Microsoft's twists and turns

As someone who has gotten lost trying to find a Microsoft building in Redmond more times than I'd like to admit, I made a point of saving this tongue-in-cheek analysis of the complicated road pattern on the company's main campus, as shown in this map. The analysis is from NewsForge, a site for Linux and open-source news, so you can probably guess the nature of the conclusions it makes. Be sure to check out the comments below the post, as well.

A few favorites

As this Microsoft weblog gets up and running, I thought it would be good to point to some of the other Web sites and weblogs that track the company. Many of them have been doing it for quite some time. These are the ones I tend to visit most frequently:

• Watching Microsoft Like a Hawk: A good collection of Microsoft news from all over the place, updated regularly. This site is also valuable for its pointers to other sites, under the "Friends of the Hawk" and "Microsoft News Sources" headings. Also check out Watching Google Like a Hawk, maintained by the same folks.

• Microsoft Monitor: This Jupiter Research weblog contains regular posts by the company's analysts, including Joe Wilcox, previously a CNet News.com reporter, and Michael Gartenberg, research director. I always find it useful to see which topics they're focusing on and what they're saying. This site was particularly compelling to watch during Microsoft's annual meeting with analysts, investors and journalists in July. Wilcox was there, posting his thoughts on what the speakers were saying practically as they were saying it. It was almost like reading his notes over his shoulder. (See the archive of those posts beginning with this one.)

• Microsoft Watch: In addition to a very well-maintained collection of Microsoft news (including original content) this site by journalist Mary Jo Foley, a longtime Microsoft watcher, contains what seems to be the most comprehensive list of Microsoft employee weblogs out there.

• WinInfo: Maintained by Paul Thurrott, news editor for Windows and .Net Magazine, this site promises and delivers "no fluff." Look especially for the weekly Short Takes column, posted on Fridays. Thurrott has other sites, as well, including his SuperSite for Windows, which includes news about Longhorn, the next generation of the Windows operating system.

• ActivWin: Another good repository of Microsoft news, most of it assembled from other sources. This site is especially helpful in the way it clearly states and links to the place it came across each piece of news. I've found several new sources of information from that.

• Dan Gillmor's eJournal: The (San Jose) Mercury News technology columnist offers interesting and sensible commentary in this weblog, which supplements the column he writes for the paper. Other tech-related weblogs and Web sites frequently point to and quote from his weblog and columns.

• The Paul Wall: This is the weblog of Paul Andrews, a veteran technology journalist who pens a weekly column for some other Seattle newspaper, the name of which isn't coming to me at the moment. An author of books including "Gates," he has covered Microsoft longer than a lot of its executives have been there, and he has a wealth of institutional knowledge.

• This one is straight from the source, so read it with that in mind, but Microsoft's Press Pass site is a good resource for basic background, historical information, official transcripts of executive speeches, etc. And for raw data, there's no beating this page on the Press Pass site.

• The aforementioned Microsoft Watch list of bloggers is a good place to start exploring the world of Microsoft employee weblogs, if you're so inclined. Many of these blogs also link to one another, which means you can use them almost like a webring, checking out one person's site and then going to one of the employees to which that site links, and so on. Employees whose weblogs I tend to read frequently include: Chris Anderson, Chris Sells, John Porcaro, Mike Vernal, Joshua Allen, Beth Goza, Harry Pierson, Robert Scoble, Douglas Purdy (who also has a more technical work-related site), and Sara Williams, among others.

  I also like this blog by a Microsoft employee who goes by Diane R., although it hasn't been updated in a while. She has an interesting perspective, having come to Microsoft from another Seattle-area corporate icon, Nordstrom. I also would be interested in what Eric Rudder has to say on his weblog, but he hasn't posted in a few months. As the senior vice president for servers and tools, he seems to be the highest-ranking Microsoft executive to start a blog thus far. (Obviously he's got a few things other than blogging on his plate.)
  

We at the P-I tend to focus on Microsoft for reasons including its proximity, and its impact on the local economy. But if all those links above get you to thinking it's the only software company in the world, here are a few sites and weblogs to provide a reality check.

• Simon Phipps, chief technology evangelist at Sun Microsystems, maintains this list of Sun employee weblogs, including his own. (I should point out that Simon was the one who originally suggested I start a weblog, when we met a few months ago.)

