Designing With Microsoft? Evidently this is Microsoft's attempt at competition with 'Macrodobe', the strange, hybrid beast (lumbering?) that is the combined Macromedia/Adobe merger. Microsoft has launched a full suite of products taking aim at Dreamweaver, (is it better?) Illustrator-Photoshop and Flash. For many designers who pretend to be developers (or vica versa) Microsoft's new "Expression" will be 3 or 4 orders of magnitude less relevant than that old Corel Suite. The central issue seems to be one of credibility: Can Microsoft escape the seemingly permanent "FrontPage" stigma, not to mention even more recent design community letdowns?
posted by thisisdrew on Jan 23, 2007 - 101 comments

An' all the hot cats on the block have been doing it too - c'mon now, honey, I wanna do it with you. Anyone hoping to build their own Death Probe without dismantling the vaccum cleaner or floor waxer can rejoice. The creators of Roomba and Scooba have released a barebones version. Add-on software from Microsoft is available, should more ambitious types decide to pair iRobot's tech with LEGO MindStorms pieces.
posted by Smart Dalek on Jan 10, 2007 - 17 comments

It is done. Windows Internet Explorer 7 has been released.
posted by armoured-ant on Oct 19, 2006 - 131 comments

Photosynth is a new image processing technology from Microsoft that takes a collection of images (say, of a famous location), analyzes them for similarities & rebuilds the location in virtual space for the user to fly though, zooming in on details, panning around like a 3D Hockney piece. Video of how it works here.
posted by lilbrudder on Jul 29, 2006 - 83 comments

FlexGo™. Microsoft targets emerging markets with pay as you go and subscription models.
posted by davehat on Jun 29, 2006 - 13 comments

Folder Share is an online service that synchronizes multiple pcs, or just specific folders in multiple pcs, by creating a localized p2p network. You could use it, for example, to keep your work & home mp3 collections identical. Until recently, the service cost $50/year, thanks to corporate largesse (and doubtless, evil intentions on the part of the new owner, Microsoft), it's now free. Unless you place some value on not letting Microsoft catalog what's on your PC.
posted by jonson on Nov 21, 2005 - 28 comments

Microsoft WSYP A very exciting and promising new technology coming from Redmond. [movie - .asf (windows media)]
posted by H. Roark on Oct 20, 2005 - 20 comments

Microsoft Start (version 3) is the Web 2.0 application we've all been waiting for. Obviously, it was created by Microsoft. Search Engine and Syndication from one easily configurable screen. In the future, everyone will have this as their home page.
posted by seanyboy on Aug 2, 2005 - 78 comments

Securing public computers isn't easy, but a Microsoft kit to do that may also help families share home computers. If you share a Windows XP Home or Professional computer with other users, particularly, children, or family members, you may find the Shared Computer Toolkit beta an interesting idea. But caveat emptor: this is free "beta" software, has a spooky "validation" process to confirm your copy of Windows is "genuine," and installation is not for the faint of heart. Then again, neither is re-installing Windows after a friend/relative/SO inadvertently trashes your computer.
posted by paulsc on Jul 7, 2005 - 18 comments

The future of Google, Apple, and Microsoft.
posted by Tlogmer on May 13, 2005 - 40 comments

Bwahahahahaha - Take a shot back. Bill Gates promised to end spam. Now lycos is letting you take a shot back ala SETI. Get your copy and make love not spam.
posted by sourbrew on Nov 29, 2004 - 44 comments

Gates talks about our future. Bill gates shows a side that is rarely seen by computer users. Love him or hate him, I just want to know why he doesn't want me to have one of these some time in the next 15 years too.
posted by sourbrew on Jul 13, 2004 - 25 comments

Scientific American on Microsoft's new, gigantic attempt at a Palo Alto.
posted by Tlogmer on Jun 9, 2004 - 9 comments

