The Economist on Vista (II)

The launch of a new version of Microsoft Windows, called Vista, is not quite the event it used to be. Has the software giant reached the pinnacle of its power?

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The Economist on Vista and Office

Microsoft's latest upgrades should make PC users happier. But users have little reason to upgrade immediately: the benefits are largely cosmetic. Besides, Vista requires so much computing power that most people will probably be able to run it only when they buy a new machine.

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WIPO Creating New IP Rights Over Web Content

The WIPO is currently engaged in negotiating a new treaty on digital IP rights, but they're having trouble agreeing on the particulars.

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The Contradictory Nature of OOXML

Andy Updegrove writes: "The Microsoft Office XML-based format specification, OOXML, is now in the adoption queue at ISO/IEC. That process takes six months, and has two steps. During the first one-month step, any member may submit 'contradictions,' which means aspects in which a proposed standard conflicts with already adopted ISO/IEC standards and Directives. Those contradictions must then be 'resolved' (which does not necessarily mean eliminated), and these resolutions are then presented back to the members to consider during the five-month voting stage that follows."

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Daylight Sought For Data Mining

Key senators introduced legislation yesterday that would require the government to disclose data-mining programs to Congress in an effort to protect Americans' privacy and prevent misuse of personal information.

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OpenID and the Identity Systems of Yahoo, Google & MSN

You may've heard of OpenID - it's a distributed identity management system, a.k.a. a decentralized single sign-on platform. We prepared a screencast to better explain the idea (see Flash movie below). After that we present a more detailed explanation, focusing particularly on Yahoo and Google.

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Amsterdam and the Linux desktop

Amsterdam has decided to give the Linux desktop and OpenOffice a try. In late December, the city -- previously a Microsoft-only operation -- announced plans to spend 300,000 Euros (roughly $400,000) on testing Linux and other open-source software in its housing department and in the Zeeburg borough office in 2007.

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