I’ve always been a defender of Windows XP against Vista, but it looks like the much expected Service Pack 3 for XP has something against computers using AMD processors, or at least this is what Jesper Johansson, former program manager for security policy at Microsoft, says.
Microsoft Corp. will release Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) to computer makers and some IT professionals next week, and it will offer it to all users via Windows Update April 29, two weeks from today, according to an internal schedule obtained by the Neowin.net Web site. Although others had previously pegged SP3’s release to the last half of April, Neowin’s dates are the most specific seen so far.
According to the site, the service pack will debut April 21, when it’s shipped to computer manufacturers, offered to volume licensing customers and posted for download on TechNet and the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN), which are subscription services for IT staff and developers, respectively.
Most users, however, will first be able to obtain SP3 on April 29, when Microsoft lists it on Windows Update (WU) for download.
A mouse is a mouse, right? You move it, it moves a thingy on the screen, it’s as simple as that. Well not when you’re a hardcore PC gamer it’s not. For these guys, a mouse is a precision tool that needs to react exactly how and when you want it to, or be laughed to the bottom of every scoreboard in town.
And you’re not going to get much more precise than the Sidewinder mouse from Microsoft: a resolution of up to 2000dpi (not that you’ll need it) and interchangeable teflon feet for a smoother glide. You can even swtich cursor speeds live in any game with three adjustable buttons on the top, insert small weights into the body of the mouse to alter momentum, and reprogram all the buttons. It all sounds pretty ridiculous, but you just can’t scoff at this array of options.
Microsoft Corp. gave early testers their first glimpse of its next-generation Web browser Wednesday, and said Internet Explorer 8 will adhere to the same standards as competitors’ programs.Microsoft’s browsers, including the current Internet Explorer 7, gained notoriety among Web developers for handling Web page code differently than Mozilla Corp.’s Firefox, Apple Inc.’s Safari, the now-defunct Netscape Navigator and others.
For the most part, major non-Microsoft browsers and outside developers who built Web pages worked with agreed-upon technical standards, while Microsoft was accused of adding proprietary code to those standards. The result: Web pages that looked good in Internet Explorer but broke on other browsers, or vice versa.
Microsoft Corp asked software developers to “bet on us” as it began making test versions available of Internet Explorer 8, an upgraded version of the main software used to browse the Web.At Microsoft’s MIX08 conference on Wednesday, the company’s chief software architect, Ray Ozzie, said the Web was at the center of everything Microsoft was doing as it seeks to expand beyond the desktop business it dominates.
“I know today that you have many amazing technology choices available to you, but I’d like you to bet on us,” Ozzie told an audience of Web developers.
Microsoft has been pushing for a “software plus services” strategy that uses the Internet to augment traditional software that runs on a computer’s hard drive.
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