microsoft

Politicos OK limits for U.S. firms in Net-censoring countries

Update 12:53 p.m. PDT: Congress has moved a step closer to enacting a new law regulating key aspects of how U.S. tech companies operate in countries whose governments censor or otherwise manipulate the Internet.

As expected, the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs backed a slightly amended version of the Global Online Freedom Act by a voice vote on Tuesday morning. The bill's preliminary nod is a prelude to the same House committee's plans to grill Yahoo executives early next month about a widely publicized case involving the imprisonment of a Chinese journalist.

The … Read more

Ballmer: Phones are like remote control for life

Updated 4:40 p.m. to note Microsoft not interested in bidding for wireless spectrum.

SAN FRANCISCO--Cell phones are so great these days that some people have started carrying two.

Well, that's not exactly true. A growing number of people do have multiple cell phones, but it's actually a failure, not a success of the industry, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said on Tuesday.

People are finding they need one phone for work and another for home, or one phone for e-mail and another for making phone calls.

"That strikes me as incredibly odd," Ballmer said in … Read more

The EU opens up Microsoft. Kind of. Sort of. Not really?

With all the hoopla surrounding Microsoft's capitulation to the EU's demands over interoperability (see this and this, for example, though business journalist Dana Blankenhorn rightly yawns), it's important to remember just how far the deal doesn't go.

Mark Webbink, former Red Hat general counsel, explains:

So what has been accomplished? The Commission appears to have successfully forced Microsoft to open its work group server protocols to viewable access by all, including open-source developers. It also appears to have assured that such developers will be able to implement the protocols, at least from a copyright and/or … Read more

Episode 587: Xkcd is awesome

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Opening up libraries with the Open Content Alliance

Slashdot notes that the Internet Archive is bumping up against Google in a new initiative to digitize the United States' libraries. The initiative is called the Open Content Alliance and seems to overcome the libraries' concerns with Google's (and Microsoft's) similar but proprietary efforts:

A number of major library systems, including the Boston Public Library and Smithsonian, have refused to sign up with competing ventures by Microsoft and Google because they do not provide for universal access to digitized books. These commercial ventures prohibit books being accessed by competing search engines. So far, 80 libraries and research institutions … Read more

EU, Microsoft strike deal in antitrust case

European regulators announced Monday they have struck an agreement with Microsoft that will bring the company into compliance with the European Commission's 2004 ruling on the company's anticompetitive practices.

The agreement identifies three changes in Microsoft business practices that will bring the firm into compliance: competing software developers will be able to access and use Microsoft's interoperability information; royalties for use of the interoperability information will be reduced to a nominal payment of 10,000 euros ($14,348); and royalties for a worldwide license for use of its product, including patents, will be reduced to 0.4 … Read more

More ideas for Microsoft's open-source shopping list

Mark Hinkle offers up a few ideas for Microsoft on who to put on its open-source Christmas list. Interesting....

Perhaps they should buy a company for the technology and something complementary to their portfolio. Granted a company with a large community might be nice but could be quickly alienated because of anti-Microsoft sentiment that prevails in many open source communities. What might be even better is an open source software company that they can take from obscurity and fueled by the Microsoft channel and their hordes of cash.

In other words, a company to toe-dip into open source to learn … Read more

Microsoft launches Listas

Microsoft Live Labs has a new "technology preview" for you to play with. It's called Listas and it's basically a social bookmarking service for keeping track of content you come across while browsing the Web, and sharing it with others. Users can make their own containers full of all sorts of links, and supplement it with text, images, and RSS feeds using a WYSIWYG editor or by just pasting in entire Web pages from their text clipboard. The service is being billed as a way to make lists, but I think its core appeal will ultimately end up as a Web clippings service.

Oddly enough, Microsoft has had their TagSpaces service kicking around since April. TagSpaces gives users a bookmarklet to tag any item they've come across while browsing, and drops it into a giant pool of tags for everyone. Listas is clearly a more advanced effort, and one designed to handle media and collaboration a little better.

Similar to other social bookmarking services, Microsoft has included a toolbar to help Listas users speed up their list creation. The toolbar borrows the idea of taking entire clips of Web content from services like Yoono, Clipmarks, and eSnips. For every little bit you grab, you can assign it to one of your pre-existing lists, or add it to a new one. There are two caveats about the toolbar though. For one, it's Internet Explorer-only. Secondly, there don't seem to be any plans to give users a Javascript bookmarklet to use like what they've done with TagSpaces (something which would add crossplatform functionality). It's also worth noting that you can accomplish the same effect of the toolbar by doing a copy and paste into a list item, which will include things like pictures, links, and embedded videos (which incidentally don't play without jettisoning you off the page).… Read more

Three laptop Webcams reviewed

Does your laptop suddenly feel outdated because your friends are skipping about town with laptops that feature integrated Webcams? (It's becoming increasingly difficult to find a consumer laptop without an all-seeing eye above the display.) If you'd like to keep pace with the Webcam-toting crowd--or engage it in a video chat--I reviewed three laptop Webcams this week that will do the trick.

The Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks is the priciest of the trio at $100 (you can find it online for less) and is the hardest to keep affixed to your laptop, but its image quality more … Read more