Microsoft Censoring .info domains in MSN Messenger

Sun, 5 August 2007, posted in Other

As most regular readers know, I own CSS3.info, and because of that, I talk quite a bit about it on MSN messenger. Recently, I started getting problems when I was sending links with css3.info in it to my contacts. Tonight, after doing a bit more research, I found out that ALL .info domains are being censored in Messenger. For some silly reason, Microsoft seems to think that all .info domains are bad. .biz domains don’t get censored though...

Now it has been known for quite a while that MSN censors URL’s, as covered here for instance, but I had not ever heard of them censoring out complete TLD’s… This is, IMHO, insane… Come on Microsoft, stop doing this sort of nonsense!

Judge rejects Google's anti-Microsoft antitrust bid

by Anne Broache

WASHINGTON--A federal judge refused on Tuesday to rule on a last-minute Google antitrust complaint about Windows Vista's desktop search, saying she trusted government attorneys who said they were already satisfied with Microsoft's planned changes.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she would rely on the U.S. Department of Justice and state attorneys to alert her if any further action is needed to address antitrust allegations lodged on Monday by Google that the search function still won't allow for adequate "user choice."

"The plaintiffs, as far as I'm concerned, stand in the shoes of the consumer," Kollar-Kotelly said at a periodic status conference here. She added that Google "is not a party to the case."

Last week, Microsoft and its government antitrust overseers outlined a number of steps Redmond had agreed to take to address Google's ongoing concerns. Those moves included, among other things, adding a mechanism that would allow both computer makers and individuals to choose a default desktop search program--much as they can choose a rival browser or media player.

But Google argued in a filing on the eve of the already scheduled court hearing that it wasn't convinced those tweaks went far enough. The search giant also asked the judge to consider extending the November 12 expiration date for certain parts of the consent decree to ensure Microsoft was truly complying with an antitrust agreement dating back to 2002.

Kollar-Kotelly said she plans to rule on whether Google was allowed to file the seven-page brief it submitted to the court on Monday (Microsoft has opposed the filing as procedurally out-of-bounds). But she said she was "not going to take any position on it or comment on" the brief's content.

The judge did suggest, however, that perhaps Google lacks complete information about the proposed Vista changes. She said she expected the government attorneys and Microsoft to supply a fuller description than that revealed in their most joint recent court filing.

Google said after Tuesday's hearing that it was encouraged by what it viewed as the judge's sensitivity to its request for more information.

"As a result of our raising concerns about Vista desktop search, the Department of Justice and the states secured remedies from Microsoft that will provide consumers more choices than existed before," senior policy counsel Alan Davidson, who attended the hearing, said through a spokesman. "We are pleased that the authorities have provided important oversight here, and hope they will closely monitor the implementation to ensure that consumers' interests are served."

In their appearances before the judge, attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice and state plaintiffs continued to emphasize they were satisfied the Google complaint had been fully resolved. They also said they expected to receive the beta version of the code in time to test it for compliance before the November expiration date. "Certainly if we don't, we will be back here" in court, said Justice Department attorney Aaron Hoag.

Microsoft attorney Charles Rule told the judge that he believed much "misinformation" has been circulating about the way Vista's desktop search works. Using a print-out of a desktop screenshot as a prop, he walked the courtroom audience through the planned changes and existing features.

For instance, contrary to what some have said, Vista's search indexer has been "designed to back off" when other applications are running, which should assuage any fears about third-party desktop search applications encountering problems, Rule said. He also said users can already set up their machines so that third-party desktop search options appear in the left-hand side of the Start menu and in menus that appear when the desktop is right-clicked--and said that wouldn't change.

Kollar-Kotelly indicated she was also pleased with the progress that Microsoft and antitrust authorities had reported in other areas, such as its communications protocol program, a required licensing regime aimed at helping third-party developers to create software that works with Windows.

"This has been a productive report and a productive hearing," she said near the event's close.

Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith said in a statement afterward that the company is "going to work hard to implement the resolution we reached with all the governments involved and presented to the court today."

The parties are currently due back in Kollar-Kotelly's courtroom on September 11, with a status report to be filed a few weeks beforehand.

