Last week I read a bunch of news stories that led with a provocative headline: Microsoft has been awarded a patent for the double-click. Horrors! Those bastards!

The only problem is the story wasn’t true.

I’m reminded of the myth that Al Gore once claimed to have invented the Internet, which was spread by his political opponents with ruthless efficiency (he never claimed any such thing). This is, likewise, a distortion of a fairly innocuous story, spread along by the large anti-Microsoft community.

Today’s Seattle P-I explains where the story went wrong:

Microsoft Corp. caused a stir in the technology world last week with news that it was awarded a patent for, among other things, starting a program “if the application button is pressed multiple times within a short period of time, e.g., double click.”

Could it be? Could the Redmond company now make other companies pay for the ubiquitous practice of tapping a computer mouse twice to open a program on a computer screen? …

[A] closer read of the patent text indicated it wasn’t as broad — or as sinister — as the initial headlines suggested. The patent relates to different ways of tapping or holding down a hardware button to launch programs and other functions on “a limited resource computing device.”

That refers to a button on a hand-held device such as a Pocket PC, not to the double-clicking of a mouse on a PC, a Microsoft spokesman said.

In fact, if you read the patent, it clearly is referring to “Small, mobile computing devices, such as personal desktop assistants including hand-held and palm-type computers…” (Or, I might add, intelligent all-in-one remote controls for complex home media networks, and portable music players.) If you’ve ever tried to use any sort of smart handheld device, you know how difficult it can be to learn, especially when many functions have to be squeezed into a tiny interface with a limited number of buttons.

Scoble points to a note by Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter Research, who points out, there’s no “double-click” patent for Microsoft:

This is just plain wrong. Read the patent. It covers alternate uses of buttons on mobile devices based on how long a button is pressed and how many times it’s pushed (similar to a double click, which is where the confusion comes from). Usually there’s a modifier key that needs to be held down to activate the alternate function. The power of the web is such is that amplifies such bad reporting quite quickly.

There are plenty of problems with the patent system and especially with the concept of awarding patents for software. If you have specific objections to this patent, by all means argue against it. A lot of people don’t like the way big corporations (including Microsoft) control intellectual property. Great subject for a debate. But the story that Microsoft has somehow claimed a patent on double-clicking your mouse is just wrong, and it doesn’t deserve to spread.

For years, I’ve used the excellent collection of online tools at SamSpade.org to diagnose DNS problems, look up domain information, and track down spammers. Unfortunately, for the last year or so the site has often been unreachable and many of its tools are no longer available.

Today, I found what appears to be an excellent replacement. The form-based utilities at DNS Stuff cover a lot of ground — DNS reporting and timing tools, WHOIS, tracert, ping, spam database lookups, and even tools for deobfuscating URLs and decimal IP addresses used by spammers.

If you’re a Net geek, you’ll love this stuff.

Mary Jo Foley gets a little defensive in today’s column, in which she claims her earlier remarks were misinterpreted:

For the record, I didn’t declare that Microsoft has decided to ax the Tablet PC.

No, she didn’t, but she did string together a bunch of provocative quotes and add a bunch of innuendo. People who read the article and concluded that the Tablet PC is in trouble read it correctly. (The headline, “Trouble in Tablet Land?” was also a clue.)

Then, in today’s column, Mary Jo does something just plain wrong: she turns her column over to reprint a bunch of letters she received on this subject from readers. Now, don’t get me wrong; I think the letter to the editor is a valuable format. But you can’t simply allow people to spout off with stuff that is just flat wrong and allow it to go uncorrected. Save that nonsense for newsgroups, where at least other people can respond.

I lost count of the number of errors and distortions among the letters published today. Examples:

There just isn’t a demand. Microsoft keeps the supply low and limited (an old marketing ploy used by Harley Davidson and others) in order to keep the appearance of high demand.

Interesting. Except that all the Tablet PCs are designed, manufactured, and sold by third parties. How can Microsoft keep their supply limited?

The Tablet pc was an abortive project that had such lame functionality and system bloat, not to mention file bloat (digital ink anyone?) that virtually no one cared. I have seen zero Tablet pc’s in the hands of ANYONE I know. At work or personally.

