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Presents letters to the editor related to the computer industry, published in the August 1998 issue of the periodical "Communications of the ACM." Differences in the operating environments of the software-based IBM Corp. and Microsoft Corp.; Significance of several computer programming languages.

The article announces the 6th Eweek Excellence Awards recipients in the high technology industry in the U.S. in 2006. The Analytics and Reporting award was given to the Cognos 8 Business Intelligence 8.1.1 of Cognos Inc. The Visual Studio 2005 Team System of Microsoft Corp., has won the award for the Application Development category. The Aqualogic Service Bus 2.1 of Bea Systems Inc., has received the Business Integration Systems award.

This article discusses a decrease in stock values among large personal computer corporations. Companies such as Dell, Intel, and Microsoft have noted a substantial decrease in their stock prices, largely due to a decrease in personal computer sales. A lack of new application development in the computer industry may also be contributing to decreased investor interest.

Discusses the friendliness with which the Microsoft Corp. is displaying in its efforts to form partnerships with competing companies. Possible reasons for Microsoft's change of heart in dealing with Sun Microsystems and others; Efforts of the company to form a better relationship with others in the computer industry; Description of the lawsuits against Microsoft; Ambitions of the company in digital media and home entertainment; Skepticism of Microsoft's actions; Lucrative aspect of Microsoft's new partnerships.

The article announces the release of two of Microsoft Corp.'s unified communications strategy in the U.S. The company's products include Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007 which are geared in bringing together a broad range of communication options including voice, instant messaging and video, into a single, consistent experience. Because of such innovation, other computer companies such as Dell, Nortel and Ericson plan to roll out similar strategies and products of their own. According to Rob Enderle, prinicipal analyst at Enderle Group, the move taken by Microsoft is considered a major game changer.

This article presents information on top ten stories related to the information technology (IT) industry in the U.S. in 2003. In business terms, it was a very good year. IT spending was up, and startups began stirring again. Online businesses led the way, yet with none of the hysteria that marked the late 1990s. For years, Linux and open source have been viewed by many in corporate America as youthful and intriguing but not nearly mature enough for the enterprise. In addition to becoming a bigger part of the enterprise, Linux for the first time started to take business away from Microsoft Corp. Two of the busiest companies spending the cash in 2003 were EMC Corp. and Novell Inc. EMC bought backup software vendor Legato Systems Inc. on July 8 and continued its software drive in October by acquiring content management vendor Documentum Inc. for $1.7 billion. In June, Palm Inc. acquired Handspring Inc. In July, Business Objects SA acquired Crystal Decisions Inc., while in October, Hyperion Solutions Corp. completed its acquisition of Brio Software Inc., also announced in July.

Focuses on illegal email messages send by people known as phishers, who pretend to be from major corporations in an attempt to lure computer users to give them their personal information. Efforts of computer company Microsoft to find phishers who sent Microsoft users false email messages; Details of their attempt to track down the phisher; Discovery that 21-year-old Jayson Harris from Davenport, Iowa had sent the fake messages; How Microsoft eventually won a $3 million default judgment against Harris.

Discusses how Gary Kildall, the inventor of the CP/M operating system, turned down IBM executives who wanted to use the software for IBM's first personal computer. Role of Bill Gates, who was working with IBM to develop the computer; Reason why Kildall turned down the deal; How IBM bought QDOS from Microsoft instead, later named MS-DOS.

This section offers news briefs on the computer industry. Yahoo! released a statement saying it rejected Microsoft's $40 billion-plus offer. Siperian Inc. announced that it closed an oversubscribed $25 million Series E financing. Tessera Technologies, Inc. agreed to acquire FotoNation Inc., a provider of embedded imaging solutions for digital camera and mobile phone applications.

The article reports on the negative reactions of corporate customers to U.S.-based Microsoft Corp.'s license checks. In 2005, the company visited about 1,200 corporate users it suspects may be not licensed properly. Microsoft is also trying to persuade corporate customers to participate in its Software Assessment Management program which it claims is not a license compliance audit. Under the program, Microsoft pays for its consulting partners to educate customers on the merit of asset management, help inventory installed software and make recommendations on policies and procedures.

