Microsoft Opens The Pursestrings?
Possible replication of the Great Plains acquisition, aimed at the European marketplace.

Microsoft Likely To Buy Danish Software Maker. According to reports, Microsoft will buy Navision for $1.2 billion. [TechWeb] 

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Gates Defense Flawed Say Legal Experts
Microsoft has pointed to the threat posed by fragmentation of the operating system if the states remedy is put in place. Beyond the fact that it's not a relevant legal defense, lawyers, analysts, and even Microsoft itself point out a simple fact - Windows is already fragmented. A worthwhile read.

Battering down Gates' defense. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' argument that a modular version of Windows would "turn back the clock" on development and damage the PC industry is flawed, legal experts say. [CNET News.com] 

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Less Logic, More Emotion
Excellent article discussing the role of storytelling in effective communication. It's a lesson that high tech marketers too often fail to heed. By emphasizing facts and figures - speeds and feeds - in marketing messages and collateral, marketers fail to connect with a buyers emotions, where most decisions get made.

Once Upon a Time. When a meeting of the minds isn[base ']t enough, try a meeting of the emotions: Tell a story. [Strategy & Business Magazine] 

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Will The Digital Media Device Association Fare Better Than SDMI
SDMI isn't just MIA - it has pretty well assumed room temperature.

Where's SDMI? Code to battle piracy is MIA [CNN - Technology] 

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Sun Dedicates Exec To Software Efforts
Sun names new software chief. An executive shuffle is accelerating as the end of the Sun Microsystems' fiscal year approaches. One analyst says the changes bode well, but could they hurt the company's stock? [CNET News.com] 

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Not To Worry - Stolen FAA Data Not "Really" Sensitive
Those people still concerned about the state of security surrounding air travel will be disquieted to learn that a pair of hackers defaced an FAA website and stole a database containing information on security screener activities. But not to worry - a government spokesperson explains that the stolen data wasn't really sensitive. The article doesn't offer any comments from the spokesperson as to how the agency has ensured that further hacks - sensitive or not - will be avoided.

FAA Confirms Hack Attack. Self-styled patriotic intruders deface a government airline security siteand download a detailed screener database [Business Week: Technology] 

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Tech Employers Giveth, The Tax Man Taketh Away
Detailed examination over a long brewing debate on taxation of stock options. The proposed changes would apply to a range of options, but the broadest impact would be felt on employee stock purchase plans, or ESPP's. In an ESPP, employees set aside a portion of their wages to purchase their employer's stock at a discount - usually 10% to 15% off the street price. The plan is to tax that difference - which has the usual suspects up in arms for a variety of reasons. First, it's argued that the discount represents a gain that has not yet been realized - it's only a paper gain until the stock is actually sold. And, as many readers will recall from personal experience, by that time the gain may have evaporated as stock prices sink. The second argument holds that by making these. and other, options less attractive, high tech vendors lose a method of compensating employees. More populist members of Congress are working to reverse the rule change - but as potential budget deficits mount, don't count on that happening.

IRS tax plan could drain IT stock options. U.S. tech workers and employers could wind up paying more taxes next year under a new IRS plan to impose new taxes on certain stock incentive programs widely used in the high-tech industry. [ZDNet Tech News] 

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Chinese Software Not A Threat. Yet.
BW examines the potential threats from a nascent software development industry in China. Those threats are twofold - military and economic. The greater of the two - potential cyberwar skills - gets a disappointly short amount of attention, since the article basically lays out the claim, then drops it in favor of economic concerns. There, we're told that the Indians worry about burgeoning development capabilities in their long-time rival. The bottom line seems to be that the Indians need not worry - at least yet. While China has designs on the software development trade, it lags well behind India which has developed a strong base of English-speaking, IT literate coders.

A Chinese Software Threat? Not Yet. India -- and the CIA, apparently -- are quite concerned. The reality is far less worrisome, however [Business Week: Technology] 

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Microsoft Argues For Right To Break Other Apps
But don't worry, they'll only do it when it's for your own good. Microsoft exec Christopher Jones proposed, back in 1995, that the company intertwine Windows and Internet Explorer "so that running any other browser is a jolting experience." The implementation of that plan was later ruled as an illegal act that undermined Netscape. Jones was recently in court, arguing for the right to continue to undertake such anti-competitive actions. The proposed settlement between the Department of Justice and Microsoft fails to resolve the issue.

Executive Testifies Microsoft Must Be Able to Alter Windows. A Microsoft executive told a federal judge that the company should be allowed to make changes in Windows that impair the performance of other programs. [New York Times: Technology] 

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RSA Cuts Staff
RSA Security has cut 200 employess in response to lower than expected first quarter revenues.

RSA Security To Create Three New Divisions, But Lays off 200. In addition to the layoffs, RSA said it will create three new product divisions focused on authentication, encryption, and Web access management. [TechWeb] 

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Software Bugs: Sacrifice A Goat At Midnight
A witty attempt to catalogue some of the ridiculous measures software companies ask their users to adopt to circumvent problems - er, issues - in their products. While it's good for a laugh, it's probably useful to remember that the typical software buyer won't find it that funny.

The Workaround: 32 Steps to Frustration. Some software companies often don't even try to fix what is wrong with their product. They say it's up to you to "work around" the problem. [New York Times: Technology] 

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