Microsoft Corporation is currently in the process of rolling out a huge new product range with names like Hailstorm and Windows XP. Meanwhile, we are being told by top Microsoft officer Steve Ballmer that because it is free, Linux, an alternative to Microsoft, is "a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches". Picking the corporation to loath in the information technology field becomes easier by the day.
Hailstorm is a new approach for storing information. Once upon a time when you had something to store you would put in on your computer's hard drive, and maybe make a copy for safety. The idea of Hailstorm is for Microsoft to provide internet accessed storage facilities for e-mail, documents, calendar bookings, personal financial details and more. Now you no longer need to fear losing that information (or for that matter worry that someone could be trying to hack into your PC, because they won't need to any more). Microsoft "promises" not to sell your data to someone else.
Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation described this as Microsoft "looking to achieve a greater lock, a greater monopoly" on services.
If giving all your personal files to Microsoft for safe keeping seems a bit odd, a second proposal for "smart tags" is even odder. These are helpful little links that save you the trouble of searching for information.
Normal web pages have "hypertext" links that allow the reader to go off in search of further information. These links are technically simple, even if they have been one of the most radical features of the web. The hypertext link is just a pointer to tell your computer where the relevant information is stored.
So, if I am looking at the Green Left Weekly web site and I am interested in a Democratic Socialist Party reference, I can click on the hypertext link (usually indicated by underlining) and it takes me to the DSP web site.
These links are created when each page of a web site is prepared. It is part of the authoring process. A writer can decide what they would like to link to, to build a "richer" on-line reading experience.
"Smart tags" are in some ways similar. They are due to be included with the forthcoming release of the Windows XP operating system in October, and they work as follows. When you view a web site from Windows XP, it will automatically tag particular words and names with links to Microsoft designated information sources.
For example, if you were reading an article about how Microsoft abuses its dominant market position, the word "Microsoft" would be linked to a site telling you what a nice, non-monopolistic company it is.
Microsoft describes the approach as "valuable links to relevant information". Journalists and writers appear to be universally horrified. The process would lead to unauthorised linking of information and ideas, modifying and subverting anything an author may be attempting to say. Sounds like a winner, Microsoft.
BY GREG HARRIS (gregharris_greenleft@hotmail.com)