Technology will begin shifting the spam and security tide while what he called "seamless computing" will likewise come to pass sooner than people think thanks to new technologies, Microsoft mastermind Bill Gates told the annual Comdex conference in a keynote address November 17.
Speaking to a smaller audience than at Comdexes past – this yea'rs show is being held in the smaller Aladdin Theatre, this year's conference wasn't expected to lure more than 50,000 attendees, compared to the 200,000 who jammed the show at the larger MGM Grand in 2000 – Gates put the spam and security issues in economic terms primarily, saying spam metastasizes only because of e-mail's efficiency.
"Even if one in 10,000 respond," Gates told the conference, "it is economic for them to send out that e-mail." But he said technology plus legislation can change that rapidly enough, adding that Microsoft is among the companies developing technology like advanced white listing to help guarantee the only e-mail you get is the e-mail you really want.
"We believe," Gates told the conference, "these new approaches will shift the tide."
Gates spoke as Microsoft announced elsewhere that it, too, was taking a dip into the increasingly crowded pool of legal online music services. The Redmond, Washington software empire plans to bring online a song-downloading service in 2004 aimed at competing with Apple's iTunes, Roxio's resurrected Napster, and other such pay-for-play services, The Wall Street Journal reported the move November 17.
A Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed only that MSN's Website would offer the service, the Journal reported, but offered no more details. But the Journal said industry analysts expecting Microsoft to make such a move believe the company could shake up the legal music downloading business, since Windows gives Microsoft very powerful leverage while the company's seemingly bottomless revenue could let it get more than a legato up on competitors.
Microsoft's Windows Media Player is also hugely adaptable for facilitating an online music service and store, the newspaper added.
Since launching iTunes Music Store in April, the Journal added, Apple has said it's sold over 17 million songs at $1 each, and a dozen rivals have come up in iTunes's wake, including the resurrected Napster as a legal service, with more expected from places like Sony, Dell, Amazon, and even Wal-Mart.
"The current (music) era," Digital Media analyst Phil Leigh told the Journal, "has all the characteristics of a gold rush."
