Mary Jo

Microsoft added more than 10,000 employees worldwide in the past year, according to employment figures quietly disclosed on July 26. To put that in perspective, that was the largest annual increase in Microsoft’s history, and is more than the size of Google’s entire workforce.

The Release Candidate 1 test build of IronPython is now available on Microsoft’s CodePlex code repository. IronPython is the .Net language developed by Jim Hugunin, who joined Microsoft two years ago. IronPython is covered by a Shared Source license.

class=”ArticleBody”> Microsoft Watch Code Name Tracker 4.7 and Year-Ahead Planner 4.7 Highlights From Code Name Tracker 4.7 and Year-Ahead Calendar 4.7 Chats and Web Casts to Watch In This IssueMicrosoft Watch Code Name Tracker 4.7 and Year-Ahead Planner 4.7 Here are our monthly installments of our updated list of Microsoft projects and their code names, […]

From Microsoft Watch: When Internet Explorer 7.0 rolls out in the fourth quarter this year, Microsoft wants to do everything it can to get customers to upgrade. As part of its push, Microsoft has decided to earmark IE 7.0 as a “high-priority” update that it will push out via its Automatic Updates patching/distribution mechanism. (Microsoft […]

The security team at Microsoft reportedly has taken to wearing t-shirts with the slogan “I Caused Vista to Slip” (much to the chagrin of the Windows client brass, we’re sure). Wonder if there’s a team somewhere in Redmond that’s gunning to be the ones to sport “I Made Vista Ship” shirts? At Microsoft Watch, we’re […]

A couple of observations in a New York Times article examining the differences between Google’s and Yahoo’s online strategies also apply to MSN/Windows Live (which the Times basically dismissed in its July 24 piece). The article noted that “Google tends to introduce a lot of new products and then watch to see what works. This […]

Another member of the Live family has gone Live. As noted over on LiveSide.net, the Windows Live Toolbar has moved from beta to final. In other Live news, Microsoft launched on July 24 a beta of the Windows Live Gallery, a one-stop virtual shop for all kinds of Windows Live, Messenger and Search Toolbar add-ins […]

Who’s to blame when a Web site crashes? The site owner? The hoster? The supplier of the back-end software? The blame game doesn’t seem to have started – at least not publicly – in the case of MySpace.com, the latest mega-Web site to go down. MySpace is one of the largest sites on the Web. […]

From Microsoft Watch: MySpace is blaming its latest site-wide outage on the California heat wave. But no one’s talking about why one of the biggest sites on the Web didn’t fail over when the power went out. MySpace is a key Microsoft customer, with a back-end infrastructure built on Windows, SQL Server and IIS. Whether […]

As Microsoft continues to roll out more Windows Vista test builds, many power users are still nonplussed by what they see. Sure, Microsoft needs to shore up security. But does it really need to dumb down the operating system to the point where tasks like driver installation become tedious chores? Why not just create another […]

For even more on Zune, Microsoft’s forthcoming portable-media player, check out the latest from a couple of Microsoft bloggers who work on the Zune team: Cesar Menendez (Zune Insider) and Richard Winn (blogging on Madison and Pine). (Thanks to Windows Live team member Niall Kennedy for the links.)

Microsoft is now officially confirming what Microsoft watchers have been reporting for a couple of months: Microsoft is readying an iPod competitor (or two … or more). The final name, not just the code name, is going to be Zune. Microsoft is working on not only the Zune portable-player software, but also the players themselves, […]