Tag Archives: microsoft

The New Microsoft Walled Garden

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For the first time in the history of the PC, Microsoft is rolling out a new Windows ecosystem for which they will be the sole software distributor. If you buy Windows 8, the only place you will be able to download software that integrates with its new user interface will be the official Windows Store. Microsoft will have complete control over what software will be allowed there.

via Critical Detail.

This article has a very lengthy description of Microsoft Windows and MS-DOS describing  past evolution of the PC to where it is now going.  In essence, Microsoft want to be like Apple.  It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the next year.  Here’s another blurb:

Now, this is apparently a point of some contention. Perhaps because Microsoft has not made a bigger deal about it in their press releases, not everyone believes that distributing software for the modern UI will require developers to get Microsoft’s permission. But they are wrong. In order to set the record straight once and for all, a complete, thoroughly researched analysis of Microsoft’s official publications on the subject is included as Appendix B to this article. It demonstrates that there is no method for developers to distribute modern UI applications to the internet at large without receiving explicit approval from Microsoft.

Microsoft DMCA Notice ‘Mistakenly’ Targets BBC, Techcrunch, Wikipedia and U.S. Govt

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Claiming to prevent the unauthorized distribution of Windows 8 Beta the software company listed 65 “infringing” web pages. However, nearly half of the URLs that Google was asked to remove from its search results have nothing to do with Windows 8.

via Microsoft DMCA Notice ‘Mistakenly’ Targets BBC, Techcrunch, Wikipedia and U.S. Govt | TorrentFreak.

Judging from the page titles and content the websites in question were targeted because they reference the number “45″.

Can Microsoft Convince People to Subscribe to Software?

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Observers have said that, with this newest pricing shift, Microsoft is using a carrot-and-stick approach or trying to “nudge” customers toward a subscription service for Office. But I’d go a bit farther—for some buyers, it might feel like signing up with a gun to their head.

That’s because Microsoft is making it much more expensive to buy Office the old way, in order to make the new subscription model look like a better, simpler, more straightforward deal.

via Can Microsoft Convince People to Subscribe to Software? | Xconomy.

As Microsoft gains, VMware insists that it maintains the upper hand

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“Everybody has a hypervisor today and everybody gives it away for free,” Maritz continued. “What it’s all about are the automation layers on top of it,” and extending the benefits of virtualization from servers to the entire network.

How is VMware achieving that? The company today explained it wants to make “virtual data center” a phrase just as commonly uttered as virtual machines. Instead of merely virtualizing CPU capacity, a virtual data center brings CPU, storage, network services, security, load balancing, and other characteristics together into a single profile that can be easily reproduced and provisioned.

via As Microsoft gains, VMware insists that it maintains the upper hand | Ars Technica.

Apple patent filing looks a lot like Microsoft Surface

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A patent application submitted by Apple last year — and made public just this morning — describes a flexible, magnetically attached cover for a tablet device. It’s similar to Apple’s existing smart cover for the iPad, except that this cover can also function as an input and display device. And one of the concepts described by Apple in the patent filing is an idea for using the cover as a keyboard.

The end result looks very similar to the signature feature of Microsoft’s Surface tablet computer.

via Apple patent filing looks a lot like Microsoft Surface – GeekWire.

Sex, Lies and Cyber-crime Surveys

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Much of the information we have on cyber-crime losses is derived from surveys. We examine some of the difficulties of forming an accurate estimate by survey. First, losses are extremely concentrated, so that representative sampling of the population does not give representative sampling of the losses. Second, losses are based on unverified self-reported numbers. Not only is it possible for a single outlier to distort the result, we find evidence that most surveys are dominated by a minority of responses in the upper tail (i.e., a majority of the estimate is coming from as few as one or two responses). Finally, the fact that losses are confined to a small segment of the population magnifies the difficulties of refusal rate and small sample sizes. Far from being broadly-based estimates of losses across the population, the cyber-crime estimates that we have appear to be largely the answers of a handful of people extrapolated to the whole population. A single individual who claims $50,000 losses, in an N=1000 person survey, is all it takes to generate a $10 billion loss over the population. One unverified claim of $7,500 in phishing losses translates into $1.5 billion.

via Sex, Lies and Cyber-crime Surveys – Microsoft Research.

Microsoft inks patent deal with service provider using Linux servers

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For the past couple of years, Microsoft has been on a tear of signing up Android and Chome OS device makers to license publicly unspecified Microsoft patents that Microsoft claims are infringed upon by Google’s operating systems.

via Microsoft inks patent deal with service provider using Linux servers | ZDNet.

In 2010, Amazon.com signed a patent-licensing deal with Microsoft involving Linux (upon which the Kindle e-reader is based). Novell, TomTom, Fuji Xerox and Samsung also have signed Linux-focused patent deals with Microsoft. But Amdocs isn’t selling Linux-based hardware; it is just running Linux on servers in its own datacenters (best I can tell).

Business Grade Instant Messaging and Presence

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Microsoft® Lync® is an enterprise-ready unified communications platform. With Lync, users can keep track of their contacts’ availability; send an IM; start or join an audio, video, or web conference; or make a phone call—all through a consistent, familiar interface. Lync is built to fully integrate with Microsoft Office. The Microsoft Lync 2010 desktop client is available for Windows and for Mac and mobile versions are available for Windows Phone, iPhone/iPad, and Android devices.

via Business Grade Instant Messaging and Presence – Microsoft Lync.

Microsoft Revokes Trust in 28 of Its Own Certificates

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Microsoft has not said exactly what the now-untrusted certificates were used for, but company officials said there were a total of 28 certificates affected by the move. Many of the affected certificates are listed simply as “Microsoft Online Svcs”. However, the company said that it was confident that none of them had been compromised or used maliciously. The move to revoke trust in these certificates is a direct result of the investigation into the Flame malware and how the attackers were able to forge a Microsoft certificate and then use it to impersonate a Windows Update server.

via Microsoft Revokes Trust in 28 of Its Own Certificates | threatpost.