Bonum Certa Men Certa

Eye on Microsoft: Feeling the Heat (and Not Just Because It's Summer)

Security



While the world is whispering about OpenSSH and Fedora, pay attention to Windows.

Microsoft admits posting flawed update



Microsoft Corp. rereleased one of its Aug. 11 security updates yesterday, explaining that it had posted an incomplete version to its own download center last week.

The admission was the third time in the past two months that Microsoft has had to reissue a security-related update.


This was a massive update addressing at least half a dozen "critical" flaws which probably enable full system compromise, even remotely. These statistics should not be surprising.

The security bubble of Windows Vista has already bursted, but there are greater troubles in sight.

If Microsoft really wanted to improve its reputation, they might try throwing that $300M at improving Vista and letting the market decides what it likes and doesn't like. Instead, it makes a lame attempt to save its reputation through PR and ad campaigns and paper over a weak product.


New Vice President, When Did the Previous Leave?



It seems likely that a high-level departure at Microsoft went below the radar of the press. A new Vice President of Microsoft Services is being appointed, but when did the predecessor leave?

Callahan joins Microsoft from Lawson Software, where he served as executive vice president of Professional Services.


We have witnessed many silent departures recently, including that of Microsoft's chief in Singapore and in South Africa. It's part of a trend.

Legal



Not a day goes by without some Microsoft confrontation.

InterSystems Corp. CEO Phillip Ragon has called One Memorial Drive home for the past 20 years.

But the longtime Cambridge resident and MIT graduate said the building’s landlord, the Blackstone Group, has a plan in the works to potentially brand the 17-story office tower as “the Microsoft building” by endorsing large Microsoft signs to be placed on three exterior sides and leasing out the top three floors to the out-of-town competitor.

“A big Microsoft sign across the top might imply that Cambridge is Microsoft,” said Ragon, whose sixth-floor conference room features an impeccable city view. “It really sets an image for the city.”


Vapourware Makes Another Comeback



For 4 consecutive months, Microsoft's XBox360 was the worst-performing console (in terms of sales in its own back yard). How might Microsoft respond? The way it always does: vapourware.

Do you see the above? I declare that we call it the Vapor Wand. It is because it doesn’t exist. Journalists might insist that it does exist. But until it ships, it doesn’t exist. It is the Vapor Wand.


Over the past 7 years, XBox is estimated to have lost about $7 billion. A hugely-successful Microsoft may be a myth. Omnipotence can be an illusion, as Enron has already proven.

'Pawns' Under the Magnifying Glass



At the beginning of the year we wrote about the NHS, whose obsession with Microsoft cost it dearly. It cost the British taxpayers over 10 billion pounds and it's said to be one of the biggest-ever information technology disasters. Here cometh an investigation from the BCS.

Shadow health secretary Stephen O'Brien MP has commissioned an independent report from the British Computer Society on what English health service IT should look like in five years' time.

Beyond that patient-based records will form the basis of NHS informatics, no assumptions are being made, according the review's chair Dr Glyn Hayes, past chair of the BCS Health Informatics Forum.


Yahoo! Saga Not Over Yet



It may seem quiet now, but the Yahoo/Microsoft marriage could return based on the observation made below.

It wouldn't be surprising if Carl Icahn and the two Yahoo board members he selected are adding this occasion to some sort of list that they'll present against Jerry Yang at a later date. And if Steve Ballmer - or someone representing any company with a fair amount of cash - wandered back to the bargaining table, an acquisition might be inevitable.


Never forget the mafia-like behaviour of Microsoft and the way it agitated Yahoo!

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

BetaNews Has More or Less Died After Experiments With LLM Slop, Is Linuxsecurity Next?
It doesn't seem like BetaNews knows what it's doing, let alone what it talks about
Links 13/06/2025: Journalists Targeted by Cracking, China-Japan and Israel-Iran Tensions Grow
Links for the day
 
