Print - WinInfo Short Takes: Week of March 7

An often irreverent look at some of the week's other news...

Thanks Again, Keith
I got back from Colorado a day late thanks to a wonderful case of High Altitude Pulmonary Edema, (HAPE), an altitude-related affliction that required hospitalization and eventually evolved into a much more desirable bout of pneumonia. I'm OK, and I want to thank Keith again for covering WinInfo Daily UPDATE while I was gone. As you probably realize, Keith took time out of his schedule to show up here each day. And Keith was also generous enough to collect an amazing series of potential Short Takes topics for today, which I appreciate even more than usual because of my condition. Thanks, bud. Also, if you've written to me in the past several days, you might have to wait a while until I get caught up on my email. I'll try to tackle it this weekend.

Windows NT Architect Mark Lucovsky Heads to Google
According to a short blog post by Dave Winer, Google has hired Windows NT architect Mark Lucovsky away from Microsoft. Although no details are available yet about what Lucovsky will do at Google, Winer (incorrectly, I bet) theorizes that Google is developing its own OS. That's just silly. Google can barely get any of its Web services out of beta, and the company has never rebranded Mozilla Firefox to create its own Web browser, despite repeated rumors to that effect. Creating an entire OS is like a moon shot: You don't dabble in it. If you're interested in Lucovsky's role in the creation of NT, you can read all about it on the SuperSite for Windows.

Windows 2003 SP1, Windows 2003 x64, Windows XP Pro x64 Due in April
I've already published information about the April ship date for these Windows versions, and this week Microsoft Senior Vice President Jim Allchin confirmed that Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Server 2003 x64 Editions, and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition will be available next month. "In about a month, you will see us deliver the x64 edition of our server product, and after that you will see us, during the same month, deliver the 64-bit x64 edition for [Intel's] Xeon and Pentium on the workstation side," Allchin said during an appearance at the Intel Developer Forum this week. He didn't mention Windows 2003 SP1. Because Windows 2003 x64 Editions are based on the Windows 2003 SP1 code base, however, that update will ship before or at the same time that Windows 2003 x64 Editions ship.

Microsoft Says No March Security Updates
March will be a boring month for security researchers if Microsoft's latest assertion is true. This week, the software giant revealed that it doesn't plan to post any security bulletins or patches next week as part of its regularly scheduled monthly security patch release schedule. That news is a big change from last month, when Microsoft issued 11,000 security patches, if I remember correctly.

Microsoft Reevaluates MSNBC Commitments
Microsoft is reevaluating whether it wants to continue partnering with NBC on MSNBC, the cable news channel that debuted to lukewarm reviews in 1996. The company is currently in talks with NBC parent General Electric (GE) to see whether GE is interested in purchasing Microsoft's share of the cable network. Microsoft invested $250 million to create MSNBC, which has suffered as a perennial punching bag for CNN and even Fox News, which is sort of the Pravda of cable news channels. I never understood why NBC needed both CNBC and MSNBC, anyway. Can't the network have just one underperforming cable news channel?

Microsoft Reveals Robot Babysitters at TechFest
   I'll understand if you think I'm making up this story, but at Microsoft Research TechFest 2005 this week Microsoft revealed plans for a future project, code-named Teddy, that manages to be both creepy and high-tech. (Kind of like Windows Me.) Teddy is a teddy bear robot (what Microsoft calls a "virtual being") that monitors your child's activities, provides a Wi-Fi-based live video feed, and lets the child talk to the bear, then communicates those messages back to you. What's creepy about that, you ask? As the child moves around the room, the bear's head turns to follow her progress, kind of like that evil clown in "Poltergeist." I'm sure Microsoft means well, but a creepy teddy bear? Can't the company just get Windows right first?

Gates Knighted in England
   Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates received an honorary knighthood from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (yes, I have to use her full title) in England this week. "I am humbled and delighted," Gates said. Gates was knighted for his role in igniting the computer software industry and for his amazing charitable work. Trivial Pursuit fans will note that Gates is only the sixth American to be knighted. He follows former US presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, Rudolph Giuliani, Alan Greenspan, and Bob Hope into infamy.

IE Heads to Windows 2003 SP1 and XP x64, No Outlook Express 7
   I've already published this information in my Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 7 Preview 1 on the SuperSite for Windows, but I've received so many questions that I thought I'd repeat it here. Despite earlier assertions that IE 7 will be available only to XP SP2 customers, Microsoft will also ship IE 7 with Windows 2003 SP1 and XP Pro x64 Edition. The company is looking into Windows 2000 support but so far has no plans to make an IE 7 version for that platform. And there won't be a Microsoft Office Outlook Express 7 release to coincide with IE 7. Instead, the Outlook Express team is concentrating its efforts on Longhorn.

