Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates on Monday called on the academic community to recruit more students into the software field as the company introduced a $1 million fund for university research.
Speaking at a meeting between Microsoft Research and about 400 academics at its Redmond, Wash., headquarters, Gates said attracting the brightest minds in academia to work on software is vital to the growth of the computing industry and the economy.
A Microsoft representative told me that the company will issue an updated beta version of its beta for Windows Server 2003 for 64-Bit Extended Systems, which targets the 64-bit x64 platforms from AMD and Intel. Additionally, the software giant will offer users a free trade-in program so that they can replace their 32-bit Windows Server 2003 product for the final version of Windows Server 2003 for 64-Bit Extended Systems, which is now expected in early 2005.
Seattle Times
In its campaign to hit spammers where they feel it - in their pocketbooks - Microsoft has filed 60 lawsuits over the past two years, using state and federal statutes against bulk e-mailers operating from distant points around the country.
After a six-month investigation led by Stirling McBride, the company's full-time Internet safety investigator, Microsoft filed suit in King County Superior Court in December against Cazes and 22 others, including 20 "John Does."
Linux potentially infringes 283 patents, including 27 held by Microsoft but none that have been validated by court judgments, according to a group that sells insurance to protect those using or selling Linux against intellectual-property litigation.
Dan Ravicher, founder and executive director of the Public Patent Foundation, conducted the analysis for Open Source Risk Management. OSRM is like an insurance company, selling legal protection against Linux copyright-infringement claims. It plans to expand the program to patent protections.
Enough books have been published about Microsoft's history, its famous founders and its antitrust travails to start a small library. But now we may be witnessing the start of an entirely new Microsoft genre: the post-trial book.
Robert Slater, an author known for books about General Electric's Jack Welch and other prominent business figures, has written a new book about how Microsoft is evolving in the aftermath of its landmark U.S. antitrust case.
WinNetMag
This thing is still around? Microsoft this week unveiled a refreshed MSN TV set-top box which brings with it a hip new modern vibe. Unlike the MSN TVs of the past, which focused on getting mom and dad online using a pokey dial-up connection, today's MSN TV recognizes that many people have broadband connections and might want a second outlet to the Internet on their TVs. So MSN TV is being retooled to appeal to a more technical crowd, and it includes some interesting functionality, such as the ability to stream photo slideshows and music from a networked PC. Priced at $199, the MSN TV box will go on sale in October. Pinch me, but I'm actually interested to see how this pans out.
Although server customers may have to wait a little longer for a version of Windows that supports their 64-bit systems, they won't have to pay for an upgrade when the software does ship.
Microsoft said Friday that customers that buy a 64-bit Opteron or Xeon server and pay for a license to Windows Server 2003 will be able to exchange that license for one that covers the 64-bit edition when it ships next year. Earlier this week, Microsoft announced it was pushing out the launch of that product until next year, the latest in a series of delays for the 64-bit edition.
ExtremeTech
Microsoft's Meltdown conference is all about building games on Windows. Originally started as a compatibility test-fest for hardware makers and software developers, the event has matured into a Windows game developer convention. Highlights from this year's gathering, held July 27th and 28th in Seattle, included presentations about the company's XNA development tools and how to get the most out of Direct3D and DirectSound.
One of the more exciting parts of the conference was a talk entitled "DX Futures," where the Redmond software giant went over some of the architectural details of Longhorn's graphics architecture, which have some big in changes in store for Direct3D.
Microsoft upped the ante in its search-engine challenge to Google on Thursday by demonstrating new technology that allows a user to search both the Web and a PC's hard drive.
At the annual Microsoft financial analyst meeting, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Steve Ballmer vowed that Microsoft was determined to beat Google in creating the best and most popular search-engine technology.
"There's a lot of Google fascination out there and we share it, and we're going to compete," Ballmer said with characteristic bluster. "We're going to compete very, very hard."
InternetNews
Like a scene straight out of Sally Fields' 1985 Oscar acceptance speech, Microsoft is awed with the response it is getting to its contributions to the open source community.
"You like me, you really like me."
The proof lies within the latest download numbers from SourceForge.net, a repository of open source code and applications. The subsidiary of VA Software released a statement Thursday saying that Microsoft's two (and only) contributions are in the top five percent of the more than 80,000 active projects at the site.