Microsoft said Tuesday that it established an alliance with software maker Volante Technologies to build straight-through processing capabilities for the financial services market.
Under the deal, Microsoft will team with Volante--which builds so-called straight-through processing (STP) technologies aimed at the financial services sector--to co-market the company's products on Microsoft's own .Net Web services architecture. The companies said Microsoft's business unit for the financial sector would do that co-marketing as well as aid in customer adoption.
Microsoft has named two new executives for its unit that oversees software for handheld computers, mobile phones and embedded devices. The Redmond, Wash. company rehired former employee Suzan DelBene to oversee marketing for its handheld and mobile phone software business. DelBene, who had worked in the Windows and Internet Explorer groups, left Microsoft in 1998 to become an executive at Drugstore.com. Most recently, she was CEO of Seattle-based software start-up Nimble Technology, which was acquired by Actuate in a deal announced in July 2003.
Sky-high bids for papers associated with the trademark dustup between Microsoft and MikeRoweSoft.com came crashing to earth on Monday, after the seller put a curb on who could bid. Mike Rowe, the Canadian teen whose MikeRoweSoft.com Web site caught the attention and ire of Microsoft's Canadian trademark attorneys, has put documents related to the conflict up for auction on eBay. By Monday morning, with three days left to the auction's close, bidding had risen to more than $200,000.
When you think about enterprise systems management, companies like Computer Associates, Hewlett-Packard and IBM come to mind. They offer comprehensive suites for monitoring and managing the behavior of the broad array of IT components that keep an enterprise afloat. You don't necessarily consider Microsoft in the same vein, but with its characteristic resolve, the company is attempting to make comprehensive systems management part of the genetic material of Windows.
Microsoft is better placed to avoid an impending attack from the MyDoom worm, the spam e-mail virus that has infected hundreds of thousands of personal computers worldwide and brought down the Web site of a small software provider, experts said on Monday.
A more robust Web site, better technological resources and the more limited spread of the MyDoom variant targeting Microsoft's home page will make it less likely that the worm will succeed in Tuesday's pre-planned Web attack.
The next version of Microsoft's Xbox video game console could be released in the fall of 2005, without the hard drive that was one of the defining characteristics of the current game console, the San Jose Mercury News reported on Monday. The paper, citing information it said had been shared with game developers and publishers, said the console would use three IBM processors based on the new generation of powerful 64-bit computing technology and a graphics chip from ATI.
The newspaper also reported that the new console would likely be shipped without a hard drive and said it was not "guaranteed" that the new console would be able to play current Xbox games.
A week after the MyDoom virus started wreaking havoc on the e-mail systems around the world, Microsoft issued an "out-of-cycle" security bulletin to address three vulnerabilities that expose Internet Explorer to potential hacker attack. The bulletin was issued Monday.
While the company normally posts monthly patches, the special bulletin released this week for IE addresses one issue deemed "critical" and two others ranked "important," Microsoft said.
Microsoft will face a fine of about $100 million Euros -- roughly $125 million in U.S. dollars -- for its alleged anti-competitive behavior, a German newspaper reported on Monday.
The commission has the power to fine a company as much as 10 percent of annual revenue -- $3 billion in Microsoft's case -- but rarely does so except in instances of price fixing, which Microsoft is not charged with.
While some in Europe speculated the fine would exceed $1 billion, one solution provider in the U.S. said if Monday's report is accurate, Microsoft can breathe easy.
"Microsoft won't care; $125 million [to the software company] is nothing," said the New York area partner who asked not to be named.
Intel released the first major revision to the Pentium 4 processor in two years with the introduction of four new processors based on its 90 nanometer Prescott core Sunday. The chips are also Intel's first 90 nanometer products to hit the market. One of the benefits of shrinking chip manufacturing technologies is the ability to put more transistors on a smaller chip, and Intel was able to more than double the amount of transistors from the current Northwood Pentium 4 core, said Tim Thraves, desktop marketing manager for Intel.
The new processors arrived at 3.4GHz, 3.2GHz, 3GHz, and 2.8GHz, speeds that overlap current Pentium 4 processors. If two chips with different cores are available at the same clock speed, the Prescott chip will be known as the 3.4E GHz Pentium 4, while a Northwood chip with an 800MHz system bus gets the 3.4C GHz brand, Thraves said.
As instant messaging and presence products have become prevalent in corporations, Microsoft has taken the instant messaging engine out of Exchange 2000 and turned it into a stand-alone product, Live Communications Server 2003.
All IM functionality was removed from Exchange, so if you're looking to upgrade to Exchange 2003 and want to keep the IM, you'll also need to buy LCS. (However, Exchange 2000 licenses covered by Microsoft's Software Assurance program allow you to receive LCS licenses when you upgrade.) We recently tested LCS and found it to be much better than the IM in Exchange 2000, but perhaps too limited for those looking to purchase an IM package as a separate system.