FTC Curious About Proposed Intel, STMicroelectronics Joint Flash Venture
Last May, Intel and STMicroelectronics - with the world's #6 and #5 market shares, respectively, in NAND flash memory - announced they would be joining together with venture capital firm Francisco Partners to create a new consumer-grade flash memory manufacturer, to be called Numonyx. This week, the US Federal Trade Commission is apparently not yet satisfied that Intel has adequately addressed its standard antitrust concerns. Today, Intel announced it received what is formally called a "second request" notice from the FTC.
While that's not nearly the same thing as being notified you're under investigation, a second request notice is typically bad news. It does not mean the FTC has any reason to suspect something in particular, or that it has any specific evidence of malfeasance or wrongdoing.
Another Yahoo Reorganization: Memo Signals Focus on Content, Not Ads
Newly elevated Yahoo President Susan Decker issued a memo to employees detailing another massive organization for her company, which for the third time in a mere nine months realigns its business operations under reappointed leadership. Gone is the executive said to have spearheaded the takeover of ad market broker Right Media last April, and the fate of one of the company's most outspoken senior VPs appears uncertain.
"Building on the success that we have had in aligning our sales and distribution organizations around customers, rather than around advertising products like search and display, the two major changes we are announcing today are designed to take this to a higher level," reads Decker's memo to employees yesterday, first published by PaidContent.org. Sounding much more like a content producer than a search or advertising platform, she added, "They will also better align our resources and priorities focused on building key audiences."
'AutoPatcher' Service for Windows Ordered Shut Down by Microsoft
A service designed to help Windows users download Microsoft's updates and install them in a faster manner was ordered shut down by Microsoft, in a cease and desist letter to the service's proprietors.
For the past few years the AutoPatcher service had been giving users what was believed to be a simpler and more intuitive front end and a monthly digest for downloading and installing updates. But it was redistributing Windows code - or, at the very least, distributing a new way to get to Windows code - and was an alternative to Microsoft Update, and as such, the company had no remaining patience for letting it stand.
Linux Foundation: OOXML is Too Long to Be a Standard
In the wake of curious surges in the memberships of national standards bodies, as well as the ISO, prior to upcoming votes to recommend or approve the adoption of Microsoft's Office Open XML as an international standard, the Linux Foundation today pleaded with voters worldwide (both old and new) to listen to reason before making their decisions. But the reasons they're giving have been heard before, and may not be enough to suppress the sudden surges of support for OOXML among national bodies' swelling ranks.
"The Linux Foundation is not only familiar with, but has a vested interest in the preservation of the validity and integrity of the global standards adoption process," writes the Foundation's marketing director, Amanda McPherson, in a statement released today
Fix for Vista Automatic Updates to Ship Via Automatic Updates
A curious problem cropped up last month: Windows Vista users reported that the program that manages their Windows services (SVCHOST) would crash after having downloaded and installed a batch of updates.
Microsoft recently issued a manual fix for this problem, though users who don't want to have to learn the equivalent of heart surgery should soon be able to download a patch for the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)...assuming it works.
Microsoft Delays Windows Server 2008, Needs 'More Time to Bake'
In the clearest sign to date that not all is well in the state of Redmond, Microsoft cheerfully announced this morning that the release date for Windows Server 2008 is being pushed back to Q1 2008.
Citing the delay as a part of an "open and honest dialogue about the development process of a product of this magnitude," a spokesperson for the Windows Server development team posted on its company blog this morning, just after 11:00 am Eastern time, that WS2K8 will likely be one of the features of a rollout event that was already scheduled for February 27, originally slated to feature Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008.
Windows Vista SP1 Will Uninstall Group Policy Management
Probably in response to a few users' bewilderment over the seemingly unrestricted accessibility of what had actually been one of Windows Vista's most requested new security tools, Group Policy Management Console, Microsoft announced today that the act of installing Vista Service Pack 1 will simply delete the tool altogether.
"Administrators requested features in Group Policy that simplify policy management," reads a white paper released by Microsoft this afternoon. "To do this, the service pack will uninstall the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) and GPEdit.msc will edit local Group Policy by default."
FSF: Microsoft is Bound by GPLv3 Terms If It Distributes GPLv3 Code
Last month, Microsoft's legal department proclaimed it doesn't consider itself bound to the terms of version 3 of the General Public License, with respect to certificates it distributed for software, services, and support from Novell. Today, the Free Software Foundation responded by saying if Microsoft distributes software covered by GPLv3, then it's bound by the terms of that license.
