Company That Squashed Blackberry Ready To Slap Palm

I'm going to spend the rest of the week thinking of something I can patent so that I can do nothing and eventually sue the company that independently comes up with and actually manages to produce my idea.

Seriously, are these guys at NTP geniuses, or what?

Posted by Lee Pender on November 07, 20061 comments


Security Vendor on Vista: So What’s The Problem?

Microsoft finally has some allies in its ongoing battle with third-party security vendors.

With Symantec and McAfee still moaning about how hard Microsoft is making it for third parties to develop for Vista and how Redmond still hasn’t fully opened the Vista kernel for security vendors, one security player is wondering what all the complaining is about.

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Posted by Lee Pender on October 24, 20062 comments


IE7 and Firefox: Not Your Older Brother’s Browser War

So they’re both out now, IE7 and (the much cooler, apparently ) Firefox 2.0 from Mozilla.

Let Browser War II begin! Or at least continue. Right? Well, sort of. It’s great that Firefox is around to kick Microsoft in the shins a little bit and get Redmond to improve its offering. That’s the benefit of competition coming to the fore.

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Posted by Lee Pender on October 24, 20061 comments


Ballmer: We’ll Spend Even More On R&D Than We Said Before

And he specified that half a billion of it will be spent in Europe ... ahem.

Posted by Lee Pender on October 17, 20060 comments


Adobe in Redmond's Sights

Maybe that legal saber-rattling on Adobe's part wasn't such a good idea after all. Something seems to have angered Microsoft, which is now on the hunt for its partner/competitor. Adobe execs had better sell those backdated stock options

Posted by Lee Pender on October 12, 20061 comments


Down In The Valley: Backdating Scandal Starts To Look Serious

"The simple things you see are all complicated
I look pretty young, but I'm just back-dated, yeah"
--from the song "Substitute" by The Who

I called my bookie today. OK, I'm not a gambler and don't have a bookie, but I found one to call, anyway. I had just had the greatest idea ever. Here’s how the conversation went down:

Bookie: "Yo. Whattaya want?"

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Posted by Lee Pender on October 12, 20063 comments


Vista and Office: The Desktop’s Last Stand?

There’s buzz aplenty about Vista (again) now that RC2 is out and mainly positive reviews of it are pouring in . On the anti-piracy front, the freak out that we mentioned last week More

Posted by Lee Pender on October 10, 20063 comments


Windows Live Takes to the Track

Seriously, do you think Steve Ballmer has ever watched a NASCAR race ? Just wondering ... maybe he’s a fan.

Posted by Lee Pender on October 05, 20060 comments


Gates and Ballmer Not As Rich As They Might Have Been

Not that they’re hurting or anything, but their bonuses were down a bit for fiscal 2006, partly because the company’s stock lost value due to delays in releasing Vista. Makes you wonder whether there was any coincidence with this story More

Posted by Lee Pender on October 05, 20060 comments


Microsoft Appeals Eurofines

File this one under completely unsurprising news updates.

Posted by Lee Pender on October 05, 20060 comments


And You Thought WGA Was A Mess ...

Oh dear.

As if the furor over Windows Genuine Advantage -- which just keeps going and going -- wasn’t enough, Microsoft said this week that Vista (and Longhorn server, if it ever comes out) will include a whole slew of new, built-in anti-piracy protections. Vista, with these new protections embedded in it, will shut down or severely cripple critical elements of the operating system (think Aero and Internet Explorer) if a user’s copy trips the anti-piracy alarm as being unregistered or improperly activated. And this isn’t just a consumer thing. Business users and partners are going to have to mess with the new activation scheme, too. In fact, the whole thing is quite complicated, as Mary Jo Foley’s excellent Q&A explains ... and it’s eventually coming to every Microsoft product.

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Posted by Lee Pender on October 05, 20065 comments


Bad Times in the Valley

It’s getting nasty in Northern California. You know things are bad when your chairwoman and -- get this -- chief ethics officer (pause for laughter) face felony charges . Right, HP?

Then there’s Apple -- Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, where have you gone? -- where the stock-options scandal has led to a resignation.

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Posted by Lee Pender on October 05, 20060 comments