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There comes a time in just about everyone’s life when they feel the urge to eat some red meat. Sure, a supermarket steak cooked in a frying pan might suffice, but there’s nothing quite like the experience of going to one of those big chain steakhouses. We’ve come to depend on these places for a good steak and a cold beer, enjoyed in a comfortable and just-boisterous-enough atmosphere, with an overall experience that leaves you full and content. From sea to shining sea, it’s our right to have unrestricted access to chain steakhouses, darn it, and for that reason we...

Excerpt - SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) released its next-generation Windows Server "Longhorn" software for public testing on Wednesday and said the product is on track for a debut in the second half of 2007. The world's largest software maker said it expects hundreds of thousands of information technology workers to download the test, or "Beta 3," version of the next server operating system code-named Longhorn. Longhorn, which will replace the current Windows Server 2003, is the server operating system equivalent of Microsoft's new Windows Vista PC operating system with an emphasis on many of the same...

How about telling us all your age, gender and location. Also, if you want, who you like in the upcoming presidential primary.

Based on reading the USDA’s draft proposal for the National Animal Identification System some people are wondering how the USDA is going to tag all the wild animals that fall within the working species groups that must be tracked. The USDA says we don’t have to tag the wild animals. That is good to know... It is the year 2009, February 22nd, the birthday of General George Washington. Today it is a bit windy and the cold is biting here on the eastern slope of Sugar Mountain in northern Vermont. The USDA shows up at my doorstep demanding to know...

Despite all the hoopla about the introduction of Windows Vista, the truth of the matter is that the new OS isn't due for at least another seven to nine months — and it will probably be even longer before most of us start adopting it. Meanwhile, we've still got to deal with Win XP. In order to make the waiting easier, we've decided to assemble the greatest tips in the history of Windows XP. Here you'll find the tips that give you the most bang for your buck; that are most useful in terms of security, functionality, and PC performance;...

Excerpt - I still remember the day very clearly. It was Monday, October 27, 2003. Several thousand developers--and, let's face it, quite a few garden variety Windows enthusiasts--charged into Hall A at the Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC) like teenage girls at a Justin Timberlake concert, volleying for the best seats. I've been to more Bill Gates keynotes than I can count, and this was the first time I ever saw anyone climb over other people in order to secure a better view. (No offense to Mr. Gates, but he's not exactly a dynamic speaker.) It was PDC 2003 and...

Excerpt - REDMOND, Wash. -- Jim Allchin, a senior Microsoft Corp. executive, walked into Bill Gates's office here one day in July last year to deliver a bombshell about the next generation of Microsoft Windows. "It's not going to work," Mr. Allchin says he told the Microsoft chairman. The new version, code-named Longhorn, was so complex its writers would never be able to make it run properly. The news got even worse: Longhorn was irredeemable because Microsoft engineers were building it just as they had always built software. Throughout its history, Microsoft had let thousands of programmers each produce their...

Microsoft Corp. Monday again came under fire for its choice of the name “Windows Vista” for the next version of its client operating system, this time from two groups that help health-care organizations implement U.S. Veterans Administration (VA) software. The VistA Software Alliance and WorldVista, two nonprofit groups that assist American veterans hospitals, nursing homes and clinics with the VA’s VistA software, have denounced Microsoft’s name choice, citing possible confusion between the operating system and the software used to store and manage veterans’ patient information. “The confusion created by Microsoft and its choice of the word ‘Vista’ is an affront...

Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 7 browser won't pass a stringent standards test that rivals have embraced.In its browser blog, Microsoft acknowledged that IE 7 would not pass the Web Standards Project's Acid2 test, which examines a browser's support for W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) recommendations including CSS1 (Cascading Style Sheets), HTML4 and PNG (Portable Network Graphics). "We will not pass this test when IE7 ships," Chris Wilson, lead program manager for the Web platform in IE, wrote in the IE blog. "We fully recognize that IE is behind the game today in CSS support. We've dug through the Acid2 test...

The founder of a Redmond, Wash.-based custom application and services provider is considering taking action to challenge Microsoft Corp. over the naming of the next version of the Windows operating system (OS). John Wall, chief executive officer of Vista Inc., said his company is “considering all of its options” for a potential case against Microsoft because of the company’s choice of the name “Windows Vista” for the previously code-named Longhorn version of the OS. Wall said the naming of Windows may violate a trademark his company has and potentially create confusion over the software and services Vista provides. Vista is...

Rumor has it that Microsoft plans to use Vista as the official name for the next version of Windows, which has been known by its codename, Longhorn. In addition to the rumors on various Microsoft enthusiast sites, the company has also registered the domain name windowsvista.us, as noted by Windows watcher bink.nu. The company won't comment, but it is expected to make some sort of Longhorn-related announcement Friday morning.