"Microsoft cannot by any act of anticipatory repudiation divest itself of its obligation to respect others' copyrights, reads today's FSF statement. "If Microsoft distributes our works licensed under GPLv3, or pays others to distribute them on its behalf, it is bound to do so under the terms of that license. It may not do so under any other terms; it cannot declare itself exempt from the requirements of GPLv3."
Evidence of Microsoft Influencing OOXML Votes in Nordic States
As the date draws near for the first round of discussions before the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) on the topic of adopting Microsoft's Office Open XML format, allegations have arisen that Microsoft may have used influential tactics to sway the outcomes of recommendation votes in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.
Indications from voting members attending yesterday's meeting of the Swedish standards agency SIS are that between August 12 and August 27, the membership of the working group responsible for evaluating OOXML grew from 9 to 34. Apparently, under SIS rules, new members may pay a fee for the right to vote on a important ballot at any time prior to ballots being cast. And SIS members are apparently familiar with these rules, based on the account of one voting member who blogged this morning that he himself was asked to join on the last day, to help balance out an anticipated surge in pro-Microsoft votes.
Court Rules Sharing Music is Illegal, Even if Nobody Downloads It
In what will undoubtedly be chalked up as a shutout victory for the recording industry, a federal court in Arizona last week granted summary judgment in favor of the RIAA in one of its many anti-piracy lawsuits against ordinary citizens.
The Howell family of Scottsdale, Arizona has been found guilty of copyright infringement after an investigative team hired by recording labels discovered copyrighted material being shared on Mr. Howell's computer through the Kazaa P2P program.
System Center Configuration Manager for WS2K8 Released
What may eventually be considered one of the most useful and welcome new features for admins has finally been officially released by Microsoft. Today, the company announced that System Center Configuration Manager has officially "released to manufacturing." A 120-day trial evaluation version appeared on Microsoft TechNet this morning.
SCCM is the replacement for Systems Management Server 2003 R2, and its purpose is to enable an administrator from a central location to manage and configure operating systems remotely. This new version makes feasible an innovative method of deployment, which is actually already under way for Windows Vista: You can build your own "distribution image" of an operating system, complete with the applications and settings specific to your organization, and distribute it through your network for remote installation.
Microsoft Responds to Re-discovery of Vista Network Slowdowns
A curious network performance reduction noticed by many Windows Vista users of the 2CPU forum that became the talk of Slashdot last week has been identified as having been caused not by DRM, as Slashdot users expected, but by a curious prioritization "feature" of Vista that's intentionally biased toward Media Player at the expense of network and system resources.
The effects of this feature were first revealed last June, as BetaNews reported, by Microsoft security engineer Mark Russinovich.
Intel 'LaGrande' Chipset Ships, First Test of New vPro Trusted Platform
One of the most ambitious new features ever to be built into an x86 motherboard is now publicly available: a hypervisor-based computer that runs both the operating system and its underlying BIOS under the control of a virtual machine monitor.
Underneath these physical and virtual layers is Intel's latest and boldest implementation of the Trusted Computing platform - the highly anticipated, and in some circles dreaded, LaGrande platform, now called Trusted Execution Technology (TXT). It is quite literally a computer that provides the entire universe for another computer, replacing the BIOS with a radically advanced underlying system capable of detecting incursion at the deepest levels.
Acer + Gateway + Packard Bell to Create Global PC Powerhouse
As officials from all three major companies involved confirmed to the press during the overnight hours in North America, global #3 PC manufacturer Acer has reached an agreement to acquire Gateway, America's #3 manufacturer, for $710 million.
And in a possibly contingent move, Gateway will use some of that immediate cash infusion to exercise its right to preclude Lenovo from acquiring Packard Bell from California investor Lap Shun Hui, who purchased it from NEC just last year.
US INCITS Votes to Approve OOXML With Comments
The executive board of the INCITS standards body voted yesterday to approve the recommendation of Microsoft's Office Open XML standard to the International Standards Organization as Draft International Standard 29500, once concerns voiced by some of its members have been attached and adequately addressed by Microsoft. The vote was 12 yea, 3 nay, and one abstention - again by the IEEE.
Voting in the negative were Oracle; standards consulting body Farance, Inc.; and IBM, which had earlier indicated it would change its vote to "Yes, with comments" if others would do the same.
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