Attenda Limited, the Always On Managed Services company announced its full support of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and the migration of its first client, reed.co.uk, to this major new operating system.

Attenda has been working closely with reed.co.uk since September 2007 with beta versions of Windows Server 2008. This will allow reed.co.uk to immediately benefit from the highly secure, easy-to-manage platform that Windows Server 2008 provides for developing the UK’s leading recruitment site–today, over 1.6 million jobseekers visit reed.co.uk every month, making over 50,000 job applications everyday, offering more than twice the number of jobs of any other UK job site.

eWEEK Labs has a tour through Windows Server 2008 that shows the server operating system to be leaner and more secure than ever before.

The European Union fined Microsoft a record $1.3 billion Wednesday for the amount it charges rivals for software information.

EU regulators said the company charged "unreasonable prices" until last October to software developers who wanted to make products compatible with the Windows desktop operating system.

The fine is the largest ever for a single company and brings to just under $2.5 billion the amount the EU has demanded Microsoft pay in a long-running antitrust dispute.

In August 2007, CEOs John Chambers of Cisco Systems and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft met in New York City and committed their companies to collaborating and offering more interoperable products and services for mutual customers.

One of the first results of those talks came to the fore Feb. 26 when Microsoft and Cisco jointly announced that Windows Server 2008 will be offered pre-installed with Cisco WAN Optimization network appliances for branch offices next fall.

This marks the first Cisco-Microsoft partnership to result in a customer-facing product, Bala Kasiviswanathan, director of Product Management & Marketing at Microsoft, told eWEEK.

A U.S. House hearing on missing White House email erupted into a partisan political catfight Feb. 26 when Democrats released a hotly contested statement by a former Executive Office of the President IT employee who claims he warned the White House its email archival system was inadequate.

"The process by which email was being collected and retained was primitive and the risk that data would be lost was high," Steven McDevitt, an information technology specialist at the White House from 2002-2003, said in the statement. "There is no way to guarantee that all records are retained in their complete and modified state."

The missing emails were first revealed during a congressional investigation of the firing of U.S. attorneys general. The period they cover also includes the start of the Iraq war and the time when a White House official publicly identified Valerie Plame as a CIA operative.

A federal court which hears patent appeals told a lower court on Tuesday to reconsider damages that Microsoft must pay a Guatemalan inventor for infringing his software in its popular Office Suite.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit tossed out the damages award of 12 cents per copy because the lower court failed to explain how it calculated the award.

At issue is a software program, which was patented by inventor Carlos Armando Amado, that links databases and spreadsheets. Amado sued Microsoft in 2003, alleging that several versions of Office Suite infringed his patent.

Microsoft on Tuesday acknowledged a problem that is preventing Hotmail users from accessing their accounts.

"The issue is purely impacting the log-in process for customers and largely does not impact customers who were already logged in," Microsoft said in a statement. "We have made significant progress in decreasing the number of customers currently affected since initial reports, but the issue has not yet been completely resolved. Microsoft is working quickly and aggressively to resolve the issue and expects to restore normal operation to all customers shortly."

Microsoft announced that it is working with IBM to deliver a powerful Windows Embedded-based "plug-and-play" solution to help make it faster and easier for retailers and hospitality organizations to deliver information and services to time-conscious, empowered, consumers.

According to the two companies, Microsoft’s Windows Embedded for Point of Service (WEPOS) operating system will come pre-loaded on IBM point-of-sale, self checkout and self-service kiosks offerings. The combined solution provides retailers and hospitality operators a simple, easy-to-manage point-of-service platform for empowering workers, and connecting consumers to products and information in a seamless, integrated retail environment.

Microsoft announced the launch of its first Microsoft Embedded Systems Development Centre (MESDC) in Aachen, Germany. The MESDC is part of Microsoft’s effort to expand regional development centers in Denmark, France, Ireland, Serbia, the U.K. and other countries across Europe. The center will support global product development and drive smart, connected, service-oriented device development.

Located within the European Microsoft Innovation Centre (EMIC) in Aachen, the MESDC is a significant part of the $75 million global R&D investment that the Windows Embedded Business is making in Europe this fiscal year.

By the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ own count, women hold 27 percent, just over a quarter, of jobs in computer-related and mathematical occupations. As a result of IT’s numerical dominance by men, it has long been viewed as unreceptive to women. Even among women working in technology, dissatisfaction and disenchantment is high.

By many accounts, an uninviting workplace is to blame. A 2007 report published by the trade association WITI (Women in Technology International) found that only 52 percent of female tech workers said their organizations offered a favorable climate for women. These women said they felt that their voices weren’t being heard, and it was causing them to question whether the technology workplace was an environment they wished to stay in.