• A few Apple Computer employees maintain their own weblogs, including Ken Bereskin [Note: Name corrected since original post], Dave Hyatt, and Buzz Andersen.

• And here is the Living Without Microsoft page, which was created under the premise that "the market dominance of Microsoft leads many non-technical people to assume that there really is no alternative to using its software." The purpose of the site, as you would expect, is to prove that assumption wrong. Lots of interesting items on there. Along those lines, you can also see NewsForge, the "online newspaper of record" for Linux and open-source software.
  

Of course, this is far from a comprehensive list of Microsoft-related sites. Among other things, it doesn't include such sites as CNet News.com, Corante, InformationWeek, Good Morning Silicon Valley, eWeek, and many, many others that frequently include Microsoft stories and tidbits among their roundups of tech news. I'd be interested in knowing which Microsoft and technology-related sites you find most useful. Feel free to comment on my favorites or post links to your own in the comments section below, or send me an e-mail by clicking on my name.

Second Blaster arrest

A second person, this one a juvenile, has been arrested for allegedly releasing a variant of the Blaster worm that targeted versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system. As in the first case, this person did not author the main Blaster version, according to news reports. Authorities say they're still investigating. See the U.S. Attorney's press release, and the Associated Press story.

Microsoft and the Mariners

P-I sports columnist Art Thiel's new book about the Seattle Mariners includes an interesting anecdote that, although not told for this purpose, provides a glimpse of the way Microsoft executives were thinking in the early 1990s about the technology that would become the Tablet PC.

Microsoft execs including Jeff Raikes, now the company's group vice president for productivity and business services, are part of the group that bought the baseball team in the early 1990s. As Art tells the story, Raikes and some of the other Microsoft executives in the ownership group befuddled Lou Piniella, who would become the team's manager, during their initial meeting in 1992 by asking if he could use a computer to take out the lineup to the umpires before games. You can read Art's account of the meeting in this excerpt, published yesterday in the P-I.

Maybe the Microsoft execs would get a warmer reception to their idea from Bob Melvin, the current Mariners manager, whose willingness to embrace technology was detailed by John Hickey, the P-I's Mariners beat writer, in this story earlier his year.

Microsoft executive profiles

A series of profiles in the P-I in 2001 and 2002 told the stories of Microsoft executives who, as the accompanying editor's note put it, "are less well-known than co-founder Bill Gates or CEO Steve Ballmer but are key to the company's success."

Today we started a new series of Microsoft executive and employee profiles with a story about Ken DiPietro, the company's corporate vice president for human resources. (See also the bottom of the story for excerpts from our recent interview with him.)

To read previous Microsoft executive profiles by P-I reporter Dan Richman, you can start here. Several of those stories also contain links to additional profiles. (Please note, however, that some of the executives profiled previously have since moved on to other positions inside and outside the company. Bruce Brooks, for example, left to join the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle.)

Look for more Microsoft profiles in the coming months.

Bruce Schneier responds

Bruce Schneier, the Internet security expert who made the Firestone tires comment in our Sept. 12 story on software flaws and viruses, noticed the unfavorable reaction to that comment from some readers, as reflected in this weblog, and wrote a letter to the editor explaining his position further. It was published in the P-I today. (It's the third letter down on the page.)

See also this related CNet News.com story today about a Computer & Communications Industry Association report to which Schneier contributed. Click here for a pdf version of that report.

Windows for 64 bits

Microsoft is putting out a beta, or preliminary, version of its Windows XP operating system for desktop computers running the new AMD Athlon 64-bit microprocessor, as opposed to a standard 32-bit microprocessor. For more information see the Microsoft press release and a story about the announcement from TechWeb News.

What does this mean and why does it matter? John Markoff of the New York Times explained it well in an Aug. 18 story pegged to Apple Computer's release of the Power Mac G5, which contains a 64-bit processor made by IBM.

Microprocessors are generally defined by the number of pieces of information they can manipulate at once. A 32-bit microprocessor, for example, can move, add, subtract or multiply numbers that are 32 zeros and ones long. A 64-bit processor is capable of handling binary numbers consisting of a string of 64 zeros and ones.

It is the length of the information string that determines the amount of random-access memory, or RAM, a processor can make use of during a task. The more RAM per task, the greater the computing power.