It’s always dangerous to generalize from personal experience. I’ve seen dozens of Tablet PCs in use, but I won’t claim they’re commonplace. The problem with this quote is that the author hasn’t got a clue about what digital ink is or how it works on a Tablet PC. It’s an extremely efficient data type. I’ve never heard any developer who writes apps for the Tablet PC claim it’s “bloated,” nor have I heard that from anyone who has actually used one.

[T]he OS for the Tablet was cobbled together and it shows. Missing apps, broken apps, broken promises are not inspiring those who decided to “wait it out” to see how things shake out before investing in one.

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2, which incorporates the Lonestar updates for Tablet PC. The beta is available now, and the full release will be ready this summer. I had the same reaction to the original Tablet PC software, but the new release has made a believer out of me.

When I read through these comments, one fact struck me: Those who have used a Tablet PC tend to like it, and most really like it. Those who use it and don’t like it usually complain about the weaknesses in the original release of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. Those who complain the loudest usually haven’t even picked up a Tablet PC and are working off a handful of misconceptions.

Funny how that works out, isn’t it?

(Thanks to Marc Orchant for the link.)

Mary Jo Foley debunks some recent stories that claim Windows XP Service Pack 2 has been delayed until September:

If you read the transcript of Security VP Rich Kaplan’s remarks, you won’t see anything about XP Service Pack 2 being delayed until September. It’s still a Q3 deliverable (at least for now). But last week, Microsoft execs said it’s still looking like late July for RTM.

Precisely. The trouble with the Web is that it sometimes acts like a giant echo chamber. One influential source hears something and gets it wrong, and the incorrect story gets picked up by a dozen other sites within a few hours. Because the story has appeared in so many places, it’s easy to assume that at least some of those stories are independent, rather than reaching the correct conclusion that they’re all based on a single error.

I’ve seen many Microsoft releases. After code is released to manufacturing (RTM), it typically takes weeks, to manufacture and distribute CDs and to get the final bits into the hands of computer makers.

Don’t forget, too, that August is historically a slow time for computer buyers. September is when business really begins in earnest. A late July RTM of the code should mean that existing customers will be able to download it almost immediately, while those who want to receive it on a CD or with a new computer will have to wait until September.

Oh, and it will absolutely be worth waiting for.

An excellent AP story describes the dilemma most people encounter with passwords today:

Scandinavian countries are among the leaders as many online businesses abandon static passwords in favor of so-called two-factor authentication [which uses a combination of a simple PIN and a complex code that’s randomly generated for eacg transaction].

“A password is a construct of the past that has run out of steam,” said Joseph Atick, chief executive of Identix Inc. (IDNX), a Minnesota designer of fingerprint-based authentication. “The human mind-set is not used to dealing with so many different passwords and so many different PINs.”

When a static password alone is required, security experts recommend that users combine letters and numbers and avoid easy-to-guess passwords like “1234” or a nickname.

Stevan Hoffacker follows those rules but commits a different faux pas: He uses the same password everywhere, including access to multiple e-mail accounts, Amazon.com, The New York Times’ Web site and E-ZPass electronic toll statements.

In such cases, should hackers or scammers compromise one account, they potentially have one’s entire online life.

“This is one of these things that if I stop and think about it, it is not good, but I do my best not to stop and think about it,” said Hoffacker, an information technology manager in New York.

I once used a handful of passwords for all Web sites. Now I use randomly generated passwords for everything, and I use RoboForm to keep track of them. I can carry the password collection around, in encrypted form, on a USB flash drive.

I no longer know my password for many sites, but that’s OK. The risk that someone who stumbles across one password could then go and try it at every site I visit is too great for me to tolerate.

Raymond Chen, who wrote the original Windows Tweak UI power toy, posted an excellent explanation that every Windows power user should read: What is the difference between Minimize All and Show Desktop?

The keyboard shortcut for “Minimize All” is [Windows logo] + M and the keyboard shortcut for “Show Desktop” is [Windows logo] + D. How are they different?

“Minimize All” is easier to describe. It minimizes all the windows that support the “Minimize” command. You can minimize a window by selecting “Minimize” from its System menu, or by clicking the [Minimize] button in the title bar. So “Minimize All” is effectively the same as going to each window that is open and clicking the Minimize button. If there is a window that doesn’t have a Minimize button, then it is left alone.

“Show Desktop” takes “Minimize All” one step further. After minimizing all the windows that can be minimized, it then takes the desktop and “raises” it to the top of the window stack so that no other windows cover it. (Well, okay, topmost windows continue to cover it.)

