Big Companies Back Microsoft in Antitrust Case

Visa and Weyerhaeuser are sick and tired of these pesky states that want the government to keep monitoring Microsoft for antitrust violations.

Everybody now, in your best English accent from Pink Floyd's "The Wall": "We don't need your supervision...We don't need government control...No extension of the antitrust deal...Hey, government, leave Microsoft alone!"

Posted by Lee Pender on 11/29/20074 comments


Microsoft and Google California Dreamin'

All the leaves really are brown, and the sky...well, it was blue today in Greater Boston, but not as blue as it's about to be in California for either Microsoft or Google. The Golden State, always on the cutting edge (seriously), is moving its e-mail, messaging and -- when, exactly, did this become a verb, or even a gerund? -- "calendaring" to a hosted model. And it looks as though either Microsoft or Google More

Posted by Lee Pender on 11/29/20070 comments


Microsoft Mixed Up Vista Marketing, Lawyers Say

Lawyers for a couple of people suing Microsoft over its use of the couplet "Vista capable" on PCs say that even folks in Redmond had no idea what the phrase meant.

Posted by Lee Pender on 11/29/20071 comments


Microsoft and Autodesk Pay Up for Patent Poaching

The owner of z4 Technologies (what, you haven't heard of it?) will soon be a wealthier man .

Posted by Lee Pender on 11/28/20070 comments


Tests Show XP Outperforming Vista

Apparently, XP with beta Service Pack 3 trumps Vista , even with the new operating system's first service pack in place. Please, don't even pretend to be surprised by this (not that you were pretending). Actually, it sort of makes sense -- XP is a much more mature platform, and it's already on SP3. Vista will come along...in time. We hope.

Posted by Lee Pender on 11/28/20070 comments


Redmond Tinkering with Windows Genuine Advantage

Just like a petulant 10-year-old trying to talk his way out of trouble, Microsoft has really learned its lesson this time! No more problems with WGA! No more nasty outages! And this time, we mean it.

The funny thing, of course, is that WGA just might be working

Posted by Lee Pender on 11/28/20070 comments


Smaller BI Vendors Still Alive and Kicking

Robert Lendvai was as confused as anybody when he read RCPU's declaration that IBM's planned buyout of Cognos meant the end of business intelligence as we know it. The chief marketing office of Blink Logic, an Ottawa-based BI firm, even had a bit of a career crisis: "I wondered whether maybe I should resign," Lendvai said.

Hey, folks, he's just kidding. Lendvai's not going anywhere, and neither is his company. Blink Logic, an independent vendor whose leaders cut their teeth at Cognos, actually has a pretty cool idea: BI for BI. Cognos, Business Objects (recently acquired by SAP), SAS and the gang came up with BI so that executives could more easily drill into and use SQL data that previously only IT types knew how to find. It was a great idea, and it sold -- a burst of innovation at the early part of this decade met genuine customer need and voilà! BI was big business.

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Posted by Lee Pender on 11/28/20070 comments


New Vulnerability Haunts Windows

The word "vulnerability" in reference to a software security issue always makes us giggle a little -- it sounds more like somebody's endless craving for sweets, or something someone would say on the first date after a particularly nasty end to a prior relationship. "I'm just feeling very vulnerable -- kind of like Windows when a hacker takes control of a workstation through QuickTime."

Posted by Lee Pender on 11/27/20070 comments


Microsoft Rumors Falling Like Leaves

Two notes before we start: First, your editor is on deadline for a magazine story, so today's RCPU will be shorter (and possibly even sweeter) than usual. Second, we promised you last week that we'd hear this week from a small business-intelligence vendor trying to survive in the shark tank of BI acquisitions by larger companies. We will bring you that vendor's story -- but not this week after all, as today's newsletter will be the last one until after Thanksgiving.

Oh, and Happy Thanks...giving...from R...C...P...U (and Les Nessman)!

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Posted by Lee Pender on 11/20/20070 comments


Visual Studio 2008 Makes Its Debut

We're going to need more Skittles and Mountain Dew for the developer set .

Posted by Lee Pender on 11/20/20070 comments


Zune Outsells iPod

Seriously. No kidding. One discounted model for at least one day, anyway, on Amazon.com , but still.

Posted by Lee Pender on 11/20/20071 comments


A (Very) Brief Look at Vista SP1

Really, it's brief . Somewhat interesting, but brief. We're not kidding.

Posted by Lee Pender on 11/20/20070 comments


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