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Microsoft Denies Yahoo Version of Failed Talks

Microsoft today described its own version of events concerning Friday's failed talks with Yahoo's management, which were focused on a renewed effort to buy Yahoo's search ad business.

Yahoo Rejects 'Erratic' Microsoft Search Bid

Yahoo's management on Saturday rejected an offer from Microsoft and investor Carl Icahn to buy Yahoo's Internet search ad business.

ISO/IEC Officials Allegedly Advise Rejecting OOXML Appeals

Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) document format, which was technically approved in April as an international standard (ISO/IEC 29500), may be on its way toward surviving an appeals process -- the last challenge to its legitimacy as a standard.

Windows DNS Patch Strands ZoneAlarm Users

Users of the security program ZoneAlarm encountered a problem accessing the Internet after applying a Microsoft Windows domain name system (DNS) patch described in security bulletin MS08-037.

Management, Strategy Conflicts May Be Behind Greene Exit

Diane Greene's precipitous and unexpected departure from VMware yesterday may have resulted from an ongoing rift between Greene and executives at parent company EMC, according to analysts.

New Prefetching Scheme Saves Computing Time, Energy

Most desktop computers today, when not in use, power down their hard drives to save energy. While this may be very green, it also incurs minor, though sometimes frustrating, delays.

Greene Out at VMware

In a move that sent shock waves across the virtualization market, VMware's board of directors announced that Diane Greene, the company's co-founder, president and CEO, will be replaced by Paul Maritz, a 14-year veteran of Microsoft and head of EMC's Cloud Division.

Microsoft's Hosted Services: A Turning Point for Partners?

Microsoft's partner community got new marching orders today as Microsoft unveiled its hosted service offerings and pricing -- something that has been deferred, to partner unease, for about two years or so.

Massive Patch Coming for DNS Vulnerability

Major vendors of domain name system (DNS) servers are making an unprecedented coordinated release of patches for what is being called a fundamental flaw in DNS, a core element of the Internet.

The Unified Communications Puzzle

ISVs look to fill in some of the pieces of Microsoft's unified communications vision.

PDF Now ISO Standard

The International Organization for Standardization has approved the PDF as a standard format for electronic documents.

Partners: An 'Essential' Element in Microsoft's SMB Plans

Microsoft used the occasion of its 2008 Worldwide Partner Conference today to announce that November 12 will be the official launch date of Windows Essential Server Solutions, which are all-in-one software solutions for small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) based on Windows Server 2008 and other Microsoft server technologies.

Ballmer Wants Board Change at Yahoo

Microsoft's executives have been talking with investor and corporate raider Carl Icahn about renewed plans for Microsoft to acquire part or all of Yahoo, provided that Yahoo's board is replaced.

Citibank Hack Shines Light on PCI Compliance

Just two days after the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council announced the deadline for application security compliance and said it would be issuing guidelines for PIN entry devices, court documents have emerged detailing an elaborate plot to hack Citibank's ATM network architecture.

Microsoft Eyes Consumer Subscription Market With Equipt

Microsoft unveiled a new subscription-based consumer offering that combines an office productivity suite with security and hosted services.

Data Breaches Up in First Half of 2008

Reported data breaches increased sharply in the first six months of 2008, jumping 69 percent compared to the same period last year, according to a study by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC).

Most Network Data Sits Untouched

Statistically speaking, most data on enterprise networks rarely gets accessed after it is written to network storage, according to researchers from NetApp Inc. and the University of California (UC). Evidently, we are too busy writing new data to go back over old data.

Microsoft Expands SharePoint Learning Kit, Partners With Houghton

At the NECC 2008 conference in Texas this week, Microsoft unveiled an addition to its SharePoint Learning Kit (SLK), a suite of tools deigned for helping developers build education solutions.

Global CEOs Endorse Green IT

To be sure, Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. aren't merely paying lip service to green IT, since all three vendors have announced ambitious new offerings (or in IBM's case, initiatives) that purport to be green -- or greener -- than conventional products.

Microsoft Issues Version 1.0 Protocol Documentation

Microsoft updated documentation on protocols used in some of its core applications today.