And given how much training his beauty therapists need, he wants to know if there is a way of protecting his future investments in his employees. "We opened our doors in July 2003," says Mr Jones, who runs the Eden Day Spa, based in the city's Guildhall shopping centre, with his wife Tracey. "We took over an old gym which you access from the mall itself and we offer everything from floatation therapy to waxing and from mother-to-be treatments to tanning."The company took on seven members of staff prior to opening: five beauty therapists, a nail technician and a receptionist. "All the therapists had been trained already, but because we specialise in Elemis and Dermalogica [respectively, an aromatherapy range and a skin- and body-care system], we also needed to get them trained up on these specific products and their techniques."Eden Day Spa paid for the therapists to train in London, costing an average of £2,500 per person. This is a way of hardening the computer's perimeter fence."In the meantime, US computer users have to brace themselves for the weekend's "spam fest" Cullen's advice is not to open any suspicious-looking email. For example, the next, much-hyped version of the Windows operating system - dubbed Longhorn - will have Cullen's stamp all over it."Longhorn will have a strict set of standards. The amount of information it collects and sends back to Microsoft will be minimal," says Cullen.
"We have worked hard to make sure that it is 'discoverable' - that the information is sent back to Microsoft only with the user's consent."Details of Longhorn, which is due to be released next year and will take on Apple's acclaimed Tiger operating system, are still under wraps. "Studies have shown that the life expectancy of a new PC that is not protected by security patches and antivirus updates is 20 minutes before getting taken over [by a hacker]."With Secure Startup, when the PC is turned on the first time, it will let the user go only to certain secure designated sites. But Cullen reveals that it will contain a number of new security features "One will be Windows Secure Startup," he says. We learnt that no single company should be in a position to provide a single solution to identity management," he says.In response to the growing consumer concern over privacy issues, new releases of Microsoft software are packed with features to safeguard the user's identity. This allowed users to access affiliated websites without having to continuously re-enter passwords and personal details.
But the system fell foul of the European Commission, which claimed that it broke data protection laws. The US Federal Trade Commission also accused Microsoft of exaggerating Passport's security and privacy features and threatened to fine the company $2,200bn (£1,300bn) over the matter. Even Bill Gates might find that amount taxes his wallet.Cullen, who joined Microsoft in July 2003, admits that Microsoft's Passport strategy was a mistake "Passport was a big learning experience for us. In 2003, the software giant was forced to agree to changes to its online authentication system, Passport.