In other words, as Markoff explained in another part of the story:

The arrival of 64-bit desktop processors signifies a new era of computing -- initially for professionals who are bumping up against the memory limits of existing PC's. Soon afterward the new chips will affect everyday computer users, for whom a new generation of media machines should offer remarkable improvements in audio and visual effects.

For more information on the subject, see this Aug. 6 story from CNet News.com and this story from the September issue of PC World.

BusinessWeek on security

BusinessWeek's Stephen H. Wildstrom takes up the issue of liability for software flaws in this column, part of a special report by the magazine on network security. Among Wildstrom's comments:

The real mystery, to me at least, is why large buyers, such as corporations and even governments, accept obviously lopsided terms in which Microsoft and other software publishers disavow any responsibility for their own products. True, Microsoft has a Windows monopoly, but it's no longer the only game in town. Furthermore, its business strategy depends on customers' willingness to upgrade their software even though they could get along just fine without doing so.

At the risk of engaging in too much self-referential pointing, I should note that new readers of this weblog can find more information on this subject in this story and in previous posts here and here.

Microsoft and innovation

This morning's papers brought two takes on Microsoft and innovation. See this well-written story by Helen Jung of the Associated Press on the company's broader push into the Internet search business (also printed on page C4 of today's P-I), and a column by Lee Gomes on page B1 of today's Wall Street Journal, in which he puts such initiatives into a broader perspective.

(Unfortunately, I just realized the online version of that column is available only to wsj.com subscribers. If you're one, you can get to it here. Otherwise it's worth looking for the next time you visit the library.)

These are some of his comments:

You can see Microsoft moving on to new "innovations." When someone has a problem with Windows, who uses the built-in Help feature in Windows anymore? Most people just go online and look for the answer with their favorite search engine.

You can bet that drives the chief software architect [Bill Gates] up the wall. And so Microsoft has been talking a lot about "search" these days. Brace yourself for a new round of self-congratulatory but self-serving Microsoft innovation.

And his conclusion:

Say what you will about Microsoft, no company anywhere has done more to put high-quality software into more people's hands. But we can't let them know we think that. The last thing the world needs is a cocksure, uppity Microsoft leadership, with its $50 billion in the bank.

Despite occasional hiccups, Microsoft products aren't so bad, really. Just be sure you show them no respect. The Justice Department isn't subpoenaing Microsoft e-mails anymore, so it's up to you and me, folks, to stay on its case.

When in Rome, stick to the script

OK, time for a little quiz. The following sentences are the opening lines from two different technology-related speeches delivered this week at two different events. As you look them over, ask yourself which Microsoft executive made the first statement, and which Microsoft executive made the second.

1) "Well, I have to admit I am going to give a little speech, this time in front of the Churchill Club, but I promise one thing about it before we get going, and then I'll have a chance to take some of those irreverent, provocative and blah-blah-blah other questions from Roger and everybody else in the audience."

2) "Good morning. Honorable prime ministers, ministers, esteemed deputy ministers, delegates, ladies and gentlemen and Microsoft colleagues. I am very honored today to be here to participate in this important discussion about how technology -- especially through public-private partnerships -- can help create local economic opportunity, strengthen communities and help modernize government services."

Are you stumped?

It's a trick question. It sounds like two completely different people, but in fact, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer uttered both sentences -- the first to begin a speech Monday to the Churchill Club in Santa Clara, Calif., and the second to begin a speech two days later to the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum in Rome, Italy. The quotes are from the official Microsoft transcripts, which you can read here and here.

Was there a Toastmasters meeting on the flight in between?

The elusive Jeffrey Parson

Considering all the readers who say that hackers, and not software companies, should be held most accountable for computer security problems, I figured it was my obligation to go to U.S. District Court in Seattle yesterday to try to question Jeffrey Lee Parson, the 18-year-old from Hopkins, Minn., accused of releasing a variant of the Blaster worm last month.

I had my question all prepared. "Mr. Parson," I planned to say, "36 percent of people who read the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Microsoft Weblog blame people (allegedly) like you, and not software companies like Microsoft, for the types of problems so many computer users suffered last month. How do you respond?"

OK, to come clean, I was actually assigned to cover his arraignment, and the questions I planned to ask were much more simple and less self-serving, as in, "What do you have to say about the allegations against you?" and "Dude, what's up with the hair?"

