14 DAY TRIAL // On Monday, Microsoft publicly released Windows Live Messenger, its next-generation instant-messaging solution. "Windows Live Messenger, the upgrade to MSN Messenger, is the first core application of Microsoft's new line of Windows Live software and services to be launched publicly," Microsoft spokesman Adam Sohn said.
The current public version adds Windows Live Contacts, which allows customers to set the system to alert them when any information about their contacts changes, like e-mail address and phone number. Windows Live Messenger was launched as a public beta in May with international PC-to-PC calls with full-screen video capability.
Same day, hackers broke into Microsoft's French Web site, replacing the front page with a message and their signature. The following note appeared on the main page: "Hi Master (: Your System 0wned By Turkish Hackers! redLine ownz y0u! Special Thanx And Gretz RudeBoy |SacRedSeer| The_Bekir And All Turkish HacKers next target: microsoft.com date: 18/06/2006 @ 19:06 WE WERE HERE....". "The intruders were able to access the server that was running http://experts.microsoft.fr/. Microsoft is working with law enforcement to investigate and take appropriate action against the attackers. We apologize if customers are inconvenienced by the unavailability of the affected Web site," Microsoft said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Microsoft and Creative Commons have announced their plans to release the Creative Commons Add-in for Microsoft Office, a copyright licensing utility that allows the easy addition of Creative Commons licenses to works created in popular Microsoft Office solutions. The application is available freeware at Microsoft Office Online and will allow the 400 million users of Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint to easily select Creative Commons licenses directly within the program they are working in.
Creative Commons is a nonprofit company that has written licenses that allow content creators to share information while retaining some rights. "Currently, some Web-based tools let people associate a Creative Commons license with information. But Microsoft is the first vendor to embed a license-selection option inside its applications," said Lawrence Lessig, the founder of the Creative Commons and a Stanford Law School professor.
On the same day, Martin Taylor, a key adviser to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, has left the company. "We've made the difficult decision to part ways with Martin, but we don't comment on personnel matters. We appreciate Martin's contributions at Microsoft over the past 13 years," Microsoft said in a statement. Taylor's responsibilities included "business leadership as well as product and marketing management for Windows Live services, MSN.com and the Microsoft Live platform. He was responsible for developing the overall Live brand and bringing new Microsoft Live services and innovations to customers."
"One of the dozen security updates Microsoft released last week is causing network connection trouble for some users," the company said on Wednesday. "The fix delivered with security bulletin MS06-025 can interfere with a certain types of dial-up networking connections. The patch repairs two "critical" security flaws in Windows that could allow an attacker to commandeer a vulnerable PC," Microsoft said in an article on its support Web site. "Problems occur only with dial-up connections that use a terminal window, or dial-up scripting. This type of connection may stop responding after applying the patch," the giant said.
The entire statement is available here.
On Thursday, The European Commission said it had received no complaint from Adobe Systems against Microsoft after the software giant decided to include PDF documents support in the next Windows Vista operating system. Spokesman Jonathan Todd sustained that EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes had expressed concerns about the way PDF-type documents would be dealt with in Vista in a letter to Microsoft sent 2 months ago. "We have not, however, received any complaint from Adobe," Jonathan Todd said. "Microsoft's negotiations to use Adobe technology in its new Office business software broke down two weeks ago and Adobe threatened legal action," a lawyer for Microsoft has said.
Microsoft announced on Friday that the company plans in August to make public the privacy rules its employees have to follow when developing software. "The move, which offers a look behind the scenes at Microsoft, is meant to give the industry an example of what the software giant sees as best practices in customer privacy," said Peter Cullen, the chief privacy strategist at Microsoft. "We think that this is information that partners and others could benefit from. Lots of people build and develop applications. The privacy development standards will not only be made public, but we will actively be promoting their use so that others can benefit from what we've learned," Cullen said in an interview.
