For a great many large businesses, "the move to the next Windows" has been an ongoing, daily affair for at least well over a decade. And up until recently, the reasons why this migration tends to proceed so slowly have been, to Microsoft, a complete mystery.

If the company can just get Vista pushed out to the corporate desktop, its foot will be in the door just enough, it believes, to make enough of a clearance to push through its more profitable business services: SharePoint, BizTalk, Office Communications, Exchange, audio and video.

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Just days after its beta release of Safari 3 for Windows became a zero-day nightmare with a number of exploitable vulnerabilities, Apple has rushed out version 3.01 to fix three security flaws. The problems only affect Windows, not the Mac OS X release.

The 3.01 update patches a bug that could lead to Safari running arbitrary commands via CMD.EXE, a denial of service crash due to memory corruption, and a flaw that could lead to a cross-site scripting attack. Windows XP and Vista users can download Safari 3.01 from FileForum.

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Clearwire said Thursday that it had penned deals with both DirecTV and EchoStar, the parent of DISH Network, to allow them to offer the company's high-speed internet services as part of their packages in any current or future market Clearwire serves. The company uses WiMAX-like technology to provide wireless access to towns in 11 states, with towns in three others to be added shortly.

Through the deal, each of the satellite providers can offer Clearwire's service to its customers, while Clearwire can bundle DISH or DirecTV service with its own plans. Plans on both sides will be offered later this year. The company is also rumored to be in discussions with Sprint over its WiMAX offering, to launch later this year and nationwide in 2008.

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With shareholder concern mounting over the cost of building out its fourth generation WiMAX network, Sprint is reportedly looking for other options to fund the project, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. One option would be a joint venture with high speed provider Clearwire, while the other would be to look for funding from its cable company partners.

The cost of construction would set the wireless provider back some $3 billion next year, however some of its largest investors have called the strategy questionable. Both options reduce the final cost, and may help to quell those fears. For example, under the Clearwire plan, the unit would be spun off. If Sprint's cable partners join in, they could benefit by being able to offer broadband services from the network.

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The company which at one time blatantly attacked Microsoft's position on the consumer desktop with what was then called "Lindows," a Linux distro aimed at low-price systems sold in major department stores, announced today a 180-degree change of tack.

Adding its name to those of Novell and Xandros, Linspire becomes the third Linux distributor to reach a patent covenant agreement with Microsoft. In finding the courage to shake hands with the enemy, Linspire's president and CEO this morning publicly compared himself to Steve Jobs.

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In a very real sense, Microsoft may have had more to do with the creation of the so-called "dynamic language" than most any other company. Back when the BASIC language interpreter shipped as part of the ROM of machines like Radio Shack's breakthrough TRS-80, I and many other novice developers first experimented with the prospects of code that changes itself to suit the specific needs of users. It involved statements with terms like "POKE," which was exactly as dangerous as it sounds.

Today, the re-emergence of dynamic applications through Web-oriented languages like Python and Ruby has awakened an old spirit within Microsoft, which is rediscovering a concept it helped create decades ago...and after years of denying its presence and usefulness, has now come around to embracing it.

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AOL said it is opening up the APIs for its free Xdrive service to allow developers to incorporate the service into their applications. Consumers are given 5GB of space to upload any type of content they wish, with an option to upgrade to a 50GB account for $9.95 per month. AOL says that the API allows use of Xdrive in both web and desktop applications.

"Rich media management and online storage increases engagement. Giving consumers the ability to share their media assets help Website owners build awareness and increase their audience," said David Liu, Senior Vice President of AOL Portals. The API is available from the AOL Developer Network, Liu said.

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While much ire in the fight against net censorship and free speech restrictions falls squarely at the feet of the Chinese government, a new law in Zimbabwe should raise some eyebrows.

The lower house of the country's parliament passed the so-called "Interception of Communications" act on Wednesday, clearing the way for the government to begin monitoring of phone calls, mail and Internet for "national security" purposes.

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During a seminar at the Digital Hollywood conference in Los Angeles this morning, AT&T Senior Vice President James Cicconi disclosed that his company began meeting with Viacom last week to discuss the deployment of technology that somehow will combat the spread of piracy over its digital networks, the Los Angeles Times revealed this afternoon.

Transcripts from the seminar have not yet been made available, and the Times account of the talk was vague on detail. From what we know at present, it isn't even clear whether AT&T's new anti-piracy technology would be limited to just the Internet, or would extend to its own private digital fiberoptic lines as well.

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Sun is reaching out to Linux, and specially Linus Torvalds, in an effort to explain its motives in placing Solaris under GPLv3, Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz said Wednesday.

Torvalds in recent days has indicated that he was suspicious of Sun's motives surrounding the upcoming version 3 of the General Public License. He has expressed interest in Sun's ZFS, however he felt that Sun might use the protections afforded to patent holders in GPLv3 to keep it out of Linux.

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Tensions between eBay and Google rose on Wednesday after the auction site decided to pull some of its ads from the search engine's AdWords program.

The move only affects ads within the United States. eBay will continue to run ads through the program outside of the country. While the company is saying the move is part of a regular switch in strategies to determine the best use of advertising dollars, some are saying differently.

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Hoping to smooth things over with the Church of England, Sony Computer Entertainment said Wednesday that it was in talks with the church over its use of the cathedral in its PlayStation 3 title Resistance: Fall of Man. Church officials find the scene offensive where the main character enters the building and then proceeds to shoot at enemies, and has demanded both an apology and monetary compensation.

Sony declined to give specifics of the talks, calling the situation "complex." However, it added that the church was not necessarily meant to be the Church of England although the building in the game is quite similar to the historic structure. Calls for action first arose last week after the Bishop of Manchester, the Right Reverend Nigel McCulloch called the scene "beyond belief and highly irresponsible."

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Microsoft said Wednesday that it had ended its multiplayer beta of Halo 3, adding that it had attracted over 820,000 unique participants contributing over 12 million hours of game play.

The company now turns its focus to promotion through Halo-themed merchandise, such as a special edition wireless controller and wireless headset. While the accessories are not available until September, Microsoft is building buzz by permitting pre-orders.

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YouTube plans to launch a video identification system that will help the company sniff out copyrighted material, it said earlier this week. Tests begin initially with Walt Disney and Time Warner.

In about a month, the company will start using clips supplied by the media companies to identify unique characteristics within clips posted by users. If a match is found, the content owner is alerted.

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Intel and Google are heading a group comprised of both technology and environmental groups aimed at promoting energy efficient computing.

Called the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, the group also includes Dell, HP, Microsoft, The World Wildlife Fund and about 20 other companies and groups. Altogether, the group aims to save $5.5 billion USD in energy costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54 million tons.

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