This article presents news briefs related to the computer industry. Munich, Germany-based electronics giant Siemens AG has reached an agreement to acquire Myrio Corp., a Bothell, Washington-based developer of software for emerging IP television services that use the Internet to deliver video. Microsoft Corp. will issue eight security alerts with patches for Windows, Office, MSN Messenger and Exchange. Five of the security bulletins apply to Windows, and at least one of those is deemed critical. VMware Inc. will release its Workstation 5 desktop virtualization software, which will run on Windows and Linux host operating systems.

The article reports on the nonprofessional programming tools being marketed by several computer companies in the U.S., including Microsoft. Accordingly, Microsoft is in the track of penetrating the nascent market for development tools to enable nonprofessionals to create applications. In this connection, the company has organized the so-called Non-Professional Tools Team, aimed to concentrate on the new trend. With John Montgomery as the team's program manager, the group's primary project is code-named Tuscany which has been reported to bring a software as a service spin to the Visual Studio platform. Moreover, aside from the formation of the team, the company has likewise issued a new Web site strictly for beginners.

The article reports that Microsoft Corp. faces increased competitive pressure from long standing competitors such as International Business Machines' Lotus Notes and newer open source solutions, as they move closer to the release of their e-mail, calendaring and messaging product called, Exchange Server 2007. On July 24, 2006, Microsoft, released the second widespread public beta for exchange server 2007. The product is expected to ship in late 2006 or early 2007. Microsoft executives are positive that they can grow their position in this highly competitive market. INSET: Data store still in works.

The article presents the authors' comments on some of the recent developments in the computer industry. Infamous Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano, can encrypt audio files on his computer that multiple government code crackers cannot open. According to one of the authors, it's too difficult to encrypt all that data and it's an expensive and complicated process. After handing the CEO title to Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft Corp., had taken on the role of chief software. His activities outside of Microsoft seemed to be taking more of his time.

Presents letters to the editor on various issues related to computer industry. Problems of Microsoft Crop.; Mistakes committed by managers and software developers of the company; Lacunas in the U.S. judges while dealing with high technology related cases.

The article discusses whether Microsoft is finally about to face real competition in desktop-computer software. For years, many in the computer business have hoped that Linux, a freely available computer operating system, would become a viable alternative to Microsoft's Windows, the near universal standard for the world's personal computers. Within the past month, some of the world's most powerful technology firms have pledged considerable support for Linux on the desktop, including Dell and Sun Microsystems. By the end of the decade, Linux's share could grow, reckons Al Gillen, an analyst at technology consultancy IDC, displacing Macs as the main alternative. That would still fall far short of Linux's growing popularity in the market for powerful server computers. Linux aficionados, however, say its chances on the desktop should be better. However, despite improvements Linux faces obstacles. Some of Linux's main backers have relatively modest ambitions for the operating system. Linux's main appeal is likely to be to companies rather than home users. But the future is uncertain, and Linux still might yet represent another kind of threat to Microsoft.

Introduces Smart Personal Objects Technology, a variety of devices which delivers information via a subscription service broadcast, developed by Microsoft Corp. Companies that Microsoft has collaborated with; Advantages of these products; Cost of the project.

The article reports on a two-day hackathon held by technology firm Microsoft from July 29-30, 2014. Topics covered include the rise in the ideas of the company and the firm's acquisition of cellphone developer Nokia. Also mentioned is the company's focus on launching innovative products during the year.

The author reflects on the competition situation of the high technology industry. He asserts that the industry need to revitalize its competition condition. He outlines the best and worst companies within the sector including Microsoft Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Computer Corp. and Apple Inc. He asserts that firms performing best win for Olympian egos and efforts.

The article focuses on updates released by Microsoft Corp. of its software suite Office 2008. Improved security in this release fixes vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to take over the contents of computer's memory. The company has enhanced stability in Word and Excel, fixing issues that could cause either application to quit unexpectedly. It is also noted that Apple Inc. ranked the most-innovative company in the world, in a global survey of executives. Among just technology companies, Apple also ranked highest, and it ranked second in the subcategories of entertainment companies and consumer-products companies.