Microsoft plans to make Really Simple Syndication a whole lot simpler. Really. The software maker said on Friday that it will build support for RSS into the next version of Internet Explorer, as well as into Longhorn, the Windows update scheduled to arrive next year. "We really think that RSS is going to be key to how people use the Internet in the future," said Gary Schare, a director of strategic product management for Microsoft's Windows unit. "Because of that we are betting really big on RSS in Longhorn by integrating RSS throughout the operating system." Most typically, RSS is...

NEW DELHI: Breaching the much touted "impenetrable" Window Genuine Advantage (WGA) of Microsoft, an Indian researcher has shown the global software leader how fragile its claims were. With a potential to hurt Microsoft's business across the world, Debasis Mohanty has broke open WGA through an "easy-to-exploit" weakness in the software for generating illegal copies of Window XP programme. Microsoft confirmed the claims of the Bangalore-based rsearcher Debasis Mohanty but sought to downplay it saying "it represents very little threat." A company spokesperson said they did expect counterfeiters to try a number of different methods to circumvent safeguards provided by WGA....

Microsoft has come up with a unique solution to the legendary Blue Screen of Death in the next version of its Windows operating system.With the release of Longhorn, the Redmond behemoth has added a red screen to face users when their system crashes. According to Microsoft techie and blogger Michael Kaplan, who has been experimenting with a Longhorn beta, as well as being confronted with the Blue Screen of Death, now users will also see red. The Red Screen of Death appears to be the bigger, badder cousin to the traditional blue screen and is designed to let users know...

Bad news I’m not saying there’s an active conspiracy against Apple out there… but perhaps there’s a conspiracy of ignorance at the San Francisco Chronicle? For two days in a row, the Chronicle — the newspaper of record in Macworld’s hometown — has published stories with deeply confused and misleading headlines related to computer topics. Tuesday it was a story about Microsoft’s preview of Longhorn, the laughably late new version of Windows that will be available late next year. Next year. The main headline, Opening new Windows, was okay, I guess, but the headline on the “jump” section of the...

Microsoft Gives Details on Windows Release Microsoft's Plan to Hardwire Computer Security in Chip to Debut in Next Windows Release SEATTLE (AP) -- Microsoft Corp.'s ambitious plan to keep data safe on PCs will make a scaled-down debut in the next release of Windows, though the operating system's most anticipated improvements in graphics appear to mirror what's now available from rival Apple Computer Inc. The long-delayed Windows upgrade, now expected in December 2006, has been touted as the most significant update to the ubiquitous operating since Windows 95 launched in 1995. In a speech Monday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates...

It's Steve Jobs's plan to make this the Week of the Tiger. But Bill Gates and his minions at Microsoft are crying bull—specifically, a Longhorn steer. Despite the zoological bent, this dust-up is not about animals, but operating systems; Apple and Microsoft just happen to have named each of their major system upgrades after beasts of the realm. This Monday, Bill shows off the future of Windows, a.k.a. Longhorn, at a developers' conference. The oohs and aahs may be tempered by the fact that the hundreds of millions of Windows users won't get their hands on it until holiday season,...

TEN years ago, Microsoft unveiled Windows 95 in a way that suggested that the product's arrival was no less momentous than when humans stood upright for the first time. The company spent about $200 million introducing the operating system. That paid for festivities on the Microsoft campus (with Jay Leno as M.C.), rights to use the Rolling Stones song "Start Me Up" in a global advertising campaign and permission to bathe the Empire State Building at night with the Windows logo. It also loaded The Times of London with Windows 95 advertising that day, making the newspaper a one-day freebie,...

Microsoft will build software for managing identities into Windows in order to beef up security by giving users more control over their personal information, the world's largest software maker said on Tuesday. The ID technology, called "info-cards," will give users more control over their own personal information in order to shop and access services online, said Michael Stephenson, a director in Microsoft's Windows Server division. Microsoft is currently working on a new Internet Explorer Web browser and version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, but Stephenson declined to say whether info-cards would be built into the current Windows XP version or into...

DOJ steps up Longhorn scrutiny Microsoft Corp. will meet with representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice (news - web sites) (DOJ) next month for the first of several briefings intended to ensure that its upcoming Longhorn operating system complies with the terms of the final judgment in the government's antitrust case against the software maker. In court papers filed Tuesday, the government also said that its technical committee raised concerns about whether Windows XP (news - web sites) and Service Pack 2 are in compliance with the judgment. Microsoft replied to those concerns recently and the government is reviewing...