At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on competition in the software industry, RealNetworks CEO Robert Glaser said Microsoft is preventing Internet surfers from using his company's software. Glaser, a Microsoft employee for 11 years before joining RealNetworks, testified that a new version of Microsoft's Media Player effectively and deliberately "breaks" the RealPlayer program. Apparently Media Player associates itself with RealPlayer-type files, so when a user clicks on the file Media Player loads instead of RealPlayer. This would be fine, only Media Player doesn't support the lastest versions of Real files because Microsoft refuses to license the technology. (details of Glasers' claims are available at the RealNetworks web site.)
The hearing called by Senate Judiciary Comittee Chairman Orrin Hatch was officially about competition in the software industry, but was mainly to investigate deeper into Microsoft's business tactics. A similar meet was held back in March. Microsoft refused to send representatives or witnesses to this hearing, accusing Senator Hatch of holding "a campaign against Microsoft." The company also contends that it has "gone the extra mile" to help investigators.
Glaser was not alone in his harsh words against Microsoft. Oracle chairman Larry Ellison attacked Microsoft's claim that it should be allowed to innovate without government interference. "If an innovative piece of software comes along, Microsoft copies it and makes it part of Windows," Ellison said. "This is not innovation. This is the end of innovation." Other testimonials from Lotus CEO Jeff Papows, SPA's Ken Wasch, Netscape executives and a statement from Xing Technologies all reenforced Glaser's message. "The fact is," Hatch said, "our doors have not exactly been knocked down by companies willing to defend Microsoft's business practices."
But this week, undoubtedly after some pressure from Microsoft, Xing took back its statement about Media Player. "For both the XingMPEG Player and Windows Media Player, the last player installed will become the default MPEG player and each follow an identical behavior pattern in this regard." Microsoft's Gates later sent Glaser an e-mail suggesting that he visit the Smithsonian and National Gallery while in Washington so the trip wouldn't be a total waste.

In related news, the Justice Department is examining whether Microsoft tried to talk Apple into staying out of the consumer multimedia software market. The charge is similar to one made by Netscape saying Microsoft tried to make a deal with them that would divide up the browser market. Information obtained from Apple reportedly indicates Microsoft executives proposed three times, as recently as March this year, that Apple scrap plans for the Windows multimedia market in order to leave it open for Microsoft. The company would then endorse Apple software tools in exchange for the concession. (Apple obviously rejected the offer.)
Justice investigators are now checking into whether on-screen error messages or other technical incompatibilities in Windows or IE were designed to impede Apple and if Microsoft pressured PC makers to drop the Apple multimedia software. Neither Microsoft or Apple would comment on the allegations.

According to a report in Government Computer News, a US Navy cruiser was rendered inoperable for two days last fall when a Windows NT crash caused the ship's propulsion system to fail. Reports quote a Navy engineer as saying the ship had to be towed in on several occasions after computer system failures. Government officials deny the story, saying the ship was impaired for a few hours but never actually had to be towed into port. Apparently the cruiser, which runs NT 4 on dual 200-MHz PPros with a high-speed LAN, crashed when its operating system couldn't divide a number by zero. Oops, there goes American naval superiority..

When Compaq bought Digital Equipment, an all-Netscape company, employees received a notice telling them that they had to convert to IE4 by the end of last week to view Compaq's internal web sites. Compaq reportedly has a contract with Microsoft requiring all employees to run IE, so the company put a "hook" in its internal site that would refuse access to anyone not using Internet Explorer.
That order caused some employee rebellion since it meant converting 50,000 desktops to Internet Explorer in just four days and left Digital's Unix users out in the cold. By the end of the week Compaq had delayed conversion so they could figure out an orderly way to convert employees over to IE.

Partially Ms-owned Lernout & Hauspie announced last week that they have bought Fairfax Va-based Globalink, a translation service, for 1.2 million shares of stock. The company also recently acquired Tokyo-based AlLogic and NeocorTech of San Diego, both providers of technology for translating Asian languages.
Peter Neupert, who resigned last week from his 11 year job as VP of interactive media inside Microsoft (see last week's NewsSource), apparently has a new job managing Drugstore.com. The new site, still in development, will sell everything from cosmetics to cleaning supplies and eventually prescription drugs.

_{Microsoft works on NT security fix
Microsoft Motion Raps Rival
Microsoft paints muddied vision of future
Sony Insurrection in TCI Boxes? Linux gaining respect}