Employees toiling under an abusive supervisor often rebel quietly and indirectly by slacking off on the job and handing in sloppy work.

Researchers at Florida State University surveyed more than 180 employees from a wide variety of professions, asking whether they had endured a history of abuse from their bosses, then asking a slew of workplace performance questions.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says Red Hat Linux uses intellectual property owned by Microsoft and that Red Hat’s customers should pay Microsoft for it. Ballmer made the claim, an echo of earlier remarks aimed at the open source community, during a presentation at a Microsoft event Oct. 4 in London.

"People who use Red Hat, at least with respect to our intellectual property, in a sense have an obligation eventually to compensate us," Ballmer stated, according to news reports, and a video of his remarks posted online.

Asked for comment, Red Hat reiterated its position that its customers are protected from liability by its Open Source Assurance Program, which includes "indemnification against claims raised by any holder of software patents," according to information on Red Hat’s Web site.

Tethys Solutions has released Automation Anywhere version 4.0. The new version continues to make great strides in intelligent automation. Enhancing their SMART Automation Technology, new features further improve reliability in recording as well as integration with other applications. Version 4.0 offers a "Workflow Designer," "Visualize Technology" to better manage tasks, system log capability and a more powerful remote deployment option. Furthermore, it introduces over 50 new features like Excel integration capability that allows seamless working with spreadsheets, more Web automation actions, etc.

The "Workflow Designer" helps create an intuitive graphical representation of business and IT processes. Using intuitive drag-n-drop tools, users can easily create logical workflows without any programming. The new "Visualize Technology" features pictorial views of tasks in a storyboard view. The pictorial view of respective actions makes it easier to understand, edit and manage tasks. The technology also allows for on-demand image capture.

Security researchers in Pittsburgh last week disagreed over how to educate Web users to prevent phishing attacks, but agreed on one thing: most current methods of user education are inadequate.

Moreover, it’s also difficult to find a method that works because of the diversity of people who use the Web, said Lorrie Faith Cranor, associate research professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

Research Tuesday reveals that lax password habits are leaving a quarter of people in serious danger of falling victim to online fraud.

Online security specialists McAfee released survey findings to coincide with National Identity Fraud Prevention Week suggesting that nearly one in four people in Europe are at risk from online fraud.

Nearly two months after it debuted in other countries, Microsoft’s Windows Home Server software is now selling in the U.S. at prices ranging from US$165 to $189. Ready-to-use servers running the new operating system, however, are still weeks away from release.

Web-based retailers such as Buy.com and Newegg.com are taking orders, and in some cases shipping, the system builder version. Newegg.com, for example, lists the OEM edition–the only package that will be sold unbundled from hardware–as in stock and priced at $189.99. Others, including Buy.com, list the OS for less, but are currently backordered.

The OEM edition has been awaited by users who beta-tested the operating system because it is the only way to upgrade their existing home-built servers. Even so, some aren’t happy with the pricing.

ScriptLogic customers worried about migrating to Vista have been offered a new tool from the company to help spot potential problems.

The free MSI Readiness Analyzer is designed to help deploy Vista in a way that takes advantage of technology in the OS, and also points out where problems might occur in running installation routines on specific systems.

The results generated by the software could be used to help with third-party installation packages, but dovetail best with ScriptLogic’s own installer, Desktop Authority MSI Studio 3.6, and Vista migration package Desktop Authority 7.6.

Microsoft’s research arm has been quietly collecting data through an add-on service to its Windows Live Toolbar to determine how often Web users actually fall prey to phishing attacks. The company released findings of and methods used in that research in a presentation at the Anti-Phishing Work Group E-Crimes Summit in Pittsburgh.

In August, a blogger using the handle "Techjunkie" started a Microsoft Developer Network blog called Hackers@Microsoft that, he claimed, would introduce the world to some of the ethical "white hat" hackers working there.

White hat hackers are security professionals who use many of the same techniques as the bad guys, but who learn how to break into systems for research purposes only. "The focus of this blog is likely to be a little different from most other blogs you’ll see on blogs.msdn.com," Techjunkie wrote. Then he went silent for a month and a half. Late Thursday, however, Techjunkie resurfaced, saying that he was dropping the Hackers@Microsoft name.

In this article, we’ll talk about the tradeoff between customizing Outlook forms or finding ways to use them as-is. If you’re using any recent Outlook version, this article can be of some help.

Read this OutlookPower article.