TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

Frontline will tackle the problems in the American health care system tonight with a program titled "Sick Around America" on KCTS-9 at 9 p.m.  And while it will focus on the millions of people who are uninsured or under insured, it also will hold up Microsoft's health benefits as a positive example.

Brad Smith

In a new blog post, Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith voices continued support for the H-1B visa program that Microsoft and other technology companies use to bring foreign guest workers into the United States. Smith's post, titled "Appreciating our Immigration System," come in advance of the annual window in which companies file for the visas.

The computer security world is in suspense as the clock ticks down toward the April 1 climax of the potentially nefarious Conficker worm. The worm targets a vulnerability that Microsoft patched last October, but it has continued to spread to unpatched machines, which are set to use peer-to-peer technology to "get further instructions."

There's a growing consensus among Wikipedia fans, and others, that Microsoft should donate the contents of the soon-to-be-defunct Encarta encyclopedia to the collaborative online repository that contributed to its demise. But Microsoft may have other plans -- even if doesn't yet know what they are.

Microsoft, trying to build new momentum for its Windows Mobile platform, tonight named some of the initial companies expected to release apps for the Windows Marketplace for Mobile store after it debuts later this year. The Redmond company is trying to counter the momentum Apple has seen with its popular iPhone apps.

Here's the list issued by the company in a news release this evening.

Internet advertising is not growing as fast as it once did, but it is still outpacing some of the more traditional advertising channels like newspapers and television. Advertisers spent $23.4 billion online last year, up 10.6 percent over 2007, according to the 2008 year-end report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau. [PDF-19 pages] That compares to the entire advertising sector, which Nielsen said was down 2.6 percent last year.

This is starting to get almost funny. Microsoft today confirmed that it has hired yet another Yahoo executive, operations vice president Dayne Sampson -- the latest in a series of Yahoo engineers and executives to make the switch to Microsoft following its unsuccessful bid to acquire Yahoo last year.

Microsoft will discontinue publication of its MSN Encarta online reference site and related software products later this year, according to a notice quietly posted on the site, as spotted by Emil Protalinksi of Ars Technica. The decision comes after years of competition with Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia that relies on the contributions of experts and other users for its material.

"Encarta has been a popular product around the world for many years," the notice says. "However, the category of traditional encyclopedias and reference material has changed. People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past. As part of Microsoft’s goal to deliver the most effective and engaging resources for today’s consumer, it has made the decision to exit the Encarta business."

Microsoft and portable navigation company TomTom have settled the dueling patent-infringement lawsuits that stirred up a big controversy over Linux in recent weeks, according to a news release issued this morning.

Financial terms of the settlement weren't disclosed, but the news release says TomTom "will remove from its products the functionality related to two file management system patents." Those patents were previously reported to relate to TomTom's implementation of the Linux kernel.

Lauren De Long

After setting the tech world abuzz with her criticism of Apple's Mac prices, the star of Microsoft's latest Windows ad will be featured next in promotional videos for 7-Eleven, according to a public Web site where she chronicles her burgeoning acting career.

Lauren's transition from Windows to Slurpees won't exactly bolster Microsoft's assertion that its ad was a true-to-life account of her search for a new computer. Nor will her extensive acting experience, which so far encompasses more than 20 roles in television, theater, Internet videos, and film -- including a turn as a certified terror-movie "hottie."

However, her site does at least stick to Microsoft's background story, saying she was hired for a "market and research" job involving laptops and found out only later that it was for a commercial.

Microsoft is accustomed to seeing people leave the company. After all, with close to 90,000 employees, workers always are on the move. But The New York Times today contrasts the Microsoft employees who are now leaving because of layoffs with those who took off before to pursue everything from venture capital to charity work to space travel.

It is an interesting read. And it does have implications for the larger technology community in the Northwest. Will these laid off workers start new companies? Will they leave the region? Do they have the entrepreneurial chops to move from a big company mentality to a startup?

Microsoft is describing the latest installment in its "I'm a PC" ad campaign as a real-world account of a recent college grad's quest for a new computer -- ending triumphantly when she picks an inexpensive Windows PC over a higher-priced Mac. But if it is completely true to life, a closer look at the scene outside the Apple store reveals something very weird.

A small feature added to Microsoft's Live Search engine this week is the first step in a new effort by the company to make its search results more interactive and useful. Typing "flight status" into the search field now brings back not only links but also a second set of search boxes that prompts users to enter an airline name and flight number to see the status of a specific flight.

Microsoft calls the concept "Active Answers." The idea isn't new. But Microsoft is breathing new life into the concept and looking to roll out additional features that make use of "Active Answers" fields.

When last we saw "Lauren," the office manager and actress was bubbling over with enthusiasm about her new HP Pavilion laptop, purchased with Microsoft's cash as part of the latest installment in the company's "I'm a PC" ad campaign. It's quickly shaping up as one of the most high-profile purchases in the history of the PC industry. So what happened next?

Amazon.com, an early leader in cloud computing, is weighing in on the so-called "Cloud Manifesto," an effort to establish principles for making cloud services work together. Microsoft has already criticized the document and raised questions about the fact that it is being drafted in secret. Amazon says it just heard about the effort and will review it, but appeared to express some skepticism.

[Full text of Amazon statement below]