After ignoring the pleas of security advocates for four years, the perverbial excrement finally hit Microsoft's fan two weeks ago last Friday. The worst macro virus ever, Melissa, was released in a pornographic newsgroup on April 2nd and by the following Monday had infected a record number of computers.
The virus and its clones are fairly simple, using the macro functions in Microsoft Office to send copies of itself to the first fifty addresses on any user's Outlook contact list. Only computers running Windows 9X with macro-enabled Word and Outlook software were affected, making the mess completely Microsoft's fault. But they got away with it; while the mainstream media gave the virus a lot of coverage, only the rare few actually explained that it was allowed to happen because of insecure Microsoft products. Ironically Microsoft didn't escape harm-free, its internal network was hit so hard that the company had to stop all outgoing mail for a day to prevent the virus from spreading further.

Less than a month after the product's release, Microsoft has acknowledged two security problems in Internet Explorer 5. One of the holes, which is similar to one found in IE4, allows "malicious hackers" to obtain anything on a Windows user's clipboard. The other takes advantage of Internet Explorer's noncompliant DHTML edit control to find the location of any file on a computer. Microsoft said that patches are, of course, being developed.
However, they wasted no time fixing other more important problems in IE5. Last week Microsoft updated the browser to correct problems with Office 2000 integration. But instead of providing a patch for the glitches, Microsoft quietly updated the IE5 download on its site from build 5.00.2014.0216 to build 5.00.2314.1003 and promised to include the updated code with Office 2000. It isn't hard to tell where their priorities lie; security bugs can wait but getting everything to work with Office is imperative.

As expected, in the last week of March District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson pushed the resume date for Microsoft's antitrust trial into May. The trial, which began last October, took an extended recess on February 26 with plans to continue with the trial last Monday, April 12. But because of a conflicting schedule Jackson said that court will not resume until at least May 10th. However, there is still a slight possibility the opposing sides will settle out of court, although that's highly unlikely since all sources are saying that the Justice Department has demanded more than Microsoft is willing to give. Talks are ongoing, but Microsoft, the government, Judge Jackson and all the states involved have stopped publicly commenting on their progress.

While Microsoft is talking settlement, there's yet to be a slowdown in their fight. Last week at the same time that the software giant was attempting to reach a settlement, they were also trying to gain more information about Netscape's merger with AOL (and the subsequent deal with Sun) to use as leverage in the court case. According to a petition filed by Microsoft, the messages and documents requested contain information relevant to its case with the justice department, specifically about the merged company's plans to continue developing and distributing Netscape's browser and future sources of "platform competition" that go beyond the PC arena. In addition to those documents, Microsoft also subpoenaed Sun to provide an officer or manager knowledgeable about the merger as a witness when the trial resumes.
Microsoft delivered its subpoena after filing an emergency notion requesting the production of all pertinent information relating to the purchase of Netscape by AOL and the technology exchange with Sun that followed. In that filing, Microsoft charged that only three boxes of relevant information about the merger have been delivered, as compared to the 120 boxes Netscape and America Online gave the Department of Justice when it reviewed their plans. Microsoft also claimed to have sent the three companies a number of letters over the last few weeks, requesting the delivery of documents and e-mail mentioned by the subpoena.
Late last year Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson granted a similar request from Microsoft seeking information in regard to the merger. The judge also issued an order instructing the Department of Justice to pass some relevant documents from the then-pending merger over to Microsoft attorneys. However, Microsoft's request to depose seven witnesses from the three companies and their banks was curtailed by Jackson, allowing Microsoft to use only one witness each from AOL, Sun and Netscape.

Microsoft announced on April 5 that they have released a software tool to fix the problem of an identifying number generated by Office 97 and the Registration Wizard in Windows 98 [see NewsSource, March 15]. The tool and modification of future releases of the Registration Wizard was in direct response to Privacy Advocates who objected to the collection of private information without user's permission. But to use the tool you must be running Internet Explorer 4 or 5, proving Microsoft has learned nothing from the Department of Justice court proceedings.
Microsoft also got into big trouble with Macintosh users over an HTML coding error on the Office 98 bug fixes web page. Microsoft received a batch of complaints from Mac users who got an error message of "malformed syntax" when they tried unsuccessfully to download the Office 98 patch using Netscape browsers. That, according to Microsoft's Linda Siegel, "was an accidental error," not an intentional error like you usually see.

Microsoft announced last Wednesday that it will pay Spyglass $20 million to develop software for Windows CE. In return for Microsoft's three year payout, Spyglass will create software to make Wince embedded devices and give Microsoft access to some unnamed technologies. Spyglass stock soared up over 90% on the news. Ironically, the Spyglass company is most famous for a dispute several years ago when Microsoft used their technology in Internet Explorer with promises to pay royalties for every copy of the browser sold - then gave the software away. Microsoft eventually paid Spyglass a lump sum to settle the matter, and since that time the two companies have apparently settled their differences.

Slate readership has surged by nearly 75% since February when the online magazine announced that it will no longer charge subscription prices [see NewsSource, Feb. 15]. However, the venerable e-zine still isn't making a profit, and won't without a lot more traffic. So just like the rest of Microsoft's faltering sites, Slate is going under the knife for its first redesign since launching in 1995. According to editor Michael Kinsley, the new site will be easier to navigate, offer more interactive features and provide more slots for advertisers. Microsoft will reportedly spend some $300,000 (on top of the bloated MSN ad budget) advertising the site, which they expect to relaunch in mid-May.

In an attempt to ease bad PR from lawsuits filed against it by several groups of temporary workers [see NewsSource, Jan. 11], Microsoft has expanded from five to to 15 authorized temp agencies. According to the company, that gives the agencies more competition and will result in better benefits for workers. But as one temp pointed out, they still don't get stock options and other benefits, meaning that the only change is "now the workers can choose which pimp they want to use."
In a suit filed last week, Thomas D. Peterson of California accused Microsoft of violating a patent he holds on mapping software. The patent, issued in1996, is for a computerized way to find "shortest elapsed time route information," or identifying the fastest way to travel somewhere. A similar system to help motorists avoid congested places in the Seattle area, which Peterson cited in his suit, is used on Microsoft's Sidewalk web site.
Longterm Microsoft partner Dell Computer announced earlier this month that it has made an equity investment in Linux vendor Red Hat software and will soon preload Linux on a limited number of computers. The #1 direct supplier of PCs then announced that clothing retailer Burlington Coat Factory has already agreed to buy some 1,250 Dell desktop machines running Linux. Unfortunately, Windows will still be the only option on Dell's consumer desktops.
Bill Gates' Corbis, the world's second-largest image archive licensing company, recently announced that it has plans to expand market share by acquiring the digital rights to more image collections and setting up partnerships with several key Web sites. Corbis has, so far, failed to make a profit from its 25 million-plus images since Gates founded it back in 1996.

_{Microsoft Gets Ready to Play a New Game
Gates' DOS worries found in 1989 email
Gorton slams Microsoft judge during visit to campus
Microsoft investors face decisions
Study Predicts Linux Will Outpace Other Systems}