Web sites live or die by traffic. Microsoft hopes to pump some life into yours with a search engine optimization (SEO) tool you can have for free. The SEO Toolkit does all the things an SEO Toolkit should do -- it maps sites, finds broken links, helps you select strong keywords and validates your page markup.
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Posted by Doug Barney on January 15, 20100 comments
IBM and Microsoft, it seems, have never gotten over their nasty Windows-OS/2 breakup. While they should be very much aligned (IBM sells tons of servers that run Windows Server operating systems), they bicker like children.
That's perfect for HP, which has used this animus to stay close to Microsoft. And now that IBM and Microsoft are fighting over the cloud, why wouldn't HP sidle up and becomes Microsoft new cloud best friend?
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Posted by Doug Barney on January 15, 20100 comments
IT pros have an easy week this week, at least when it comes to Microsoft patches: Only two fixes were delivered yesterday.
As usual, remote code execution is the biggest problem, and one patch fixes an RCE flaw that exists in all flavors of Windows. Sounds like this puppy should be installed pronto.
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Posted by Doug Barney on January 13, 20100 comments
OK, so my first item is pretty positive about Microsoft. Lest you think I'm a mindless Redmond apologist, allow me to talk about licensing for a bit.
I think Microsoft's licensing plans are purposely complex. Like legal documents that only a lawyer can understand, you need a Microsoft rep to explain how its licensing works, and I doubt that more than a handful of those really understand it all. That complexity gives Microsoft control -- it can lead you to the deal it wants you to make.
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Posted by Doug Barney on January 13, 20104 comments
Archiving powerhouse Mimosa Systems has cause to pop a few corks: It just signed up its 1,000th customer.
For Web apps, iPhone tools or end user solutions, 1,000 customers isn't even enough to keep the lights on, never mind stock the programmers' fridge with Jolt. But for enterprise software, 1,000 customers is a very big deal.
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Posted by Doug Barney on January 13, 20100 comments
Loyal Redmond customers are used to getting a deal when a new version of their favorite software arrives. But Office users are out of luck this go 'round as there are no upgrades for Office 2010. Microsoft claims it killed the upgrade to simplify its lineup.
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Posted by Doug Barney on January 11, 201017 comments
Last year, Microsoft lost a patent infringement lawsuit to i4i, a company that owns an XML patent that Word violates. Microsoft has to pay i4i $290 million and take the offending Word off the market.
Not one to take the death of a 27-year-old product lightly, Microsoft has issued a patch that removes the specific XML function.
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Posted by Doug Barney on January 11, 20100 comments
While consumers get no break on Office 2007, small and medium-size businesses with small and medium-size volume licenses can get half-off the first year's subscription price of Windows 7 and Office 2007. As an added bonus, because Software Assurance is involved, SMBs that purchase Office 2007 get a free upgrade to Office 2010. The only catch: You have to buy before June 30.
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Posted by Doug Barney on January 11, 20100 comments
Doug is out today, so filling in for him is Michael Domingo, editor of MCPmag.com and the voice behind Redmond Radio.
Microsoft's Azure has finally gone gold (no pun or mixed metaphors intended). Redmond says it's now time to hop on or off if you've been testing it out with data that resides up there. Data will be accessible in read-only mode after Feb. 1 and then, come March 1, that data will be vaporized if subscriptions aren't upgraded.
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Posted by Michael Domingo on January 08, 20100 comments
Doug is out today, so filling in for him is Michael Domingo, editor of MCPmag.com and the voice behind Redmond Radio.
The federal government's recent jobs report pegs unemployment at 10 percent (arguable, maybe). So, what's the outlook in IT? Two recent studies tell us that it's still the winter of our recession.
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Posted by Michael Domingo on January 08, 20102 comments
You might scoff to learn that Microsoft is helping fight global warming, and so would I, had I not written the article "Can Microsoft Save the World?" focusing on the company's efforts to eliminate disease, feed the world and fight population growth.
At the recent global warming summit in Copenhagen, Microsoft explained how it can reduce greenhouse gases, including its support of datacenter efficiency (largely through virtualization), video and Web conferencing, and cloud computing. Not just that, but the company talked about its work with global warming researchers mostly through database and data warehouse support.
Posted by Doug Barney on January 06, 20109 comments