But you'll notice I say "planned to ask," because, in a sleight-of-hand befitting David Copperfield, Parson came into the courthouse through the back entrance, deftly bypassing all the Seattle TV, radio and newspaper reporters and photographers who were camped out at the front entrance -- thinking that he, not being from this area, wouldn't know about the back entrance. Clearly we were being naive about the ways of (alleged) hackers. Inside, he was hustled by us in the hallway too quickly to get a question out. He said very little during the arraignment. And afterward, with us media types learning from our mistake and staking out both the front and back exits, he evidently was allowed to leave via the side exit, typically used only for people in custody, which he wasn't.

So that's how a 6-foot-4, 320-pound teenager with a bleached mohawk slipped unnoticed past a pack of professional journalists.

I guess we'll have to wait until his trial to get answers to the questions I posed above. In the meantime, you can read our story today about the arraignment, our original story about his arrest, an interview of him by NBC's Today Show, and a story that recaps KING/5's enterprising effort to confront him when he arrived Tuesday night at SeaTac Airport.

More on Sun Java System

See this page on the Sun Microsystems site for details and video from the conference at which it announced a revamped line of products, including a Linux-based alternative to Microsoft's Windows operating system for desktop computers. Here also is the Sun press release, and the Associated Press story that ran in today's paper about the product, formerly known as Mad Hatter and now known as the Sun Java Desktop System. Companies involved in the project include Seattle's RealNetworks, as we noted in a recent Tech Digest item.

We asked Microsoft to respond to this announcement yesterday, and it sent along this statement from Greg Sullivan, a lead product manager with the company: "Our customers tell us that they choose Windows because it is the platform that delivers the best business value. Microsoft will continue to invest in the Windows platform to ensure it remains the choice of our customers and is clearly the most valuable offering available."

In addition, various technology-related weblogs are offering commentary on the announcement. See, for example, the personal weblog of Microsoft employee Robert Scoble, a technical evangelist for the next version of Windows who was featured in our earlier story on Microsoft employee blogs. He, in turn, points to others outside Microsoft with views on the subject, including technical consultant and programmer Russell Beattie .

More details on options

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission today, Microsoft gave more details about its plan to let employees sell their otherwise worthless stock options to investment bank JP Morgan Chase. Among other things, the company disclosed that it will give employees a period of at least 20 business days later this year, during which they can decide whether to sell their "underwater" options at a discount or to hold on to them and hope that the company's share price ultimately rises enough to give the options some value.

This is an outgrowth of the company's shift to giving employees actual stock, rather than options to buy stock, as part of their compensation packages. See the P-I item about the filing, the full SEC filing, our July story about the underwater-options plan, and our story the day before that about the company's broader shift away from options.

Readers' virus responses

To close the loop on this for the time being, here’s a quick recap of reader response to our story last week on the question of liability for software flaws and computer viruses. I went back through the voice-mail and e-mail messages I received, as well as the comments posted on this weblog, and attempted to put them into categories based on the sentiments they expressed.

Aside from this being a completely unscientific sample of public opinion, putting the responses into categories is also an inexact undertaking, because of the nuances of the debate. Keep that in mind as you read these rough totals:

* Sixteen people, or 32 percent of the approximately 50 people who responded, generally favored increasing the exposure of Microsoft and other software makers to liability for flaws exploited by writers of viruses and worms. Here’s an excerpt of one message from this camp, left by a reader on my voice mail:

"I thought (the article) was a little easy on them. First of all they’ve known about this danger for many years. They know it far better than the hackers do. ... There is nothing that can be made absolutely safe, not even a tire, however Microsoft has completely over the years neglected safety considerations."

* Eighteen people, or 36 percent, said holding Microsoft liable would be inappropriate, given that a criminal is the one ultimately causing the problem. Many people on this side of the debate took serious issue with the Firestone tires analogy used by software security expert Bruce Schneier, as quoted in our story. They included reader Peter Duniho, who sent this e-mail message:

When Firestone can be held liable for tire failure after someone punctures it intentionally with a knife, then it will make sense to start holding software companies liable for failures that occur after someone intentionally breaches the security safeguards.

How secure is the lock on your door? If a burglar picks the lock and steals your TV, do you think it will be reasonable to sue the lock company for not protecting you against the burglar?

The only thing newsworthy about this issue is that so many people are willing to ignore common sense and take out their frustrations on an innocent party. That’s just human nature of course, but it doesn’t make it right.

