InfoSource Learning announced the release of its Microsoft Office 2007 interactive Web-based training. The newly released training contains over 500 interactive Web-based lessons on the recently updated versions of Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft PowerPoint.

Each lesson in the unique training features InfoSource Learning’s interactive learning approach: instead of the learner sitting idly and watching a video or presentation on how to achieve the lesson objective, users "learn by doing" by clicking objects on-screen to achieve lesson objectives. This interactive learning approach increases learner efficiency and leads to more effective skill retention.

According to research released by Microsoft, mobile working is on the rise and businesses need to sit up and take notice or risk losing out to companies with attractive flexi-working policies.

The research, commissioned by Microsoft to support the People Moving Business Awards in partnership with the Chartered Management Institute, Business Link and Management Today, revealed that 73% of people consider the ability to work flexibly a deciding factor when choosing a new job; while 52% of workers believe they would enjoy a less stressful working life as a benefit of working remotely.

This white paper from eWeek looks at the differences between PDF and XPS and advantages of each format. It will also look at ways to create either one of these formats and end up with some recommendations about which format to use in particular situations.

CNS Software announced the release of a new compliancy-reporting tool called WinRadar Reporter. WinRadar Reporter provides custom and canned reporting options to assist companies in assuring their Windows networks are compliant.

This new software simplifies Active Directory management, inventory control, compliancy, and auditing. It makes managing an Active Directory environment easier and assists in assuring a Windows network is compliant with innovative custom and canned reporting features that allow users to create reports showing changes to Active Directory or Windows Management classes and even scheduling reports to run and email automatically.

Google grabs DoubleClick. Yahoo grabs Right Media. And now Microsoft is reportedly going to take out 24/7 Real Media.

According to The New York Post, Microsoft and WPP Group are looking to buy Internet ad firm 24/7 Real Media for $1 billion, double the company’s current market capitalization.

In what could be a broader victory for American software companies, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Microsoft cannot be forced to pay up for patent infringement that occurs when copies of Windows are made and installed on computers abroad

Generally, U.S. patent protection does not transcend American borders. At issue in this case is a complex exception in patent law that bars American companies from shipping "components" to foreign manufacturers, which could then combine them to make a machine that infringes on U.S. patents. The law does not, however, restrict sending blueprints that could theoretically prompt a foreign company to build an identical product.

Your organization has made a decision to move to Windows Vista. You’ve weighed the good against the bad, you’ve tested the new operating system with your existing apps, and you’ve navigated the complex licensing landscape to determine how much a migration it will cost over time.

Now, you just have to deploy Vista to your users. Simple, right?

Wrong.

eWEEK Labs recently put Vista deployment to the test, using Microsoft’s own latest and greatest, System Center Configuration Manager 2007. We tested Beta 2 of SCCM at Blade Network Technologies, using dozens of servers and laptops.

Itzhaki-Weinberger Consultants Limited, an Israeli hi-tech private firm, announced the opening of a Vista gadget programming contest.

The contest promotes the new Vista gadgets Web site the firm has opened. All content on this Web site will be offered free of charge, as a service to the general public.

The site staff will collect the sent vista gadgets created by the participating programmers, evaluate them, and post them for free download on the Web site. All programmers will agree to the publication and free distribution of the gadgets and receive credit for their work. Gadget authors will also be allowed to post their name and a link to their Web site or email address connected directly with their created gadget/s. Full terms of the contest can be found on the Web site.

When most people think of big high-tech hubs, what comes to mind is Silicon Valley. In-the-know IT workers might also add Northern Virginia, Denver or Austin to that list. But rarely is much said about Florida, which, according to the AEA’s "Cyberstates 2007" report, is the fourth-largest and second-fastest-growing technology hub.

Florida’s high-tech industry added a net 10,900 jobs between 2004 and 2005, a growth in technology-related employment surpassed only by California, which added 14,400 high-tech jobs in the same period.

Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of the One Laptop Per Child non-profit group, revealed big news about his laptop for the poor children of the world. His biggest revelations: The laptop will run Windows, and the group is seriously considering selling it in the United States.

The machine, which OLPC aims ultimately to price at $100, is called the XO.

But now Intel’s longtime animosity to the project has taken on new intensity, and that has consequences. Negroponte asserts that in the last couple of weeks, as the final deadline of May 30 approaches for countries to make firm commitments for XOs, Intel has been methodically going to the expected launch countries and offering unusually attractive terms for its own much-less-sexy Classmate PC.

The Classmate is essentially a standard but simplified desktop that like the XO is decorated in green plastic, but less fetchingly. Negroponte claims Intel is pricing it at $180, significantly below its cost of production, and for lots of only 10,000. In an email, Intel spokesman Bill Calder responds that the Classmate’s price is generally higher and he’s not sure what Negroponte is referring to.