Adobe in Redmond's Sights

Maybe that legal saber-rattling on Adobe's part wasn't such a good idea after all. Something seems to have angered Microsoft, which is now on the hunt for its partner/competitor. Adobe execs had better sell those backdated stock options fast.

Posted by Lee Pender on 10/12/20061 comments


Down In The Valley: Backdating Scandal Starts To Look Serious

"The simple things you see are all complicated
I look pretty young, but I'm just back-dated, yeah"
--from the song "Substitute" by The Who

I called my bookie today. OK, I'm not a gambler and don't have a bookie, but I found one to call, anyway. I had just had the greatest idea ever. Here’s how the conversation went down:

Bookie: "Yo. Whattaya want?"

Me: "Um, yes, I'd like to place a bet, please."

Bookie: "Whaddaya wanna bet on? I ain't got all day."

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Posted by Lee Pender on 10/12/20063 comments


Vista and Office: The Desktop’s Last Stand?

There’s buzz aplenty about Vista (again) now that RC2 is out and mainly positive reviews of it are pouring in . On the anti-piracy front, the freak out that we mentioned last week continues, with those pesky Gartner analysts suggesting More

Posted by Lee Pender on 10/10/20063 comments


Microsoft Appeals Eurofines

File this one under completely unsurprising news updates.

Posted by Lee Pender on 10/05/20060 comments


And You Thought WGA Was A Mess ...

Oh dear.

As if the furor over Windows Genuine Advantage -- which just keeps going and going -- wasn’t enough, Microsoft said this week that Vista (and Longhorn server, if it ever comes out) will include a whole slew of new, built-in anti-piracy protections. Vista, with these new protections embedded in it, will shut down or severely cripple critical elements of the operating system (think Aero and Internet Explorer) if a user’s copy trips the anti-piracy alarm as being unregistered or improperly activated. And this isn’t just a consumer thing. Business users and partners are going to have to mess with the new activation scheme, too. In fact, the whole thing is quite complicated, as Mary Jo Foley’s excellent Q&A explains ... and it’s eventually coming to every Microsoft product.

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Posted by Lee Pender on 10/05/20065 comments


Gates and Ballmer Not As Rich As They Might Have Been

Not that they’re hurting or anything, but their bonuses were down a bit for fiscal 2006, partly because the company’s stock lost value due to delays in releasing Vista. Makes you wonder whether there was any coincidence with this story More

Posted by Lee Pender on 10/05/20060 comments


Windows Live Takes to the Track

Seriously, do you think Steve Ballmer has ever watched a NASCAR race ? Just wondering ... maybe he’s a fan.

Posted by Lee Pender on 10/05/20060 comments


Bad Times in the Valley

It’s getting nasty in Northern California. You know things are bad when your chairwoman and -- get this -- chief ethics officer (pause for laughter) face felony charges . Right, HP?

Then there’s Apple -- Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, where have you gone? -- where the stock-options scandal has led to a resignation.

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Posted by Lee Pender on 10/05/20060 comments


Milk, Bread and Spreadsheets

"This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
Where you can buy a full office productivity suite for $100...."

OK, so maybe Willie Shakespeare didn’t write that last line when he penned "King Richard II," Act 2, Scene 1. But he could have if he had hung around until 2006. And wouldn’t that have made for better reading in high school English class?

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Posted by Lee Pender on 10/03/20060 comments


Microsoft Buys DesktopStandard ...

Two news updates from Redmond. The EMC partnership, sort of a "Duet" (think SAP) for enterprise content management according to the second article linked here, could be pretty interesting.
http://rcpmag.com/news/article.aspx?editorialsid=7849
http://www.itworld.com/App/4108/061003emcms/

Posted by Lee Pender on 10/03/20060 comments


Robert Scoble Lives

And he’s talking about life post-Microsoft.

Posted by Lee Pender on 10/03/20063 comments


McAfee: Yeah, We're Angry, Too!

Symantec isn’t the only security vendor making noise about Microsoft participating in unfair business practices.

In other completely unsurprising but related news, Microsoft is appealing its raft of fines from the European Union.

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Posted by Lee Pender on 10/03/20060 comments


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