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Many mod chips for the current generation of Xbox allow users to copy games to their hard drives and then play them without the original game disc, or simply download copies off the Internet directly onto their console - a new avenue for piracy which has potential to be hugely damaging if it becomes popular.

Microsoft Corp. on Monday capitulated to customer pressure and announced that it would now continue extended support for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition and for Windows Millennium Edition (ME) until June 30, 2006.

Microsoft recently said that support for Windows 98 and 98 SE would be phased out this Friday—January 16, while support for Windows Me was due to stop on December 31, 2004.

But on Monday a company spokesman told eWEEK that the decision to extend support for the products was "part of Microsoft's ongoing effort to respond to customers' needs around the world." During this time, Microsoft will continue to offer paid phone support and will continue to review any critical security issues and take appropriate steps.

"Microsoft made this decision to accommodate customers worldwide who are still dependent upon these operating systems and to provide Microsoft more time to communicate its product lifecycle support guidelines in a handful of markets—particularly smaller and emerging markets," he said.

According to officials, Microsoft also wanted to bring Windows 98 SE into compliance with the company's current lifecycle policy for new products, which provides for support for seven years instead of the original four.

Website row pits B.C. teen against Microsoft
The giant software company is not too pleased with Mike Rowe's Internet domain site

Just after 9:45 p.m. Friday night, Bellevue police received several 911 calls from people inside the Tap House Grill at the Bellevue Galleria Shopping Center, at 550 106th Ave. N.E., said police spokesman Michael Chiu. Callers reported a man had been stabbed, Chiu said.

The stabbing occurred after the two men, both Microsoft employees, fought over a woman, Chiu said. The three were at the restaurant with co-workers, many of whom witnessed the fight and called police.

A forthcoming update to Internet Explorer will disallow the use of the "@" character in URLs.

When the http protocol was originally designed, the “@†character was intended to denote a username at a particular site, in the style of http://sir.tim.berners-lee@www.w3.org where sir.tim.berners-lee is the username, and www.w3.org is the name of the site.

News Source: Bink.nu

Microsoft's Xbox may be on the verge of a substantial price cut, falling from $179 to $99 by Labor Day, according to P.J. McNealy, an analyst with American Technology Research.

"It is our belief that the price on the consoles in North America could see a stepped drop this year, with both the PS2 and Xbox being cut to $129 between now and the May E3 trade show, with [Microsoft] then cutting the Xbox further to $99 in the late summer," he wrote in a research note released Wednesday.

McNealy also believes Microsoft will launch its next generation console in late 2005 – a year earlier than has been previously rumored. That would put the Xbox 2 on store shelves up to a full year before Sony's PlayStation 3.

Microsoft plans to offer its own anti-spyware software, Chairman Bill Gates said Friday.

Gates said Microsoft will offer software to detect malicious applications and that the company will keep it up-to-date on an ongoing basis. He did not say when the software would be available or whether Microsoft would charge for it.

Although progress is being made against spam and viruses, Gates said the adware and malware problem is getting worse. "This malware thing is so bad," he said in a speech at the Computer History Museum here. "Now that's the one that has us really needing to jump in." It's also a problem that has affected Gates personally. He said his home PCs have had malware, although he has personally never been affected by a virus.

Reversal: Next IE update divorced from Windows

Reversing a longstanding Microsoft policy, Bill Gates said Tuesday that the company will ship an update to its browser separately from the next version of Windows.

Several users have noted that the screenshot is likely fake.