During a keynote speech at the Microsoft's TechNet/MSDN Briefings Tuesday, the chief executive Steve Ballmer talked about the Longhorn edition of Windows and new security features for the software company's products. Longhorn <A HREF="http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9590_22-5397291.html?tag=zdnn.alert">will definitely be out in 2006,</A> he said. With such a large gathering of software developers on hand, Ballmer quipped, he didn't have to point out that the target date meant sometime "around Dec. 31, 2006."