microsoft

Microsoft launching event planner

Microsoft is jumping into the world of online event planning with Windows Live Events, scheduled to launch late Thursday.

The free social event planning service lets you invite friends to an event and creates a Web page where people can share photos and stories with blog entries after the event. It uses the same infrastructure as Windows Live Spaces and lets you use your contact list there or in Hotmail or Messenger.

It's got all the standard online invite features and allows you to include a map and customize. I'm not sure if it will dent the business … Read more

Episode 580: (MAWV) Mothers against Windows Vista

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Mark Shutteworth speaks out on Ballmer

Mark Shuttleworth has reacted to Steve Ballmer's goofy Linux commentary with considerable aplomb (and not the splenetic fervor I sometimes spew :-). Microsoft can't seem to get it out of its collective mind that open-source developers care about intellectual property (even if we don't always call it that) as much as proprietary developers do. We just opt to share it rather than to horde it.

Mark says:

Intellectual property is something the free software community takes very, very seriously. There is a perception that the free software is somehow riding on the coattails of the real industry or somehow avoids intellectual property laws.

The contrary is actually the case. Mark cites Firefox and Xen as two areas where Microsoft - and the proprietary world - has actually copied the open-source world.

Which leads to Mark's most interesting comment: Microsoft is a pirate that trades on others' IP to the tune of over $1 billion each year:… Read more

Giving Microsoft a voice...and you

Given what an ardent critic of Microsoft I can be, it might be surprising that the Open Source Business Conference will feature a keynote from Brad Smith, Microsoft's General Counsel. I invited Brad to take our "footnote" slot that Clay Christensen, Eben Moglen, Geoffrey Moore, and others have held. It's our prime slot, and Brad will fill it well.

Why let Microsoft speak? For one, because I've always felt Microsoft had more to give to open source than to take from it. This is why Bill Hilf has been on the OSBC advisory board since its formation, and has done excellent work for the conference.

But also because I'm tired of the whisper campaigns and backlash (including in this blog) that has come to constitute the industry's debate between Microsoft and open source. I invited Brad to keynote because I doubt anyone else could put forward Microsoft's position more succinctly or intelligently. He's a great person and a razor-sharp lawyer.

Which is why I need you. The format for the keynote will be interesting, and should lead to true discourse: 30 minutes of Brad, 30 minutes of rigorous cross-examination by an expert panel from the open-source community, and then 30 more minutes of general Q&A.

Who do you think should be on the panel?… Read more

The UK has an unhealthy relationship with Microsoft, warns a member of Parliament

I've argued before that the UK ties up too much of its IT in the hands of too few vendors. Today, a member of the British Parliament focused the criticism a bit tighter on the UK's unhealthy reliance on Microsoft.

The current government strategy left too much in the hands of Microsoft, [John] Pugh argued, and he accused the company of "predatory pricing and stultifying competition".… Read more

Microsoft fixes Excel math bug

After discovering two weeks ago that the latest version of Excel had a problem with math, the software maker said the spreadsheet is once again ready to resume its spot at the head of the class.

Late Tuesday, Microsoft posted patches to its Web site that fix the arcane math flaw in Excel 2007 and Excel Services 2007.

"Thank you for your patience," Microsoft's David Gainer said in a blog posting announcing the fix.. The bug caused the software to display improper results when calculating numbers around 65,535 and 65,536. The company said the fix … Read more

I'm a Mac user, but not one of THOSE Mac users.

ZDNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes offers his thoughts on Apple Matters' Steven Leigh's 8 Reasons Windows Users Don't Switch. Both provide invaluable lessons for Apple and Mac users.

Wait, the Macalope forgot that "invaluable" is the same "valuable". He meant "not valuable".

Sorry.

As an example of what the brown and furry one is talking about, let's take a look at Kingsley-Hughes personal "reality distortion" problems.

Sure, you can drop by an Apple store and take any Mac you want for a spin, but that's not the same as … Read more

Microsoft's confusion over how much to hate open source

I mentioned that I feel bad for Bill Hilf, Microsoft's open-source point man. I actually feel really bad for him. He has to clean up after Steve Ballmer, the proverbial bull in a china shop. Ballmer likely has many redeeming qualities. Accuracy and discretion are not among them, as he showed last week in his comments about Red Hat.

Now, Microsoft is scrambling to come up with a viable explanation for his boneheaded comments. They're failing:… Read more

Is Sony as desperate as it looks?

With a rumored $399 40GB Playstation 3 on the way, a cheaper device hitting shelves in Japan and UK, and announcements of an all-out price blitz this holiday season, is Sony really as desperate as it looks?

By just looking at news from the last week, it's quite easy to see that Sony is grasping at anything that will make the PS3 stick. Whether it's a new color, a cheaper price, or a rumbling controller, the company is hoping we will like something that make us spend our hard-earned money. I can't blame Sony for trying--the PS3 is hands-down, the most important device Sony is selling right now. Not only is it the harbinger of Blu-ray, it represents one of the most economically stable divisions of the company over the past decade.

But once again, Sony has it all wrong. The company is a victim of its own self-image and there is no stopping it with the current management in place. Simply put, Sony sees itself as a hardware company and in this business, that's the last thing you want to do.… Read more