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| | The Evil Empire - December 2002 Archive
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Tuesday, December 24, 2002
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As I announced previously, I will take a well-deserved blog break over Christmas and do other things (like playing with my model railway... no, just kidding ;-) ). At any rate, there will be no updates until January 3rd, or maybe a bit later if I feel like taking more time off. But hey, I'll be back.
In the meantime, I wish you all a very happy Christmas. Spend it with someone you love; after all, that's what Christmas is all about - God showing his/her love for man/woman. Also, a happy New Year 2003, and peace to all of you. Hopefully.
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Sun has won a preliminary injunction in its private antitrust case against Microsoft, requiring the monopolist to carry Sun's Java and not Redmond's feral version. Sun also scored a copyright victory in the Baltimore ruling today. [The Register]
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A U.S. district court judge orders the software giant to include Sun's version of Java with the Windows operating system. [CNET News.com]
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Sendo today confirmed that it has filed a suit against Microsoft in a US federal suit, accusing the software giant of stealing its technology and customers.
Sendo last month pulled its Microsoft Z100 Smartphone, just days from launch. At the time it said it had 'no choice'.
Reuters has the inside track on the case. It quotes people 'familiar with the court proceedings' that Sendo may claim hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. [The Register]
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Monday, December 23, 2002
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Microsoft Corp is believed to have trained its acquisition crosshairs on Macromedia Inc, lining up a deal that would throw enterprise Java into a spin, Gavin Clarke writes.
Industry and analyst sources believe Microsoft covets San Francisco, California-based Macromedia's Flash vector graphics design tool and player, which was radically updated this year. [The Register]
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Friday, December 20, 2002
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Who should read this bulletin: Customers using Microsoft Windows XP Impact of vulnerability: Run code of an attacker's choice Maximum Severity Rating: Critical Recommendation: Customers using Microsoft Windows XP should apply the patch immediately. [vowe dot net]
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Thursday, December 19, 2002
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So, Microsoft Internet Explorer owns 95% of the market? Not according to the logs of Heise Online, the premier IT news site in this country. [vowe dot net]
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Wednesday, December 18, 2002
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Could Microsoft be working behind the scenes on another new programming language?
A company official dropped hints at last week's XML 2002 conference in Baltimore that Microsoft is considering the potential for a language that would be optimized to handle data.
One source close to the company said that Microsoft has held internal discussions to kick around ideas for XML-specific language, referred to internally as "X#." [Microsoft Watch via Scripting News]
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Tuesday, December 17, 2002
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We all like to imply that Microsoft keeps producing error-ridden software - and then tend to forget those flaws. But this stupid cookie control feature in IE 6 just can drive one insane. Doesn't matter if you declare a site "trustworthy" or "cookie enabled", the damn thing still flushes 'em, even if it's a lovely your New York Times reg. req. token, your WSJ subscription or something else lovely. Well, that's also a way to keep our online life a little more private. [etter det vi erfarer...]
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With a long and characteristically detailed death notice, years after the shooting died down (this is also characteristic), IBM has finally brought the Great Rebellion to a close. Windowed to death, finally. [The Register]
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News.com has an article on its 'new personal entertainment software' to be introduced on Tuesday. Still trying to fill the multimedia software gap between MS and Apple. Microsoft's digital hub software costs $19.95, doesn't come with the operating system but does have some added features that differ from the iApps. For example, it includes a CD label template and a party guest book. Ooh. Ahh. [MacSlash]
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Monday, December 16, 2002
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Microsoft's support for XML in an upcoming release of Office could finally open up the suite's proprietary file formats - but only if Microsoft discloses the underlying XML dialect. [CNET News.com]
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Sunday, December 15, 2002
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For the second time this month Microsoft will raise the risk rating on a flaw affecting Internet Explorer (IE) after experts told the company it underrated the issue.
