Microsoft has shelved plans to bundle its server applications two weeks before the launch of a major overhaul to its BizTalk Server 2004 integration server software.
The software giant is backing away from its strategy to sell its server applications as a suite, called Jupiter, which would have included its BizTalk Server, Content Management Server and Commerce Server products. The company's Jupiter initiative was seen as a direct assault on Java server software companies, which have each created their own server software suites.
In a bid to target a security hurdle rampant with dial-up Internet users, Microsoft has rolled out a security update CD giveaway for users of Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows 98, and Windows 98 Second Edition (SE).
The Windows Security Update CD will ship with all of its "critical" patches released by the software giant through October 2003 and free anti-virus and firewall trial software.
Microsoft to unleash army of layers to chase after those that view stolen Windows code.
Microsoft is warning the online community to keep its hands off purloined Windows source code. The company on Tuesday confirmed it had sent legal warnings to some persons who it said had downloaded the stolen code from the Internet.
Source code from Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 was posted on the Internet on Thursday, and Microsoft Corp. said at the time that it had initiated internal and external investigations.
Microsoft is leading a group of vendors proposing a specification intended to extend Web services to devices. Along with BEA Systems, Canon, and Intel, Microsoft on Tuesday is proposing WS-Discovery, which purports to bring the benefits of Web services to devices by enabling applications to form a unified system and allowing for discovery of services, according to BEA. WS-Discovery, which is being unveiled at the Intel Developer Forum event in San Francisco, describes a way for devices to find and connect to Web services in a simple, lightweight way, Microsoft said.
Microsoft is advising customers to move to Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 and more recent patches following the leak of Windows NT and Windows 2000 source code to the Internet last week.
"Most of IE code is what was leaked," said Chris Jones, corporate vice president in the Windows Core Operating System Division, about the NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 code that leaked. "We don't believe [customers will be affected] so as long as they're current on the latest versions of IE. They need to move to IE 6 and security patches and service packs."
Web surfers are anything but loyal when it comes to their favorite search engines, according to new research that could give hope to Net titans Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN as they seek to wrest the search crown from Google.
On average, people use two different search engines a month, according to new data from market researcher ComScore Media Metrix. And while Google commands the most loyalty from searchers, even those people find the need to cheat sometimes.
Intel will give a glimpse of what the insides of computers might look like in a few years when it presents research results at a conference this week. Researchers from the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker will present papers at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco that will describe, among other projects, a low-power, high-speed arithmetic logic unit (ALU) that can run both 32-bit and 64-bit code. This, in turn, could allow the company to make Pentium-class chips that could run both types of software. The ALU churns calculations with whole numbers instead of decimals.
Intel will come out with a server chip next quarter that adds 64-bit processing power to its current x86 line of processors, the company's chief executive said Tuesday. In a keynote speech at the Intel Developer Forum here, CEO Craig Barrett called the arrival of Nocona "one of the worst-kept secrets in San Francisco." Intel had been widely expected to show off such a chip.
Nonetheless, having the chip next quarter is earlier than many analysts had predicted. Nocona will use the same core as Prescott, Intel's current desktop processor, meaning that Intel could quickly migrate the 64-bit architecture to desktop processors.
As a Microsoft customer who doesn't have access to the code, I'm much more interested in keeping the source code secure than in the desires of a few customers to have the code for themselves. Given that Microsoft is target number one for the world's bad guys, I think that protecting its source code almost rises to the level of a national security issue, considering the downside of having a large portion of the world's computers compromised.
Microsoft plans to collaborate with Digital Persona to integrate biometric security into Windows and other select products. On Tuesday, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant issued a statement confirming that it had anointed Digital Persona as the "preferred supplier" for integrating biometric technology in future product offerings from Microsoft.
The integration of biometric technology such as fingerprint readers and retinal-scanning devices into Windows would enable very secure authentication.