Microsoft

Career aspirations in the Asay home

I think this is progress. While driving with my seven-year old son today, he (apparently having forgotten his previous career goals) told me...

Dad, I either want to be part of Morrissey's band or, if that doesn't work out, I'll work for Alfresco.

I hate to see Alfresco be his second choice, but at least he no longer wants to be a stunt man or a Microsoft engineer. Progress! :-)

Microsoft's audacity at its best: "Our software is less of a security risk than Linux, Mac OS X"

Wow. Sometimes, you read things like this and you wonder if Microsoft employees inhabit the same universe. Apparently, they haven't been following the rampant, constant security holes discovered and exploited in Windows over the past decade. Instead, they try to spin data in their favor to try to convince people that, in fact, Windows is more secure than Linux (and now OS X, which is a bit surprising since I had exactly zero security breaches in the last five years of running OS X - that's "zero" as in "none").

A Microsoft executive has claimed that Windows users faced fewer days of security risks on average last year than users of rival operating systems from Apple, Novell, Red Hat and Sun.… Read more

Microsoft says Zune still on track

I still don't see them anywhere I travel, but Microsoft says that it is still on track to sell 1 million of its Zune portable music players by June. That's this month, so I wonder just how many of the devices are leaving Microsoft now and headed to retail stores.

I have noticed Zune pricing start to fluctuate further from the $249 suggested mark. For example, Circuit City has the Zune on its Web site for $199.

The software maker noted on Thursday that it is still garnering roughly 10 percent of the U.S. retail market for … Read more

I'M IN UR APPLE TV, WATCHIN UR VIDZ

The Macalope doesn't own one because it's hard to operate that little remote with his massive hooves, but Apple TV owners should be aware that Apple recently patched a potentially exploitable flaw in its eponymous set top box.

Tip o' the antlers to ISFYM which provides a humorous footnote.

Ironically, the problem is in a protocol called UPnP, originally developed by, of all companies, Microsoft. Figures.

Now, now.

5 things you probably didn't know you could do in Google Docs & Spreadsheets

I spent part of today at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., talking to some of the folks behind Google Docs & Spreadsheets, part of Google's Web-based office suite. I asked the product experts I met for their favorite features that often don't get the limelight or that people simply don't know about. I picked five that I thought were worth sharing:

1. Live lookup via Google and Google Finance. This is only available for Spreadsheets, but it's one of the neater advanced tidbits that makes use of Internet connectivity. Using two special formulas, users … Read more

Linux going big time and prime time against Windows, UNIX (WSJ)

At least Microsoft is back to normal. In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Bill Hilf takes a familiar (if a bit worn and tired) swipe at Linux in the enterprise:

In the enterprise, it's not enough just to be a cheap operating system. You need to have applications for it, and it needs to be highly supported.

Fortunately for Bill, he need not worry. Linux comes with superior support to Microsoft's because, oddly enough, the business model around Linux is predicated on support, not licenses, so Linux vendors like Red Hat, Novell, and Canonical/Ubuntu can't get by on marketing and sales sleight of hand. It's really Microsoft that needs to answer Bill's critique, not Linux. Linux also has applications in multitudes and, despite all that, still delivers significantly more value than Microsoft's Windows operating system.

But you don't have to believe me. It's the customer who consistently delivers this message. CIOs rank Microsoft a distant #6 to Red Hat (#1) and Novell (#5) in terms of value, according to CIO Insight's annual report. Truth really stinks, at least if you're Microsoft.… Read more

Immersion to fight Microsoft lawsuit

Immersion vowed Tuesday to fight Microsoft's breach-of-contract lawsuit regarding "haptic" technology that endows mice and joysticks with tactile feedback such as shaking and jerking.

"Immersion intends to defend this lawsuit vigorously," the San Jose, Calif.-based company said Tuesday.

Immersion sued Microsoft and Sony for patent infringement in 2002, but both suits were settled. Through a resulting sublicense agreement with Microsoft, Immersion agreed to pay Microsoft for any fee amounts from Sony in the event of a settlement with that company. That issue now is at issue in the breach-of-contract suit Microsoft filed against Immersion … Read more

Microsoft will alter Vista to address search concerns

Microsoft plans to make changes to Windows Vista to try to assuage concerns from Google that its desktop search product is disadvantaged by the operating system.

The software maker is expected to detail its planned changes to the desktop search mechanism later Tuesday in a federal court filing being jointly made with the Justice Department. A Microsoft representative declined to comment on the report ahead of its filing. A Justice Department representative was not immediately available for comment. The planned changes were reported earlier Tuesday by Reuters and Bloomberg.

Microsoft plans to use the first service pack for Vista to … Read more

Mandriva to Microsoft: Take your patents and...

Mandriva has answered the call, and pre-announced this statement on Microsoft's patent game:

As far as patent protection is concerned, we are not great fans of software patents which we consider as counter productive. We also believe what we see, and until we see hard evidence from, say, SCO or Microsoft, that there are pieces of codes in our software that infringe existing patents, we will assume that any other announcement is just FUD. So we don't believe it is necessary for us to get protection from Microsoft to do our job.

A clear statement, and one that … Read more