The article offers information on the donation of DreamSpark computer development tool from Microsoft to the students at Stanford University in the United States. Bill Gates approved the donation in an effort to encourage creative programming among the students, and possibly introducing the young minds of students to careers in software engineering. The strategy in Microsoft's move could mean a long-term result, when the students are in the workplace. DreamSpark features open-source tools for software programming.

The article reports on the developments in the U.S. computer industry. The Storage Networking World show will be held in San Diego, California on April 16 to 19, 2007. The CanSecWest show which features vulnerabilities, reverse engineering, radio frequency identification (RFID), Disk Operating Systems attacks and other security issues about Microsoft Corp. Windows Vista will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia on April 17 to 20, 2007. The One Laptop Per Child project will be released later in 2007 with work continues on the operating system and the new interface for the laptop design, Sugar, which is based on lightweight version of Fedora Linux.

The article reports on the research featured at Microsoft Research's annual TechFest held in the U.S. The World Wide Telescope that integrates digital images from a range of sources and a tool called Boku that uses visual icons to create simple video games are partially aimed at children. The objective of the internal conference is to spark collaboration among product groups.

The article reports that Microsoft Corp.'s use of codescrambling diversity to secure Windows Vista operating system is getting crucial support from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Redmond, one of Microsoft's partner OEMs, has persuaded major U.S. computer makers to make default changes at the BIOS level to allow a new Vista security feature called ASLR to work properly. Microsoft is effectively using ASLR to create software diversity within a single operating system. The company claims that ASLR provides a good defense against malware attacks, when used with other technologies.

The article presents news briefs in the computer industry as of October 2006. Mozilla Foundation and Microsoft Corp. are set to release Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7, respectively. A "Storage Networking World" conference will be held in Orlando, Florida beginning October 31. The conference will be attended by industry heavyweights, such as Microsoft Corp., IBM, and Hewlett-Packard.

The article presents information on Microsoft Corp.'s new operating system Windows Vista. The new operating system is scheduled to be launched in January 2007. Computer analyst Heather Bellini says that the new operating system will create more demand than Windows XP and Office XP. To avoid any prelaunch shortfall in computer sales, Microsoft is offering Vista coupons on prelaunch purchases.

The article reports Microsoft Corp.'s release of the visual studio application development tool set, known by the code-name "Orcas." Orcas is a release of the whole visual studio stack which includes visual studio team system (VSTS) tied to the Office System 2007 and Vista product release cycles. The company is also working on a version of the tool set that will revise VSTS. The said version is known by the code-name "Rosario." Sam Guckenheimer, group product planner for VSTS states that the Rosario release of VSTS will follow Orcas but the two will not be different in terms of their visual studio pro-level functionality.

The article reports the development of Exchange Server 2007 from Microsoft Corp. Making the e-mail, calendaring and messaging products more like appliance products that make migration and operation automatic, is one of the biggest challenge facing the development team of the exchange server. Terry Myerson, general manager of the Exchange Server product group noted that another challenge that the development team faces is the fact that there are three primary audiences that the product has to please. These audiences include the information technology decision maker or the chief information officer, the administrator and the user.

The article presents information related to the recent developments in the U.S. computer industry. Martin Taylor, corporate vice president of Windows Live and MSN has left Microsoft Corp. Microsoft officials stated that they have made the difficult decision to part ways with Martin but will not comment on personal matters. Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod was acclaimed for raking in a measly $8.5 billion over four years. Palm was closer to producing a Linux-based version of Spence's operating system.

The article focuses on the results of the evaluation on the new Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista operating system conducted by the Yankee Group Inc.'s analysts in the U.S. The group of analysts said that the intrusive nature of the security features found in Vista could turn off information technology administrators and users alike. The new operating system offers several advantages such as the Internet Explorer sandboxing, two-way firewall, device control, and integrated anti-spyware. Nevertheless, it has also several disadvantages which include reduction of account privileges, network access protection, disk encryption, and integrated anti-phishing.

