WinInsider

Proving its refreshingly serious intent to become a truly contributing member of the open source community, Microsoft this week is releasing part of the engine for its own development blogs. A recent incarnation of MSDN's very popular Channel 9 blog (one of Microsoft's best ideas in its history) remodels its ASP.NET infrastructure to take advantage of Microsoft's model-view-controller architecture. ASP.NET MVC is the system where the software components responsible for creating, assembling, and requesting data are kept separate from one another, resulting in simpler, faster code.

Anyone thinking about cutting security spending to save money during the recession should read a copy of the new Center for Strategic and International Studies report titled "Securing Cyberspace for the 44th President." The report outlines a pattern of persistent attacks which are no match for our vulnerable Internet infrastructure. For those who can't or won't take the time to read this report, try listening to the recently aired cybersecurity discussion on the National Public Radio show On Point.

Microsoft will offer on Monday the first public beta release of its BizTalk Server 2009 enterprise connectivity software, which can take advantage of virtualization and enhanced failover clustering featured in Windows Server 2008.

BizTalk Server also can connect with Oracle's E-Business Suite. Support by BizTalk is being extended to the most recent versions of IBM's CICS, IMS, and members of the IBM DB2 database line. The general release of BizTalk Server 2009 is due in the first half of 2009.

If you install the beta of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 expecting to see visible changes to your version of Vista, you'll be sorely disappointed. At least in this initial beta, all the changes are under the hood, and even they are far from earth-shaking.

Initially, the beta was available only on MSDN and TechNet before public release, and at that point was available only as an .iso image. I downloaded the image, but had troubles with installation. The first .iso image burner I used, the free ImgBurn application, said it could not handle that particular .iso image. I had used this software to install .iso images before during the original Vista installation cycle, so this was odd.

The Microsoft Robotics Studio 2008 offers a suite of tools that makes it easy to write code that controls robots, from simple robots to advanced robots. Application developers can choose from the Visual Programming Language within the Microsoft suite or C# to create code. The runtime takes care of all the concurrency headaches so developers can focus on the more important issues of coding for robotics. Microsoft's newest version of its Robotics Studio -- tools to help developer write code that controls robots -- is a whole set of tools designed to help developers write code that controls robots.

Will we soon be calling Microsoft a "fashion giant" in addition to a "software giant"? OK, that's probably stretching it, but the company is launching a new line of graphic T-shirts called "Softwear by Microsoft." Yep, you read that right. Microsoft is getting into the clothing business.

AdvertisingAge tells us the line is meant to evoke the '80s, a seminal time in the history of PCs. As such, the shirts will feature designs including retro MS-DOS fonts and a mugshot of a young Bill Gates. Just pair them with acid-washed jeans and a Swatch watch and get out the floppy disks! Ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky is behind the shirts, which are expected to hit select stores on December 15. Rapper Common, who also came of age in the '80s, will be a celeb spokesman for Softwear, and contributed designs, as well.

Microsoft said that it, in fact, won't be able to restart a Black Friday promotion with HP.com that many were unable to take advantage of because of glitches with the Live Search Cashback program.

In a blog posting on Friday, Microsoft said that, although it is working to give those who ordered products their promised 40 percent discount, those who were not able to place an order are, essentially, out of luck.

"There have been lots of questions on whether the 40 percent off HP promotion on Black Friday will be restarted," Microsoft said in the posting. "While we were hoping to be able to do that, we are sorry to report that it will not be restarted."

When he starts his new job as head of Microsoft's online services on January 5, Qi Lu will have his hands full. Chances are, his pockets are a bit fuller too.

Microsoft announced Thursday it has hired Qi as president of Microsoft's online services group.

Until August he was Yahoo's executive vice president of engineering for the search and advertising technology group.

Qi brings ten years of experience at Yahoo to the new gig, which should serve him well. He will be in charge of search and online advertising as well as the company's online information and communications services and will report directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

As data breaches continue to hit the headlines, Microsoft and RSA today said they would integrate data protection products in a deepening of their long-standing relationship.

As a result, Microsoft will embed the data-classification engine of RSA's Data Loss Prevention Suite into existing and future products. It also said it would tightly integrate RSA's DLP Suite 6.5 with Windows Server 2008's Active Directory Rights Management Services -- which assigns user rights to help control their access to content like intranet sites, e-mails and documents.

Microsoft, in its continuing push to compete in the critical area of Internet search, tapped on Thursday a former senior Yahoo executive, Qi Lu, to head its online services group.

The software giant, which tried and failed to buy Yahoo earlier this year, is looking to revamp its online search strategy to better compete with the industry juggernaut, Google.

Microsoft said recently it does not want to buy Yahoo any more, although it has left open the possibility of a search deal with the company. Lu, who was responsible for development of the Web search and monetization platforms at Yahoo, left the company in August after 10 years.