Here’s some new tools up the sleeves of Microsoft programmers…. PreFast for Drivers and Static Driver Verifier to make stable kernel drivers and avoid dreaded Blue Screen of Deaths

Microsoft is readying two tools to help hardware makers create more stable and secure Windows drivers, which should help lessen the number of crashes. The tools, PreFast for Drivers and Static Driver Verifier, are source code analysis tools that find common flaws in driver source code, so they can be fixed. Second beta versions were released at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference here this week, alongside new trials of Windows Vista and Windows Server “Longhorn.”

“We’re hoping that reliability and robustness for drivers will improve,” Jon Hagen, a Microsoft developer who works on the Static Driver Verifier, said in an interview at WinHEC. “There is a need because of the complexity of writing kernel drivers…We’re doing this to avoid blue screens.”

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This is a news shocker for me. I cant believe that giant wants to buy eBay. A giant eating out a giant. What is the world coming to ? Soon we might even see Ultraman coming out from the sky and helping Superman kill monsters.

“The NY Post is reporting that Microsoft and Ebay are in talks for the online auction house to join the Microsoft family.” That said, the talks aren’t going that well at the moment. From the article: ” Sources indicate that the talks, while still active, have cooled somewhat in the last two weeks as executives considered antitrust issues. It is unclear what the full impact of yesterday’s advertising and search alliance between Yahoo! and eBay will be for talks between MSN and eBay. One source close to the matter suggested the Yahoo-eBay tie-up would not stop Microsoft from pursuing the online auctioneer.”

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Microsoft is challenging developers worldwide to create conversational robots, or BOTs, for MSN® Messenger and Windows Live Messenger and giving away more than USD $ 40K in prizes. Why not give it a try if you know some good coding.

Robots or “BOTs”, are software programs that you can add to MSN® Messenger and Windows Live™ Messenger. If you add a robot to your contact list, it can chat, give you customer service support, perform searches, make suggestions, play games and more. We’re looking for the best new robot ideas for Messenger. And $40,000 in fantastic prizes go to the top BOTs!

This is real cool. Now you can show off your Windows Live phones, headsets and Webcams, Skype phones ,etc.

Microsoft is lining up partners to deliver new Windows Live phones, headsets and Webcams, among other devices. Among the OEMs on board to develop these devices are Creative, Logitech, Motorola, Plantronics and Microsoft’s own hardware business unit. Microsoft is set to unveil officially in June new Webcams, branded as Microsoft LifeCams, that are expected to have tie ins to Windows Live services. And during his May 23 keynote at WinHEC, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates highlighted Motorola’s plans to field new Windows Live dual-mode cordless phones before the end of 2006.