BBC's use of Windows DRM attacked by open source advocates

The BBC's decision to use Microsoft DRM for its new iPlayer "catch-up" service has come under fire from an open-source group that objects to the UK's apparent endorsement of Windows. The UK's Open Source Consortium has written a letter to regulators asking that open solutions be used instead.

The iPlayer in question is a BBC service that will allow viewers to watch any show that they have missed for up to a week after it airs on television. The service is poised to launch soon, but it has generated controversy over the BBC Trust's (which controls the Beeb) decision to require DRM on the downloads. The idea is that the shows will expire after a few days so that content owners can continue to make money on secondary licensing rights, DVD compilations, etc. The Beeb is also not keen on shows being downloaded and e-mailed to friends and family outside the UK.

The BBC chose Microsoft DRM to protect the downloads, which means that Mac and Linux users are left out in the cold. This didn't sit well with the Open Source Consortium, which has just written a letter to the BBC.

"This action from the BBC effectively promotes one operating system vendor at the expense of others," said the group's CEO, Ian Roberts. "It is very disturbing that the BBC should be using the license payers' money to affect the operating system market in this way. Imagine if the BBC were to launch new digital channels, but only make them available on a certain make of television—there would be uproar."

The BBC has already expressed its support for the Mac and claims that something will be done as soon as possible (which will probably involve a RealPlayer system).

The Open Source Consortium has also written to regulators like Ofcom and the Office of Fair Trading and points out that Microsoft (and specifically its media player) was cited as anticompetitive by the EU. Making the iPlayer Windows-only—and using Microsoft DRM to do so—could be against the spirit of the EU ruling, said the group.

Indian companies against Microsoft’s anti-piracy drive

“We are against piracy but we don’t like the way Microsoft is working to stop it. Moreover, if they want to do business in India then they should change their prices and policies according to the Indian market.” – SITA against Microsoft

Gujarat (INDIA) is the land of Mahatma Gandhi who took to Satyagraha, the non-violence movement, as a weapon against the British to demand India’s freedom. This land saw another movement on the 16th May, 2007, however a weird one at that – Anti-Piracy Antagonism Movement! The reseller community of Gujarat declared a one-day General Strike (notoriously known as Bandh in India) to protest against Microsoft for serving an anti-piracy notice to them.

Ok, here is the story. A Sleuth-Customer goes and asked the resellers for installation of Microsoft Windows. And when the pirated version of the OS was installed, a notice was served where the reseller had to pay a fine of Rs. 2 Lakh (~ $5,000). The notice also states that if the reseller continues to sell/install pirated softwares, they would have to pay a fine of over Rs. 16 Lakh (~ $40,000).

The resellers under the umbrella of South Gujarat Information Technologists Association (SITA) are furious that “Microsoft is targeting only resellers and not undertaking any activity to educate the end-user about the advantages of buying genuine copies of the software. People here are hardly aware about the usefulness of buying licensed copies of software. They assume that the PCs come bundled with the software.”

SITA believe it is just a service that they are rendering to the customer. “The customer assumes that the dealer would install the OS when s/he comes to install the machine. Since we are not charging anything extra for installing the software, it means that we are actually not trading in pirated software, for us this is just a Good-Will that we are offering to our customers. Besides the pricing of their operating systems is way too high for the Indian markets,” remarks a reseller.

SITA have boycotted some Microsoft training program. They’re planning to stop all purchase of Microsoft products for this quarter. The protests in the Gujarat market are expected to have repercussions in the Mumbai market as well. Partners dealing in Microsoft products believe that sales are likely to be hit if the boycott continues especially in this quarter.

Disclaimer:
I personally use an Apple Mac, am totally against Piracy. I buy music CDs, Movie DVDs and I don’t pirate them. On the Microsoft/Windows front, me, my team and our company use only IBM hardwares (they have the best support in India specially Mumbai) which comes with OEM version of Microsoft Windows Operating System. Everything else like Development Tools, IDEs are mostly Open Source or Free.

Source: brajeshwar.com

Don't look now, but Tablet PCs are on the rise

By Ken Fisher | Published: May 21, 2007 - 01:06AM CT

Derided by some and purchased by even fewer, the Tablet PC concept has had a rough go of it since its formal blessing by Microsoft in the form of Windows XP Tablet Edition in 2002. Pen-based computing is significantly older than that, but Microsoft's push marked the first major attempt to bring traction to the concept of laptop hardware. It has largely labored in niche status, but that is about to change for several reasons.

