Tag Archives | Microsoft

It sounds like a feeble attempt to force customers into upgrading. Perhaps if Microsoft spent a few minutes to remove the offending code from the older products, or even better, worked out a deal with Sun to ship a modern version of Java, Microsoft might obtain a bit of customer loyalty. Microsoft to stop offering host of older products. “Microsoft will stop distributing several older products next week as a result of a legal settlement with Sun Microsystems in a dispute over Java, Microsoft said.” [InfoWorld: Top News]

Craig Berntson over at FoxBlog points to Scoble pointng to Journal: Microsoft EMEA Architect’s Journal (nowhere do they explain what EMEA is, although I suspect “European” might be in there somewhere, as that seems to be the origin of their authors and they use some British English spellings). One of the articles is “DasBlog: Notes from Building a Distributed .NET Collaboration System,” by Clemens Vasters, that talks about the importance of blogs. The magazine is free for the download in PDF format, although you’ll find you can’t copy text from it, you can print it. (Generated on a Mac in Quark Express, for those keeping score). An intriguing quote:

So why is this topic being discussed in a magazine for software architects and information technology managers? There are two main reasons: First, there are a lot of architectural lessions that can be learned from the Weblog phenomenon and from the technologies that make the Weblog universe tick. In fact, the Weblog space as a whole has already grown to be the largest distributed XML and Web services application in existence. Second, Weblogs are becoming a strategic tool to improve communication and collaboration in the enterprise that may eventually turn out to be just as important as email.

Emphasis mine

Interesting reading, and the price is right.

Steve Gillmor predicts “Look Out, Outlook: RSS Ahead in 2004” in his eWeek column:

This is a game at which Microsoft excels÷the waiting game. Clone, wait, collaborate, extend, wait, repeat, rinse, dry. But now comes RSS÷and the rules may have changed. First, the enemy is now scattered, behind rocks, in startups, open source, virtual coalitions that pop up on IM and videoconferencing, and a myriad loosely coupled evolutionary steps forward.

I’d not count Microsoft out of the game. Despite their “Windows Everywhere” and Windows Any Way tactics, they do have the advantage of being able to place their solution onto 100 million desktops and then enhance, embrace, extend and extinguish until they get it right or discredit the underlying technology.

Check out Gillmor’s predictions for future technologies. There’s some opportunities there, if he’s right.

A caution to those of you who might have deployed Exchange Server 2003: it appears that the Outlook Web Access interface may provide a security hole, not the first time this component has done that. It appears to be related to the disabling of Kerberos security. Here’s one article on the problem.

I saw another article while browsing last night that linked the disabling of Kerberos to the installation of Portal Server or Services on the server machine, but I neglected to bookmark the link, sorry.

It’s annoying that every time I open Windows Explorer, I have to wait for it to render the 60 sub-folders and 65 documents of “My Documents,” even though I know I want to browse immediately to some folder on my C: drive. Here’s one solution: change the default location in the command line of Explorer.exe. Details here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/tips/august/bertleff1.asp

This will change the default page to the root of “My Computer,” which at least on my computer, opens significantly faster. An explanation of the command line options can be found here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;152457&

From Dan Gillmor’s eJournal: Google, Microsoft and Lies. UPDATED On October 31, the New York Times reported that Microsoft had discussed a buyout with Google:”According to company executives…

Does anyone else see irony in Gates speaking at a casino on Microsoft’s solutions for security and spam?

Seattle Times: Gates armed with Microsoft arsenal against spam. “Gates announced new spam-filtering technology called SmartScreen. Developed by Microsoft’s research division, it will be included in all of the company’s e-mail products. The technology uses new ways to scan and detect junk e-mail before it hits a customer’s inbox.”