* The remaining 16 people offered various comments without taking specific stands on the question of liability. One reader, for example, asked who would be held accountable for security problems in open-source software created by a larger community and not necessarily backed by a corporate entity. Another wrote that he wasn’t sure whether Microsoft should be held liable for the effects of viruses, but that computer users should actively seek out alternatives to Microsoft products to alert the company to the severity of consumer concerns over security.

Which e-mail service did this reader use to send this message? Microsoft Hotmail, of course.

Ballmer on viruses

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer touched on the issue of viruses and software security during a speech in California today. Among his comments:

"So we are in many ways humbled by the developments of the last few weeks. Windows is the most popular platform in the world, so every security incident with it is just magnified and magnified and magnified across so many more systems than with any other platform.

"We recognize the concerns of our customer base -- boy, do we -- and we are further redoubling our efforts to ensure we have a comprehensive approach for better security for all of our customers."

See the full transcript of his speech, the Associated Press story, and the CNet News story. See also our story last week on the issue of liability for software flaws and viruses, and the various comments posted by readers of this weblog beneath a previous post on the topic.

Of Mice and Microsoft

We published this story a couple weeks ago about a new Microsoft mouse with a "tilt wheel" that allows for horizontal scrolling by pushing the scroll wheel to the left or right. The story prompted an interesting response from reader Scott Reed.

"It’s nice and all, but IBM has had 360-degree scrolling 'wheels' (really a joystick where the wheel is on an MS mouse) for at least six months. And at $29 ... plus shipping for the ergonomic optical version they’re well under Microsoft’s price listed in your article," he wrote in an e-mail. "Yet again, Microsoft gets press for adopting existing technology."

Reed, who has been using the IBM mouse at work, pointed to this page on the IBM Web site for more details about the product. Ray Gorman, an IBM spokesman, confirmed via e-mail that IBM has had mice with horizontal scrolling capabilities since 1998. The company also offers a more basic mouse with the same feature, at a price of $24, compared with $44.95 for the most basic Microsoft tilt-wheel mouse.

For some answers, I turned to a Microsoft representative, who explained that the key advance in the company’s new mouse isn’t as much the mere ability to scroll horizontally as it is the method of doing it -- by simply tilting the same type of scroll wheel already used on many mice and favored by most consumers.

In addition to IBM, there are at least two other companies that make mice with horizontal scrolling capabilities, but none of them scrolls horizontally via the same tilting method that Microsoft’s new mouse uses. The IBM mouse, as Reed explained, uses something akin to a joystick. Another mouse, by IOGear, uses a roller ball. And various mice from Logitech, including the Cordless MouseMan Optical, allow horizontal scrolling via the traditional scroll wheel, but only as an alternative to vertical scrolling (the user has to reprogram the mouse to switch between the horizontal and vertical functions).

"From the research that we’ve done and the analysts we’ve spoken to, the Microsoft scroll wheel is groundbreaking for being a fully integrated mouse wheel that allows users to scroll horizontally by moving the wheel left and right, as well as vertically, without major changes to how the wheel looks and feels," the Microsoft representative explained in an e-mail. Microsoft, as our story noted, is seeking a patent for its tilt-wheel technology.

But IBM spokesman Gorman, unimpressed by the difference in horizontal-scrolling method, couldn’t resist a friendly jab at the competing product. His company, he wrote, "would like to congratulate Microsoft for being only five years behind IBM."

[Addendum, 9/16/03: For what it's worth, I just noticed that a product review in the latest issue of Wired magazine (October issue, p. 92) lists one of the new Microsoft tilt-wheel mice, the Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer, as a "best buy." The magazine cites "easy horizontal scrolling" as one of the product's attributes.]

More on flaws and viruses

Our story on the question of liability for viruses and the software flaws they exploit drew a large response, via e-mail and phone, on all sides of the issue. (See also the comments to my original post on the subject.) I'm taking notes on the phone calls and saving the e-mail messages as they come in, and I'll try to tabulate and summarize them in another post to this blog sometime soon.

In the meantime, here are some additional pieces of information and links to various resources that I came across while putting the story together:

* Cem Kaner's recent weblog entry on the subject, including his proposed Software Customer Bill of Rights. I spoke with Kaner, co-author of books including "Bad Software," for the story, and found him extremely knowledgeable. Here also is his home page, with lots of additional information under the articles link in the upper left.

