microsoft

SISA announcement hot by summer standards

As we head into the dog days of summer, most technology announcements are lukewarm at best. Usually vendors save their juicy stuff for September and the push toward the end of the year.

With that as a back drop, one announcement last week may have been a curious exception to this rule. Cisco, EMC, and Microsoft got together with a few others and announced the Secure Information Sharing Architecture (SISA). What is SISA? The press release defines it as a "commercial off-the-shelf architecture that was created to make data easily, and securely shared among multinational environments."

Pretty vague, … Read more

Microsoft adds Farecast, Ask.com integration

Microsoft has been pretty busy today, adding two third-party services to its consumer and business brands. The first is a new integration with Farecast [coverage] on MSN's travel site. Users get a new module, containing airfare predictions and deals, that offers a listing of cheap airfares as well as an airport finder. Instead of jettisoning you out to Farecast's site, it will open up right inside of MSN--similar to opening up an app in Facebook.

On the business end, Microsoft has added the option to buy search keywords on Ask.com via Microsoft Office Live's adManager service. … Read more

The future of Windows should be open source

In a recent interview with Microsoft's COO Kevin Turner, the executive was asked about the future of Windows. In response, Turner had this to say: "Certainly, this last year has been an unprecedented year for Vista and Office and the launch," Turner said. "And we are still committed to the desktop. There will be another release and launch of a Vista-type operating system. [And] there will be another release of Office."

In typical Microsoft fashion, he continued: "You don't want this audience to abandon Windows, so it's important to remind them that … Read more

Microsoft's Open XML hits snag in standards process

Note: an update to this blog includes official comment from Microsoft and comments from a Microsoft employee who attended this same meeting.

A committee formed to devise the United States' position on Microsoft's Open XML document format voted against recommending it as an ISO standard on Friday, according to one participant.

Rob Weir, an IBM employee and advocate of the rival OpenDocument format, on Sunday detailed in his blog the proceedings of a three-hour meeting of the committee, which is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

Despite a number of Microsoft partners joining the committee in recent … Read more

Microsoft plays nice with Ask

Microsoft's adManager beta search advertising service currently enables small businesses to buy keywords on Microsoft Live Search and MSN. Now, adManager will also allow customers to buy keywords on Ask.com and manage the pay-per-click ad campaigns through one interface. AdManager is an upgrade service that's part of Microsoft's Office Live set of small business services.

Rewards program boosts Microsoft search share

While Google remained the top Web search engine in the U.S. in June, Microsoft's share rose nearly 3 percent from the previous month as a result of a Microsoft program that offers rewards to people for using the Live Search site.

Microsoft's search share rose from 10.3 percent in May to 13.2 percent in June, according to the latest figures from ComScore, released on Monday. Microsoft's Live Search Club, which awards points to participants that can be redeemed for T-shirts, software and other items, was launched in late May. The company began testing the … Read more

Microsoft's Virtual Earth Preview is Bullitt-proof

Ever since the first time I saw Lt. Frank Bullitt thrash his Ford Shelby GT around San Francisco, I have longed for a chance to drive the streets of this city unhindered by traffic restrictions, pedestrians, and other such annoyances. Thanks to a Microsoft application, my dream has virtually come true. The Virtual Earth Local Technology Preview makes use of streetside-view photographs similar to those used by Google's Street View application.

With the Microsoft service you get the added bonus of navigating the maps in either a yellow race car or a blue sports car. Drivers get a view … Read more

Stumbling over email attachments

A friend sent me an email last week asking me to answer a few questions for him. He mentioned that they were brief and would require little time on my part. Unfortunately, he included the questions as an attachment, and I've been avoiding that email ever since.

I'm not sure if I'm alone in this, but I associate attachments with "heavy lifting." Involved analysis. Lots of time. Real work.

He called me today to ask if I'd taken a look. Sheepishly, I admitted my attachment phobia and promised to answer by tonight. I'm in the middle of doing that now and, guess what? He's right. The questions aren't difficult to answer. He shouldn't have sent them as an attachment.… Read more

Time Out New York communicates with Zimbra

I asked people to share with me their experiences moving to Zimbra, and I've had a great deal of responses. One, in particular, I found interesting from Time Out New York. I glommed onto this one immediately because I reference Time Out whenever I'm in London. It's the best source of information for what's going on.

Jeffrey Vargas of Time Out New York related: [Used with his permission]

Time Out New York is a weekly print publication, so we rely heavily on Macs. Out of 150 computers, about 125 are Macs. Even are servers are Xserves, for a majority of our work.

We've been using Apple's mail services in OS X since 10.2. After a messy migration to OS X 10.3 and several issues with an update from OS X 10.3.8, we were over frustrated with Apple's frugal mail services.… Read more

E3 2007--in under 4 minutes

Miss any of this week's big E3 news? CNET TV's got you covered. Veronica Belmont wraps up all the announcements from Santa Monica, including the highlights from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.

Earlier CNET TV coverage:

CNET TV: Microsoft E3 press conference highlights: Rock Star, Gears of War on PC, and--of course--Halo 3 CNET TV: Focus on 'Wii Fit'