Microsoft is giving away a nifty piece of software. It's the beta of Expressions 3 by Creature House, something I used to use back in my Mac days but hadn't heard anything about in a long time. Apparently MS bought Creature House last year. I downloaded it (after filling out a somewhat arduous survey/profile thingy) and think it a nice drawing program. Both Mac and Win versions are posted.
posted by bz on Jun 9, 2004 - 30 comments

Trusted Computing. Microsoft and friends are proposing some major alterations to the way that computers work, the ostensible goal being to increase security. But others say that the real goals are much more insidious.
posted by bingo on May 22, 2004 - 15 comments

The John Markoff of the New York Times [registration required] reports that Google plans to roll-out a text and file search tool code-named Puffin for finding information stored on PCs. The move is seen as a defensive one; Microsoft plans to include PC searching in its new operating system, scheduled to be released in 2006 (at the earliest).
posted by tranquileye on May 19, 2004 - 7 comments

Whizzkid develops Linux application for Windows [...]The significance of the development is that Linux and Windows are able to work in parallel on the same computer or server. To[sic] now, the computer world is divided into systems that operate either with Windows or with Linux. [...]
posted by Postroad on Apr 12, 2004 - 33 comments

PowerPoint makes you dumb. This is something I've suspected for a long time. It's been reported in the NY Times, so it must be true. I will now blame every stupid thing I've said or done in the last three years on Microsoft.
posted by Loudmax on Dec 15, 2003 - 47 comments

The CEO of Ernie Ball talks about how his company left Microsoft for Linux after a licensing fiasco. Sterling Ball: It's just software. You have to figure out what you need to do within your organization and then get the right stuff for that. And we're not a backwards organization. We're progressive; we've won communications and design awards...The fact that I'm not sending my e-mail through Outlook doesn't hinder us. It's just kind of funny. I'm speaking to a standing-room-only audience at a major technology show because I use a different piece of software--that's hysterical.
posted by skallas on Dec 10, 2003 - 20 comments

What software version numbers really mean. Not sure who started the latest trend of dropping version numbers from software. We could always blame Microsoft with Windows ME . But Macromedia is at fault too with the whole MX thing. And MX doesn't even stand for anything. Now Adobe is getting into the mix. There will be no Photoshop 8 or Illustrator 11. Just CS . So is this a good thing? Version numbers may not be exciting but it sure did make it easy to keep track of the latest upgrade.
posted by jeremias on Sep 29, 2003 - 42 comments

Windows Vulnerabilities XPlained I've always used Gibson Research's website to test my Windows system for vulnerabilities. With the latest BLAST aimed at MS, I thought to share his site with the class. While Mr. Gibson obviously has some axes to grind and bones to pick with Microsoft and with various software firewall makers, his explanations of how Windows can be XPloited in terms that are fairly easy to understand is most appreciated. Be sure to check out the numerous free utiltites (small downloads! I mean, really small!) that will help you plug nearly every hole in your Windows.
Didn't know MS had shut down www.windowsupdate.com til just now, either
posted by WolfDaddy on Aug 18, 2003 - 42 comments

IE in bug fix mode? Then fix the bugs! As was mentioned here before, MS is discontinuing the free version of IE for Mac, and offering it only as part of the MSN service instead. They also appear to be doing the same with IE for Windows. The Web Standards Project is demanding that they include standards bugs in the list they are going to fix, because MS has always advertised IE as standards-compliant.
posted by setmajer on Jun 27, 2003 - 32 comments

Top 10 Challenges for Microsoft. This is from a company called "Directions on Microsoft" in Kirkland, WA. All they do is analyze Microsoft. One of the challenges is to "keep a lid on LINUX"! My favorite part-"Hopes that the Linux community would fragment are not being realized, at least in 2003". Will these challenges hold MSFT in check? What do you think?
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy on Jan 6, 2003 - 24 comments

Microsoft engineer pinched for stealing $9 million worth of software. Not a bright thing to do. Furthermore, why would you post pictures of your expensive toys on the internet? Trying to prove to the folks back home you've made it I suppose.
posted by rotifer on Dec 13, 2002 - 32 comments