* "Cybersecurity Today and Tomorrow: Pay Now or Pay Later," the report by the National Research Council's Computer Science and Telecommunications Board recommending, among many other things, that policy makers consider increasing the exposure of software vendors and others to liability for security breaches.

* A Washington State Supreme Court decision from 2000 in which the court took up the question of whether a general contractor was bound to the terms of a software end-user license agreement that limited damages to no more than recovery of the software purchase price after an alleged defect in the software (not Microsoft software, for what it's worth) resulted in a construction bid $1.95 million less than it should have been. The short answer to that long question: yes.

* That suit is among the EULA-related court cases compiled on this page, maintained by the Consumer Project on Technology, which was founded by Ralph Nader.

* The full text of a Microsoft End User License Agreement (EULA), this one for Office XP. See especially sections 8, 9 and 10. One reader who e-mailed, a retired lawyer, said our graphical excerpt that ran with the Friday story made it seem as if Microsoft was claiming more protection from liability than it actually is. I'll let you judge for yourself. (I don't have a postable copy of the full Windows XP agreement we used for that graphic, but the language is very similar.)

A Microsoft representative tells me that you can pull up your own EULA on a Windows-based machine, but I haven't yet figured out how to do that myself. I'll try to remember to post about it if I do figure it out. [Addendum, 9/16/03: Thanks to Nicole Hamilton for explaining how to do this. See her comment at the bottom of this post for details.]

* Bill Gates' January 2002 memo to employees in which he declared trustworthy computing the company's top priority. Here also is the page for Scott Charney, Microsoft's chief security strategist. Note especially the links at the bottom of Charney's page, including this one to a transcript of his recent speech to a U.S. House subcommittee. And here is Microsoft's security and privacy home page.

* The home page of Bruce Schneier, the computer security expert whose Firestone tires comment in the Friday story didn't sit well with several readers, some of whom considered it such an egregious and -- ironically enough -- flawed analogy that they thought I shouldn't have included it. For more thoughts from Schneier, click on the essays-and-writings link in his left-hand navigation bar. Or you could buy his book! But in no event shall I or my suppliers be liable for any special, incidental, indirect, or consequential damages whatsoever resulting from any feelings you may or may not have about what he writes.

* A good radio program on WAMU-FM in Washington, D.C., that addressed the issue, with guests on various sides of the debate. Scroll down to Tuesday, April 9, at 1 p.m., "Tech Tuesday: Software Liability and Security," to listen in RealAudio.

* Various EULA- and virus-related news stories from other publications:
"South Korean group sues Microsoft over Slammer,"
"Microsoft urged to compensate virus victims,"
"A legal fix for software flaws?"
"Millions of home computers may be at risk," and
"Is Microsoft liable for Nimda?"

* In this blog's comments, reader Jim Hudspeth also pointed to the ZDNet article, the last one in the list above, in which the reporter details his search for answers to essentially the same question that our Friday story sought to answer. Jane Winn, the law professor quoted extensively in the ZDNet story, is now at the University of Washington, and she helped me understand a lot of the nuances of the issue for the P-I story, even though I didn't end up having space to quote her directly. Here's one key point she made during our conversation, on the question of whether software companies should be held liable, given that there is, as she put it, "no obvious engineering solution" to the security problems raised by viruses:

"You don't want to set the liability regime today for the world that we'll have in 20 years, when we may have effective computer-security solutions."

* I'd like to point you to the full version of a recent New York Times Q&A with Bill Gates that touched on the subject of viruses, but enough time has passed that it has now slipped into that paper's premium archive. If you really want to pay for it, you can search for it here. (The Q&A ran with an Aug. 31 story about Microsoft's maturation.)

Here, at least, is what Gates said during the Q&A when asked by the Times' John Markoff if he was concerned about the possibility of product liability suits, in light of the problem of computer viruses:

"Well, we're doing our best to improve Windows and make it so our customers don't run into these problems. I think this is a critical issue for our customers, and solving this will be fulfilling the commitment we made on trustworthy computing. We're doing our very best, and that's all we can do."

That is a lot of information to digest, but it's an important subject, and I hope this post contributes some additional facts to the debate that has been going on in the comments to my original post. If you find any additional legal cases, Web sites or news stories on the subject, I'd be interested in seeing them. Feel free to e-mail me or to post a link to the information in the comments section below, along with any further thoughts you might have.

