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Microsoft Kills Response Point Development
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| After weeks of speculation, Microsoft has essentially killed Response Point —
| the company’s former VoIP system for small businesses. According to a
| Microsoft Town Hall meeting today with VARs, the product is in maintenance
| mode with no future releases planned. Sorry for the following comparison, but
| Response Point has become Microsoft’s modern day OS/2. Here’s why.
|
| Alas, Response Point is a product with an eager, niche following that didn’t
| officially die. Instead, Response Point will fade away (quickly, The VAR Guy
| predicts) through maintenance mode support. IBM used the same strategy to
| walk away from OS/2 a decade ago.
`----
http://www.thevarguy.com/2009/06/30/microsoft-kills-response-point-development/
Against Exchange:
The Bizarre Cathedral - 47
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/bizarre_cathedral_47
Recent:
Microsoft's sidewalk memorial to Encarta, Money and other fossils
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| For anyone who's never been there, the company has this great old courtyard
| in Redmond where for many years it placed plaques in the sidewalk for nearly
| every piece of software it shipped.
`----
http://www.techflash.com/microsoft/A_memorial_to_Encarta_Money_Bob_and_other_Microsoft_fossils49390432.html
Microsoft Encarta died - why? And will its contents be lost?
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has recently announced that its beloved encyclopaedia, Microsoft
| Encarta, will soon be discontinued. After October 31, 2009 its contents will
| no longer be available. Both the online version and the CD ROM version will
| be discontinued.
|
| My first reaction was “what a pity”. My job is to gather and publish good
| contents. I know how much work goes into creating and publishing material.
| This news must have been quite hard to digest for people who have been
| working on Encarta for a while. The two main questions that come to mind,
| however, are: “Why?”, and more importantly, “What about the contents?”
`----
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/fsm_newsletter_12_april_2009_encarta_died
Related:
Microsoft Slaps PC Gamers, Decides to Close Ensemble Studios
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| Despite its legacy of producing some of the very finest strategy games with
| its Age of Empire and Age of Mythology series, Microsoft decided that it
| would be financially disadvantageous to continue to operate the wholly-owned
| Ensemble Studios.
`----
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/microsoft-ensemble-halo-age-empires,6343.html
Microsoft shuts down Ensemble Studios
http://www.techspot.com/news/31575-microsoft-shuts-down-ensemble-studios.html
Microsoft Burns Down Book Search
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| Citing poor demand, Microsoft will back away from scanning and indexing books
| and academic works for Live Search
`----
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/05/23/microsoft-burns-down-book-search
EFF: Microsoft betrayed MSN Music customers
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| The Electronic Frontier Foundation says that Microsoft has "betrayed" MSN
| Music customers and wants the company to make things right by issuing an
| apology, refunds, and eliminate digital rights management technology from the
| Zune music player.
`----
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9931304-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
MSN Music Debacle Highlights EULA Dangers
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| MSN Music’s EULA is a case in point. When active, MSN Music's webpage touted
| that customers could “choose their device and know its going to work”.
|
| But when customers went to purchase songs, they were shown legalese that
| stated the download service and the content provided were sold without
| warrantee. In other words, Microsoft doesn't promise you that the service or
| the music will work, or that you will always have access to music you bought.
| The flashy advertising promised your music, your way, but the fine print
| said, our way or the highway.
`----
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/05/msn-music-debacle-highlights-eula-dangers
When DRM detonates your music collection
,----[ Quote ]
| It is all down to the digital rights management (DRM) software that Microsoft
| has embedded in all its music downloads to combat illegal file-sharing. For
| DRM to work it needs a central computer to keep a live record of who has
| registered which songs to which computers. The problem is that the main
| server is now being turned off as the company wants to sell downloads with a
| new type of DRM. How odd that the old system was marketed as PlaysForSure.
`----
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3898784.ece
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