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Microsoft

Submission + - Expensify CEO: Why we won't hire .NET developers (expensify.com)

Submitted by TheGrapeApe
TheGrapeApe writes: The CEO of San Fransisco-based VC-backed startup Expensify wrote a post on the company's blog today about why he considers .NET experience on a resume a general liability and that it will "definitely raise questions" when screening for developers in his shop:

NET is a dandy language. It’s modern, it’s fancy, it’s got all the bells and whistles. And if you’re doing Windows Mobile 7 apps (which the stats suggest you aren’t), it’s your only choice. But choosing .NET is a choice, and whenever anybody does it, I can’t help but ask “why?”

Does he have a point? Or is it counterproductive to screen devs out based on what platforms or languages they have used in the past? Discuss.
Government

Submission + - Air Force Wants 100s of Fake Online Identities (bnet.com) 1

Submitted by bizwriter
bizwriter writes: Bad enough that spammers are creating fake Facebook accounts that acquire connections with unsuspecting people, then inundate them with crap. Now, the U.S. military wants software and services to manage upwards of 500 fake online personas designed to interact with social media, presumably including such sites as Facebook and Twitter.

Submission + - Nokia workers walk out in protest (geek.com) 2

Submitted by Mr. McGibby
Mr. McGibby writes: "After the announcement of the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft this morning workers voiced their concern with the deal by walking out of Nokia facilities. It is believed that as many as a thousand workers marched out today (or took the day off using flex time) so that the company would know that they don’t believe the partnership is in their best interest, even after CEO’ Stephen Elop’s startlingly frank “burning platform” memo earlier this week."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Zombies Dance on iPhone's Grave

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: If you're Microsoft, what do you do when grizzly ghouls from every tomb are closing in to seal your doom? TechFlash reports that Microsoft celebrated the completion and upcoming launch of Windows Phone 7 on Friday with a 'Windows Phone Pride Parade' complete with zombies, a 'Thriller' Dance, and pallbearers carrying a giant iPhone. 'These kind of 'ship' parties are common throughout the industry,' explained Microsoft communications VP Frank Shaw. 'It's a great way for teams that have worked overtime to create a kick-ass product blow off steam and have a little fun.' More pics at Technolog.
Microsoft

Submission + - "Microsoft fails the Standards Test" - Alex Brown (adjb.net) 2

Submitted by levell
levell writes: Alex Brown, Convenor of the Ballot Resolution Meeting on OOXML has written an interesting blog entry saying that MS Office 2010 still writes documents in the transitional variants of OOXML (meant for legacy documents rather than the strict variants that was intended for future documents). Mr. Brown also says that defects are also being fixed very slowly and that "Looking at the text, I reckon it is more like 95% that remains to be done, as it is still lousy with defects.". It's an insightful look at what has happened with OOXML since ISO approved it from someone who was not opposed to the standard.
Security

Submission + - GSM Decryption Published 3

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The NY Times reports that German encryption expert Karsten Nohl says that he has deciphered and published the 21-year-old GSM algorithm, the secret code used to encrypt most of the world's digital mobile phone calls, in what he called an attempt to expose weaknesses in the security system used by about 3.5 billion of the 4.3 billion wireless connections across the globe. Others have cracked the A5/1 encryption technology used in GSM before, but their results have remained secret. “This shows that existing GSM security is inadequate,” Nohl told about 600 people attending the Chaos Communication Congress. “We are trying to push operators to adopt better security measures for mobile phone calls.” The GSM Association, the industry group based in London that devised the algorithm and represents wireless operators, called Mr. Nohl’s efforts illegal and said they overstated the security threat to wireless calls. “This is theoretically possible but practically unlikely,” says Claire Cranton, a GSM spokeswoman, noting that no one else had broken the code since its adoption. “What he is doing would be illegal in Britain and the United States. To do this while supposedly being concerned about privacy is beyond me.” Simon Bransfield-Garth, the chief executive of Cellcrypt, says Nohl's efforts could put sophisticated mobile interception technology — limited to governments and intelligence agencies — within the reach of any reasonable well-funded criminal organization. “This will reduce the time to break a GSM call from weeks to hours,” Bransfield-Garth says. “We expect as this further develops it will be reduced to minutes.”"

Submission + - Microsoft Patents Sudo (groklaw.net)

Submitted by Foofoobar
Foofoobar writes: Just when you thought all was safe on the crazy patent front, Microsoft has come out of the obvious patent closet to file patent number 7617530, a patent that basically duplicates the functionality of 'sudo' which is found in all Linux systems. PJ over at groklaw has a wonderful writeup on the entire fiasco.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft opens Outlook's PST format (msdn.com)

Submitted by protosage
protosage writes: From Microsoft's Interoperability blog: This documentation is still in its early stages and work is ongoing. We are engaging directly with industry experts and interested customers to gather feedback on the quality of the technical documentation to ensure that it is clear and useful. When it is complete, it will be released under our Open Specification Promise, which will allow anyone to implement the .pst file format on any platform and in any tool, without concerns about patents, and without the need to contact Microsoft in any way.

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