Microsoft made available for public download the sample code and case study documentation for its "Project Elixir"–technology that makes Outlook a front-end for Siebel’s CRM on the back end. Microsoft released the Elixir bits via the Microsoft Developer Network.

Microsoft released two security bulletins to fix "critical" flaws in several widely deployed products, including one that presents a remote unauthenticated attack vector that could leave corporate email servers open to a destructive network worm attack. A company spokesperson flagged MS06-003 as the most serious issue, warning that a bug in the way TNEF (Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format) is decoded can allow malicious hackers to inject harmful code automatically without user interaction. Businesses running Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0, Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 and Microsoft Exchange 2000 are at the highest risk of a network attack.

Microsoft has signed a five-year deal to develop versions of Microsoft Office for Mac computers and said it plans to release a version of Office for Apple’s new Intel-based computers. The announcement came yesterday at the MacWorld Expo, where the New York Times reported that Apple itself unveiled its new computers months ahead of schedule and reported a surge in revenue of 63 percent.

FeedForAll RSS editing software is pleased to announce the release of FutureRSS. FutureRSS is a PHP script that enables Web masters to prepare content for their RSS feeds in advance, and have it automatically appear at the desired date and time. The FutureRSS script can be used with any RSS 2.0 feed, and allows content to be scheduled to appear in the feed weeks, or even months later. The new FutureRSS script will be made available free of charge to all registered users of FeedForAll and FeedForAll Mac.

Two patents covering one of Microsoft’s main Windows file-storage systems are valid after all, federal patent examiners have decided. The decision, announced Tuesday by the software giant, effectively ends a two-year saga over the patents and reverses two non-final rulings in which the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected Microsoft’s claims.

McAfee President Gene Hodges has resigned to take the chief executive post at rival security company Websense, the companies announced separately Tuesday. Hodges, whose resignation is effective immediately, marks the latest case of a high-level executive jumping to a competitor. Websense provides Web-filtering security software, while McAfee, predominately known as an antivirus company, has been rapidly expanding its footprint into new areas of the security market.

Security attacks over instant-messaging networks became more prevalent in 2005, according to a new study. Microsoft’s MSN network experienced the largest number of IM security incidents in both 2004 and 2005, while year-on-year incident growth rates were largest on America Online’s AIM network, according to the report, published Monday by IM security vendor FaceTime Communications.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from an online dating service that claimed it had the right to send unsolicited emails to thousands of University of Texas email accounts. White Buffalo Ventures legally obtained a list of all of the university’s "nonconfidential, nonexempt" email addresses by filing a Freedom of Information Act request. Soon thereafter, the University of Texas received several complaints by students receiving "unsolicited email blasts" from the company, according to court filings. Citing its Board of Regents’ general policy against solicitation, the university ordered the spamming to stop. When White Buffalo didn’t listen, the university had its IP addresses blocked. White Buffalo responded with a lawsuit, alleging that the federal Can-Spam Act pre-empted the university’s policy and that blocking its IP addresses violated the company’s First Amendment right to free speech. A federal trial court in Western Texas sided with the university, and a three-judge panel at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in August.

A Google search engine optimization contest organized by respected SEO industry commentator John Scott has created a storm within Internet marketing circles that has competing search engine optimization professionals in a rush to jump aboard the bandwagon. John Scott, editor and administrator of v7n.com, announced the contest on December 20th, with a $1,000 grand prize. Soon afterwards Greg Boser, a Web page optimizer, announced a $1,000 reward for not playing by v7n rules. Two of Greg Boser’s friends–Mike Grehan and Todd Friesen–then contributed to the reward pot, bringing the anti-contest grand prize to $3,000. Many in the SEO community were outraged by what they saw as an attack on the popular v7n community, and John Scott in particular. The blogging community rallied and added $3,000 plus an iPod to the v7n contest, putting the total at $7,000 and an iPod for the grand prize winner, with smaller cash amounts to those who place 2nd through 5th.

We’ve got ourselves a spiffy, new, interactive ZATZ bar at the top of most ZATZ magazine pages. It’s now interactive (oooh, aaaah). When you roll over certain words, things change or highlight (ooooh, ahhhh). We’re so proud. So very, very, very proud.