Project 2003 Sample: Managed Code PDS Extension for Project Server 2003 (Jan 29)
Build a Project Data Service (PDS) extension using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. The download includes a C# base class that makes the building of custom PDS extensions easy, and guidance on best practices to follow when extending Project Server 2003.
The Project Data Service (PDS) is the API for Microsoft® Office Project Server 2003. PDS extensions provide the developer with a good mechanism to extend and enhance Project Server functionality. The download includes a base class for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET that makes it easy to write PDS extensions to access and update the existing Project Server database, access new databases, or communicate with other systems and applications using Web services. The documentation includes guidance on best practices to follow when extending Project Server.
Download: Project 2003 Sample: Managed Code PDS Extension for Project Server 2003
Solution Accelerator for Microsoft Systems Architecture (MSA) Enterprise Messaging (Jan 29)
The Solution Accelerator for Microsoft Systems Architecture (MSA) Enterprise Messaging provides referential and implementation guidance to enable a customer or solution provider to adequately plan, build, deploy and operate a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 enterprise messaging system that is secure, available, reliable, manageable, and cost-effective.
Download: Solution Accelerator for Microsoft Systems Architecture (MSA) Enterprise Messaging
MyDoom variant targets Microsoft (Jan 28)
A new version of the mass-mailing MyDoom virus has hit the Net, aiming data attacks at Microsoft’s Web site and interfering with an infected PC’s ability to access downloadable security-software updates, antivirus companies said Wednesday.
“We are trying to understand (what the virus’ authors are doing), but they are basically trying to stop people from going to security sites,” said Sharon Ruckman, senior director for security response at security software maker Symantec.
MyDoom.B, the second version of the virus, is already spreading around the Internet, Ruckman said. It includes some changes to the e-mail that carries the virus, including new subject lines and a message that mimics an error from Sendmail software, a common e-mail gateway server.
The MyDoom virus, also referred to as a worm, started spreading Monday and has swamped companies with a large number of e-mail messages that appear to be errors returned from a mail server.
View full article: MyDoom variant targets Microsoft
View more details on Symantec
“Number 3 Spammer” Wants Microsoft/Spitzer Suit Dismissed (Jan 28)
OptInRealBig.com LLC, which is being sued by Microsoft Corp and New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer over allegations of fraudulent activity related to spamming, is attempting to have the suit dismissed on jurisdictional grounds.
Scott Richter, who is president of the company and has been named the world’s number three spammer by SpamHaus.org, which tracks unsolicited commercial email, told ComputerWire the firm filed a motion to dismiss on Friday.
Richter claims that the state laws cited in Microsoft’s Seattle and Spitzer’s New York suits do not have jurisdiction over his company, which is based in Colorado.
Richter pointed to a recent court ruling that went against America Online Inc in Virginia, where it had sued a Florida resident for sending spam to its servers, which are physically located in Virginia. The court ruled two weeks ago that it did not have jurisdiction.
The Spitzer lawsuit cites 8,000 emails containing 40,000 “fraudulent statements”, meaning things such as misleading From: or Subject: lines. The suit is under fraud laws that predate the passage of the CAN-SPAM Act.
View full article: “Number 3 Spammer” Wants Microsoft/Spitzer Suit Dismissed
Microsoft Office 2003 Smart Tag Software Development Kit (SDK) (Jan 28)
The Microsoft® Office 2003 Smart Tag SDK contains documentation, tools, sample code, and XML schemas useful for developers who are working with smart tags.
This download is for developers who are interested in creating solutions that use the smart tags available in the Microsoft Office System.
Download: Microsoft Office 2003 Smart Tag Software Development Kit (SDK)
I’m an MVP!!! (Jan 27)
I knew about the nomination a little over a month ago already but since today it’s official;
I’m MVP Office Systems – Outlook
Thank you Microsoft for your appreciation!
For the ones who don’t know about the MVP award
The Microsoft MVP Program is a worldwide award and recognition program that strives to identify amazing individuals in technical communities around the globe who share a passion for technology and the spirit of community. Microsoft MVPs are recognized for both their demonstrated practical expertise and willingness to share their experience with peers in Microsoft technical communities.
Who are Microsoft MVPs? Microsoft MVPs are a diverse group of individuals who are:
Recognized:They are acknowledged by peers and also by Microsoft for their active participation in Microsoft technical communities around the globe.
Credible:They have demonstrated practical expertise providing the highest quality information and content.
Accessible:They are active technical community leaders sharing their experience with peers.
View: MVP Program website
Visio 2003 Update: KB832362 (Jan 27)
Microsoft recommends that you use the Office Update site to determine if your computer requires this update before installing it.
This update addresses an issue where an insufficient memory error message is generated when trying to print from the Italian language version of Visio 2003.
Download: Visio 2003 Update: KB832362
View: KB article 832362
Word 2003 Update: KB830000 (Jan 27)
Microsoft recommends that you use the Office Update site to determine if your computer requires this update before installing it.
Under certain circumstances Word 2003 can become unresponsive when the user saves a file or when Word automatically saves an AutoRecover file. This update corrects that potential error.
