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Microsoft open-sources clever U-Prove identity framework
nb1 writes "U-Prove, a powerful framework that couples strong privacy with high security for online authentication, has been released as an open source preview by Microsoft. Unfortunately, even open source is unlikely to ensure widespread adoption of this clever—and highly desirable—technology
Posted by Raven on Thursday, March 04, 2010 @ 00:31:15 EST (39 reads) ( | Score: 0)
Microsoft's *Operation b49* chokes Waledac botnet
Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit has effectively shut down the Waledac botnet, cutting off cybercriminal access to hundreds of thousands of infected Windows computers around the world.
In partnership with security vendors and law enforcement officials, Microsoft implemented “Operation b49″ and moved to the federal courts to get a temporary restraining order cutting off 277 Internet domains believed to be run by criminals as the Waledac bot.
According to Microsoft associate general counsel Tim Cranton, the action quickly and effectively cut off traffic to Waledac at the “.com” or domain registry level, severing the connection between the command and control centers of the botnet and most of its thousands of zombie computers around the world.
Waledac is one of the 10 largest botnets in the US and is responsible to distributing billions of spam messages around the world. According to Microsoft, the botnet is estimated to have infected hundreds of thousands of computers around the world and, prior to this action, was believed to have the capacity to send over 1.5 billion spam emails per day.
Posted by Raven on Tuesday, March 02, 2010 @ 01:30:26 EST (56 reads) ( | Score: 0)
Microsoft to Release Documentation for Outlook Personal Folders Format
Many a Linux user has already stumbled upon .pst documents, such as attached to emails in "Outlook Format." Microsoft now wants to publish documentation for the file format.
Under the keyword "interoperability," Microsoft group manager Paul Lorimer indicated in his blog that the company will make its Outlook Personal Folders format (.pst) specification available to more than just its developers. The publication should make it easier for anyone to write a program or library to handle the file format without needing written permission from Microsoft.
However, releasing the documentation is not under a free license, but under the Microsoft Open Specification Promise, an intellectual property rights implementation initiated in 2006 whereby Microsoft promises not to file claims against use of certain of their licensed or patented technologies. A similar Community Promise from 2007 applied to the free Mono .NET implementation.
According to Lorimer's blog, the PST specification is still in an early draft, with an exact release date still TBD.
Posted by Raven on Thursday, October 29, 2009 @ 11:30:21 EDT (504 reads) ( | Score: 0)
Microsoft digs into PHP
NB1 writes "Microsoft's Open Source Technology Center used to make news by partnering with SugarCRM, MySQL, and other commercial open-source projects. Those partnerships seem to have hit a dry spell over the past two years, with little in the way of new announcements, but this doesn't mean that Microsoft's OSTC has been inactive.
Quite the contrary. As its work with the PHP community suggest, the OSTC has actually been in overdrive. In an interview with the PHP Classes blog, Microsoft gives some background as to the motivations behind its work with the scripting language...
Posted by Raven on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 @ 11:15:43 EST (1579 reads) (Read More... | 2244 bytes more | Score: 0)
Cosmos: An open-source .Net-based microkernel OS is born
Cosmos is a set of operating system legos written completely in C# that allow developers to easily build custom OSes with little OS experience by simply selecting new project in Visual Studio, then pressing F5 to build, deploy, and debug.
Cosmos is an independent project from Microsoft. I’m a former Microsoft FTE (full-time employee) myself and still heavily involved with Microsoft as I am Microsoft Regional Director, but Cosmos is independent. Cosmos is licensed under the BSD license though, so generally there are no issues….We are free to support anything we want.
Posted by Raven on Thursday, February 07, 2008 @ 12:11:51 EST (1664 reads) ( | Score: 0)
Microsoft releases tools to boost Web accessibility
nb1 writes "Microsoft on Thursday is expected to release a new set of developer tools for products that improve the Internet's accessibility for people with disabilities. The tools, called UI Automation, can be used royalty-free, according to Microsoft's Windows Accessibility lead Norm Hodne, as long as the resulting applications are built to perform within all platforms, e.g. Windows or Linux.
Microsoft formally donated the UI (user interface) Automation developer tools to the Accessibility Interoperability Alliance (AIA), an engineering working group that the software giant helped form last November in partnership with tech companies like Oracle, Novell, Hewlett-Packard and Adobe Systems, as well as assistive-technology developers like GW Micro. The working group's mission is to pave the way for standards in the industry for text-to-speech software, screen readers and other assistive products
Posted by Raven on Friday, January 18, 2008 @ 14:56:53 EST (1250 reads) ( | Score: 0)
Microsoft Unleashes Windows XP SP3 Release Candidate
By Kevin McLaughlin, CMP Channel
4:02 PM EST Wed. Dec. 19, 2007
Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) Tuesday unveiled the first release candidate for Windows XP service pack 3 (SP3), moving the long awaited final batch of tweaks and fixes for XP closer to reality.
Originally slated for release in 2006, XP SP3 has been pushed back on numerous occasions, and this marks the first time it has been available for public download.
Earlier this month, Microsoft launched the first release candiate for Windows Vista SP1. Microsoft plans to launch Windows XP SP3 sometime in the first half of next year, with Vista SP1 due in in the first quarter.
XP SP3 includes all of the fixes Microsoft has released since launching XP in 2001, as well as some minor new features that are part of Windows Vista. These include: support for Microsoft's Network Access Protection security technology; 'keyless activation', which lets IT administrators install SP3 without entering product keys for each copy; and detection of so-called 'black hole' network routers that can slow network performance.
Posted by Raven on Friday, December 21, 2007 @ 02:17:03 EST (1262 reads) (Read More... | 2256 bytes more | Score: 0)
Microsoft Breaks HTML Email Rendering in Outlook 2007
,"Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 uses the HTML parsing and rendering engine from Microsoft Office Word 2007 to display HTML message bodies. The same HTML and cascading style sheets (CSS) support available in Word 2007 is available in Outlook 2007."
The limitations imposed by Word 2007 are described in detail in the article, but here are a few highlights:
* no support for background images (HTML or CSS)
* no support for forms
* no support for Flash, or other plugins
* no support for CSS floats
* no support for replacing bullets with images in unordered lists
* no support for CSS positioning
* no support for animated GIFs
In short, unless your HTML emails are very, very simple, you're going to run into problems with Outlook 2007, and in most cases the only solution to those problems will be to reduce the complexity of your HTML email design to accommodate Outlook's limited feature set.
Posted by Raven on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 @ 06:49:36 EST (2428 reads) ( | Score: 0)
Microsoft now decides to accept outside security for Vista
Monday, 16 October 2006, 12:21 AM CET
Microsoft agreed to make it easier for customers of its forthcoming Vista operating system to use outside security vendors, such as those who make popular antivirus and anti-spyware programs.
Until now, Microsoft had planned to block those companies from installing their products in the deepest levels of the new operating system, which is scheduled for release early next year.
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