If Travis Tritt ran Microsoft

Microsoft's decision to double its annual dividend, to 16 cents a share, brought to mind a speech by John Connors, the company's chief financial officer, during a July meeting with financial analysts on the company's Redmond campus. Connors was explaining that Microsoft needed to see its way clear of legal and business uncertainties before increasing its dividend substantially. And then he said something you would never expect a CFO to say:

"There is a great country-western song by a guy named Jim Beck. He wrote it in 1950 and there have been several renditions, including probably the most famous by Willie Nelson. And the famous lyrics in it are: 'If you've got the money, honey, I've got the time.' And we would ask that people be a little bit patient as we work through the litigation and the business model impact."

I'm a sucker for a funny quote, so I referred to it at the bottom of my story the next day. (Several other reporters did the same in their own coverage.) After it appeared, the P-I's pop music critic, Gene Stout, mentioned in passing that he had thought the song was by Lefty Frizzell, a well-known country singer in the 1950s. As it turns out, Connors and Gene were both right -- Frizzell and Beck co-wrote the song, and Frizzell originally recorded it, according to cowboylyrics.com.

But now that Microsoft has upped its dividend, albeit not as much as some shareholders might have hoped, I figured Connors would need a different song to reference during his next major speech. I took it upon myself to do a little research, but it turns out this concept of applying country-western music themes to complex business situations only goes so far. The closest one I could find to fit the new scenario was Travis Tritt's "Here's a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)." Aside from it being 9 cents too much, that's something you would really never expect a CFO to say.

Dividend doubled

Microsoft on Friday morning announced plans to raise its annual dividend to 16 cents per share. See the brief company press release, the story about the original dividend announcement earlier this year, and Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox's related post this morning on the Microsoft Monitor weblog. Also see the story in Saturday's P-I. What do you think about the dividend increase? Post a comment below, or click on my name to e-mail me.

Microsoft's favorite gadget?

Some Microsoft employees are abuzz these days about a particular piece of consumer technology. What's your guess -- is it the next version of Windows? The Xbox? Office 2003? Nope, it's the iPod, the popular music player from Microsoft rival Apple Computer. But lest you consider these employees turncoats for using -- and even praising -- an Apple product, rest assured that they're using it in conjunction with computers running on Microsoft Windows.

Prepping for PDC

Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles next month is expected to be watched closely, in part because the company is promising to release new details there about the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn. Already a couple people from outside the company have created a site through which they plan to collect and redistribute PDC-related content from various weblogs. As you can see from their page, there will be a long list of people blogging about the event. Should be an interesting phenomenon to watch, especially during the conference, as attendees, speakers, journalists, etc., offer their running commentary.

Viruses: Who's to blame?

After the wave of computer viruses that washed across computer users last month, I got into a long discussion with some of my colleagues on the P-I’s business staff about the question of who was to blame for the problem. Was it the virus writers? Microsoft? Users who didn’t bother to patch the flaw?

That discussion led to a couple weeks of reporting and, ultimately, to this story. As you can tell from reading it, there are no easy answers to the question of liability. I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on the issue. Feel free to e-mail me or to post a comment by clicking on the appropriate link below.

The Inaugural Post

Welcome to the Seattle P-I's Microsoft Weblog. My name is Todd Bishop, and my job at the paper is to cover a certain software company on the east side of Lake Washington. We plan to use this blog to supplement the Microsoft coverage that appears in the daily newspaper. Check back here for links to items of interest, additional information about the Microsoft stories we run in the paper, and interesting tidbits and observations from the Microsoft beat that might not otherwise see the light of day.

This blog was inspired in part by a story I wrote for the paper in July about all the Microsoft employees who maintain weblogs. Working on that story made me recognize the power of weblogs and their potential, in the long run, to transform the way journalism works.

But after that story ran, the biggest question from readers was much more basic: What the heck is a blog, anyway? Aside from my effort to explain it in the story, the best definition I found was this one on the TechWeb Encylopedia site, a good technology reference tool on lots of subjects.

A Web page that contains links to Web sites that cover a particular subject or that are based on some other criterion, such as interesting or entertaining sites. The blog typically provides a short summary of the referenced sites and may also contain commentary and humor. Blogs have become a form of artistic expression, enabling anyone to personally publish a directory about a subject that interests them.

Thanks for stopping by. I plan to post regular updates, so check back often.