The article reports that Microsoft Corp. has delayed the release of the operating system Windows Vista from 2006 to 2007 in the U.S. It offers information about the system requirements of the Vista. Computer makers are counting on the Vista release to not only drive unit sales but also inspire purchases of high-end machines. According to analyst Steve Baker, by delaying Vista, Microsoft is essentially daring consumers to blink when it comes to buying a new personal computers. Several computer makers said they will move ahead by ensuring that their machines are Vista capable.

The article comments on the release of the Origami concept by Microsoft Corp., provides and overview on the podcasts for the week, starting March 13, 2006, and offers information on the appointments and conventions that will be attended by different professionals in the computer industry. Critics perceived the release of the Origami concept and the Ultra Mobile PC as more about marketing spins than an actual productivity tool. It seeks to create a demand when in fact there is none. Among the meetings scheduled by organizations and professionals in the computer industry are the Spring Von Conference, IBM Partnerworld, World Wide Web Consortium, and CISCO Partner Summit.

The article presents information on SAP AG, a German software giant. According to Marc Benioff, CEO of SALESFORCE.COM, SAP is innovation free. He also believes that its software code is bulky and inefficient, as it is expensive and unloved by its users. Right before SAP launched its own on-demand customer relationship management software service, Benioff's description surfaced in an e-mail. It says that a company with the resources of SAP can bring much more. The problem here lies in the fact that observers tend to overestimate the creativity and innovation that entrenched technology companies can bring to a particular problem. They also underestimate the effect of business model conflicts. According to Benioff, like Oracle Corp. and Microsoft Corp., SAP now risks cannibalizing its existing customer base.

This article presents information on various developments in the computer industry in the U.S. Monad, Microsoft Corp.'s proposed scriptable shell language, was added to the list of features being dropped from the product. There is a buzz among Macintosh computer users that Apple Computer Inc. has filed an application to trademark the name "Mactel." Since Apple has publicly proclaimed Intel Corp. as its Mac daddy for chips, what it plans to do with the Mactel name is open to speculation. Some iPod aficionados are miffed over speculation at www.itunesperipod.com. The Web site wonders what folks fill their iPods with, pointing out that Apple's sales of more than 2.9 million iPods and estimated 60 million iTunes means the average iPod would contain only about 21 songs purchased from the iTunes store. Oracle Corp. boss Larry Ellison has proposed a $115 million donation to the world's richest university.

This article presents several developments related to the computer industry in the past week. One of the development was related to Trapeze Networks that announced a technology integration partnership with Enterasys Networks. Under the terms of the partnership, some of Enterasys security software will be incorporated into Trapeze's WLAN Mobility System switches. The companies will also enable Enterasys access points to communicate with Trapeze's switches. Another development was in Microsoft Corp., that announced windows OneCare, an automated service that will deliver anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall features. OneCare will be a comprehensive desktop security service for which Windows users will pay an annual fee. Microsoft plans to release a beta version of the new service to employees this week and will conduct a public test of the software later this year, the company said in a statement.

This article presents news briefs related to computer industry. Sun Microsystems Inc.'s upcoming software based servers will ship no later than early next year, and they could start rolling out even sooner. Microsoft Corp.'s revenue rose 4.9 percent to $9.62 billion $9.62 billion, in the vendor's fiscal third quarter, thanks mainly to strong performances by the company's home-entertainment and server products. Two Republicans, one Democrat and one Independent, formed a congressional caucus last week to reform the U.S. Patriot Act as Congress considers reauthorizing several of the law's provisions that expire at year's end.

Focuses on IBM Corp.'s and Microsoft Corp.'s (MC) information technology transformation from the technology side to the information and business side of the equation. Entry of IBM Corp. in the life-insurance business; Integration of business-process outsourcing, consulting, engineering services and business-performance-management software at IBM Corp.; Involvement of MC in the health care industry.