The cumulative patch announced on Nov. 20 in Microsoft's security bulletin MS02-066 for the IE Web browser will now be rated "critical," up from "important," Steve Lipner, director of security assurance at Microsoft, said in a statement sent via e-mail on Friday. [InfoWorld: Top News]
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Friday, December 13, 2002
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The acquisition spotlight fell on Microsoft Corp yesterday, as speculation swept Wall St that the company was moving against Borland Software Corp as well as Rational Software Corp to revive its application design and modeling offerings, writes Gavin Clarke.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft was reported to be preparing the acquisition of its number-one competitor in the Windows developer space, Borland. Boland itself recently bought design and modeling specialist TogetherSoft SA.
Such a deal would provide Microsoft access to TogetherSoft's resources, after IBM announced its proposed $2.1bn acquisition of independent application design and modeling specialist Lexington, Massachusets-based Rational Software earlier this month.
Microsoft, on Wednesday night, was also rumored to be preparing a counter-bid to IBM's multi-billion offer for Rational. [The Register]
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The Microsoft store, theoretically an employee-only operation, is a fabled source of improbably cheap goodies, small-time scams and handy licensing loopholes - but $9 million worth of software? For just one employee? Over nearly a year?
Well, OK, it's not the Microsoft store as such Daniel Feussner has been accused of stealing $9 million worth of software from, it seems to be another internal store, allegedly used as some kind of do it yourself stock options program, as it were. According to The Mercury, Feussner (director of 'retrieval' technology, apropriately enough) was arrested at work on Wednesday and charged with computer, wire and mail fraud. [The Register]
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Is Microsoft snatching Rational Software from IBM? And who (if anyone) is buying Borland? The IT world is buzzing with rumors that IBM's announced purchase of Rational Software has hit a snag: Microsoft. The rumor is that Microsoft also wants to own Rational, and will outpay IBM to get it. [via vowe dot net]
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Microsoft last night released three sets of security patches, the most important of which aims to address flaws in Microsoft Virtual Machine (VM) which it admits could enable system compromise. The VM patch is designed to address eight vulnerabilities, the most serious of which would enable an attacker to gain control over a user's system. That's possible because of a vulnerability that means an untrusted Java applet could access COM objects. [The Register]
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For the second time in a week, Microsoft acknowledged that its initial estimation of a software flaw underrated the true threat posed by the vulnerability. The Redmond, Wash., giant said Thursday it plans to change the severity of a vulnerability in software common to Internet Explorer and other Windows applications from "important" to "critical." The move was prompted by an in-depth analysis written by the security researchers who found the flaw. [CNET News.com via Privacy Digest]
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Thursday, December 12, 2002
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The software giant issues alerts about eight Java Virtual Machine security holes that could allow hackers to access data or even wipe a hard drive clean. [CNET News.com]
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A Dutch computer enthusiast who runs a popular Windows XP gossip Web site has been summoned by Microsoft to hand over the WindowsXP.nu domain name.
Steven Bink registered WindowsXP.nu two years ago. The site has become an important spot for Microsoft beta testers and hobbyists looking for news and gossip about Microsoft products, logging up to 20,000 page views a day, said Bink. On Monday, Bink received a letter from Microsoft's Dutch counsel accusing him of trademark infringement and giving him until Dec. 19 to sign over the domain, or face possible legal action. [InfoWorld: Top News]
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Very bad: Flaw in Windows WM_TIMER Message Handling Could Enable Privilege Elevation (328310) Just bad: Flaw in SMB Signing Could Enable Group Policy to be Modified (309376) Really bad:Flaw in Microsoft VM Could Enable System Compromise (810030)... [vowe dot net]
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Microsoft may have relented on switching off mainstream support for Windows 2000 next year, but that doesn't mean it isn't serious about pushing users away from the OS. According to Extremetech, PC manufacturers are to be barred from selling dual boot WinXP and Win2k systems from next year. [The Register]
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Tuesday, December 10, 2002
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An information disclosure vulnerability has been reported for Microsoft Windows XP systems using a wireless LAN setup. This can be exploited by an attacker to intercept and decrypt any transmissions received from a vulnerable system. Information obtained in this manner may be used to launch further, destructive attacks against a vulnerable system. [Security Focus]
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Microsoft senior VP Craig Mundie delivered his 'annual report' on the company's trustworthy computing initiative. He had much to say about the progress that has been made since Microsoft discovered security, but the bit that interested us was where he explained why people are going to have to ditch their old MS stuff and buy lots of lovely new MS stuff instead.
