By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Apparently not satisfied with his “win” against Motorola, Carl Icahn has been buying up Yahoo! stock, apparently planning a proxy fight designed to replace the Yahoo! Board of Directors with a set of nominees that will move forward toward a possible merger with Microsoft. On Thursday Icahn sent an open letter to Yahoo! Chairman Roy Bostock outlining his plans, stating that the company’s board had “acted irrationally and lost the faith of shareholders and Microsoft.”

The letter, revealed in a press release, said the following:
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By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

In February, Robert Scoble wrote that Microsoft researchers showed him something that made him cry. At the time, he couldn’t write about it, but it turned out to be this project, the Microsoft WorldWide Telescope.

It’s a desktop application, so you do have to download and install it. Think of it as a Google Earth for space. It’s dedicated to Jim Gray, the Microsoft Researcher who sailed out of San Francisco Bay in late January of 2007 and was never seen again. The first inklings of this project appeared in a 2002 paper he wrote with Alexander S. Szalay.

Before you ask: Windows only. Yep. You can run it on a Mac with Boot Camp, but …

In a press release, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said:

“The WorldWide Telescope is a powerful tool for science and education that makes it possible for everyone to explore the universe. By combining terabytes of incredible imagery and data with easy-to-use software for viewing and moving through all that information, the WorldWide Telescope opens the door to new ways to see and experience the wonders of space. Our hope is that it will inspire young people to explore astronomy and science, and help researchers in their quest to better understand the universe.”

Microsoft is probably also thinking that the galaxy is much cooler than silly old Earth, and they don’t have to worry about security or privacy issues - or lawsuits - a la Google Earth or Google Street View.

Playing around with it … it’s cool. You pick something from a collection, and it scrolls around, or you can scroll yourself. It does need 3D acceleration, and although it will work with 1 MB 0f RAM, they recommend 2 MB.

Some of the coolness is shown above with Jupiter. Zoom in on something, right-click on it and you get more details. Just to be clear, it’s pre-release software, and you’ll run into bugs, such as artifacts and the like.

It does seem to be somewhat of a resource hog, as it sure slowed down my system while it was running. Still, I was impressed. It didn’t make me cry, but the images sure blew me away.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Depending on how you spin this information, it’s either good news or bad. A study by a decidedly partial observer, security vendor PC Tools Software, showed that Windows Vista, while much improved over Windows XP, is still far too vulnerable.

Not that we needed a study to tell us that …

The study was developed by using data from PC Tools’ ThreatFire program. According to the data, Vista allowed 639 threats per thousand computers through its built-in security, compared with 586 for Windows 2000, 478 for Windows Server 2003, and 1,021 for Windows XP.

So, rather than Windows Vista being Microsoft’s most secure OS, as it’s advertised, it’s really Windows Server 2003?

Simon Clausen, CEO of PC Tools, said in a statement:

“Ironically, the new operating system has been hailed by Microsoft as the most secure version of Windows to date. However, recent research conducted with statistics from over 1.4 million computers within the ThreatFire community has shown that Windows Vista is more susceptible to malware than the eight year old Windows 2000 operating system, and only 37% more secure than Windows XP.”

PC Tools’ flagship product, ThreatFire, is designed to work in concert with standard antivirus programs to protect your PC. ThreatFire uses behavioral analysis to detect malware rather than a signature database. PC Tools says on their ThreatFire site:

Traditional antivirus solutions cannot protect you until after they’ve discovered a new threat and produced a signature to counter it.

ThreatFire is different. It does not rely on signatures, but instead constantly analyzes your computer’s behavior to detect and block any malicious activity. ThreatFire protects immediately so you know your PC and your valuable data is always secure.

While this is the type of protection that I’ve always stressed is important, of the type that might have prevented the recent malware “shipment” in a Firefox language pack, it also means that PC Tools has a vested interest in this type of study.

While ThreatFire is free, PC Tools also sells a anti-spyware product as well as an antivirus product.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

A story in the New York Times had the blogosphere up in arms, but Microsoft indicates we shouldn’t believe it. The Times said that Microsoft is working to implement an anti-piracy filter into its Zune media players, which would prevent playback of unauthorized videos.

This information came via J. B. Perrette, the president of digital distribution for NBC Universal, who explained to the NYT why NBC chose Zune Marketplace over the iTunes Store.

According to the NYT, he indicated that the first reason was one we already knew: Apple insists that all TV shows have an identical wholesale price so that it can sell all of them at $1.99, while NBC wants to sell its programs for whatever price it wants.

The second reason given was the interesting one. He said that Apple refused to cooperate with NBC on building filters into its iPod player to remove pirated movies and videos. Perrette said that while the filter is still under development and that its exact form is undecided.

However, at a semi-official Microsoft Zune Blog, a blog post denied Microsoft has any such blog:

We have no plans or commitments to implement any new type of content filtering in the Zune devices as part of our content distribution deal with NBC.

We think some folks in the industry were expressing hopes for how the entire industry, not just Microsoft, would come to look at content distribution, and some speculation has ensued. Again, no plans are in place toward this end.

Interesting that it completely contradicts Perrette. Of course, that doesn’t mean Microsoft will never consider such a filter, does it?

