Word: microsoft
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Shoppers wanting to get their caffeine fix online at Starbucks.com now have only one path to take when they pay for their beans. If they are already registered with Passport, Microsoft's new identity-verification program, they can use it to complete their purchase. If they aren't, they are sent to a site where they can sign up for Passport. What Starbucks.com shoppers can't do: buy their coffee without letting Microsoft be part of the transaction...
...preview of the next Internet hot spot, e-wallets, and features two of the Net's fiercest competitors, Microsoft and AOL Time Warner (parent company of TIME). Starbucks used to let shoppers pay for their purchases by simply providing a credit card and some personal information--like most e-commerce sites. But in May, it made the switch to Passport. Now every time a buyer makes a purchase, his e-mail address and other personal information is sent to Microsoft to be verified--and stored in Microsoft's vast database. Passport, which Microsoft plans to roll out in force this...
...Microsoft, this was the kind of publicity you just can't buy. Not only did Redmond get to share a dais with the Justice Department -which is rather like Stalin vowing eternal friendship with Roosevelt to counter the Nazi menace - but they also had their name inextricably linked with the well-being of the Internet itself. This quote from Tuesday's Wall Street Journal is typical: "the Code Red worm may disrupt the Internet on a global scale ? the FBI urged owners of business-type servers to install a patch from Microsoft's website." When the world's in trouble...
...Never mind that the majority of business-type servers run other companies' software, and were therefore never affected in the first place. Never mind that it was a sadly typical security flaw in Microsoft's server software that allowed Code Red to flourish. Note also that the million-plus people drawn to Microsoft's website by that patch included many thousands who didn't need it (the worm only hits Windows NT or 2000. Windows 95, 98 and ME are unaffected...
...most, Code Red proved you should always be wary about what Microsoft software does to your machine, like turning it into a server without your implicit knowledge. Apart from that, the whole red-alert reaction only demonstrated that there's seemingly infinite space on the Feds' faces for more egg. That's what happens when you cry wolf over a microbe, guys...