Microsoft vs. the Halloween Hacker

As soon as it appears that Microsoft has run out of ways to draw negative attention to itself, it finds another way. The most recent happened in late October, when Microsoft changed its story concerning the hacker that broke into its corporate network using a trojan horse virus known as QAZ. After first expressing surprise about the attack, Microsoft said it was aware of the intrusion for two weeks and was monitoring the hacker's movements during that time.

Industry experts expressed almost unanimous skepticism over Microsoft's explanation, wondering why the company suddenly had to shut down the entire company's access to the Internet over an intrusion it had been aware of for so long.

Microsoft said that beginning Oct. 14, a hacker gained access to high-level secrets and that at some point over the next 12 days viewed blueprints, or source code, for Microsoft software that is being developed. When it confirmed the incident, Microsoft said an electronic intruder had access to source code for as long as five weeks. Microsoft used that time estimate because the duration of the hacker's presence was unclear and the company wanted to be sure it did not underestimate the problem. The company was alerted to the break-in by the creation of new accounts giving users access to parts of Microsoft's computer network, the company said.

Microsoft opposes AOL brief

Microsoft opposed America Online's request to file a brief with an appeals court in support of a judge's order to split the world's largest software company.

Microsoft maintained that AOL could offer only a a repeat of evidence its witnesses provided as government witnesses during the landmark antitrust trial, adding that AOL has "no unique insights into the legal issues" of the case.

The appeals court is scheduled to hear arguments late next February on Microsoft's appeal of the order that it be split in two for illegally defending the monopoly held by its Windows personal computer operating system.

AOL asked the court for permission to file a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in support of the U.S. Justice Department and 19 states that sued Microsoft.

In a one-sentence notice, the appeals court said Thursday it "has decided not to proceed with the review."

SQL server helps speed record

On Oct. 6, Compaq published a new record-setting TPC-C result, recording the highest performance ever, running Windows 2000 and SQL Server 2000. With a performance rating of 505,302 transactions per minute (tpmC) and price/performance of $20.68 per tpmC, the 24-node ProLiant system is the first and only result to break through the half-million tpmC threshold.

On the TPC-C performance list, SQL Server now holds the No. 1 position, four of the top five, and five of the top 10 results. Microsoft Windows 2000 holds six of the top 10 results.

The Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) results refer to the TPC-C and TPC-H benchmarks. The TPC-C Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) benchmark measures throughput in business transactions per minute (tpmC) and the performance and scalability of databases. The TPC-H benchmark simulates a decision support system with large volumes of data.

Microsoft tabs SkyStream

Microsoft will collaborate with SkyStream Networks, a provider of networking infrastructure solutions on enabling content-rich Internet services to be broadcast to digital set-top box customers.

SkyStream's zBand Internet content distribution software will be integrated with the Microsoft TV Platform, allowing broadcasts of high-quality streaming video and Internet content for television set-top boxes, which can also be connected to PCs and other Internet-enabled devices.

The integrated product enables service providers to deliver streaming media and Internet video through fast, broadcast channels. Microsoft TV is a standards-based software platform that enables enhanced TV services in such devices as digital set-top boxes, integrated television sets, personal video recorders, and other convergence devices.

Microsoft has secured commitments from network operators worldwide to use Microsoft TV client and server software to enable enhanced TV services to millions of consumers.

Allen goes out with a bang

Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, who stepped down from the software giant's board in early November, sold $935.4 million of company stock before doing so.

Allen planned to sell 15 million shares of common stock in the company, according to a filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The shares were acquired by Allen in June 1981 as part of founders' stock. Since July, Allen, who quit Microsoft's daily operations in the early 1980s to battle Hodgkin's disease, has sold 15.98 million shares valued at $1.14 billion, according to the SEC.

Allen stepped down at the Microsoft annual meeting on Nov. 9. He will stay on as a senior strategy advisor.

Linux runs dinosaurs

While there has been a lot of news covering how Linux has made inroads into small embedded devices like Internet appliances and handheld personal digital assistants, there hasn't been a lot of news covering how Linux is also moving into the high end.

