Microsoft is evaluating whether to include a new tool for building ASP.Net 2.0-based Web sites in the next major version of
Visual Studio, a company representative said on Tuesday.
The command-line tool, called Blinq, enables Web developers to quickly build an ASP.Net 2.0-based Web site with data from
a SQL Server database, a Microsoft representative said. It is currently available as a prototype.
"Just point Blinq at a SQL database, and it will create a Web site with pages that display sorted and paged data, allow you
to update or delete records, create new records, and follow relationships between tables in your database," according to a
Web page authored by Polita Paulus, a developer on Microsoft's ASP.Net team. Developers using Blinq do not need to write SQL queries.
Microsoft and Nortel Networks Ltd. on Tuesday announced a strategic alliance to help companies migrate off of traditional telephone systems and onto a unified communications platform that encompasses email, instant messaging, Internet telephony, and multimedia conferencing.
Under the four-year deal, Toronto-based Nortel will provide the services and networking technology and Microsoft the software to help companies transition from traditional PBX systems to Internet-based communications.
In a joint teleconference, Mike Zafirovski, president and chief executive of Nortel; and Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Redmond, Wash.-based, Microsoft, promised to provide products and services that would transition companies without causing major upheavals in their operations.
Microsoft on July 18 announced that it has acquired Winternals Software, which provides security, recovery and management tools for enterprises as well as a respected collection of free Windows tools on the Sysinternals site.
The privately held, Austin-based company makes tools that assist in the recovery of damaged systems and lost data. Its new Protection Manager products provide greater control over privileges for users and applications than is standard in Windows.
Winternals founders Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell have been well-known authors and commentators on Windows issues for many years. Russinovich will join Microsoft as a Technical Fellow in the Platforms and Services Division. Cogswell will join the Windows Component Platform Team as a Software Architect. The two will work from Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wash.
Digipede Technologies just might be Microsoft's secret weapon for scaling out and grid-enabling .Net applications, and the company is hoping to ride the Microsoft developer wave.
John Powers, chief executive of Oakland, Calif.-based Digipede, said the Digipede Network enables .Net developers to write applications that can scale to grid environments the same way they write applications that run on one machine.
One top Microsoft executive expressed disappointment Monday that so many of the nation's children dream of careers as professional athletes and entertainers -- rather than more meaningful and achievable positions in computer science and engineering.
"Kids have, genetically, a better chance of growing up and being Bill Gates than growing up and being Tiger Woods," said Craig Mundie, Microsoft chief research and strategy officer, during a panel discussion on the company's Redmond campus.
Microsoft's hardware division is developing a slim wireless keyboard that will make it easier for users to access Windows Live services and features in its forthcoming Windows Vista operating system.
Dubbed the Ultimate Keyboard, it will be announced later this year as part of a desktop package, said a source familiar with Microsoft's plans. The system will come with a wireless laser mouse, the source said. View an online teaser about the keyboard here.
A Windows Live Call button will provide one-touch access to a list of Windows Live Messenger buddies online to initiate a videoconference or chat session. Pressing the button will automatically log a user into Windows Live Messenger and open a list of contacts currently online.
Microsoft released on Monday an updated beta version of its next-generation OS, Windows Vista, which improves overall performance
and reflects request made by beta testers.
Return to Vista report
The release, build number 5472, is now available to Windows Vista Technical Beta program participants, select Technology Adoption
Program customers and Microsoft Developer Network subscribers. About 500,000 users should receive the build, said Mike
Burk, a Microsoft product manager for Windows Client.
Specifically, the build makes setting up and controlling a user account on the OS "less chatty," Burk said. "Testers said
there were too many prompts and dialogs, so we reduced the number of those," he said.
Microsoft has filed 26 lawsuits accusing U.S. companies of selling pirated software, the latest move in its ramped-up efforts to boost sales by cracking down on illegal copies.
The world's largest software maker filed the lawsuits Friday in federal courts in Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, Colorado, South Carolina, New York and New Jersey.
The lawsuits accuse the companies of selling illegal copies of its Windows operating system and Office business software.
The lawsuits are the latest in Microsoft's increasingly aggressive steps to curb piracy of its two flagship products -- and cash cows -- Windows and Office.
As Microsoft enters into a new arena with its Expression family of design tools, the software giant is looking for partners to help spread the word and get customers ready to adopt the new technology.
At its WPC in Boston from July 11-13, Microsoft called on partners to support its effort to get a piece of the design tools space via the company's upcoming family of Expression design tools that will complement the Microsoft Visual Studio developer tool set.
John Byrum, product manager for the Microsoft Expression tools, presented Microsoft's perspective in a session titled "Building the next generation of Web 2.0 and Windows applications with Microsoft Expression," at the Microsoft WPC on July 13.
As part of its continued reorganization, Microsoft plans to change its financial reporting structure and combine several of its business units.
The software maker said Monday it will now break its results into five categories rather than the seven it had previously used. It will combine its entertainment and mobile device units, and will merge the unit that includes Office with its Microsoft Business Solutions unit.
The move is separate from, and in addition to, the decision last September to create three separate divisions within the Redmond, Wash.-based company. At that time, Microsoft said it would keep its seven business units for the purposes of financial reporting.