Microsoft

REDMOND, Wash.--Tired of having to fight for a free conference room, Microsoft's security chief, Mike Nash, decided in early 2005 that the company needed a dedicated "war room" where his team could handle emergency responses.

And while he was at it, why not have two? That way, the folks working on fixing a security crisis could have a little breathing room from those drafting the public and customer communications around the issue.

"They were tired of the communications people hearing of things that were half-baked," Nash said.

The Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) was … Read more

The mystery of who will Microsoft buy next didn't take long to be solved. On Friday, mobile photo and video-sharing site WebFives notified its users that its assets had been scooped up by Microsoft.

The move comes just days after Microsoft took part in a panel discussion on the types of companies it would look to acquire. Managing Director Mark Wolfram had indicated that the Entertainment and Devices area might be ripe for an acquisition.

Ripe indeed.

The deal, which was noted Friday by ZDNet blogger Matthew Miller, could bring back to the company a former exec, if WebFives … Read more

Updated 3 p.m., with additional comments from Microsoft on timing of Windows Server 2008.

One of the nice things about being Microsoft is that a lot of money comes in, good times and bad.

Asked Thursday about the impact Microsoft is seeing from the uncertainty in the credit markets, a top Microsoft finance executive said the company has yet to see anything particularly worrisome.

"We're not seeing anything different than what we said back in October (during an earnings conference call)," said Peter Klein, the CFO of Microsoft's business division, speaking at Credit Suisse's … Read more

David Maynor is back on his Apple security hobby horse and rocking it faster than a 5-year-old hopped up on pre-holiday candy canes. Despite his usual over-the-top Apple invective, he makes some valid points and provides some helpful information for people using QuickTime on Windows.

Apple announced ASLR as a feature in their latest version of the operating system, Mac OS X 10.5 (TigerLeopard). However, Apple largely lied.

You might be surprised to hear the Macalope agree with Maynor, but he's right. OK, maybe [See update below] "lied" is too strong, but they certainly misrepresented it.… Read more

Menlo Park, Calif.--What does Microsoft look for in its ideal match?

Sparkly eyes and a nice smile don't hurt, but Microsoft is really looking for two other qualities in its acquisition targets: key intellectual property and smart technical leaders who plan to stay with Microsoft.

"At end of day we are buying a company for (its) people and IP," said Mark Wolfram, a managing director in the Microsoft unit that handles acquisitions. Wolfram was part of a breakfast panel Tuesday sponsored by the VC Taskforce.

Asked what is the smallest acquisition he'd consider, Wolfram insisted … Read more

As if the Microsoft vs. Google battle didn't already resemble a game of Risk, the software giant announced plans to move into Irkutsk.

The software maker confirmed Monday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the regional Siberian government, but said that it is too soon to say whether Irkutsk will be the site of a planned data center in Russia.

"Though Microsoft Russia is working on potential data center construction in Russia, we are still far from final site selection," the software maker said in a statement.

Microsoft has been on a building spree … Read more

The Business Software Alliance is best known for tracking piracy rates and announcing high-profile settlements over improperly licensed programs. But a new study finds that most of its money is not coming from big corporations, but from small businesses.

Associated Press writer Brian Bergstein said his analysis showed that 90 percent of settlement revenue comes from small businesses. Last year the agency, which monitors compliance for companies such as Microsoft and Adobe Systems, took in $13 million in settlement proceeds, according to the AP.

Among the other interesting tidbits is a chart showing where the organization's income originates (81 … Read more

Microsoft and Ford bought a lot of advertisements on NFL football broadcasts over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend. The companies are pushing Sync, which is the latest outgrowth of Microsoft's decade-long effort to provide software for use in automobiles.

In this case, Microsoft might actually succeed. Simplicity is the key: unlike past scenarios floated for the Windows Automotive platform, Sync isn't intended to help control your car (leading to the inevitable blue screen jokes) or connect to the Internet or serve as the back-end for an in-car control panel. Instead, it gives you voice command over Bluetooth-enabled phones and … Read more

Let me preface this post with the fact that I have been a sworn Mac user since 1995. Let me add that a few weeks ago I tried to use Windows just for my trip to Japan, and I bailed out after one painful day. I even had our IT guy kill a perfectly good Thinkpad with Ubuntu I hated Vista so much.

When Leopard came out a few weeks ago (it was a Friday) I went to the Apple store in San Francisco to buy it immediately but got spiked until the 6 p.m. grand reveal. So, the next day I went downtown first thing and picked up both Leopard and the new iLife. Easy enough.

I expected a few bumps in the upgrade of the OS and the applications. Sure enough, that happened but it was nothing major.

It has only been after a few weeks of usage that I find myself experiencing both OS and application crashes reminiscent of the mid-'90s when you had to obsessively save your work since you knew your Mac was going to crash at some point. I was bred into a "save early, save often" Mac culture at my first job in NYC where people would occasionally lose hours worth of work.

That was then, this is now. Or so I thought. … Read more