Microsoft is as serious about business intelligence (BI) as Einstein was about
relativity. Not only does SQL Server 2005 have a heap of BI features, but the
company is also building an array of separate tools such as the
Office
PerformancePoint Server 2007, now in beta test (oh, I mean in CTP, which
is a fancy term for a specific type of beta, though I can't quite remember the
difference). The new tool does business score-carding, and can work with an
array of structured and unstructured data types.
This could actually be a pretty sweet fit with the Dynamics products, where
ERP and supply chain whizzes need to understand what the numbers actually mean.
Posted by Doug Barney on December 11, 20060 comments
Microsoft has been on a product shipping tear. Going after the Web development
market (where Redmond essentially failed with FrontPage and Macromedia cleaned
up with Dreamweaver), Microsoft
just
starting shipping pieces of its Expression Studio line of products.
First up is a tool that lets developers build sites that work with key standards
(or at least Microsoft's take on what key standards are). Later, tools will
let developers fancy up these sites and protect proprietary content.
Posted by Doug Barney on December 11, 20060 comments
Tomorrow
is Patch Tuesday, so it's no surprise that Windows is getting its share
of fixes. But Visual Studio is also up for a plug for a "critical flaw."
There are also updates to Malicious Software Removal Tool.
However, reports are starting to bubble
that a fix for a show-stopping Word flaw may not make tomorrow's batch.
Posted by Doug Barney on December 11, 20060 comments
Exchange 2007 didn't exactly live up to its name --
the
darn thing just shipped and last time I checked, it's still 2006. To be
fair, it was just released to manufacturing, which means it has to work its
way through this process before you can actually start installing the finished
goods.
Along with the messaging server, Microsoft is shipping a Forefront tool designed
to protect Exchange from viruses, hackers and malware. This Forefront product
is based on Sybari, a third party bought by Microsoft.
Posted by Doug Barney on December 11, 20060 comments
E-mail used to be an ephemeral thing. Then archival storage came along and
we couldn't get rid of it. Now,
new
rules from the Supreme Court mandate that companies store, and prove they
can retrieve, e-mail so they can be used as evidence in a lawsuit.
Storing is the easy part. Disks are cheap and getting cheaper all the time.
But knowing what message is where and how to get it back -- now, there's
the rub. Fortunately, the rules apply to messages and data that could be relevant
to the lawsuit, so nonrelated archives can still be purged.
Posted by Doug Barney on December 06, 20060 comments
In the old days, AT&T (Ma Bell) dominated the U.S. telco market. After the
Telecommunications Act of 1996 there was real competition, and AT&T almost
entirely collapsed under its own monopolistic weight. The act, though far from
perfect, ushered in new companies and new services. With VoIP (once we can get
it to work) and the upcoming iPhone, we are on the verge of another revolution
-- and Microsoft wants its fair share. The company this week wrangled together
eight telcos and developers to support the
Microsoft
Connected Services Sandbox, a framework to help various services and tools
work together, creating "managed network mash-ups." So far, other
Web services vendors (like a little outfit called Google) have yet to sign up.
Posted by Doug Barney on December 06, 20060 comments
Remember the brouhaha over Microsoft Office and whether it would or would not
support the OpenDocument format, which would allow files to be easily interchanged
with the open source OpenOffice and StarOffice?
Microsoft didn't take the OpenDoc bait and instead promoted a new file format,
OpenXML. Like stubborn kids fighting, someone eventually had to give in and,
in this case, it
was Novell, which is adding OpenXML to its version of OpenOffice.
Posted by Doug Barney on December 06, 20060 comments
The SCO Group (now based in Utah, not Santa Cruz) just had the bulk of its lawsuit
against IBM
tossed
out. SCO claims that IBM took SCO's proprietary Linux code and simply gave
it to the open source community.
Here's where it gets weird: SCO wants IBM to show what code it supposedly stole
(I guess that's "innocent until you prove yourself guilty"). Also,
there's a question as to whether SCO gained any copyrights when it bought the
rights to Unix from Novell.
Posted by Doug Barney on December 06, 20060 comments
A year ago, I ran across whosarat.com, a site where snitches and informants
are exposed. I didn't quite know what to think.
Some of the profiles indicated that the informants were bigger dirt bags than
the folks they finked on. But it seemed a rather dangerous undertaking. Bikers,
the mob and gang members aren't always shy when it comes to revenge, and having
your name, photo and address plastered on a Web site about rats isn't the healthiest
thing in the world.
The authorities are becoming increasingly
worried that this site will make informants targets. However, most of the
material comes from records that are publicly available, so an angry party who
does enough legwork can get it anyway.
What do you think? Is whosarat.com an example of free speech, a public service
or a dangerous site that should be shut down? Let us know at [email protected].
Oh, and whosarat.com is now a paid site.
Posted by Doug Barney on December 05, 20062 comments
Apple had an Ivan Putski-class lock on the education market in the 1980s --
that is, until Microsoft started giving away and steeply discounting software
for schools. The Apple II and Mac may have been cute, but free is free, and
cheap is cheap.
Google is now trying to do the same thing to Microsoft. The company is not
just giving away spreadsheets and word processors (these Google apps are, after
all, already free), but is offering
to store students' and teachers' files. Ten years from now, we may look
back and view this as the time Google's application monopoly first started to
emerge!
Posted by Doug Barney on December 05, 20060 comments
Novell exec Susan Heystee has been picked to
oversee
the patent and interoperability deal with Microsoft. Sometimes, these deals
are window dressing and PR, in which case Heystee's job will be as easy as that
of a security guard at a convent. But with Microsoft and Novell already quibbling
over patents, Heystee could be burning the midnight oil.
Posted by Doug Barney on December 05, 20060 comments
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation focuses far more on tough issues, like
malaria, than high-tech ones, but that didn't stop it from giving
$17.5
million to fund Internet access in libraries in Botswana, Latvia and Lithuania.
This is an attempt to let these countries catch up, at least a little bit,
to the U.S., where nearly all libraries are connected. Wonder how many users
will be Googling versus. using MSN or Live Search?
Posted by Doug Barney on December 05, 20060 comments