Yahoo! Turns 10
   Yahoo!, which was born before the dot-com bubble, celebrated its 10th anniversary this week. Yahoo! was incorporated in 1995 in a trailer on the Stanford University campus and quickly dedicated itself to highlighting only those Web sites that cofounders David Filo and Jerry Yang liked. Despite that bit of questionable ancestry, Yahoo! quickly grew into a Web powerhouse and today is a bellwether of the Internet economy. If you're totally bored and enjoy fly-over animations, check out the disturbing, self-aggrandizing retrospective on the Yahoo! Web site.

Apple Wins Initial Ruling in Controversial Case
In a development that makes my blood curdle (as opposed to collecting in my lungs, which I experienced earlier this week), Apple Computer has won a preliminary ruling against three Apple enthusiast Web sites that could force the sites to reveal their sources. Apple is starting to sue its biggest fans because they're leaking information about upcoming products, and the company wants to find out who their sources are. Although the folks who run those Apple fan sites arguably aren't journalists, such people generally have been protected from revealing sources. However, an interesting exception to that rule says that people can be found guilty of appropriating trade secrets if they in any way solicit information about secret corporate projects. Apparently, the goal is to receive the information psychically or through osmosis, in which case the law will shield you. I'll be watching this case closely because I solicit information from sources all the time. Anyone have any information about secret Apple projects that you'd like to share with me?

Get a Mac. They never have trouble connecting to websites! They are perfect! PCs SUCK!

To the first poster, are you using by chance Optimum Online? They seem to have been having DNS problems this past week. And to the second poster, that is not really true, is it? Of course not. I heard that Linux actually transfers the text directly to your brain without even reading a web site!

Ummmm, Jim Allchin, "x64 for Xeon and Pentium"??? Wasn't Intel late to the x86-64 party? Wasn't the architecture extended by AMD with Intel claiming it would never take off? Shouldn't Athlon and Opteron be mentioned alongside, if not before, Pentium and Xeon?

Paul is so cute when he automatically classifies any site that has to do with the Mac a "fan" site, and doesn't consider any of their staff "journalists." What he doesn't realize is that, despite this site being called Windows IT Pro, many (not just Mac "fans") classify this site as a Windows fan site, and get a big chuckle when Paul insists that he's a journalist.

Apple fans are such dorks when they fail to recognize that they are the drones in that famous commercial and the Hammer Babe is really Bill Gates liberating them!!!!

What's creepy about that, you ask? As the child moves around the room, the bear's head turns to follow her progress, kind of like that evil clown in "Poltergeist." I'm sure Microsoft means well, but a creepy teddy bear? Can't the company just get Windows right first? ------ WTF?! No not the creepy Ballmer Bear, YOU THINK MS MEANS WELL?! Bwahahahahahahahhahaha! Look Paul, I realize that you have an emotional attachment to your.. ummm.. supposedly $300 Dell that runs Doom3 flawlessly at 100fps.. Give up on MS, will you? They're never gonna stop fleecing morons. You want to play video games, I know MS gave you an Xbox. Take the 300 dollar toy out to the curb and give the neighborhood chow-chow something to urinate on.

I think there are way too many AppleHeads on this site. Ave they really THAT insecure?

Oooh, I love Apple! I'm going to go to a Windows site and proclaim my love to all! That's productive!

"Google can barely get any of its Web services out of beta..." That's pathetic. Google's attitude towards Beta is non-standard, admittedly, but what's your point? Google's beta products are more featured and perform better than non-Beta MSN Search stuff.

There's a list here: http://wfan.com/water/watercooler_story_061084032.html that suggests a few more Americans have a KBE.

Don't **** and moan about Mac users showing up here. This site isn't exactly a private club now...or is it? Should Mac users go to the back of the proverbial bus? Funny how we can just exchange one bias for another. It's easy to hate groups isn't it. Anyway, the author of this article is know to frequent MacObserver.com under the name RealityCheck. You want to talk about someone with nothing better to do than to bash? I suggest you hop on over and check out Ol' RC.

No, it's not a privat club, AppleHead, but mindless screeds are best left to the mindless. Oh yeah, that's you. Never mind. Continue on.

