The Microsoft antitrust case is still far from over, but most pundits have decided that Microsoft will lose. Having finished playing "You Be the Judge," the commentators are now playing "What's the Penalty?" Suggestions range from huge fines to a breakup of the Redmond behemoth.
'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.' (-- Lewis Carroll, Alice In Wonderland)
How important are words and their precise meanings to your everyday activities of supporting the network?
They say, "You can't fight city hall," which in modern geekspeak usually comes out as, "You can't fight Microsoft" ... and win. But every war is a series of small battles, and not every battle is an assault on the citadel.
I have been a fan of television courtroom drama for many years, so it comes as no surprise that I've been watching the Department of Justice vs Microsoft antitrust trial and imagining it as a TV show.
Expect to hear about year 2000 issues ad nauseum between now and year-end. Here in Austin, Texas, it was the front page headline in the first Sunday paper of the year. Don't expect to read a lot about it in "Wired Windows", however - unless something really startling happens.
Each year I pick a most valuable player in networking -- the person who's done the most to further his team's victory in the network space. Last year, it was Novell's Eric Schmidt, who continues to justify that selection, as the entire industry now recognises him for his efforts. This year, we have co-MVPs.
Today, I want to take all of the network managers aside and say one word to them - are you listening? - biometrics. Fingerprint, retina, voice and face - these are the network access tools of the not-so-distant future.
The year 1998 is fast closing (and the year 2000 is fast approaching). This year is one Microsoft probably wants to forget. No one was a bigger loser in '98 than Microsoft. The only close competitor was America Online, with its $US4.2 billion offer to essentially buy Netscape Communications' portal site. (Hey, Steve Case! I can sell you a whole bridge for a lot less.)
The America Online/Netscape Communications merger was on my mind over the Thanksgiving weekend as I speculated on who was giving thanks for the buyout, and who wasn't. The big winner is Microsoft.
Edward Vollmer was finishing up a contract as a network support technician in Germany. He wanted to find work in the US as soon as he returned, so he updated his resume and posted it on the World Wide Web. For a lark, he decided to try an experiment to test the value of having Microsoft's Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification.
A year ago in a column titled "Microsoft's hidden price increase", I warned you to beef up your software budget in light of Microsoft's plan to move away from concurrent usage licensing.
By now, you're probably well aware of the so-called "Halloween" memos. These are the two rather long documents purportedly prepared by Microsoft employees evaluating the risk factors of Linux vis-vis Microsoft's operating systems.
With all the hoopla and speculation about Microsoft's name change for Windows NT (to Windows 2000), you may have overlooked another operating system announcement the Redmondites made recently.
While it's a truism that there's nothing new under the sun, it's still possible to find new ways to do old things.
Microsoft hasn't exactly gotten the best press over the past few months. There has been the Department of Justice jumping all over the company, court rulings on temporary employees, the Sun suit over the Java logo and the abortive attempt to seed articles and letters to the editor by paying or coercing people to write.