So “Show Desktop” manages to get a few more windows out of your way than “Minimize All”.

Note, however, that when you return the desktop to its normal state (either by selecting “Show Open Windows” or just by switching to another window), all the un-minimizeable windows come back because the desktop has “lowered” itself back to the bottom of the window stack.

Raymond left out the other half of the equation — restoring the minimized windows. [Windows logo] + D is a toggle. Press it once to show the desktop; press it again to put all open windows back in their previous places.

[Windows logo] + M is not a toggle. After minimizing all windows with this keyboard shortcut, you can bring them back by pressing [Windows logo] + Shift + M.

The much-discussed Microsoft Support Lifecycle has been overhauled:

Microsoft has announced an expanded and enhanced product support lifecycle policy, which will go into effect on June 1, 2004. The updated policy will provide customers with a minimum total of 10 years of support (5 years Mainstream and 5 years Extended) for Business and Developer products.

In the footnotes, Microsoft explains that Extended support includes security-related hotfixes, which are provided at no charge. That means that business users can expect free security patches for 10 years after a product is introduced.

These policies do not apply to consumer products, where Mainstream Support ends after five years and there is no Extended Support option.

In practice, I predict that Microsoft will override this policy regularly. For instance, the Mainstream Support phase for Windows 98 should have ended on January 16, 2004. But Microsoft extended its support commitment (including a commitment to provide critical security updates via Windows Update) through June 30, 2006. Because Windows XP is both a consumer and a business product, it’s highly unlikely that consumers will be left without support when Windows XP reaches its five-year anniversary in September 2006.

Xbox users, however, are on their own.

Steve Ballmer pointed out the main reason I stayed home from the TechEd 2004 conference in his keynote remarks at Tech·Ed 2004 yesterday:

It is an honor and a privilege for me to have a chance to kick this session off today, and to see so many, and I do mean many, folks here in San Diego for what I hope will absolutely be an informative, educational and perhaps most importantly, a lot of fun few days here in this beautiful California sun.

Actually, you missed that part. I would apologize on that normally, but what we have here is the first extension of our DSI initiative, Dreary Skies Initiative, Microsoft can now span out dreary skies from Seattle absolutely anyplace. It’s all under centralized management control.

As a transplanted Southern Californian, I would gladly have told Ballmer and Co. about the dreaded marine layer (aka May Gray and June Gloom), which covers the California coast in thick fog from May through at least the end of June and often well into July.

The good news is most folks at TechEd don’t have to worry about losing that trademark pasty look that comes from sitting in front of a computer monitor all day and all night.

And Ballmer was kidding about the “centralized management of dreary skies” thing, right? Right?

Microsoft’s geek blogger, Robert Scoble has been bugging folks at Microsoft to publish their content as RSS feeds for a while. He’s had some noteworthy successes, and I tip my hat to him for that.

Except that someone in Redmond needs to go kick whoever is in charge of actually, you know, updating those feeds. Cases in point:

• The Windows XP Expert Zone Community. I write for this site occasionally, and I enjoy reading the articles there. It’s a great source of information with something for just about any Windows XP user, from rank beginners to experts. But I haven’t received anything new in NewsGator since April 27th, nearly a month ago, which is the last time the XML feed was updated. It looks like no new columns have been published there in May. But there have been plenty of online chats, new downloads, and other additions to the page. Those should be showing up in my aggregator.
• Microsoft Security Bulletins. Is there a better use for RSS than this? If so, I can’t think of it. I want all security bulletins to show up in my news reader, but the Security Bulletins XML feed hasn’t been updated since April 13. There’s not a word about the May 11 update. Is that because it wasn’t listed as Critical but rather as Important? Hey, I’d like to know about the Important ones too. I might even want to decide to receive bulletins with Moderate and Low severity ratings. No reason the Security Bulletins site can’t have two or more feeds, right?
• The Microsoft Download Center is another ideal candidate for an RSS feed. New stuff appears here all the time, and it’s of extreme interest to people who either obsess over this stuff or write about it for a living. But there’s no RSS feed to let me know when new stuff is posted. How wrong is that? (Well, actually, there is an RSS feed, but it’s an unofficial one. I have no idea how I discovered this, and I’m sure it gets a fraction of the traffic it should get.)

Hey Robert, if you can provide personal support for Infoworld readers, surely you can help me out with this one!