Microsoft

Microsoft on Tuesday acknowledged a problem that is preventing Hotmail users from accessing their accounts.

"The issue is purely impacting the log-in process for customers and largely does not impact customers who were already logged in," Microsoft said in a statement. "We have made significant progress in decreasing the number of customers currently affected since initial reports, but the issue has not yet been completely resolved. Microsoft is working quickly and aggressively to resolve the issue and expects to restore normal operation to all customers shortly."

Microsoft will shortly make available the test version of Internet Explorer 8, which is set for final release in the first half of this year.

The Web site ActiveWin on Monday published the contents of a beta invitation that said Microsoft is nearing a launch date for Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1, which will be available for download and testing.

According to the Internet Explorer blog, the next version of Microsoft's Web browser is set for release in the first half of 2008.

Shedding new light on the company's Silverlight 2 browser plug-in technology, a Microsoft official wrote a blog post Friday morning that emphasized RIA (rich Internet application) development capabilities planned for an upcoming beta release.

Microsoft's Scott Guthrie, general manager in the Microsoft Developer Division, provided a list of features planned for Silverlight 2 and the beta in his blog. A Microsoft representative subsequently described the blog as the most detail provided to date on Silverlight 2.

With the recent demise of HD DVD and all things that surround it, this news from Microsoft comes as no real surprise, they have officially discontinued the Xbox 360 HD DVD player. Current owners need not worry though, because although discontinued the support and warranty will remain in effect.

Actually the only real surprise here is that it took Microsoft this long to make it official. A nice follow up would have been the announcement of a Blu-ray player add-on, but that still has not been mentioned. It would make sense though.

A major update to Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)'s Windows Vista operating system could leave computers vulnerable to hackers and malware as the service pack prevents several widely used antivirus programs from operating, the company said.

The list of security products that Windows Vista Service Pack 1 blocks includes Zone Alarm Security Suite 7.1, Trend Micro Internet Security 2008, and BitDefender 10. It also blocks the 2008 version of the Jiangmin antivirus product.

Reminiscent of the "good" Nachi worm unleashed in 2003, Microsoft researchers have touted the idea of "friendly worms" to issue software patches, which has been labelled "stupid" by security experts.

In a research paper entitled Microsoft's Sampling Strategies for Epidemic-Style Information Dissemination, the software giant looks at optimising the dissemination of data over a large-scale network by sampling computers in a subnet or IP address block -- a similar technique to that used by worms -- to identify computers that contain a known vulnerability.

Microsoft is set to turn hostile in the battle for Yahoo! by taking its takeover offer directly to the internet search company's shareholders.

The software giant's board is understood to be meeting later this week, at which it is highly likely to authorise a proxy fight in an attempt to wrestle control, nominating a set of directors to replace the existing board.

Yahoo is calling on Microsoft to bump up its buyout bid, but the trouble is a number of the Internet giant's largest investors own shares in both stocks.

And, in a number of cases, Microsoft accounts for a larger slice between the two, which could dampen Yahoo's efforts to generate strong investor momentum in calling for a substantially higher price, according to a report released on Friday by RiskMetrics Group. In effect, it's like asking these large investors to bid against themselves.

Internet Explorer users better be aware: three more security flaws have been discovered within their favorite browser, enabling hackers to compromise users' systems.

The recently-found flaws affect Internet Explorer 5.01, 6.x and 7.x and will allow the execution of arbitrary code. According to Secunia's report, the first flaw is based on an error in the way HTML, which, with certain layout combinations, can be exploited to corrupt memory via a specially crafted web page.

When a hacker going by the name Chujwamwdupe published attack code that exploited a recently patched bug in Microsoft Office 2003 earlier this week, it looked almost as if he were publishing the software out of spite.

At the top of his submission, Chujwamwdupe wrote about an e-mail informing him that "Unfortunately, Microsoft has refused to credit you using the name you requested."

"What's wrong with 'chujwamwdupe', eh?" the hacker asked.

Well quite a lot, it turns out, if you live in Poland, where it refers explicitly to a form of sexual intercourse.