As companies from Sun to even Microsoft Corp. think about open-sourcing some of their products, they would do well to remember Mozilla Foundation's history and learn from its successes and mistakes. Recent weeks have seen some major advancements for the Mozilla browser, as the latest security hole in Microsoft's aging Internet Explorer became the straw that broke the camel's back for many users. Given that these users turned more often than not to Mozilla, it seems like a good time to look at the history of the Mozilla project, one of the most significant technologies to make the transition from proprietary commercial product to open source. In 1998, in what was rightly seen as an act of desperation, Netscape announced that it would open-source its Navigator browser technology as the Mozilla project. However, Navigator itself never did go open source, the Netscape developers leading the Mozilla project determined that Navigator's bloated code would make it impossible for them to make necessary advancements. The developers thus decided to scrap the Navigator code and build a Mozilla browser from scratch. This was the right move as far as the browser was concerned, but it sounded the death knell for Netscape. It also quickly became obvious that Mozilla was superior to the Netscape browser that was using its code base the Netscape browser ignored many of the Mozilla features that users wanted while adding lots of annoying stuff that mainly served to push products from AOL.

The article presents information on various developments related to computer industry. Microsoft Corp.'s Source Licensing Program under which its Most Valued Professionals get access to the source code for Windows. The company said last week that all MVPs in the Microsoft platforms community that live in the 27 eligible countries will be able to access the source code at no cost. In another development, AT&T Wireless Services Inc. has rolled out its third-generation, or 3G, high-speed wireless service in San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix and Detroit, with service in Dallas and San Diego planned by year's end. For $25 a month, subscribers can transfer data at speeds of 220K to 320K bps on the Motorola A845 or Nokia 6651 mobile phones, AT&T officials said last week. Subscribers can also purchase a streaming audio and video service from RealNetworks for an additional $5 a month. In addition, AT&T Wireless is offering an $80-per-month version of the service targeted at businesses, it lets users access the high-speed service on PDAs or laptops with a modem codeveloped by Lucent and Novatel.

Microsoft Corp.'s leaders Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer have long believed that, and it's clear that in acquiring Rational Software a year ago, IBM believes it, too. By announcing last week plans for "Atlantic," the next generation of the Rational tools suite, IBM has taken a strong position versus Redmond in the next battle for the hearts and minds of developers, pitting the open-source based Eclipse environment and Unified Modeling Language 2.0 against Redmond's Visual Studio Team System. IBM fellow Grady Booch told Senior Writer Darryl K. Taft in an interview that Microsoft's closed approach will prove to be shortsighted. As networks expand relentlessly, network monitoring tools must expand to enable IT pros to manage them. But choosing among tools is often an apples-to-oranges comparison, as each has different strengths, weaknesses and pricing structures. In Labs, Senior Analyst Cameron Sturdevant compares BMC's Patrol Visualis 1.4, Concord Communications' eHealth Suite 5.6 and HP's OpenView Network Node Manager Advanced Edition 7.01. Sturdevant finds that HP's latest Network Node Manager benefits from years of Management Information Base development.

The article presents information on various trends and developments related to computer industry. Microsoft Corp.'s project called BOA (business-oriented agents). Plenty had been written about Redmond's SOA (service-oriented architecture), but right after Tech Ed Europe, news began percolating on blogs belonging to groupies of Microsoft XML architect Don Box that BOA would be part of the Microsoft Transaction Server (code-named Viper) family and would take "Indigo" and BizTalk to the next level via a new BML (Business Markup Language). Whispers from May that 3Com may resell WLAN switches from Trapeze Networks on an OEM basis are getting louder. In addition to that, the article presents various other similar information.

A wave of earnings warnings from major enterprise software providers such as People-Soft and Veritas, analyst downgrades in the semiconductor stocks, including Merrill Lynch's lowered opinion of mighty Intel, and cash-rich Microsoft Corp. talking about cutting $1 billion in spending have all combined to sow unease regarding the strength of U.S. technology spending. IT executives are quite justified in thinking there is little wisdom in building out new applications until they have a firm foundation. In addition, the upcoming Service Pack 2 release from Microsoft for the XP operating system is focused on security and offers little in new nonsecurity capabilities. Microsoft's stance of trying to fix security problems before moving forward could be a metaphor for the tech industry at large. Salesforce.com Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff was the first person, or at least the loudest, to champion the end of packaged software and the rise of services. Benioff's declaration that the era of bigbang ERP and CRM projects is coming to an end is proving correct. Customers want to subscribe to software as a service and pay as the service is used rather than upfront, as the service is promised.