"So we know that in practice it's impossible for us to remediate the threats that we know exist in the world today in systems that were designed in 1991, '2 and '3 and deployed in '95 and which are actively still in use today... Now, we know that these waves just keep rolling through and they will ultimately change, but it shows how long the threat exists of bad things happening and why it's not completely possible to fix every old system." [The Register]
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The German government is worried about federal agencies adopting Microsoft's upcoming Palladium security technology, fearing the system could lead to higher costs. [CNET News.com]
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Saturday, December 7, 2002
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Microsoft on Friday raised its threat rating for a security flaw in its Internet Explorer browser to "critical," in response to criticism of its initial assessment of the hole's danger. A representative of Microsoft, which has come under fire for its security policies, said the company had changed its original rating of a flaw in IE versions 5.5 and 6 as a result of comments posted to the Bugtraq online bulletin board by a security consultant.
"It seems like Microsoft is deliberately downplaying the severity of the vulnerabilities in an attempt to gain less bad press. It sure would look bad to release two critical cumulative updates in just two weeks, but that is exactly what has been done," Larholm wrote. [CNET News.com via Privacy Digest]
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Was it kneecapping or bad execution and inferior technology that saw Sun Microsystems Inc's Java technology displaced from Windows by archrival Microsoft Corp?
That was the key question during the third day of legal hearings in Sun's private antitrust action against Microsoft yesterday, as a US Judge compared Microsoft's behavior to the infamous 1994 kneecapping of figure skater Nancy Kerrigan arranged by competitor Tonya Harding. [The Register]
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Thursday, December 5, 2002
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The company issues security bulletins warning of new security glitches in some of its Internet software that could expose sensitive data. [CNET News.com]
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Tuesday, December 3, 2002
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Interesting article (in German) about post-antitrust Microsoft: Microsoft - licensed to kill. [via Der Schockwellenreiter]
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West Virginia joins Massachusetts in a challenge of a federal court ruling which has upheld Microsoft's controversial anti-trust deal with the US government. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]
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Windows 2000 servers are cheaper to run than Linux ones, sometimes, says an IDC study which was by strange coincidence sponsored by Microsoft. The study will come as welcome relief to Microsoft salespeople who have been parroting the 'cheaper than Linux' line to general disbelief, but whether anyone else will believe it is another matter. There is however one area where the study reveals just the teensiest problem for Microsoft's sales people - Linux it finds (confirming the general received wisdom) is cheaper as a web server. [The Register]
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Monday, December 2, 2002
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An eyewitness writes: When the local Microsoft rep "heard" [that we wanted to use Open source software], they asked to meet my team(!) and discuss the reasons for our Open Source use.
In fact, it was a meeting of 2 1/2 hours with 3 Microsoft sales/consulting reps trying to persuade us not to use Open Source because "it is inherently insecure, unreliable" and, what was their biggest argument, "there is nobody in this country who could give you any support for Open Source", etc.
Also, they wanted(!) (actually they "required") us to tell them the reasons why we are using Open Source instead of the already introduced and long-time proven Microsoft Software in this company. [The Register]
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A friend sent me a squib today with a few more details about Microsoft’s foray into XML authoring. Tree view. Document view. Limiting available tags per a schema. Clickety-clack GUI. Yay. Yet another second-rate straitjacketed XML editor. Just what everybody needed. Look, Peons of Gates, if you needs must steal,... More... [Caveat Lector]
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So here's an interesting article (in German) about what computing will be like in the year 2005 if Microsoft and the media industry have their way and will go on with Palladium, TCPA and DRM as planned: Der entmannte Computer ("the castrated computer"). The only solution? Don't buy TCPA-enabled computers. [via Der Schockwellenreiter]
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