IBM, the foremost company into mainframe computers, has made a big push for Linux, especially Linux on its S/390 mainframes. IBM recently introduced a new eserver line, or more precisely e(logo)server. The strange wording comes from the fact that some other company owns a trademark on eserver. With this new line, IBM prominently features Linux as shown on its Web site.

On two of the four new server systems, IBM offers Linux. This includes the low-end Intel-based pSeries and the top-of-the-line high-end S/390-based zSeries.

All this effort to port Linux to ever-larger systems is starting to impact the Linux community. On the good side, IBM ported its Journaled File System, or JFS, to Linux and gives the source code away (as has SGI with its XFS file system). These file systems aim to improve the reliability of Linux systems, especially large Linux servers.

On the bad side, though, IBM is getting closer to forking, or branching, the Linux kernel to better support mainframe systems. While you can find zillions of different Linux distributions (some joke there are more distributions than Linux users), all run the same set of Linux kernels, providing a level of consistency between all the versions.

IBM, though, experienced problems with the Linux kernel and needs to make some changes to better support mainframe architectures. Ironically, some of the problems faced by IBM come from the kernel changes made to better support small embedded devices. This may lead to a major branching, or forking, of the Linux kernel, potentially leading to different, and not-so-compatible versions of Linux.

This is a sensitive topic, especially with the experience of Unix, an operating system that Linux is based on. Unix, which long ago could be called anything but Unix, split into a plethora of operating systems all similar and yet all slightly different. These differences were, and continue to be, most apparent for system administrators, the people who could most benefit from consistency. This Unix split resulted in Hewlett-Packard's HP-UX, Sun's Solaris, and IBM's AIX, among others. The differences between all these versions of Unix, and the fact that the vendors refused to work together until it was too late, in large part caused Unix to lose the battle for the desktop against Microsoft's Windows. The old saw of divided we fall seemed to play in the Unix world. And now, when some see Linux as finally getting ready to challenge Windows, the threat of a split worries many who support Linux. Luckily, the split may only be on the mainframe side, a very small part of the overall Linux community.

iBooks get new colors, FireWire, DVD

Apple has overhauled its iBook lineup. The newest versions of the consumer portables feature FireWire ports and, on one model, DVD. The iBooks now come in two flavors: Indigo and Key Lime. There's also an iBook Special Edition, available in Key Lime and Graphite. The Key Lime flavors are only available through the Apple Store. The iBook's standard configurations are:

iBook, available in Indigo. Features a 366MHz PowerPC G3 processor, 64MB of SDRAM, 256K level 2 cache, a 10GB IDE hard drive, 24x-speed CD-ROM drive, USB and FireWire ports, a built-in 56K modem, 10/100BASE-T Ethernet, and iMovie 2 (video-editing software) for an estimated retail price of $1,499.

iBook Special Edition, available in Graphite. Features a 466 MHz PowerPC G3 processor, 64MB of SDRAM, 256K level 2 cache, a 10GB IDE hard drive, 6x-speed DVD-ROM drive, USB and FireWire ports, a built-in 56K modem, 10/100BASE-T Ethernet, and iMovie 2 for an estimated retail price of $1,799.

Apple wins national award

Apple Computer has received one of the first National Design Awards, created by the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, in recognition of excellence, innovation, public impact, and contributions to "quality of life." The museum called the Mac and iMac computers "revolutionary," and praised Apple founder Steven Jobs and designer Jonathan Ive for fostering "groundbreaking but user-friendly design." Radeon card available BTO ATI's Radeon graphics accelerator card is now available as a build-to-order (BTO) option through the online Apple Store for all Power Mac G4 and Power Mac G4 Cube systems. The price og the accelerator card is $100. The Radeon card is designed to provide 3D acceleration for 3D games and complex 3D modeling and rendering.

Mac OS X public beta a hot item

Only Apple could get away with charging $30 for a beta of an operating system. But hey, it seems to be working. The company has sold more than 100,000 copies so far. Apple is selling Mac OS X Public Beta, a preview version of Apple's next-generation operating system, at its online store.