Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates talks about security during a keynote address at Comdex. (Steve Marcus - Las Vegas Sun via Reuters) _____About Filter_____ Filter looks at the day's top technology news through snapshots and analysis of what the world's media outlets are covering. Washingtonpost.com's new Mon.-Fri. feature is penned by technology reporter Cynthia L. Webb. If a technology story breaks, a company falters or triumphs, or there's a new trend in technology, Filter wants you to know about it. _____Filter Archive_____ • A Tale of Two Dells (washingtonpost.com, Nov 14, 2003) • When the Chips Are Up... (washingtonpost.com, Nov 13, 2003) • Microsoft Versus the Europeans (washingtonpost.com, Nov 12, 2003) • Poison Pill for Oracle (washingtonpost.com, Nov 11, 2003) • Retailers Get the Download Fever (washingtonpost.com, Nov 10, 2003) • More Past Issues __ Filter E-mail Reminder __ Sign-up for our daily e-letter for one-click access to Filter and other TechNews.com features. • Subscribe E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version Permission to Republish

By Cynthia L. Webb
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Monday, November 17, 2003; 9:51 AM

It's a tradition that turned 20 this year: Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates's keynote address to the annual Comdex trade show in Las Vegas. It's an event, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer notes, that "has become perhaps the closest thing the computer industry has to a state-of-the-union address, in which Gates talks about his company's new products and the general directions he sees technology heading."

Of course, Gates's presentations have evolved a bit since his first Comdex appearance, when his father "ran the slide projector as Gates spoke about such innovations as the computer mouse, which he predicted would become a standard tool for computer users." Gates was right about the mouse, so will he be equally prescient about spam and security -- the top topics of his 2003 speech?
• The Seattle Post-Intelligencer: '83 Comdex Saw Future Through Windows

Gates said yesterday that the company plans to sell beefed-up spam filtering software for all Microsoft e-mail products, including Hotmail and Outlook. The new spam filtering tools are also intended to piggyback on the company's Microsoft Exchange server software, which is designed to kill spam before it is routed to e-mail accounts. (Sign me up -- my inbox has so much junk, I need an e-mail landfill). "Called SmartScreen, the program killed 80% of spam in tests and adapts to customer feedback on what is unwanted e-mail, Group Product Manager Kevin Doer said," The Los Angeles Times explained. More from The Seattle Times: "The technology uses new ways to scan and detect junk e-mail before it hits a customer's inbox. It is a milestone of sorts for the group Microsoft formed early this year to develop spam-fighting technologies using scientific computations. For months, the group has also collected comments from Hotmail and MSN subscribers about whether certain messages coming into their inboxes are spam," the newspaper said.
• The Los Angeles Times: Gates Opens Comdex Show (Registration required)
• The Seattle Times: Gates Armed With Microsoft Arsenal Against Spam

CNET's News.com said of spam: "Gates cast the issue as an economic problem, with spam having proliferated only because e-mail is such an efficient communications vehicle for marketers. 'Even if one in 10,000 respond, it is economic for them to send out that e-mail,' Gates said. But technology -- along with new legislation -- can also change that equation, Gates said, noting the company is working on technologies such as 'white lists' that ensure that only wanted mail reaches one's inbox. 'We believe these new approaches will shift the tide,' Gates said."
• CNET's News.com: Gates Addresses Spam, Security Flaws At Comdex

On the security front, Microsoft is clearly committed to delivering on its "Trustworthy Computing" promise by correcting security problems that have plagued the company's software products. At Comdex, Gates "touted and demonstrated the company's Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004, which was designed to catch more types of hazards at the entrance to a business computer network. To be released next summer, the software starts at about $1,500 and gives systems administrators more tools for stopping invasive programs. 'You take any of the viruses and worms that have been center stage in the past six months, and this should handle it,' said Dave Berkowitz, a Microsoft product manager," The Los Angeles Times reported.

The new security tools touted by Gates are designed to allow patches to software holes to be applied easier. "Perhaps the patching plan doesn't sound sexy, but Microsoft customers want it. Following the appearance of the so-called Blaster computer worm, Microsoft was inundated with complaints of the difficulty of installing patches," The Wall Street Journal explained.
• The Wall Street Journal: Microsoft to Wage Attack on Spam With New Filter (Subscription required)

Tech's Future -- And Where Microsoft Fits In 'Seamlessly'

A smiling Gates appears on the cover of Newsweek magazine, but the theme of one article in the cover package may be nothing to grin about. Titled "The Twilight of the PC Era?," the article explores the technology slump and whether consumers and businesses are tapped out of making new, substantial tech purchases. (The Newsweek piece follows up on the premise of a controversial Harvard Business Review article from earlier this year called, "IT Doesn't Matter.")

"No one disputes the benefits of technology. But people have learned that all too often the value of tech comes with an unwelcome downside. The biggest problem is security and disaster recovery, which [a] Forrester report listed as the No. 1 priority for IT departments. It's an expensive, labor-intensive pursuit that does nothing for productivity, but does keep the systems going. In fact, our reliance on virus-prone computers is itself a scary proposition: what would be the consequence of an Internet blackout? Another dark-side plague is spam. The time spent deleting all the come-ons makes you question the value of e-mail itself," Newsweek writes in its own assessment of the tech sector's woes.

"Microsoft itself has, as you might imagine, its own master plan to keep the good times rolling. Next month Bill Gates and his top tech gurus will present a new 'core vision' for the company based on what he calls 'seamless computing' -- a holistic means of using technology that delivers 'rich interfaces and new experiences' no matter where you are and what device you use. 'It's all about the power of using advanced software to bring computers into your world, rather than forcing you into theirs,' says Gates. The flagship for the seamless-computing effort is the next operating system, code-named Longhorn, due to arrive in 2006," the magazine said. (For more details from Gates, the magazine (which is owned by The Washington Post Co., like washingtonpost.com) is letting readers pose questions to the Microsoft chief; his replies will be posted on Nov. 24.)
• Newsweek: Twilight of the PC Era?

Additional details on Gates's vision of seamless computing: "By breaching these boundaries, by getting rid of these seams ... we can deliver all of the scenarios that we've dreamed about since this industry got started -- even the incredible dreams of the 1990s," Gates said, as quoted by The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "Gates' references [at Comdex] to seamless computing echoed statements he made last month when Microsoft showed an early version of the next generation of Windows ... at a company convention for professional software developers. The new operating system, due in 2005 or 2006, will come with a file system designed to make it easier to find documents on a hard drive."
• The Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Gates Outlines 'Seamless Computing' At Comdex