Another Manic Patch Day
Microsoft dropped a hefty patch load yesterday with 49 platform-specific patches
addressing a dozen vulnerabilities of varying intensities. Three of the problems
are considered critical, which means that IT pros best get steppin'.
The patches and vulnerability descriptions are contained in 10
security bulletins, required reading for those that want to protect their
clients, servers and jobs.
Freedom Lovers Bash Bill
The Web is awash with news that Microsoft MSN is censoring
bloggers in communist China who use the MSN service. Apparently, key words
such as freedom, along with sexual content, are rejected with a terse warning.
The implication is that Microsoft is somehow wrong, and rolling over and acquiescing
to unreasonable communist demands. Gimmee a break. China, as a sovereign nation,
has rules and laws that Microsoft is simply respecting.
Keep in mind that Microsoft, through the millions of legal and purloined copies
of its operating systems, is giving the Chinese access to the Web, and a voice.
Censorship can't keep them down forever.
Taking on Photoshop
Microsoft hopes to outdo Photoshop with Acrylic, its new vector-based graphic
program acquired from a Hong Kong software house. I, for one, would love to
see some stiff Photoshop competition, as it'll keep Adobe on its toes. Microsoft
is also testing a new format to bump aside PDF. Hmm, wonder where that idea
came from...
An Acrylic beta is now available here.
Genius or Wack Job -- You Make the Call
Robert X. Cringely has a provocative view of the Apple/Intel deal. Actually
the author was one of the original "Cringely"s from InfoWorld who
left and won the right to keep his fake name. InfoWorld still has its own Cringely,
so all told there’ve been 10 total!
In any event, the Cringely in question believes that the deal is a plot between
Intel, who now hates Microsoft (his words, not mine), and Steve Jobs to kick
Microsoft out of the PC market with lower-cost Macs. Oh, and HP will sell Mac
clones and sell 'em like hot cakes.
Read
and decide for yourself.
Biting the Hand
Microsoft employee Gretchen Ledgard publicly bit the hand that feeds her in
a blog
that called Microsoft managers "spoiled whiners." In an ultimately
minor story broken by News.com, Ledgard apologized and managed to hold onto
her job.
About the Author
Doug Barney is editor in chief of Redmond magazine and the VP, editorial director of Redmond Media Group.