to remake itself into a bigger, fiercer competitor by selling servers and high-end services to businesses, and by moving into new consumer PC markets around the world. As the market for computer equipment returns to health, Dell plans to add to its employee roster, beefing up in new areas such as professional services, senior executives told attendees at the company's annual financial analyst meeting in New York. The company will continue to expand into product areas such as servers, networking and storage while it sustains its PC business.
"Our target now is to double the size of the company again in the next few years," said Kevin Rollins, Dell's president and chief operating officer.
This shows that even lunatics are after Microsoft.
A novelty-gift inventor faced off with Microsoft on Tuesday in an unlikely tussle over the rights to the term "Pocket PC." The low-key battle took place in small-claims court, with entrepreneur Ken Belanger arguing that he lost $5,000 in sales last December because of the software giant's use of the term. Belanger claims he coined the word in 1985 for a gag gift item and therefore holds rights to the same name Microsoft gave to software for handheld computers.
Legal experts say the dispute may be as flimsy as Belanger's gift item, which features a poker chip imprinted with the words "In Silicon We Trust." Instructions advise flipping the chip when faced with difficult business decisions. Ian Ballon, an attorney and partner with the law firm Manatt Phelps & Phillips, said the case holds no water because Belanger pleaded his case in a small-claims court, when copyright lawsuits are restricted to federal court.
In a recent independent study completed by the Walklett Group of Malvern, Pa., a business intelligence (BI) solution running on Microsoft SQL Server (TM) 2000 Enterprise Edition, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server and a 16-processor Unisys ES7000 Enterprise Server was found to be 50 percent less expensive to own and operate over a five-year period than a solution running on Oracle9i database and Sun Fire 6800 Server. In the software category alone, SQL Server 2000 was 3.5 times less expensive than the Oracle 9i database for comparable features, resulting in savings of $3 million over five years. Now may be a good time to seriously consider the lower-cost option: Microsoft SQL Server 2000.
Microsoft Corp. yesterday landed its hardest punch so far in efforts to embarrass rival corporate executives testifying against the company in antitrust hearings. Pressing a strategy of portraying Microsoft competitors as biased and out to cripple it, the company's lead attorney produced e-mails showing one executive offering to publicly modify his anti-Microsoft stance in exchange for a business deal with the software giant.
The attack came after Liberate Technologies Inc. chief executive Mitchell E. Kertzman said in written testimony that Microsoft intends to use its monopoly on computer operating systems to control an array of home devices, including interactive television boxes, game boxes and other appliances. Liberate, based in Silicon Valley, makes software for interactive television and competes with Microsoft.
Microsoft said Wednesday that reporting requirements proposed by nine states on Microsoft investments are too broad and could be used to cover purchases as simple as a couple of desktop computers or a handful of stock shares.
While cross-examining Mitchell Kertzman, the head of a company that makes interactive television software, Microsoft lawyer Dan Webb said the reporting requirements would put Microsoft under onerous restrictions. The requirement would cover almost any monetary deal Microsoft wants to make with technology or financial firms, and direct the company to give the states written notice 60 days before the deal is final.
Ken Belanger holds his "Pocket PC," Thursday, Jan. 10, 2002 in San Francisco. Belanger had sued Microsoft, the Redmond, Wash.-based company for trademark infringement, but after Marianne Petersen, a Microsoft paralegal, appeared before Court Commissioner Sue Kaplan with a binder of evidence, and Belanger had only a few slips of paper, the 40-year-old San Francisco resident withdrew that claim. "I couldn't win there," Belanger said later outside the courtroom. "They have too much evidence."
Should come prepared :)
Thanks to ActiveWin for the link.
As AOL Time Warner Inc. stock sank last week to the lowest level since the companies announced plans to merge two years ago, the biggest merger in corporate history looked more and more like the biggest blunder.
Together the two companies were worth more than $300 billion when their corporate nuptials were announced in January 2000. Today, AOL Time Warner's market value is $105 billion, and there is every reason to suspect it could fall further after the company announces its first-quarter earnings later this month.
No. 1 personal computer maker Dell Computer Corp. said on Wednesday it was working closing with software giant Microsoft Corp.on technology that improves the connections between computer servers, data storage machines and other network devices. Dell said the companies' engineering divisions were working on a framework to increase support for the InfiniBand networking technology. Dell said it would use the technology in its new "blade" and "brick" computer servers.
