Doug's Mailbag: Chavez-Gate, Cloud Security, More

Did Meaningless Ship Dates Get Leaked?

An ex-Microsoft worker inadvertently posted release dates for nearly all important products Redmond is working on. 01/29/2010

Oracle Shows Off Sun

Oracle held a five-hour press conference this week to explain to the world just what it intends to do with Sun. 01/29/2010

CA Taps Bill McCracken As New CEO

CA dug into its ranks to replace retiring CEO John Swainson, naming its chairman William McCracken to run the company. 01/29/2010

Ballmer Pushes Cloud for Public Safety Agencies

Public safety managers must begin moving into the cloud, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Wednesday at the company's annual Public Safety Symposium. 01/28/2010

Windows 7 Sales Boost Microsoft's 2Q Results

Microsoft outperformed expectations in its fiscal second quarter, largely based on consumer Windows 7 spending, according to an announcement Thursday. 01/28/2010

Oracle Plans To Take on Microsoft Office

Oracle Cloud Office is the next generation of Sun's OpenOffice, company officials revealed. 01/28/2010

Oracle Outlines Sun Integration Plan

Oracle on Wednesday laid out its plans for integrating Sun's software and hardware systems into its own product lineup. 01/28/2010

The Apple iPad: Seriously?

We're thinking that the iPad looks pretty iBad. 01/28/2010

Oracle To Take Top 4,000 Sun Customers Away from Partners

Because, according to Ellison, the partner model was "disastrous." 01/28/2010

Redmond Rolls Out Windows 7 Updates

You are up and running on Windows 7, right? 01/28/2010

Microsoft Reveals Office 2010 Specs

The good news is that it should run on machines that were capable of running Office 2007. 01/28/2010

Windows 8 Release Date Possibly Leaked

A former Microsoft employee apparently disclosed RTM dates for future Microsoft products, including "Office 2012," "Windows Server 2012" and "Windows 8." 01/27/2010

UC4 Offers Agent for Integrating Web Services

UC4 Software GmbH unveiled a product on Wednesday aimed at bringing Web services into an automated workload management framework. 01/27/2010

Apple Launches iPad Mobile Tablet

As anticipated, Apple formally unveiled its new $499 mobile device, the iPad, on Wednesday, heralding the company's first serious move into the category of e-book readers. 01/27/2010

Is the End Near for the Company Laptop?

The Apple tablet will destroy all other known devices in the universe, apparently. 01/27/2010

HP Expands Security Services

The company launched 90 new managed security services this week. 01/27/2010

Gates: Chinese Censorship Not Too Pervasive

But one commenter begs to differ. 01/27/2010

Doug's Mailbag: Dearly Defunct Tech Companies, More

Veteran Editor Forgets Journalism Basics

Your faithful scribe has been attacked, reviled, subjected to ridicule and hostility. 01/27/2010

The Internet Sky Is Falling

At this rate, IPv4 addresses will run out by 2013. 01/27/2010

Undoing a 'Disaster,' Oracle Plans To Take Sun Sales Direct

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison tells New York Times that it will focus on direct sales, calls Sun's partner model "disasterous." 01/27/2010

Oracle-Sun Road Map Will Focus on Bundles

Oracle plans to invest heavily in developing and selling hardware bundled with applications and database software. 01/27/2010

Report: Google Android Gaining Mobile OS Share

Competition in the consumer mobile operating system space is starting to shift, according to a new report from IDC. 01/26/2010

Microsoft Unveils Office 2010 System Requirements

Microsoft described the hardware requirements for Office 2010 late last week. 01/26/2010

Company Draws Out the Suspense over IE

Security firm says it has found more holes in the browser, but they're holding off on the specifics. Plus: the IE patch took some time; China denies responsibility over Google attacks. 01/26/2010

Gates: Chinese Internet Censorship 'Very Limited'

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates downplayed Chinese government Internet censorship when asked about the matter in a Monday ABC TV interview. 01/25/2010

HP Extends Security Services Portfolio

Hewlett-Packard today said it is adding to its diverse security services, while bringing them together under a common framework. 01/25/2010

Rebel New Zealand School Boots Microsoft, Goes Open Source

The start of a revolution? Nah. A mildly interesting story for a Monday? Sure. 01/25/2010

Symantec Brings Deduplication to Midsize Compnanies

The company prepares to release new versions of NetBackup and Backup Exec. 01/25/2010

Gates Warns on Economy; Gartner Positive on Spending

Bill Gates isn't so sure about this economic recovery we're supposed to be having. 01/25/2010

Lotus Notes a Social Animal?

IBM is touting an upcoming version that's a bigger social butterfly than Truman Capote. 01/25/2010

SQL Server 2008 R2 Due, Too

Nearly three years in the making, SQL Server 2008 R2 is finally on its way. 01/25/2010

Make Public Clouds Private

Microsoft legal eagle Brad Smith wants Washington to make sure our clouds are safe, secure and private. 01/25/2010

Readers Invest in Familiar Microsoft Apps in 2010

Redmond magazine's latest survey shows users upgrading long-standing Microsoft offerings, but not experimenting with newer technologies. 01/25/2010

Doug's Mailbag: Gone But Not Forgotten Tech Companies, More

Tool Checks for 'Custom XML' in Word Files

Microsoft's court loss to i4i LP has spawned a make-shift tool to check for patent-infringing technology in Word files. 01/22/2010

Google CEO Defends Stance on China

Google CEO Eric Schmidt confirmed the company's position with respect to China and commented on the attacks on Google's network. 01/22/2010

Google Hole Filled

The hole in IE that Chinese hackers used to hack Google is now fixed. 01/22/2010

17-Year-Old Hole Found

It also took Microsoft over six months to issue an alert once the vulnerability was known. 01/22/2010

Sun One Step Closer to Full Eclipse

The EU has approved Oracle's proposed buyout. 01/22/2010

Gartner: IT Budgets, Spending Set for Rebound

Worldwide IT spending and IT department budgets are set to make something of a comeback following 2009's drastic declines. 01/22/2010

Evidence from Google Attacks Points to China

A researcher for SecureWorks says he has found evidence supporting Google's claim that last month's attacks on the company's systems originated in China. 01/21/2010

Microsoft Issues IE Patch To Address Zero-Day Threat

Microsoft issued a cumulative "out-of-band" security patch on Thursday for a bug in all versions of Internet Explorer. 01/21/2010

5 Tips for Cybersecurity-Training Your Workplace

Companies may hope training programs will keep users on the straight-and-narrow security path. But how can you tell whether -- and to what extent -- the message is sticking? 01/21/2010

Microsoft, Intuit Strike Cloud Pact for Small Business

Microsoft is aligning with former rival Intuit to help bring Intuit's large contingent of QuickBooks users into the cloud. 01/21/2010

Microsoft Issues Alert on Windows Kernel Bug

Microsoft issued a new security advisory involving an obscure Windows kernel bug. 01/21/2010

Microsoft to Congress: Time To Seed Cloud Computing

A Microsoft official said this week the government must revise out-of-date statutes and lay new legislative groundwork to keep pace with technology. 01/21/2010

Oracle-Sun Deal Gets Green Light

The European Commission today cleared Oracle's $7.4 billion agreement to acquire Sun Microsystems, paving the way for the two companies to close the deal. 01/21/2010

Bill Gates Is on Twitter...When It's Working

In more good Twitter news, it went down again for a while on Wednesday. 01/21/2010