One sign that the tide is turning has to be Dell's decision to launch a Tablet PC. Dell's senior VP and GM of its business product group, Jeff Clarke, announced the news on the Direct2Dell blog. Clarke said that Dell is preparing a Latitude Tablet PC for "later this year." According to Clark, "the technology and customer and usage models have evolved to the point that it makes it right for Dell to enter the marketplace."

Dell's arm's-length distance from the Tablet PC had been widely interpreted as a sign that the world's most volume-oriented PC business didn't see much potential in the Tablet PC. While Dell's stature has atrophied somewhat in recent years, the adoption of the Tablet PC is still significant.

But it's not all about Windows. Axiotron is close to shipping its intriguing ModBook, which is an extensive aftermarket modification that turns Apple's MacBooks into Tablet PCs. We got up close and personal with the Mod Book in January, and we can't wait to get our hands on the final shipping product.

Why now?

When I first played with a Windows-based Tablet PC several years ago, I was unimpressed. It felt like a "bolt-on" experience, a hack in search of a useful application.

My, has that changed. For more than a month now I've been using Toshiba's R400 Tablet PC running Windows Vista and Office 2007. I'll be using it next month, too. That's because this isn't a review unit, it's a product we bought because, well, it's finally compelling.

Vista's tablet improvements are notable and extend far beyond improved handwriting recognition. OS integration is tighter, smoother, and far more responsive. Even more important than that, Office 2007 was designed from top to bottom with tablet users in mind. I personally don't think the same can be said for Office 2003, and in any case, the implementation in Office 2007 is vastly superior.

Plenty of challenges remain, and chief among them is cost. The ModBooks will set you back $2,279 or $2,579 in the blink of an eye, and the Toshiba R400 (which is the Cadillac of tablet PCs) sits closer to $3,000 modestly equipped and can easily be computationally outperformed by laptops costing $1,000 less. In short, they're still very expensive. However, you know the game: as technology marches on and as sales pick up (which Dell's support should indeed help), prices should head south.

Many people have written off the Tablet PC. Those same people may be writing on them before too long.

If you'd like me to sit down and review the Toshiba/Vista/Office experience, say so in the comments. I'll, uh, "pencil" it in.

Source: arstechnica.com

Linux Violates 235 Patents, Says Microsoft

Fortune Magazine has a lengthy article about the coming patent war between Microsoft and Linux users/distributors. As former Microsoft employee Robert Scoble points out, Microsoft has historically not used patents offensively (ie: sued for infringement), but this allegation and the recent deal between Novell & Microsoft suggests that Microsoft will use the courts to attack Linux.

Microsoft to make Windows Home Server available as OEM product

By Joel Hruska | Published: May 15, 2007 - 12:29PM CT

Up until now, one of the main drawbacks to the upcoming Windows Home Server was that the product was only going to be available on select, prebuilt systems from Integrated System Vendors (ISVs). Microsoft has apparently changed its mind on this score—one of the major announcements in Gates' keynote address at WINHEC today is the news that WHS will be directly available as an OEM product.

"Digital devices and digital media are now an essential part of so many aspects of our lives, and their importance continues to grow," said Microsoft chairman Bill Gates at WINHEC. "With Windows Home Server, we're launching a new category of consumer products that will make it much easier for people to connect to their digital content and share experiences with friends and family no matter where they are."

This is a move that makes a lot of sense for Microsoft's target market, as it's much more cost-effective to reposition an older or secondary system as a home server than it is to justify purchasing an entirely new system specifically for that purpose—especially when you have to justify the additional cost to a spouse. Buyers looking for a specifically-purposed home server system, however, will still have a range of options including HP's MediaSmart Server or the upcoming Medion Home Server, with the latter available in 500GB to 2TB storage flavors.

As we have already detailed, Home Server is designed to be a headless server package, with system administration handled via client tools or a web browser. Hooking additional storage to a typical Home Server system should be as simple as plugging in external drives, and the entire system is supposed to be fully compatible with Mac OS X and Linux systems.

Based on our own internal tests thus far, it's quite a useful and exciting piece of software. Those of you interested in testing WHS yourself should head over to Microsoft's page and register to be notified when the RC1 candidate becomes available.

Source: arstechnica.com