Download: Word 2003 Update: KB830000 (English)
Download: Word 2003 Update: KB830000 (different language)
View: KB article 830000
Key Events in Microsoft History (Jan 27)
Review important dates and events in the history of Microsoft Corporation from 1975 to the present.
Download: Key Events in Microsoft History
New Virus: W32.Novarg.A@mm / W32/Mydoom@MM / WORM_MIMAIL.R (Jan 27)
W32.Novarg.A@mm is a mass-mailing worm that arrives as an attachment with the file extension .bat, .cmd, .exe, .pif, .scr, or .zip. When a computer is infected, the worm will set up a backdoor into the system by opening TCP ports 3127 thru 3198. This can potentially allow an attacker to connect to the computer and use it as a proxy to gain access to its network resources. In addition, the backdoor has the ability to download and execute arbitrary files.
The worm will perform a DoS starting on February 1, 2004. It also has a trigger date to stop spreading on February 12, 2004.
Also Known As: | W32/Mydoom@MM [McAfee], WORM_MIMAIL.R [Trend] |
| |
Type: | Worm |
Infection Length: | 22,528 bytes |
Microsoft Search Tool Takes On Google (Jan 26)
Microsoft Corp. today will introduce a new Web search feature as the software maker plays catch-up with Google Inc. in a critical area of Internet commerce, Monday’s Wall Street Journal reported.
Microsoft will begin offering customers of its MSN online service a software ” toolbar” for Internet browsers that has a window for searching the Web using keywords and phrases. The toolbar, which sits below the control panel on a browser, includes shortcut buttons to other Microsoft services such as Hotmail e-mail and its MSN Messenger product.
View full article: Microsoft Search Tool Takes On Google
Download: MSN Toolbar BETA
View: MSN Toolbar Details
View: Press Release by Microsoft
Microsoft: XML patent moves are no big deal (Jan 26)
Recent patent applications filed by Microsoft are routine moves and don’t reflect a change in the company’s position on Extensible Markup Language, according to a spokesman for the software maker.
As previously reported, Microsoft has filed applications for numerous XML-related patents in the United States, Europe and New Zealand. The patents deal with the way its Office software processes XML, the fast-growing standard for exchanging data among disparate computing systems.
XML-based capabilities have been one of the main selling points for Office 2003, the recently released version of Microsoft’s market-leading productivity package. By saving documents as XML files, Office allows back-end computing systems, such as corporate databases, to retrieve and reuse data from those documents. XML support also allows Office to become a client for viewing and manipulating data from Web services and from complex enterprise applications such as customer relationship management (CRM) software.
View full article: Microsoft: XML patent moves are no big deal
Gates Looks to Monty Python for Tips on Knighthood (Jan 26)
Microsoft’s Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, is looking to classic comedy for clues on what to expect when he receives an honorary knighthood from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth.
“All I know about the ceremony is what I saw on Monty Python,” Gates told a conference in London Monday.
He was referring to the British cult comedy troupe, whose film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” featured the mythical King Arthur roving through medieval England recruiting knights.
Gates, co-founder and chairman of the software giant, will receive the honor from the queen in recognition of his contribution to enterprise.
The ceremony will take place at Buckingham Palace, but no date has yet been set.
View: Gates Looks to Monty Python for Tips on Knighthood
For Gates, a knight to be remembered (Jan 26)
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is set to receive an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II, in recognition of his services to global enterprise.
The Foreign Office announced early on Monday that Gates will become a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. This is one of the highest honors that Britain can bestow upon those born outside the United Kingdom.
“Microsoft technology has transformed business practices, and (Gates’) company has had a profound impact on the British economy,” the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said in a statement.
However, unless he renounces his American citizenship, he won’t be able to refer to himself as “Sir Bill Gates,” but writing KBE after his name will be allowed.
View full article: For Gates, a knight to be remembered
Bill Gates’ Solution to the Spam Problem: Make Spammers Pay (Jan 26)
He said it before and he’s saying it again but now with a “date”!
A spam-free world by 2006? That’s what Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates is promising.
“Two years from now, spam will be solved,” he told a select group of World Economic Forum participants at this Alpine ski resort. “And a lot of progress this year,” he added at the event late Friday, hosted by U.S. talk show host Charlie Rose.
Gates said Microsoft, where he has the title of chief software designer, is working on a solution based on the concept of “proof,” or identifying the sender of the e-mail.
One method involves a human challenge, or requiring the sender of an electronic pitch to solve a puzzle that only a flesh-and-blood person can handle. Another is a so-called “computational puzzle” that a computer sending only a few messages could easily handle, but that would be prohibitively expensive for a mass-mailer.
But the most promising, Gates said, was a method that would hit the sender of an e-mail in the pocketbook.
People would set a level of monetary risk—low or high, depending on their choice—for receiving e-mail from strangers. If the e-mail turns out to be from a long-lost relative, for example, the recipient would charge nothing. But if it is unwanted spam, the sender would have to fork over the cash.
“In the long run, the monetary (method) will be dominant,” Gates predicted.
View full article: Bill Gates’ Solution to the Spam Problem: Make Spammers Pay