Word 97 Users Abandoned by Microsoft? "Microsoft's flagship word processor has for years had a security flaw that could allow a criminal to steal computer files by "bugging" a document with a hidden code." Microsoft will fix the problem for newer versions of Word, but those of us who use Word 97 are more or less out of luck. As it turns out, the Microsoft Corporation page doesn't seem to have any easily accessible information on this issue.
posted by Joey Michaels on Sep 13, 2002 - 40 comments

Pakistan government may replace pirated Windows-based systems with Linux "The Microsoft Corporation has already offered over 90 per cent discount to the government but we want to press for more cuts in prices." Is the Linux announcement a bargaining strategy or a serious sign? This June O'Reilly story provides some context, noting a sudden spiking popularity of open source software within the U.S. government, which "actually lags behind other major governments" who are "gravitating toward open source software for a variety of reasons."
posted by mediareport on Sep 6, 2002 - 10 comments

Would the Mac platform collapse without Microsoft? BusinessWeek questions the conventional wisdom.
posted by kirkaracha on Aug 7, 2002 - 42 comments

Celebrate, Windows users, you too can use the world's best MP3 player, with the final release of XPod today, which gives iPod compatiblity to Windows.
And this is not the only option, ephPod does the same thing, but does require you to buy a copy of MacOpener first.
Didn't Apple say they were coming out with their own Windows drivers for iPod eventually?
posted by Mwongozi on Jun 24, 2002 - 19 comments

A senior Microsoft Corp. executive told a federal court last week that sharing information with competitors could damage national security and even threaten the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan. He later acknowledged that some Microsoft code was so flawed it could not be safely disclosed. (emphasis added.) Is this a calculated admission, or is Microsoft so completely on the ropes that they'll say anything to keep from being completely dismembered? Doesn't the fact that releasing such a shoddy product that it's a national security risk mean that Microsoft should be taken to bits in the interest of public safety? If Firestone can't sell unsafe tires, why should Microsoft be able to sell unsafe software?
posted by RylandDotNet on May 21, 2002 - 22 comments

Hailstorm now more, kinda. Microsoft has cancelled/heavily reconsidered the Hailstorm part of their .Net initiative, blaming the fact that businesses were never interested in seeing if consumers wanted to use it or not.
posted by bliss322 on Apr 12, 2002 - 4 comments

"MS releases mother of all IE security patches" Per the article: Microsoft has released a cumulative patch for Internet Explorer which the firm says is a "critical" security precaution against crackers which should be applied "immediately". Time to update/upgrade boys and girls. :)
posted by crankydoodle on Dec 14, 2001 - 11 comments

Microsoft considering anti-virus support and why we should care.
posted by GriffX on Dec 11, 2001 - 13 comments

$100 million in fake software seized .The copies of Windows Millenium and Windows 2000 Professional were indistinguishable from the real thing except for their failure to crash every 15 minutes(I made that up).Ever burn a copy for friends? Is that wrong?
posted by Mack Twain on Nov 17, 2001 - 31 comments

What OS is Micro$oft running? A poll of what OS' run in Microsoft's netblock, and their rank by uptime. Besides the fact that Hotmail was on FreeBSD for awhile [before M$ took them over], this was surprising.
posted by plemeljr on Oct 17, 2001 - 18 comments

Gartner's opinion proliferates into the mainstream Internet news sources. any further thoughts?
posted by tatochip on Sep 25, 2001 - 10 comments

NY Senator wants XP's release delayed and The Register writes a somewhat humourous article about it (as usual). Excerpt: "It appears that Microsoft intends to maximize its monopolistic power, using XP as a platform to enter new lines of business while encumbering competitors," Schumer said, rooting deep into the 'I just sussed out Redmond's business strategy; let's arrange a press conference' archive.
posted by DyRE on Jul 25, 2001 - 1 comment

