Apparently, intellectual property does grow on trees.
Microsoft, amid an IP spree that has won the company patent protection for everything from XML dialects to video game storage methods, mistakenly received a patent on Tuesday for a new variety of apple tree.
U.S. Plant Patent 14,757, granted to Robert Burchinal of East Wenatchee, Wash., and assigned to Microsoft, covers a new type of tree discovered in the early 1990s in the Wenatchee area, a major commercial apple-growing region. Dubbed the "Burchinal Red Delicious," the tree is notable for producing fruit that achieves a deep red color significantly earlier than other varieties. It is sold commercially as the "Adams Apple."
Microsoft is trying to give Windows XP a new lease on life. The software maker is gearing up for a big fall ad blitz for the three-year-old operating system. The campaign is slated to start in September, with ads touting the security improvements of Windows XP Service Pack 2. As the security push starts to wind down in mid-October, Microsoft's marketing will focus on new technologies that build on Windows XP, including portable media centers and a new version of Windows Media Center.
Its popular operating system once more the avenue of attack for a new and dangerous Internet worm, Microsoft on Tuesday called an unscheduled technical update to assist VARs and IT pros in combating the Sasser worm threat.
Sasser doesn't arrive as an e-mail attachment. Instead, the worm actively seeks out vulnerable IP addresses and enters a system through TCP port 445, said Kevin Kean, director of Microsoft's Security Response Center, Redmond, Wash. Sasser moves through other ports, but enters and infects a new client or server solely through port 445, Kean said. Once Sasser enters a client or server, it sends a packet to produce a buffer overrun on LSASS.EXE, which causes the program to crash, the infected system to crash and then requires a Windows reboot.
Microsoft will make its software more reliable and easier to use, promised the vice president responsible for its flagship Windows operating system, even as a new worm continued to wreak havoc on personal computers on Tuesday.
Jim Allchin, Microsoft's group vice president in charge of operating systems, said that Windows still fell short of the world's largest software maker's goal of making computing more user-friendly.
"It's hard to deploy the operating system today, apps (programs) are more difficult to deploy than they should be," Allchin told an audience at the annual Windows Hardware Engineering conference.
Microsoft executives took the stage at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) here on Tuesday morning to give a strong push for the company's next wave of media products.
"The next wave for us is the media wave of products and solutions. But there is one thing missing and the one thing we need from you: 64-bit drivers. You guys have got to write 64-bit drivers," Microsoft Group Vice President Jim Allchin told the several hundred attendees in his keynote address.
Microsoft on Tuesday provided a finish line for its lengthy process of putting out a 64-bit edition of Windows XP that will support the AMD 64-bit processors.
Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems [is] scheduled to be released in the fourth quarter of 2004," Microsoft said in a statement released from its Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Seattle.
Windows XP came in a version supporting 64-bit Intel Itanium systems when original versions of Windows XP shipped back in October of 2001.
Tom Button, the VP in charge of the Windows product management group, is set to deliver a Windows roadmap update at WinHEC this week. Who is Button? Read on.
With so much of Windows client's future in flux at the moment, you can bet the guy in charge of Windows marketing, product management and product planning is busy. And, indeed, Tom Button - the corporate VP in charge of the Windows product management group - is a tough man to pin down. We recently got some quality e-mail time with this 16-year Microsoft veteran. Mary Jo Foley, Editor of Microsoft Watch, asks the questions and Button provides the answers in this Q&A, edited for length.
Microsoft officials are giving attendees at the annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) here this week more bang for their buck by increasing the number of business planning and strategy sessions to 40 hours of content, while still providing a range of deeply technical sessions.
Attendees also can expect to receive a Longhorn build, but this will not be an alpha version of the product but rather an update of the developer preview of the software that was handed out at last October's Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles.
Microsoft's annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) has always been a bellwether event for future hardware trends. But last year's show set a precedent that will continue this year--prepping developers, enterprises, and consumers for the many advances in Longhorn, the next major Windows release. To that end, the agenda for WinHEC 2004 won't disappoint attendees who are eager to hear about Longhorn. Microsoft will present a variety of Longhorn-related enhancements, including digital-media advances, portable devices, Media Centers, low-level graphics, and other related technologies.
Microsoft has added the Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) business software product line as the ninth "competency" in its Partner Program framework, it said on Tuesday. Microsoft announced changes to its partner program last week, adding a third tier of partners, called Registered partners, and a series of predefined competencies on which partnerships will be based. Partners can now work up their way up through Registered and Certified to Gold Certified member status by collecting Partner Points based on the skills, or competencies, they can offer to customers.