But Wait, There's More

Microsoft Says Windows XP SP2 to Ship Next Month

Windows XP Service Pack 2 will go to manufacturing in early August, Microsoft confirmed this week. Windows XP SP2 is a major new Windows release that contains numerous enhancements that Microsoft says will greatly improve the security of the operating system. Among the changes: Microsoft has turned the Internet Connection Firewall on by default; a new wizard walks users through the security setup process; the Messenger service has been disabled by default; a unified security application called the Windows Security Center has been added; NX (no execute) support has been added, which allows NX-enabled CPUs to mark certain areas of memory as non-executable (preventing some malware and viruses from running); a new set of access control restrictions has been added for DCOM for nearly every action of any COM server; the automatic closure of ports after the application using it closes (or crashes); and better control over RPC communications. Several published reports peg the GA date in the first week in August.

New Windows Update Services Gets Temporary Reprieve from Entering Service

Microsoft has delayed until next year the release of Windows Update Services, its next-generation patch management tool, according to reports. Windows Update Services is the new name for Software Update Services, which works with Windows 2000 Server, XP Professional, and Server 2003. Microsoft had planned to release Windows Update Services--which will include an "analysis engine" that can tell the user, or even third-party products, what important patches are missing--as a download in late 2004, but it has reportedly decided to delay the release until early 2005 to incorporate changes suggested by beta testers.

Unisys Revises Forecasts for Q2 Sales Downward

Server and services company Unisys announced late last week that it will post lower sales and substantially lower earnings in the second quarter, which ended June 30. The announcement shocked Wall Street a bit, and the company's stock took an immediate 15 percent hit, dropping to below $11 per share. The tales of the economic recovery and its related IT spending uptick seem to be somewhat exaggerated. A number of prominent IT companies have just reported that they will miss targets, so Unisys is not alone.

Unisys says that it expects sales to be in the range of $1.38 billion to $1.39 billion, about a 3 percent decline from a year ago. Unisys, which has a reasonably large services business, said that services revenues in the quarter would be about flat and that technology sales (meaning mainframe and ES7000 Wintel server sales) would decline "in the low double digits." Excluding some pension accounting charges, Unisys had been expecting to report earnings per share of between 14 and 17 cents, but now says that Wall Street should expect 10 to 11 cents a share. Unisys said that a number of big server contracts and some big services contracts were deferred late in the quarter, causing the revenue and profit shortfall.

IDC: Software Piracy Cost Developers $29 Billion in 2003

More than a third of the PC software in use around the world in 2003 was pirated, according to a new survey conducted by IDC for the Business Software Alliance. The survey found that 36 percent of software installed was an illegally made copy, costing developers $29 billion. While $80 billion in software was installed on computers worldwide last year, only $51 billion was legally purchased, the IDC found.

The IDC broke its findings down by geography, and, not surprisingly, the rate of software piracy was higher in developing markets. Leading the way for software pirates was Eastern Europe, where 71 percent of all PC software was pirated. Latin America and the Middle East and Africa followed, with 63 percent and 56 percent piracy rates respectively. Fifty-three percent of all software installed in Asia-Pacific last year was pirated, and only 36 percent Western Europe's software were illegal copies, although Western Europe cost developers the most, with a $9.6 billion loss due to piracy. If you live in North America, you can feel good knowing that only 23 percent of software here is pirated, and it cost developers only $7.2 billion, $300 million less than piracy cost developers in the Asia-Pacific region. IDC based its findings on 5,600 interviews in 15 countries.

Microsoft and CNET to Built New 'Windows Marketplace'

There will soon be a single online repository for all the products that work with Windows, including developer tools, databases, and server applications--and undoubtedly the latest release of Half-Life. Microsoft and IT publisher CNET this week announced the upcoming release of the Windows Marketplace, an ambitious undertaking that is intended to provide a "one stop" shop for more than 100,000 software, hardware, and peripherals that work with Windows. Microsoft says people will be comfortable downloading or otherwise purchasing products through the Windows Marketplace because they will be able to see the prominently displayed "Designed for Windows" logo on the products that have undergone rigorous testing procedures. There also will be a special search filter that leads people to "Designed for Windows" products, and buttons on the Windows XP start menu and on Microsoft's ubiquitous Internet Explorer Web browser that lead people directly to the download area.

The Windows products will be divided into software and hardware sections. Among the products in the software section will be business and productivity, development tools, utilities, and security products, while servers, PCs, and storage will be available in the hardware section. The site is expected to be available for users by this fall, but Microsoft wants its close partners to submit product information now. In addition to products from partners such as Dell, Sony Electronics, and Circuit City Stores, the Windows Marketplace is expected to include 20,000 products that currently appear on CNET's popular www.download.com site, which is a haven for all sorts of open source, freeware, and shareware programs for Windows, Linux, Palm OS, and dozens of other operating systems.

Former Microsoft Execs Find New Home At Graw Group

Four former Microsoft executives are making a go at developing a social networking system, possibly similar to Friendster. The new company, called The Graw Group, was formed in October and recently landed $4.75 million in funding from a venture capital firm. The Seattle company's founders, Jeremy Jaech, Ted Johnson, and Peter Mullen, also founded Visio, which Microsoft acquired in 2000. Dennis Tevlin, another former executive with the Redmond, Washington, company, has also joined Graw, which expects to roll out its service in the local Seattle market later this year and possibly to the rest of the nation in 2005.

Guild Companies Adds Google Search Service

In an effort to make the search capability of our Web site better, we have added a Google search engine feature to our Search page. For those of you who like the open source HT/DIG search engine we have been using until now, we have left it active. The "search" button (which is at the top of all e-mail newsletters and on all pages on the Guild Companies site) now also points to a Google search box, which can troll our site for tech tips, articles, and other material. We have implemented the Google search box so you can search the rest of the Web, if you have an inclination to do that while on our search page. All you have to do is click the radio button from "itjungle.com" to "Web" and you can search the Web from within our site. We hope you find these two search engines useful.