TechEd 2007: Security MVP Demos Broken Wireless Access Protocols
ORLANDO - During an updated version of one of the more popular sessions at TechEd each year, senior security engineer and Microsoft MVP Marcus Murray did attendees a major service by demonstrating that hacking into a network is not really an art, and in some ways, not even much of a science.
His "Why I Can Hack Your Network in a Day" session is actually something of a misnomer, as many of the tools he uses (including one written by SysInternals guru-turned-Microsoft fellow Mark Russinovich) can enable individuals to work their way to revealing the passwords of domain administrators in closer to 15 minutes.
TechEd 2007: .NET Micro Framework Demonstrated for Embedded Devices
ORLANDO - During an invitation-only demonstration here at TechEd, small device developer EmbeddedFusion demonstrated a prototype programmable small device - actually a circuit board with a 2x3 color LCD display - that is capable of being programmed using Microsoft's .NET Micro Framework. It's a managed code system with which developers can rapidly build programs for embedded devices, and embedded device drivers.
Within the first 20 minutes of programming the card using C# in Visual Studio 2005 (after re-installing the EmbeddedFusion SDK), we were able to construct a simple application that...[drum roll]...blinked an LED on and off.
TechEd 2007: New Office Live Meeting Will Enable Multi-session 'Events'
ORLANDO - Product managers at TechEd 2007 here gave BetaNews an early glimpse of Microsoft's next videoconferencing application, which will tie into both Office Communications Server (which we saw in detail at WinHEC three weeks ago) and Microsoft's own subscription-based conferencing services.
Office Live Meeting 2007 will give attendees of virtual meetings and conferences a single, simple frame from which to view conferences - an important advance, especially in view of the abundance of browser-based conference schemes where the video appears in a postage stamp.
TechEd 2007: Windows 'Server Manager' to Change the Game for Admins
ORLANDO - If you follow the crowd at TechEd, eventually they'll lead you to what's truly important. So in the wake of some schedule changes here this morning, we let the crowd lead us to what turned out to be one of the more significant demos here: Microsoft product manager Dan Harman showed off the new Server Manager that downloaders of Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 are seeing for the first time.
Server Manager completely replaces the "Manage Your Server" Wizard, which we were surprised to hear (if not entirely surprised to learn) was among the least well-received enhancements to Windows Server 2003. As Harman freely admitted, this Wizard "didn't provide the functionality" that admins were looking for, was too lightweight, and tried to hold admins by the hand as though they were users.
TechEd 2007: Software Assurance Licensees to Get Error Reporting Tool
ORLANDO - Enterprise-wide operating system customers purchase their licenses in bulk, and for them, the value of their subscriptions needs to be periodically refreshed. So Microsoft has been looking for ways to infuse Vista - which won't be upgraded substantially within the next 12 months, even though customers purchase annual licenses - with periodic value increases.
This is why one of this week's TechEd announcements is especially important: Software Assurance licensees will soon be receiving a Windows utility called System Center Desktop Error Monitoring as part of the Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) they receive with their licenses.
TechEd 2007: IIS7 to Become Seventh Server Core Role
ORLANDO - At TechEd 2007 this morning, Microsoft's senior vice president Bob Muglia generated the biggest applause of the day (not related to the Christopher Lloyd cameo) by announcing the new Server Core installation option in the forthcoming Windows Server 2008 will have as one of its ready-made "roles" the ability to rapidly appropriate Internet Information Services in a command-line-only environment.
This role should make it tremendously easier for admins to provision and deploy low-overhead Web services very rapidly, and could finally close the similarities gap between itself and the world's most deployed Web server software, Apache.
TechEd 2007: Keynote Demos of Virtual Machines, New OBAs, Silverlight
ORLANDO - Let the record show that, although Christopher Lloyd was supposed to save TechEd from too much "MS-BS," it was Microsoft's Jeff Woolsey who finally saved humankind from the Wrath of "Product Focus." In a demonstration of System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Woolsey showed how in Windows Server 2008, a VMware virtual machine could be converted to a "Viridian" VM using a single PowerShell "command-let" (cmdlet) that can be scripted.
VMs can be moved from server to server using System Center VMM, using a right-click process that is not much more difficult than using Windows Explorer.
TechEd 2007: Muglia Saves Humanity From Horrible Alternate Future
ORLANDO - In a very memorable effort to erase executive vice president Bob Muglia's reputation for overstating the "Microsoft Vision," while introducing a much-needed element of self-deprecating humor to the proceedings, the company's senior vice president starred with the legendary Christopher Lloyd in a "Back to the Future" video where he was given an opportunity to go back in time two years and undo the mistakes of his prior keynotes.
As our video begins, it is 2005. Bob Muglia exits the stage at TechEd 2005, his blue denim shirt drenched with the debris of numerous tomatoes, lettuce, and other valuable organic waste products, after what appears to have been a disastrous reception at the main keynote. Pleading with "Doc" for an explanation, Muglia asks him, what could possibly have gone wrong? "I was just showing them Microsoft's Vision of the Future."
