Microsoft, Yahoo reopen talks on search deal

A report reveals that Microsoft and Yahoo may be negotiating on a search deal once again.

According to the report Microsoft has reopened talks with Yahoo to acquire its search business with an offer of £13bn ($20bn). Ross Levinsohn, former president of Fox Interactive and ex-chief executive Jonathan Miller are heading the negotiation. Read more

Microsoft provides clues to an old flaw

Microsoft has provided an explanation as to why it took the company almost seven years to issue a patch for a known vulnerability. The flaw lay in the Microsoft Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. It could facilitate an SMB Relay attack that allowed an attacker to install programs; change or delete data; or create new accounts with complete user rights.

Christopher Budd, a security programme manager in the Microsoft Security Response Center, said that though Microsoft had been aware of the vulnerability, taking actions to fix it would have resulted in broken customer network applications.

He explained that, while Microsoft in 2001 advised customers to use SMB signing, it knew that the mitigation might not be a usable solution for some. Though they said that customers who were anxious about this issue could use SMB signing as a useful mitigation, but the in reality, there was similar limitation that made it impossible for customers to execute SMB signing. The vulnerability was first officially acknowledged by a security researcher called ‘Sir Dystic’ during the @tlanta.con convention in 2001.

Microsoft to explain innovations in Visual Studio and .NET 4.0

Microsoft has selected some of its key executives to explain innovations it planned incorporating in .NET 4.0 and Visual Studio. The move is part of an action plan evolved in the recently organised TechEd developer and PDC events.

Code-named as “Rosario”, Microsoft’s next version of Visual Studio is being promoted as a tool set which will raise analysis of application development process to new levels.

The company is committed to democratise application lifecycle management process. It is working on product enhancement which would meet software development requirements arising from cloud computing, virtualisation and parallelism trends.

Delegates visiting the UK to explain about forthcoming tools included Jason Zander, GM for Visual Studio and Matt Carter, Group Product Manager.

Shedding light on Visual Studio 2010 (VS2010), Carter stated that it is strongly focussed on providing insight, in terms of function and structure of code, of the development process. Microsoft is ensuring to make it easier for building web applications. It is also aimed at encouraging departmental business applications development that makes use of Office UI. Microsoft is also looking forward to make development of SharePoint feel like development of Visual Studio to improve usability.

Carter disclosed that Microsoft wants to reach out to those C++ developers who have made big investment on lines of C++ code, so that they could carry those into the Visual Studio environment.

Qualcomm develops alternative to Windows-based PCs

Mobile chipmaker Qualcomm announced development of a low-cost computing platform, called Kayak, to serve as an alternative to Windows-based PCs in those parts of the world which do not have access to traditional broadband connections.

The Qualcomm’s new platform design is based on its dual-core MSM7 series chipsets which could also include Snapdragon chipsets that offer CDMA-based 3G and GSM-based technologies.

Qualcomm is confident of filling a niche between smartphones and Windows-based PCs through Kayak platform for providing internet-enabled devices to the markets in developing countries where laptops or PCs are too expensive. In this region people are unable to access internet due to unavailability of traditional broadband connections.

However, 3G networks, widely deployed in most regions of the world, are enabling people to access internet through 3G-enabled smartphones. But people experience inconvenience due to small sized screens and keypads and inadequate computing power supply for engaging the internet fully. This is where Kayak could prove to be a better alternative.

Devices that make use of the Kayak platform could be plugged into a computer monitor or TVs. Users will be able to play 3D games or music files and use keyboard and mouse.

According to Luis Pineda, vice president at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, the Kayak PC alternative demonstrated how Qualcomm was leveraging, for the first time, cloud computing over broadband networks, thereby unifying new regions into the global online community.

Qualcomm will be making a reference design, instead of producing Kayak computing devices itself. The recommended software specifications would be furnished to the device manufacturers for designing their own devices using Kayak specifications.