Data integration software vendor JuxtaComm Technologies has filed suit in a Texas court alleging patent infringement. The case names a number of high-profile software companies, including Microsoft and IBM.

JuxtaComm is alleging that the companies in question–which include a number of prominent business intelligence and application integration companies–have infringed its patent for a system that transforms and exchanges data between distributed heterogeneous computer systems.

Microsoft said Wednesday it will acquire a Chicago-based provider of enterprise group chat software to bolster the messaging capabilities of its Office Communications Server and Office Communicator products.

Microsoft’s plan to acquire privately held Parlano is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year. The company did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. Parlano has about 50 employees, which Microsoft eventually plans to relocate to its headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

It appears that PDF spam has had its 15 minutes of fame. Having reached its peak volume on Aug. 7 at nearly 30 percent of all spam messages sent, PDF spam today is hardly registering on email security vendors’ spamometers.

The unwanted emails with PDF files attached–usually pushing the recipient to purchase a penny stock that the spammer then dumps once the trading price goes up–comprise less than 1 percent of spam today, according to security vendor Sophos.

Amid mounting criticism of the deal, the chairman and CEO of Acer has vowed to step down if the company’s bid to join with Gateway does not succeed.

"The merger will definitely succeed. If it doesn’t… I will resign," the Chinese-language newspaper, Economic Daily News, quoted Acer Chairman and CEO J.T. Wang as saying in an interview published Wednesday. Acer spokesman Henry Wang confirmed the statement.

Back in the fall of 2006, McAfee, Symantec, and Check Point fumed as Microsoft Vista’s Security Center hid their products where only sophisticated and dedicated customers could dig them out. Not only that, Microsoft in effect hid its x64 kernel as well, putting it beyond the reach of advanced security products.

The issue was twofold: First, security vendors contended, there wasn’t good communication between Vista interfaces and their existing security products, and second, security products couldn’t effectively interface with the Vista kernel. Microsoft listened.

The same day as Microsoft announced Vista Service Pack 1 timing, Windows Server 2008 RTM was delayed.

Microsoft has now pushed back Windows Server 2008 release to manufacturing to the first quarter. Release to manufacturing had been expected by the end of this year. The change foreshadows that the new server software will not likely be broadly available for its scheduled Feb. 27, 2008 launch.

Security pros are warning that distributors of the Storm Trojan are now using a YouTube video to lure users.

Contained in emails with subject lines such as "sheesh man what are you thinking," the malicious link claims to go to YouTube.com, but actually goes to a URL harboring exploit code.

In the seven weeks since Microsoft announced that it intended to open a software development center in Vancouver, British Columbia, which it hoped would "be home to software developers from around the world," it may have gotten more than it bargained for.

In short, wrote Jenna Adorno, technical recruiter for MSN, on Microsoft’s JobsBlog on Aug. 22, "Vancouver has worn me out."

Since Adorno first announced the facility July 9, she wrote, she has been "swallowed up by the endless offers and questions around employment at the Microsoft Vancouver Development Centre," which was built to address international workers affected by an inability to obtain a U.S. H-1B visa that would have enabled them to work out of the company’s Redmond, Wash., headquarters.

United Online announced the launch of Video Mail, allowing NetZero and Juno users to add a personal video to an email that recipients can view without having to download the video.

Unlike some existing video email services, including instant messaging services, NetZero and Juno Video Mail is email agnostic. Members can easily send video emails to any email address in the world.

In this critical article, we provide our final analysis of our investigation into White House email. We make a series of six important recommendations. This is the article you need to read if you want this problem to be fixed.

Read this OutlookPower article.