Links 14/06/2025: Wars and L.A. Distortion Effect
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/06/2025: Historic Ada Design and GeminiSpace.Club to Expire
Links for the day
Links 14/06/2025: India Plane Crash and Middle-Eastern War
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 13, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, June 13, 2025
Gemini Links 13/06/2025: (Not)virtues and Project Yeet Broadband
Links for the day
Links 13/06/2025: US Reduces Nonessential Staff at Baghdad Embassy Ahead of Strikes in Iran, Invasion of California Debated
Links for the day
X11 is Free Software
Whether you agree (e.g. on politics) with the person/s forking it doesn't matter
The More Time Passes, the Better Our Advice on Social Control Media Seems
At the end of the day, any platform you do not control yourself is working for someone else
Twitter (X) is Dying, Now It's Just Like a Mafia-Type Operation of the Man Who Does Nazi Salutes in Public
a form of extortion
UK High Court Blasts Brett Wilson LLP for Misusing "GDPR" After Failed Efforts to Censor Critics Using 'Libel' Claims
No wonder this firm is rapidly shrinking
Recent Blunders in Microsoft GitHub (e.g. Slop-Generated Bug Reports or GPL Violations 'as a Service') Taking Their Toll?
Put bluntly, if you still use Microsoft GitHub, then you're slave to Microsoft
American Imperialism and Microsoft Plagiarism
Techrights will therefore do what Microsoft does not want it to do: it'll write even more about Microsoft
When They Have Nothing Left to Help Advance Abusive Litigation for Microsoft People... Other Than Throwing ~500 Pages of Someone Else's Work Into a PDF
Microsoft is having a very tough year
The Price of Exposing Corruption in Poland (and Elsewhere)
It's easier to participate in corruption than to merely do the right thing and oppose it
Slopwatch and Yet More Holes in 'Secure Boot' (as Usual!), Promoted Inside Linux by the Man We Are Suing
Today's Slopwatch will be short
Gemini Links 13/06/2025: People You've Left Behind, Life Update and OS Changes
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 12, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 12, 2025
Links 12/06/2025: Portland Homeless Deaths Quadruple, COVID Cases Surge in Asia
Links for the day
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part IX: Minimum Wages For You (Experienced Scientist), Alicante/EU Paydays For Me (Unproductive, Corrupt Official)
Does UPRP maladministration extend to the false belief that qualified and experienced scientists can play the role of circus clowns?
"The Liberating Power of Simply Telling People the Truth."
'polite' bullying
Who Imitates Who? Plagiarist as Client (From Microsoft), 'Plagiarism' at the Law Firm?
let's revisit the subject
EPO's Gareth Lord Asked About "Quality and Productivity" or, Put Another Way, Why the EPO Keeps Granting So Many Invalid/Illegal Patents
letter to Lord
EPO's Central Staff Committee (CSC) Scrutinises the Man Who Illegally Grants (and Forces Others to Illegally Participate in Granting) Software Patents in Europe
EPO compels examiners to break the law in the name of obeying illegal "rules" or "orders"
The Latest Rumour Says The Next (as Correctly Predicted Before) Wave of Layoffs at Microsoft is 3 Weeks Away, "Larger Than the First Wave"
Step 2
TV Licensing Used to SPAM Your Postbox, Now It Does the Same to E-mail
First they ask for your E-mail address; then they start nagging you via E-mail
The Toxic Playbook
Either you support Prince Mohammed bin Salman or you're a nazi
It's Possible That BetaNews Got Cracked, But Nobody Talks About It, The Site Contains an Outdated Old Image, No Activity
It's possible that they will never explain what happened to the site and users' accounts
Links 12/06/2025: Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson Dies
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/06/2025: Video Game Diegesis and Steam Next Fest
Links for the day
Why the Militants Have Lost Every Battle Since 2022 (When Attacking My Wife and I in Various Ways, Even Attacking Our Employers)
This takes patience, sure, but at the end most evildoers face the consequences for their actions
Our Priority is Still Tackling Software Patents and Corruption in Patent Offices
Meanwhile we got compliments on our recent articles, which means that they are effective
Politics Will Impact Software Choices
Will those systems respect users' freedom?
EPO: Neglecting Children to Promote American Monopolies by Shielding Them From European Competition
Yesterday the Central Staff Committee at the EPO spoke about another "reform" at the Office
Slopwatch: Another Day, Another Slopfest, LLM Slop Scrapers Slow Down Our Site
We too have some slop issues; this past day this site and the sister site had to answer about 2.5 million requests (not counting Gemini Protocol) and it's slowing things down for everybody
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 11, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 11, 2025