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Close only counts in horseshoes, right? Well, although a number of sites are saying that Windows XP SP3 is available for download, it’s not quite there. The reason is a glitch between the service pack and Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System.

“In order to make sure customers have the best possible experience, we have decided to delay releasing Windows XP SP3 to Windows Update and Microsoft Download Center,” the company said in a statement.

The glitch also exists between Microsoft Dynamics RMS and Windows Vista Service Pack 1, though that product has already been broadly released. Microsoft started pushing out Vista SP1 last week via Automatic Updates.

“To help protect our customers, we plan to put filtering in place shortly to prevent Windows Update from offering both service packs to systems running Microsoft Dynamics RMS,” Microsoft said. “Once filtering is in place, we expect to release Windows XP SP3 to Windows Update and Download Center.” Source: News.com

We Say: You’d think they would have the filtering system in place quickly, and you’d probably be right, so this probably won’t block downloads for long. If, of course, you don’t have the RMS system, go for it (if you can find a link).

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

A little more than a year since it was brave enough to backtrack on its Vista-only policy on consumer PCs, Dell is again breaking ground.

We know that Microsoft has set June 30th as the drop-dead date for Windows XP (despite their statements yesterday). Despite the fact that after June 30th, manufacturers such as Dell are not allowed to ship PCs with XP pre-installed, Dell has come up with an “escape clause.”

Consumers who buy either Windows Vista Business or Ultimate also entitled to get Windows XP Professional (the so-called “Downgrade Rights”). Each computer manufacturer decides whether, or how, to implement this, but generally they ship a CD with an image of Windows XP with the computer. This was how it was handled on my wife’s recently purchased VAIO.

What Dell’s going to do is implement this policy their way.

Their way means installing Windows XP on the PC themselves, rather than supplying you the CD. Thus, the PC leaves the factory with XP preinstalled.

On a special site Dell’s put up addressing this, they say:

Is there any way to get Windows XP after June 30th?

Customers may continue to get Windows XP Professional by exercising Downgrade Rights that come with Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate licenses. Dell has the ability to exercise “Windows Vista downgrade rights” on your behalf in the factory if your business is still reliant upon Windows XP and you’d prefer to have Windows XP Professional preinstalled on your PCs.

What does it mean for Dell to exercise “Downgrade Rights” for me? Where can I find this option?

When you are configuring your system online or through the help of one of our sales experts, you will have the opportunity to select which operating system you would like on your PC. When selecting your operating system, you will see an option called “Genuine Windows^® Vista Business BONUS” and “Genuine Windows^® Vista Ultimate BONUS.” With these options, you may purchase the licensed rights to Windows Vista but have Dell factory install Windows XP Professional. You will also receive a backup media disc for Windows XP Professional as well as the media for Windows Vista so you can upgrade when you’re ready. Furthermore, with these options Dell will provide technical support for the factory-installed Windows XP Professional image and your licensed version of Windows Vista.

Dell will normally only provide tech support for the factory-installed OS, but with this option, if you have XP preinstalled and then switch to Vista, they’ll support it as well.

According to a contact at Dell, the “downgrade” program will be available as an option on some Dell Latitude, OptiPlex, and Dell Precision systems at no charge, and as an option on some Vostro and Dell XPS gaming systems for a small fee.

I have to applaud Dell for this. While this is obviously good PR for a company that desperately wants to get out of the doldrums, it’s a great move and I hope other OEMs follow suit.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Wednesday, in a post on the Windows Vista Team Blog, Microsoft announced that they had begun automatic distribution of Windows Vista SP1. What this means if that if you have Windows Updates set to automatically download and install on your PC, Windows Update will automatically download SP1 to your PC, after which a few clicks (for the EULA, naturally) will be required for the install to begin.

Until now users had to either manually download a standalone installer or install from Windows Update manually. Only English, French, German, Spanish, or Japanese languages are currently being distributed automatically, however.

Also, it should be noted there are a few issues that may prevent automatic downloading from occurring, most prevalent of which is the “old driver issue,” in which SP1 can’t be installed because older drivers may cause an endless reboot cycle.

While Microsoft outlines this and other issues on this web page, why they haven’t provided a tool that indicates a) which driver is the problem, b) where to get an update - if available - is beyond me. For most end users trying to search down which driver is the issue is beyond their capability.

And in that case, I would label Microsoft’s automatic distribution of SP1 as “somewhat” automatic.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Hopefully you read that title the way Steve Ballmer probably meant to say it on Thursday. You know, emphasis on the “HAVE” in a sarcastic way. Although I’m sure he didn’t say it that way, he probably wanted to.

Speaking at a news conference in Belgium, where he was to announce the establishment of an “innovation centre” in the Belgian city of Mons, Ballmer gave XP fans a little hope. Ballmer said:

“XP will hit an end-of-life. We have announced one. If customer feedback varies we can always wake up smarter but right now we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments.”

The end-of-life plan for XP states that - with the exception of ULCPCs - Microsoft will stop licensing Windows XP to computer makers and end retail sales by June 30.

Microsoft has been quite adamant about the end of XP. It’s strange that he made his “if customer feedback varies” statement, because if Microsoft bothered to listen, they’d know both analysts and users want XP to continue until the next version of Windows releases (targeted for 2010). In fact, there’s a petition to save XP here with over 164K signatures.