Microsoft loses i4i appeal

In today's podcast: Microsoft loses i4i appeal; IBM brings startups under its wing; and Altair creator dies.

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IBM is hoping to bring a new crop of tech startups under its corporate wing with a program that gives them access to its software and industry-specific development frameworks. Its Global Entrepreneur Initiative has echoes of Microsoft's BizSpark program, and also grants participants access to IBM's researchers and help with development, sales and marketing efforts. Startups may remain in the program for as long as three years, after which they could continue in IBM's traditional PartnerWorld partner program.

An appeals court has refused to rehear the case that ultimately forced Microsoft to remove a feature from Office 2007, leaving the U.S. Supreme Court as the software maker's most likely next step. Microsoft had asked that all 12 appeals court judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reconsider the case. On Thursday, though, they declined the request. The appeals court has already upheld a jury verdict that the software giant willfully infringed on an i4i patent and required Microsoft to pay more than 240 million dollars in damages. Starting in January, Microsoft also had to remove a feature in Word 2007 for creating custom XML documents.

One year after the Conficker botnet was front-page news around the world, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is preparing a report looking at the worldwide effort to keep it in check. The report shows how an ad hoc group of security researchers and Internet infrastructure providers banded to address what was at the time the world's most serious cyberthreat. Despite their efforts, the botnet is thought still to control between 4 million and 7 million computers

Henry Edward Roberts, designer of the Altair 8800 personal computer, has died aged 68. His creation inspired Bill Gates and Paul Allen to enter the software business. Roberts founded Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, a retailer of electronics kits for hobbyists. There he designed the Altair 8800, arguably the first personal computer. When Popular Electronics magazine featured the Altair on its cover in January 1975, Gates and Allen offered to develop a version of the programming language Basic for the new computer, setting up Microsoft to do so. A few years after the launch of the Altair, Roberts sold MITS to move to Georgia, where he went on to study medicine.

And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. This is Marc Ferranti in the New York bureau. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.