TechEd 2007: Xandros Becomes Second Linux Vendor to License MS IP
ORLANDO [3:45 pm ET June 4, 2007] - At TechEd 2007 in Orlando this morning, although there were few product announcements from the keynotes, Microsoft senior vice president Bob Muglia announced that Xandros has become the second Linux vendor to license Microsoft's intellectual property for use with Linux, following in Novell's footsteps.
We learned more about the deal this afternoon from the two companies involved in the deal: It is indeed a patent covenant arrangement, which the company told BetaNews is similar to the one Microsoft reached with Novell last year. "Xandros will now be able to employ Linux in their future products with the assurance that intellectual property is valued and respected, while their customers will have intellectual property peace of mind," a spokesperson for Microsoft's intellectual property team wrote to BetaNews this afternoon. "Through this agreement Xandros and Microsoft will focus on improved systems management, server interoperability, office document compatibility and patent assurance."
TechEd 2007 Preview: Now It's Developers' Turn to Make Changes
With Windows Vista already a firmly entrenched product in many homes and some businesses, and with Windows Server 2008 cruising toward a final release in the second half of this year, Microsoft may feel it's time for its many partners and developers with an interest in Windows' success to stand and deliver. The company has made many of the architectural shifts and overhauls that these partners demanded three years ago. But for the end user to appreciate the benefits, developers have to change course, too.
So in an effort to move developers along their way, Microsoft is trying a new tack for its TechEd 2007 conference next week in Orlando - the company's largest educational conference each year. Rather than overload the agenda with keynote addresses full of promises, possibilities, and definite maybes, this year only a 90-minute opening keynote address has been scheduled, by senior vice president Bob Muglia. Then the attendees will be released for a full five-day agenda of sessions and laboratories.
Radio Streamers File Emergency Stay Petition in Appeals Court
Calling the imposition of tremendously increased royalty fees on music webcasters "arbitrary and capricious," a group of organizations and companies with streaming radio interests, including the Digital Music Association, AccuRadio, and National Public Radio, filed a petition for an emergency stay before the US Court of Appeals in D.C., of the order imposing new performance royalty fees on online streaming music providers.
In their petition, the allies used formulas whose details were only provided to the Court under seal, the solutions to which overwhelm even BetaNews' own projections of the fees the SoundExchange performance rights organization could stand to attain.
GPL 'Last Call Draft' Removes Language Threatening to Novell
After the publication yesterday of what the Free Software Foundation terms as a "last call draft" - a final version for comments and revisions by the public - of the next version of the General Public License, Novell stated on its corporate blog that it's pleased to discover that draft language it believed would threaten its Linux business has apparently been removed.
A modified paragraph in Section 11 of the latest GPLv3 draft would appear to prohibit an individual or company from being licensed to use or distribute free software if it has paid a third party for what it calls a "discriminatory license" - an agreement not to exercise some part of the GPL in exchange for the right to use material that may be patented within the free software.
Dell's Income Doldrums May Be Over, But Job Cuts Will Continue
If the figures from Dell Computer's last fiscal quarter hold up after a potential wave of possible corrections due to its admittedly improper accounting of backdated stock options grants, the company may not have fared all that poorly in the three-month period between the first weeks of February and May. It's not growing much as a company, but it's not shrinking either, posting slightly higher revenues ($14.6 billion, up 2.9% annually) and only slightly lower net income ($759 million, down 0.4% annually).
The good news sparked a late rally in Dell stocks near the close of trading on the NASDAQ this afternoon, gaining about two thirds of a point to $26.91/share in the last few minutes of regular trading before gaining another 5% in after-hours trading, to $28.34 by 4:30 pm.
Could Google Gears Make 'Cookies' Obsolete?
In what appears to be a serious and genuine attempt to take the lead in the growing Asynchronous JavaScript market - which was recently joined by Microsoft - Google may be trying to invent something that has already been invented before, perhaps several times: a way to implement a local data store for Web-based and remote applications run through the browser.
But what Google seeks to accomplish with its Gears toolset, released into beta this morning, may not be the invention itself but instead something all of its predecessors have failed to achieve: the establishment of an accepted standard.
Microsoft Allowed to Argue Invalidity of Eolas Patent
Bloomberg News broke the news yesterday that Microsoft will be allowed to argue that patents held by research firm Eolas Technologies regarding the ability to embed functionality in a Web browser page are invalid, when a retrial of Eolas' long-running patent suit begins on July 9.
This ruling was passed down by the US Patent and Trademark Office, even though the Eolas patent's validity was upheld in September 2005, following Microsoft having won its appeal of the original decision earlier in March. The original decision found Microsoft's ActiveX technologies in Internet Explorer to have infringed upon Eolas' conceptual patent.
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