Network Associates, Microsoft doin' that jig It appears I can dance around the evil editor’s desire to see my personal saga vanquish — thanks in no small part to reader feedback — but only if I work a little magic with my feet. I’ll have to brush up on my dance steps because that blasted Amber never was much good on the floor.The ole spam two-stepI’m not the only one displaying fancy footwork these days. The latest hoofer is Network Associates, which is using the controversy around spam — including proposals to the Senate from Microsoft and Symantec — as a way to spread the message about its software solution. I’ll give you one guess as to which dance move it is using. That’s right: spam. The company last week spammed users to inform them of SpamKiller. Vicious circle. The ghost of XPI have what several undercover agents said is a solution to the null admin password problem. If you press ctrl+alt+delete twice at the welcome screen for Windows XP, it will switch to the “classic” log-on method, as documented in TechNet Article 281992, in which Microsoft confirmed this as a problem. I consider this a substantial security risk, and someday a worm may try to take advantage of it.Microsoft may be accused of living in its own world, but the company plans to reach into the solar system, sort of, at its annual TechEd show this week, one of my spies said, when it will offer details about its Jupiter bundling of SQL Server, BizTalk, and Commerce Server. My spy expects a beta version of Jupiter by month’s end, with tighter integration between the three products, resulting in better Web services generation, among other things. With Amber gone, I’ve got spare time to wonder about SCO: Linux abandonment, a billion-dollar lawsuit against IBM, veiled threats to large customers, et al. What song is SCO dancing to? Software DevelopmentTechnology IndustrySmall and Medium Business