MS VP Challenges GPL on Moral Grounds In Speech
Admitting that the company is feeling pressure from open source, free alternatives, Microsoft's Craig Mundie, lecturing at NYU, will speak out against G.P.L., which he considers impractical, dangerous and morally wrong. Stallman is quoted as saying something ludicrously funny about the American revolution.
posted by rschram on May 3, 2001 - 14 comments

Forbes.com suggests you IT people use shareware or freeware office packages instead of that expensive Microsoft stuff.
posted by jhiggy on May 2, 2001 - 14 comments

Internet Explorer 6 and Standards Microsoft says they'll have 100% CSS1 and DOM (I assume level 1) support. A step in the right direction? Too little too late? Discuss.
posted by fil! on Apr 5, 2001 - 19 comments

Microsoft exec calls Linux a threat to innovation? "One of Microsoft's high-level executives says that freely distributed software code such as Linux could stifle innovation and that legislators need to understand the threat."
posted by macewan on Feb 15, 2001 - 25 comments

The W3C opens a can of whoopass on the browser manufacturers with this detailed list of bugs they'd like to see remedied. Will this result in any changes whatsoever, or will Microsoft and Netscape continue to ignore what they should be doing?
posted by mathowie on Feb 12, 2001 - 14 comments

MacOS X comes of age. Microsoft has just announced that Microsoft Office will be released for the new Apple OS in the fall. "Analysts had warned that without a version of Office, or similar productivity suite, running natively under Mac OS X, Apple would face problems getting businesses to switch to the new operating system. "
posted by Brilliantcrank on Jan 10, 2001 - 0 comments

Microsoft has never made a good product , and is therefore a Bad Company, says baylink.
posted by cCranium on Aug 15, 2000 - 30 comments

No more Mister Nice Guy. They've built a web crawler looking for piracy sites. It should be interesting. I wonder how many computers and how much bandwidth they're assigning to the job?
posted by Steven Den Beste on Aug 2, 2000 - 6 comments

Joel on Software has got a good piece on .NET called Microsoft goes bonkers. In it he says that although it's being heralded as a 'revolution', .NET is worse than vaporware, they didn't even bother to provide the vapor. There is also as an interesting response from a Microsoft employee.
posted by lagado on Aug 2, 2000 - 0 comments

So, how big did you say that app needed to be? Radsoft Labs knocks a Windows DNS client down from 3.5MB to 7*KB*. [Via RISKS Digest.]
posted by baylink on Jun 11, 2000 - 3 comments

MS Cookie Patch Breaks Some Images - We noticed something odd today. Those of us with IE 5.0 who installed the patch to close the cookie security hole can no longer see many of the images on the Washington Post site. People who installed the patch on IE4 still can; and IE5 users without the patch also can. [More inside thread...]
posted by julen on May 19, 2000 - 6 comments

Microsoft unsympathetic toward ending serial killings. "Spokane County Sheriff Mark Sterk held an extraordinary public meeting two months ago and asked the public for fresh tips. He even wrote to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, asking him to donate software to help analyze 10 years of homicide files; according to a sheriff's spokesman, Microsoft said no." => Lack of confidence in their software, or lack of a value system for MS?
posted by greyscale on Apr 23, 2000 - 5 comments

Hey Mac users, want to beat the rush and get IE 5.0 final early? Follow the link to Nick Finck's Digital Web magazine site for the download URL. From the looks of Microsoft's Mac site, it won't be out until tomorrow.
posted by mathowie on Mar 26, 2000 - 3 comments

Adobe is extending into Microsoft's waters. They're making a beta extension available that ties Active Server Pages and ODBC compliant databases together within GoLive's rockin' page-o-rific design environment. GoLive already does some skanky things with WebObjects, so why not get down with the ASP crowd too? Can ColdFusion be far behind kids? Or would that be too edgy for the big red A?
posted by grant on Dec 8, 1999 - 0 comments