Four Nordic countries are the Web-savviest nations in the world and, together with the United Kingdom, pushed the United States out of the top five, a survey found on Monday.
Denmark was more aggressive than any other country in taking advantage of the Internet, according to research carried out by U.S. computer company IBM and the intelligence unit of British magazine The Economist.
"Denmark has a very active government policy to reduce the administrative burden on companies," said Peter Korsten, European director at IBM's Institute for Business Value.
Second last year, Denmark snatched Sweden's pole position after establishing a government portal Web site which pulls together five ministries and 24 other organizations where companies can access services.
Microsoft said its high-definition Windows Media 9 technology is being used in a variety of new places, including high-definition broadcasts on the Voom satellite system and on digital broadcasts used by the start-up U.S. Digital TV network. Highlighting announcements at the annual National Association of Broadcasters trade show, Microsoft also said Boxx Technologies, in association with Adobe Systems and others, will sell a new Windows XP-based computer built for high-definition video creation, considerably more cheaply than previous dedicated systems.
Microsoft's Windows Media 9 video codec also has taken another step forward in the process toward becoming an official standard for high-definition DVDs, the company said.
Michael Wehrs keeps a close eye on the mobile phone business for Microsoft. As director of technology and standards at the company's mobile devices division, he watches carefully to see where the industry is moving and what venture capitalists are funding.
Wehrs serves on numerous technical committees and boards within the industry, helping it overcome barriers as it lurches toward common ground on such issues as technology standards. One day, our cellphones and other devices will be able to send pictures and messages to each other and connect to the Internet as easily as making a call. Reaching common standards will help that happen.
I have received today from Ditto announcement of Windows Installer
RC1, details below.
We are pleased to announce the release of Windows Installer v3.0 (MSI3.0)
RC1. This release contains improvements to simplify application servicing.
The redist package will not install on WinXP-SP2/RC1 or Win2k03/SP1.
New features in the MSI3.0 / RC1 release
Opt-in for Patch uninstall Authors need to explicitly mark patches in order
to support uninstall.
MsiPatchMetadata The new MsiPatchMetadata table provides additional
information about a patch - including whether it supports uninstall
PatchWiz.dll PatchWiz.dll, the SDK tool used to create MSPs has been enhanced
to support the new MsiPatchSequence and MsiPatchMetadata tables. It can also
generate automatic patch sequencing information that should suffice for simple
product servicing. PatchWiz has been optimized to significantly reduce the time
taken to create patches.
Standard Command Line Options MSI30 and update.exe support the same standard
command line options to make it easy for administrators to control display,
reboot behavior, install, uninstall, log generation and applying updates. Try
msiexec /? after you install the RC1 bits.
Smaller Patches for Assemblies MSI30 adds support for smaller binary delta
compression patches for assemblies.
Patch Sequencing Whitepaper MSI30/RC1 includes a whitepaper on patch
sequencing to help product teams design and implement servicing strategies that
can take advantage of Patch Sequencing.
Download:
The RC1 release is available at
http://beta.microsoft.com. Sign in using your Passport account.
Bug Reporting/Feedback:
Use the Bug Reporting tool on
http://beta.microsoft.com to submit your bugs to Microsoft. Post your
technical support related questions and comments to the Microsoft private
newsgroups created for this program.
Newsgroups:
You will need a newsreader program such as Outlook Express to participate in
the newsgroups. To access the newsgroups you will need to configure your
newsreader program with the account information listed below. If you do not
already have a password, you can create a newsgroup password on
http://beta.microsoft.com, under the
"Modify Your Info/Modify Newsgroup Login Info". More detailed information about
accessing the newsgroups is available on
http://beta.microsoft.com.
All newsgroups for this beta program begin with:
microsoft.beta.WindowsInstaller
Newsgroup Account Name:######
Newsgroup Password:
News Server: betanews.microsoft.com
*Note: If you forget the newsgroup password you create on Microsoft Beta,
you will need to go to Microsoft Beta to create a new one.
If you need assistance, please send e-mail to ??????@microsoft.com alias.
Thank you for participating in this beta program. We look forward to your
valuable feedback.
Windows Installer Group
The release of Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET Framework 2.0 will represent a significant milestone in the Microsoft developer tools roadmap. Following the SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 wave of products, the next major platform update will be the Windows operating system release code name "Longhorn". The release of Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET Framework 2.0 will run on this landmark operating system release, as will applications built with Visual Studio 2005.
In addition, Microsoft is planning a version of Visual Studio, code name "Orcas," designed to take advantage of the features introduced in Windows Longhorn. These features include support for Longhorn advanced user interface capabilities (code name "Avalon"), storage services (code name "WinFS"), and Web services capabilities (code name "Indigo"). For example, Longhorn will introduce a declarative programming model (code name "XAML"), that will complement existing programming languages and Windows Forms by improving productivity when developing Longhorn-specific client UI.
