We've all heard quite a lot of stuff about Windows CardSpace in the past couple of years. And most of us just wondered how much time it will take till we use our personal Information Cards to sign in on the Internet.

Well, Microsoft is taking the first step (quite a big one I have to admit) and is adding InfoCard support for Windows Live. Read more about this here.

Everybody seems to agree that HALO 3 (due to be launched in a few hours) is an awesome game. Even if you're not a fan of the genre, it it worth to spend a few moments watching the trailer at http://halo3.com/believe (the making of is actually even more spectacular :) ). Without a doubt, Microsoft has really gone a long way in the gaming industry. And the latest version of HALO will definitely put my XBOX on fire!

Too bad I have to wait till the end of the week when I get back home in Timisoara. Well, I still have Visual Studio 2008 at my fingertips which should keep me busy.

I arrived today in Amsterdam to attend a 3-day long preparation session for Visual Studio 2008 trainers. With an exquisite set of speakers, this is promising to be a fantastic event. Lots of topics to be covered and lots of in-depth knowledge to be gained. I will probably deliver the full course in Romania sometimes in the coming months. Stay tuned...

Today Mosha Pasumansky announced the availability of the first CTP for MDX Studio.

The announcement says:

MDX Studio is tool which helps users of Microsoft Analysis Services to analyze complex MDX expressions, monitor performance characteristics of MDX queries and get insight into how MDX interacts with other UDM features such as attribute relationships. MDX Studio provides unique visualization representation of MDX expression and allows the user to interact with different stages of MDX execution. MDX Studio is aimed to be compatible with all the versions of Microsoft OLAP servers - OLAP Services 7.0, Analysis Services 2000, SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 and SQL Server Analysis Services 2008 (codename Katmai).

For more details and the download link, take a lot at Mosha's post.

Following the decision of the Court of First Instance, in the case of EC against Microsoft, I've seen some statements that left me speachless. Without any further comments, here they are:

I want Microsoft's market share to diminish to significantly less than 95%. I can't say that it has to be precisely 50% or whatever number, but it has to be significantly less than 95.

- Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner from Competition Policy

We've proposed a great way for Europe to accomplish this and I'm happy to say that so far they seem to be listening to us. Which is more than I can say for the U.S. government which is still stuck with this quaint idea that governments shouldn't decide how much market share any one company should have in any one market.

- Steve Jobs, Apple

And here's the one I like the most:

The Commission asserts that the applicant’s refusal creates a risk that all effective competition on the secondary market for work group server operating systems will be eliminated.

- Paragraph 454 of the Court of First Instance decision

Do you remember Minority Report (the movie starring Tom Cruise)? Sure looks to me that EC is prepareing a Precrime unit... Would it be an ideea to simply kill companies while they are still small, you know, just to avoid the "RISK" of becominge large.

For the first two, the only comment I have is that when I read them, I fel like listening again to one of Ceausescu's speeches.

Oh.... I have an idea ... let's ask the European Commissioner lady to diminish iPod's market share. Hmmm... don't you feel there's too much Coca Cola these days on the market? Aren't you bored flying those Airbus planes in Europe every day? And yes, I hate too that company that's manufacturing those sealed packs for natural juices. Let's get together and show them who's the boss!

It's just now that I'm starting to really understand why aren't we capable to get a constitution in Europe. With this type of thinking, it would be a .... RISK.

<Update>

Try to eliminate the name Microsoft from this equation, then analyze again these statements. To be honest, only after I removed Microsoft I got the real headaches.

</Update>

One of the top publications in Romania (Romania Libera) quoted today my position on the EU vs. Microsoft affair. You can read more at http://www.romanialibera.ro/a106375/vista-vine-fara-media-player.html (Romanian version).

If you want to know more about how some of the European SME's from the IT industry are trying to make their voice heard,  take a look at the Association for Competitive Technology's web site.

Today, the Court of First Instance published the decision on the case of the European Commission against Microsoft. The decision confirms most of EC's decisions, thus being a very dangerous precedent. What they say is basically that a company may be forced to give out it's intellectual property and even more than that, may be forced to assist its competitors in building exact replicas of its own pieces of software.

Now imagine BMW being forced to assist his Chinese competitors in building the exact replica of its cars. But hey, that's not all! According to this ruling, they might be even forced to help them enter the European market.

Perhaps an even better example is Airbus. Will they be allowed to further improve their planes? Suppose I have a manufacturing company and I really want to build right wings (only right, not left) for the new 380. According to today's ruling, if I have enough money, I might get a decision to do just that.

It seems to me that the Court decided to walk on a very very slippery slope. What really bothers me, is that one of the sentences in the ruling states very clearly that the decision is based on the facts from 1998, while the current market situation as well as the completely missing consumer interest for Vista N are not considered at all.

Should I understand that both the Commission and the Court are totally ignoring the European consumer's interest? As an SME, should I really spend big amounts of money in protecting my own intellectual property? What if one day I find out it was in vane?

On Monday, the 17th of September, we'll have the Court of First Instance decision in the Microsoft competition case in Europe. After march 2004, when the European Commission imposed a record fine on Microsoft (around a half of billion euros), many things were expected to change. Some did, some did not. The fun part is that all the dark clouds predicted by the Commission for the coming years are nowhere to be seen today.

As part of the compliance process, we do have right now in Europe the special version called Vista N. Which happens to be completely ignored by consumers. They (the consumers) never wanted such a thing and I dare to presume they never will. The Commission decided they need it. As it usually happens with political decisions that have nothing to do with the reality of a particular market, the response comes with the figures. And figures show that customers are simply ignoring the N version.

But that's only one side of the story. Since the start of the entire process in 1998, following a complaint from Sun, the world has changed in ways we couldn't ever imagine back in 1998. The media player market is more competitive than ever and there is a bunch of media players with strong market shares (some even larger that Windows Media Player's share). Media formats are also alive and well. What a heck, we even have the iPod and iPhone stuff bundled with the iTunes service (which is 100% proprietary, but who cares?).

Basically, all the fears of the European Commission expressed through the years are completely invalidated by today's reality. So the court faces a tough decision: either rule according to the reality and acknowledge that the European Commission was plain wrong, or rule in a way that enables the Commission to save face. Either way, I have a hard time understanding why an European body spends huge amounts of money on a case driven by a complaint coming from US competitors against a US company. And if the court rules in favor of Microsoft, who's responsible? I'm co curious about the final outcome of this whole process!

Finally, what intrigues me the most is the position of many large companies that could be next on the radar. They're all silent and I bet some are even enjoying watching Microsoft go through this stuff, while they are secretly hoping that Microsoft wins the case. Simply because if the Court's decision backs the Commission's decisions I fear we're on the path of opening Pandora's box. And as we all know, the stuff inside that box doesn't really care about the name that's carved in front of your building...