Best Software overhauls Act
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Best Software launched this week an overhaul of its Act contact management software, adding to the product line a second version with more scalability and advanced functionality.
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Microsoft, IBM and Borland are upgrading their software and offering users new workflow features, support for multiple languages and tools to manage the lifecycle of in-house applications.
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The latest craze in software: giving stuff away. BEA Systems, Computer Associates and IBM all recently started releasing the source code, or underlying instructions, for some programs, which amounts to distributing those products free. Even the loosest definition of incentive rebates would probably stop short of 100% discounts, but then the economics of software are peculiar (see story, p. 161). The giveaways were celebrated, especially by the noisy "open-source" movement, which wants all software distributed this way. (They're not kidding.)
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Microsoft has a massive patch for some of the many bugs and security holes in Windows XP. If you&#39;re using Windows XP, you might want to download the software patch and install it.
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Will portions of the overhaul have an impact on your taxes?
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. House of Representatives hasÂ passed a bill to overhaul the nation's patent system, overcoming objections by many Republicans, small inventors and some labor unions. Passed on Friday, the Patent Reform Act,Â supported by several large tech vendors including Microsoft and IBM, would allow courts to change they way they assess damages in patent infringement cases. Currently, courts generally consider the value of the entire product when a small piece of the product infringes a patent; the bill would allow, but not require, courts to base damages only on the value of the infringing piece. The bill would also allow a new way to challenge patents within one year after they've been granted. The HouseÂ passedÂ the ActÂ by a vote of 225-175. The Senate has not yet acted on a similar piece of legislation. However, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a statement on Thursday saying it opposes the bill. It said that the changes in assessment of damages would "introduce new complications and risks reducing incentives to innovate." The OMB objections raise the possibility that President George Bush could veto the legislation. Large tech vendors have been pushing for patent reform for close to five years. The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the Business Software Alliance, and the Computing Technology Industry Association, all praised the House for passing the bill. House passage is a "significant step toward improving our patent system," said Mark Bohannon, SIIA's senior vice president of public policy. Asked about the OMB's opposition to the bill, Bohannon said recent changes have addressed many concerns. Apportionment of damages, one of the OMB's major concerns, needs to change, he added. "If we don't address the problem, we're not going to improve the system," he said. Many Democrats and some Republicans argued the bill is needed because patent infringement lawsuits have gotten out of hand. It's too easy for patent holders to sue and collect huge damage awards when a small piece of a tech product is found to infringe, supporters argued. The patent system "is getting near broken," said Representative Howard Berman, a California Democrat and primary sponsor of the bill. "Doing nothing is not a good answer for a Congress that wants the economy strong." Opponents argued the bill favors tech giants at the expense of small inventors. "The legislation ... helps a small group of powerful people," said Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican. Representative Marcy Kaptur, an Ohio Democrat, noted that between 1993 and 2005, four major tech vendors supporting the bill paid out US$3.5 billion in patent infringement settlements. But those same unnamed tech vendors had revenues of $1.4 trillion during that time period, she said. Tech vendors want to reduce patent infringement costs "not by changing their obviously unfair and often illegal business practices, but by persuading Congress and the Supreme Court to weaken U.S. patent protections," she said. "We ought to stand up for American inventors." The bill also sets into motion a change in the way patents are awarded, from the first-to-invent system unique to the U.S. to the first-to-file system used by the rest of the world.
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Software giant expands its indemnification program to cover the majority of its customers.
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TechWeb - Other popular software with new versions in the upgraded repository include ActiveMQ, Apache HTTP Server, AspectJ, JasperReports, Maven, Tomahawk, MySQL, PHP, PostgreSQL, Regexp and Tomcat.
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Earliest adopters of updated program should download again to ensure full security.
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For the first time in almost 16 years, the most widely adopted set of rules governing free software has been rewritten and updated to meet the demands of the 21st century.
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IBM and the Army make plans to replace bureaucratic papers with electronic forms Also: Microsoft gives out free anti-spyware, for now & hellip;.  Pfizer's Celebrex fizzes your heart like Vioxx & hellip;. and more.
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The company plans to release Power Pack 1, a collection of fixes, enhancements, and features to its software for servers in the home.
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Service Pack 1 fixes security flaws, updates individual applications.
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A software patch to protect your system is available from Microsoft.
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The Air Force and Microsoft have entered two contracts. One consolidates 38 different software licenses throughout the Air Force, while the other consolidates seven service contracts.
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Open Solutions Alliance hopes to make open-source software programs work better together.
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Intuit, Best Software offer new features, prices with 2005 editions.