Even comics are getting on the email-free Friday bandwagon, as evidenced by Friday’s "What the Duck."

If your mailbox is too big, this is the article you should read. Kathy Evans-Davis will show you a bunch of neat methods for reducing the size of your mailbox, making Outlook run more effectively, and eating right. Yep, somehow Kathy managed to sneak in some healthy advice for overworked email users in addition to advice for managing your email.

Read this OutlookPower article.

Microsoft is releasing a suite of free Web services that connect to its Windows operating system, delivering a major element of its strategy to maintain the dominance of its software while extending its reach on the Internet. The package of "Windows Live" services, which was first released in a test version in September, makes available in a single download updated versions of email, instant messaging, photo gallery, blogging, and event planning applications.

As part of the new software suite, users can access their free Web email through a downloaded desktop application–similar to Office Outlook used by many businesses–instead of using an Internet browser to check, reply, or write emails. Similarly, Windows PC users with a single click can either save photos to the computer’s hard drive, or publish and store the pictures on the Web using Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Microsoft has officially taken the beta moniker off the next generation of its Windows Live services, which it launched at events in New York and Los Angeles on Nov. 6. This new generation of Windows Live will be available in 36 languages and 59 countries across the world, and is the first integrated release of the services, Brian Hall, general manager of Microsoft’s Windows Live business group, told eWEEK.

Windows Live is designed to focus on three main things: putting the user at the center, providing an integrated experience across everything that Microsoft does on this front and bringing the best of the Web to Windows, he said. In line with that strategy, this release brings enhancements to popular services such as Windows Live Hotmail, Messenger and Spaces, while introducing new services for sharing digital photos, planning and sharing events, publishing to the Web, and staying in touch with people, Hall said.

Microsoft is going to kill off MSN Messenger for Mac and replace the IM software with a new product. The company also released its latest software update for Office 2004 for Mac. Microsoft revealed its IM plans during a presentation at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s IEEE Student Branch. The company plans to ditch its existing IM solution for Mac in order to develop and deliver a more advanced client.

While details are scarce at present, the new Mac software is expected to appear by the end of next year and will support AIM, Google Talk, and ICQ and be compatible with Windows Live Messenger 9.0.

Microsoft fired CIO Stuart Scott, the company confirmed on Tuesday. Microsoft would not share details beyond saying that Scott was let go after an investigation for violation of company policies. The company updated its online profile of Scott to explain that he is no longer employed at Microsoft as of early November.

Until a replacement for Scott is found, Shahla Aly, a general manager, and Alain Crozier, a corporate vice president, will take over his responsibilities, Microsoft said.

The recent decision by the Open Document Foundation to substitute the World Wide Web Consortium’s Compound Document Format in place of the format it was set up to promote, the Open Document Format, has sparked a contentious debate over what shape the format should take.

Open document advocates are debating fundamental questions about whether there should be a single document format or multiple formats that interoperate, and the relative importance of format and applications.

"At the core of our dissatisfaction with the ODF is its supporters’ fundamental view that interoperability is an application thing and not a format thing. Our view is that if there is to be a Universal Document Format, the format must be the nexus of interoperability," said Sam Hiser, vice president of OpenDocument Foundation, explaining the move away from ODF.

Microsoft has an interoperability play around Web services, and it’s taking shape in a lab on the software maker’s campus. Greg Leake, Microsoft’s technical marketing manager for .Net, has set up what he calls the .Net Framework/Application Server Lab to test interoperability between .Net-based applications and applications written in Java and running on Linux and other platforms.

The lab consists of multiple rows of servers and older low-cost PCs used as "users" to make transactions against various applications being tested. Leake also uses automated software to simulate the impact of adding more and more users, up to 10,000, to an application’s user base. Leaks said he is using Hewlett-Packard’s Mercury LoadRunner, among other tools, to load test the applications.

Microsoft is working with Macrovision to check out a flaw in a driver on Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP that’s being exploited in the wild, according to a Microsoft special security advisory released after business hours on Nov. 5. The danger is complete system takeover.

The vulnerability is in the Macrovision secdrv.sys driver on supported editions of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. The affected product is Macrovision SafeDisc, a copy-protection application written for Windows. Microsoft said in security advisory 944653 that Vista is immune.

The House Committee on the Judiciary last week apologized to would-be government whistle-blowers for accidentally exposing their email addresses to other individuals who, like them, had used a committee Web site to secretly submit tips about alleged abuses at the U.S. Department of Justice.

The snafu occurred when a clerical employee accidentally included the addresses of all the whistle-blowers in the "To" field of a message that was sent to inform them of changes in the panel’s policy on who could access their information.

Many of the more than 150 email addresses in the distribution list included portions of the names of the whistle-blowers. Also on the list was the public email address of Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a statement released by the Judiciary Committee.