Loved the Fox comment -- show's that you know more than just computers. And the guy who made the #1 news program comment, well, think "American Idol", "The Bachelor", "Survivor", etc. Yeah, #1, that maans a LOT.

OK Paul, since you are such a Big Man on the Redmond Campus, and operate the world renowned SuperSite for Windows, you must have some Microsoft info that's under NDA. Since you seem to be such a believer in Freedom of the Press, why don't you go and start publishing some non-public info that you "just happened to hear" another Windows fanboy mention. Since you didn't actively solicit the info, you should be OK. Until the Microsoft lawyers come knocking on your door... Are you willing to stand by your words, or change your tune because the issue doesn't involve your archnemesis Steve Jobs and the evil that is Apple? What a tool...

As long as we're on the subject of Google, they DoS'd my site twice this week. Paul, any word on if we'll see an IE7 that keeps the same look as the current IE or if MS will tease us and give us one that looks like the Longhorn theme?

Welcome back, Paul. Seriously. Too bad you're still a windbag. Fox News is no Pravda. But then, you're always "fair and balanced", aren't you? RE Yahoo!: No thanks. If I want "disturbing" and "self-aggrandizing", I'll head over to the "Internet Nexus". And how can Gates (or Reagan or Bush for that matter) be knighted when the Constitution specifically states: "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State." (Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8) Did Gates get approval of Congress for this? What a tool. The Europeans are off their rockers...on one hand, they sue his company, then on the other, they knight the guy. Nice to see Microsoft "focusing on the necessary", though, with this lovely Bear idea. Perhaps it will be as successful as SPOT watches! And finally... "Although the folks who run those Apple fan sites arguably aren't journalists, such people generally have been protected from revealing sources. ... I'll be watching this case closely because I solicit information from sources all the time." Paul! Are you FINALLY admitting you're not a real journalist?

I've said it so many times before: Paul, pelase turn the comment feature off! Most comments are by immature people who have nothing better to do than complain. Like me perhaps?

>>Paul! Are you FINALLY admitting you're not a real journalist? LOL. Admission is the first step to recovery!

Kevin Schofield thinks you did not understand the bear demo http://radio.weblogs.com/0133184/2005/03/: "-- the only problem here is that the headline makes people think that the teddy bear is being designed as surveillance or babysitting for kids, which is not at all the intent; the demo was just intended to show using vision technology to track faces and have a teddy bear's head movements follow faces and mimic some lifelike reactions to people moving around it."

Better than that, Junior's bear gets infected and starts uploading upskirt pics of Mom to a russian website. In the end, Dad beats the stuffing out of it with a shovel.

--I think there are way too many AppleHeads on this site. Ave they really THAT insecure? It just means that only .00005% of the Wintards can read and have a thought.

LOL, PC Magazine didn't have trouble giving the "garbage" iMac a "five-out-of-five" rating. PCWorld didn't have trouble declaring "garbage" Mac OS X the "best operating system" in its 2004 awards. And MS counters with a stuffed bear. YOU deserve it.

Paul's solicits info? I thought he just pulled all the crap he writes out of his a**.

Don't forget PC Magazine says of the iPod mini, "Retains all of the iPod mini's good features and improves on them. Still the player to beat for slick design, ease of use, a top-notch online music store, and overall audio performance."

PC Magazine itself is totally slipping.. CNET is the new source for all your PC/Dell-biased news, not PCmagazine! If you listen closely, you can hear Music Editor James Kim petting his Zen Micro ;) Speaking of biases.. does eveyone here know that most shuttle PCs cost abotu 1400 clams... which.. I assume is beyond the budget of most PC users who, like I-never-lie Paul Thurrott, play Doom3 and HL2 all day long on theri $300 Dells..? Apparently the mini smacks it around when it comes to pricing..

Paul, why no mention of WinFS coming to Windows XP? I'm really confused about Microsoft's strategy. Indigo, Avalon, WinFS, and .NET are all available or will be available for Windows XP. What is the reasont to upgrade to Longhorn then? The 3D interface that my computer isn't powerful enough to run anyway? I'm starting to think Longhorn should have strictly remained a collection of technologies for existing Windows versions rather than a new Windows release, because as far as I can tell, a new version of Windows is now pointless.

RE: a new version of Windows is now pointless. No way! You get new wallpaper and a huge stupid looking clock with a cow in it.

Apple is suing the web sites that support them? I guess they consider 2% (or whatever) of the market to be TOO MUCH, and want to get their fans and evangelists to migrate to a different OS.