According to a report last Wednesday in The New York Times, the US Justice Department is now investigating Microsoft's relationship with Intel. According to the Times, during a 1995 meeting between Intel Chairman Andy Grove and Bill Gates, Gates made "vague threats" to work more closely with Intel's competitors unless Intel cancelled plans to invest in Internet-related technologies and businesses. The DOJ has reportedly subpoenaed Intel transcripts of the meeting, and several Intel executives have testified about the companies' relationship. Intel and DOJ represenatives had no comment, while Microsoft spokesmen neither conformed or denied the allegations, merely saying they didn't see how that evidence could harm the company's case.

Making matters worse for Microsoft, a new book due out next week will detail the company's many illegal and unethical business practices dating back to the mid-eighties. The book, The Microsoft File: The Secret Case Against Bill Gates, was written by Wendy Goldman Rohm, a longtime member of the computer media. Rohm, who writes for PC Week and Inter@ctive Week, managed to access Microsoft executive memos previously unavailable to the public. She then filled in gaps in the stories via "insider" accounts from sources around the world.
The book includes incidents of Microsoft bugging competitor's motel rooms, forcing computer manufacturers to stop shipping competing OSes and stealing ideas from competitors. The book also details how Microsoft included encrypted AARD code with Windows 3.x just to disable DR DOS. Rohm claims the book's content is so damaging that Bill Gates personally phoned magazine and newspaper editors asking them not to publish anything she wrote.

The Microsoft File: The Secret Case Against Bill Gates. Wendy Goldman Rohm (Times Books - ISBN 0812927168)

Software developers and IT managers are furious over a flaw discovered in Microsoft Access that could cause data loss and scrambled records. The problem, discovered by a developer last week and reproduced several times, affects the way Access handles changes to database records. The new bug could require existing applications be reprogrammed and may corrupt databases. Newsgroup postings indicate that changes made to one Access database record could be saved to another. This is a legally dangerous issue, as it could cause information for one medical patient to be attached to the records of another.
Microsoft officials confirmed that the bug exists, but said Tuesday they were only able to recreate it with Access 97, despite user reports that it also affects Access 2.0 and 95. By Wednesday the company conceded that the other two version were also affected, but there was nothing that could be done to fix them. Microsoft has posted a temportary workaround for the problem on its web site, an official patch is promised for later this week.

Last week a Canadian company discovered a security hole in Microsoft's HotMail service. The hole, which uses JavaScript to fool users into giving their username and password, is simple enough that anyone with a good understanding of JavaScript can take advantage of it. Microsoft temporarily fixed the problem by blocking all e-mail with JavaScript code in it, but that only worked for the 30 seconds it took hackers to replace JavaScript tags with standard HTML tags. Other e-mail services such as NetAddress and LycosMail are checking into the problem, but mail providers like Yahoo that block all HTML coded messages are immune. All the companies have now implemented a working permanant fix.

Back in February federal judge Ron Boyce requested Microsoft to turn over some DOS, Windows 3.X and Windows 95 source code to Caldera's lawyers and expert witnesses. Microsoft refused, so last month the judge gave them five days to hand it over or face fines. Caldera CEO Bryan Sparks says that Microsoft gave them most of it within the five days, but they "didn't deliver all the source code. They said they couldn't find some of the Windows 95 and DOS source code we requested." Sparks said that Caldera will file a formal complaint to force Microsoft to, um, "find" the missing code. This is a sure sign of desperation.

A new software lobbying group, the Technology Access Action Coalition, was created this week to "promote innovation in the high-tech industry and lobby against government intervention." The group, formed primarily by Microsoft-dependant companies like Vanstar and CompUSA, will be chaired by Vanstar president Jay Amato. At a press conference announcing the new organization, Amato stanted that they "are here to take a stand against the meddling, the intrusion, the interference by government and its bureaucrats that threatens our entire industry, our economy, and our standard of living." (translation: we live really well on the money made from selling OS upgrades) Despite having been created at a Microsoft-sponsored meeting and being made up almost exclusively of companies that resell Ms products or are partially owned by the company (like Vanstar), Amato denies being a front for The Behemoth.

Thursday, France Telecom announced that unlike most other European telecom companies, it will not use WebTV set-top boxes when it launches Internet-television service in October. Instead of WebTV, France Telecom will offer Com One's Surf TV, which is popular in Scandinavia. Surf TV costs neary four times more than WebTV but offers more features.
Earlier in the week Germany's biggest telco, Deutsche Telekom, announced plans to use WebTV in a similar service. British Telecommunications finalized similar plans back in March. France Telecom didn't rule out the possibility of using Microsoft's WebTV in the future, but said for now they will stick to Surf TV.

Officially relaunching MSN as a free web-based network of web sites, Microsoft's ISP (which piggybacks on UUNet) was renamed MSN Internet Access. The company is attempting to separate the online service from its content in order to compete with portal sites like Yahoo, Netcenter and Snap!, which have more pageloads per day than the old MSN had customers.
Last Tuesday Microsoft announced its buyout of Valence Research, a company that develops load-balancing and fault tolerance software for Windows NT. All of the company's executives will be folded into Microsoft and its products will be included with future versions of NT and Microsoft servers.
Timewarner's TNT Television has announced plans to make a made-for-TV movie about the computer industry. The movie, currently known as Pirates of Silicon Valley, will "tell the true story of the rise of the computer visionaries, their fierce battles, and how the fledgling computer empire has changed the world." Actor Anthony Michael will reportedly play Bill Gates in the telepic, expected to air sometime next year.

_{Windows 98 Vulnerable to Hacking
Code Warriors blast trustbusters at conference
Microsoft reaches out to IT managers
Pay up, folks}