Microsoft has taken the unusual step of patching release candidate testing software by issuing three critical patches for Windows XP Service Pack 2 RC1. Pre-release software is buggy by definition and users normally expect to have problems fixed either in future test versions or in the final code.
Testers visiting Windows Update found the updates last week, according to the BetaNews site. Two of the problems involved the Windows Firewall, a renamed and greatly updated version of Windows XP's former Internet Connection Firewall that will debut with the service pack. The other problem involved dropped virtual private networking connections with Linksys gateway devices.
MSN's searchable news site was updated Thursday with more personalization features, following in the newbie footsteps of Amazon.com's search engine. Last fall, Microsoft's Web portal launched Newsbot, a searchable database of news from thousands of publications, which tailors news for Web surfers based on their reading habits. Still in test form, Newsbot now lets people view their search history and store past material, a feature MSN calls "The Daily Me." Adding a more social flair to the service, "The Daily We" lets people view stories commonly read by other Newsbot visitors with the same taste.
Say what you will about Microsoft. Love it, hate it, buy it, sell it; you have to hand it to the big Redmond machine: it's sitting on a wad of cash, and it isn't afraid to drop a billion or two to develop new and interesting products--or at least the software that runs them. In the last few years, we've seen everything from a gaming console to flat-panel, touch-screen computers to Windows cell phones to smart watches to an über media hub. We tech pundits usually look at each initiative separately, giving props and knocks where they're due. But with the school year nearing its end, why not dole out some marks, and see if Microsoft makes the honor roll or winds up in summer school?
According to sources at Microsoft, a Business Week report detailing cutbacks in the Longhorn feature set was a bit exaggerated. While it's true that features inevitably get dropped as products get closer to fruition, Microsoft is now saying that none of the features the company demonstrated at PDC 2003 last October will be cut, and that the three main pillars of the product--the Avalon presentation layer, the WinFS storage engine, and the Indigo collaboration bits--will all appear in the next major Windows release as planned.
Once again, thanks to Ditto we are able to see glimpse of the technical beta program for Windows Update. It would appear that MS is getting Windows Update 5 ready for Windows XP Service Pack 2 launch in its security efforts. (see also post below)
Dear Windows Update V5 Beta testers:
Thank you all for diligently finding issues and bugs throughout the areas of Windows Update V5 pre-release. With the help of the Windows Update Beta Testing community we are closing in on a release that will be of the highest quality!
Please Remember
The pre-release versions of Windows Update are for testing purposes only
Please do not depend on the pre-release versions of Windows Update to keep your computer secure and up to date. If you are not a Windows XP SP2 Beta program participant, keep your computer secure and up to date by visiting the http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com site. If you are part of the Windows XP SP2 Beta program, please take extra care regarding computer security, as you will not be able to go back to the Windows Update V4 site.
Please do not attach files to newsgroup posts. This includes screenshots and log files. Please post in plain text. Please include your Beta ID in all posts.
New Microsoft Beta Client (MBC) Version 1.12
There is a new Microsoft Beta Client for reporting Windows Update V5 RC1 bugs. The new MBC includes all log files required for reporting bugs. If you haven't already downloaded Microsoft Beta Client V1.12, please follow these steps:
- Go to http://windowsbeta.microsoft.com.
- Sign in using your .NET Passport.
- Click Issue Reporting in the left pane.
- Select Submit an Issue.
- Click Microsoft Beta Client (MBC) in the right pane.
- Either click Open to install now or click Save to download to your PC.
- If you clicked Save, remember to install the MBC later.
You can find instructions for reporting bugs using the MBC on the Windows Update page at http://beta.microsoft.com. Click Reporting Bugs in the left pane. If you are unable to successfully file a report using the MBC, please send a detailed description of the issue you are experiencing to ?????site@microsoft.com.
Test Cases for Windows Update V5 Beta Testers
The Windows Update Beta team has created several test cases for Windows Update V5 RC1. They are posted on the Windows Update pages on the BetaPlace site (click Test Cases in the left pane).
Please report any bugs found using the MBC V1.12 tool. Include the test case number and the step number. We will be using the Windows Update newsgroup to collect feedback on the test cases. This allows positive test results to be reported. There will also be a general thread started for discussion of the content and structure of the test cases.
The Windows Update Beta team will continue to send out news updates. Please send content suggestions to ?????beta@microsoft.com. If you have comments regarding the layout or content of the Windows Update Microsoft Beta website pages, please post them to the newsgroup or send them to ?????beta@microsoft.com.
Thank you very much!
Windows Update Team