Microsoft corp.'s plan to let users of its Live Communication Server 2005 collaboration software swap instant messages directly with users of America Online Inc.'s and Yahoo Inc.'s public IM networks may have a muted impact on fostering enterprise IM interoperability. While hailed as a milestone in breaking down barriers between competitive IM services, the move, which Microsoft announced last week, may not offer enough new capabilities to justify the additional license cost for companies that have already deployed enterprise IM. Memphis-based FTN Financial supports three public IM networks, AOL, Yahoo and MSN Messenger, and uses IMlogic Inc.'s IM Manager product to add message logging, reporting and security. IM Manager can also provide connectivity from corporate IM servers to public IM networks, although FTN has not deployed a corporate IM server. Wright said he is skeptical that LCS 2005 will provide any additional connectivity beyond what he has now through IM Manager. While he will probably evaluate LCS 2005 when it becomes available, Wright said he is wary of the additional license fees Microsoft plans to charge for connectivity to the public IM networks.

Focuses on the business operations of Microsoft Corp. in the computer software industry in the U.S. Description of the specialized sales force of the company; Assessment of the business processes of specific industries; Prospects of the company in the enterprise-applications space.

The article presents a comicstrip on computer industry. The Gartner Outsourcing Summit was under the way in Las Vegas. The major problems indicate major concerns with offshore outsourcing ranging from cultural issues to domestic layoffs to bad press coverage about their company sending jobs oversees, attendees voted bad press coverage as their least important concern by a significant margin. The article also describes about the upcoming Computer Associates annual user conference. Martin Taylor, Microsoft Corp.'s platform strategist and its point man on Linux and open source, will address CAworld on Microsoft's shared-source programs. It could be interesting, mused the Mouser, as there have been rumblings that CA's embrace of Linux and open-source software across its product lines has ruffled Redmondites.

Discusses Microsoft's decision to abandon the wireless-networking-hardware business.

When computer industry Microsoft Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. announced their rapprochement in April 2004, one tangible benefit to both was the resulting settlement of patent disputes. Sun and Microsoft have stepped back from their own form of mutual assured destruction. Like nonaligned nations scrambling to devise their own nuclear weapons programs, IT firms such as Apple, Amazon and Eolas have sought head-table status by pushing the limits of "novel, useful, and non-obvious," the three-legged stool of patentability. The patent-process malady may aptly be called a cancer. Its major symptom is uncontrolled, undifferentiated growth of a system that has wrongly measured its performance by the number of patents it grants. As technology cycles grow shorter, the current process takes too long and does too much its flurries of ill-founded patents are invitations to enter a tournament in which the biggest litigation budget wins. Needed is better use of community expertise to winnow out meritless applications, followed by quick, authoritative approval of the worthy.

Comments on the American media's coverage of the European Commission's efforts to regulate Microsoft Corp. American media's focus on whether the Commission remedy imposed on Microsoft would bring any meaningful changes to the personal-computer landscape; Key issues in the European antitrust proceeding; Emergence of high-definition DVD system specifications.

This article discusses Microsoft Corp. chief executive officer Bill Gates and the speech he delivered at Comdex, an annual computer-industry trade show. Much has changed since Bill Gates made his first keynote speech at Comdex in 1983. Back then his firm was touting a now-forgotten spreadsheet called Multiplan and had just announced plans for a new program called Windows. Windows, just a prototype in 1983, is now the dominant personal-computer (PC) operating system, having seen off a host of rivals. Microsoft has become the world's largest software firm, and Mr. Gates the world's richest man. The shift in the technology industry's centre of gravity is away from PCs towards sexier consumer-electronics devices such as mobile phones, games consoles, digital-video recorders and flat-panel TVs. Microsoft faces the same challenge: its dominance in PC operating systems and office productivity software leaves little scope for growth, forcing it to look to new consumer markets. Microsoft has far less clout in the world of consumer electronics. Its smartphone software has been slow to gain adoption, its Xbox game console lags far behind the Sony's PlayStation 2 and its software for TV set-top boxes failed to gain much traction.