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Archive | November 22, 2005

SANS: Top 20 vulnerabilities

By on November 22, 2005 in Security

Computerworld News and eWeek point to an interesting SANS report. Computerworld: “SANS: Cyberattackers found green fields in 2005. After years of writing viruses and worms for operating systems and Internet server software, hackers found new areas to target in 2005, according to a report on security trends released today.”

It’s interesting to see malicious crackers moving “up the stack.” One encouraging aspect is that network stacks are becoming more resistant to attack. However, applications are reaching further down into the stack, with user-space apps poking at ports and taking on more risky behaviors. We want to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past…

Xbox 360 shortages: panic in the streets?

By on November 22, 2005 in Microsoft

Ken “Caesar” Fisher over at Ars Technica reports “Xbox 360: shortages no joke. Today I ventured out into the wilderness of North Boston to gauge Xbox mania. Initial reports on the ground paint a pretty grim picture for pre-Christmas Xbox shipments.”

There’s two possible explanations. Many, many, many rumor-mongers insist that Microsoft is staging this shortage, coordinating press releases with the stores, to announce a record sell-out on the opening day and start a panic that Junior won’t get his new machine for Christmas. The other is that Microsoft is incapable of planning around all the challenges of shipping a product on time. Which seems more likely?

Microsoft announces Simple Sharing Extensions

By on November 22, 2005 in Microsoft, Technology

Over at Scripting News, Dave Winer posts Sharing at so many levels!.

“Microsoft has unveiled a new proposal called SSE, which stands for Simple Sharing Extensions for RSS and OPML. “… “Now, in 2005, almost ten years later, we may be grown-up enough to actually work this way.”

Tigers and their stripes. I’m skeptical, of course. There’s only so many times you can have formats and features embraced, enhanced, extended and extinguished (E^4) before you look at a gift from Microsoft very carefully. On the plus side, though, the spec is released under a Creative Commons license. Interesting.

Microsoft to seek ISO standardization for Office 12 formats

By on November 22, 2005 in Microsoft, OpenSource, Technology

InfoWorld: Top News reports “Update: Microsoft to open Office document format. (InfoWorld) – Microsoftæon Monday said it will offer its Word, Excel, and PowerPoint document formats as open standards, a move that could spark a war with technology rivals over standard document formats.”

Interesting. I wonder if ISO standardization will really change the basic positioning. Will use of Microsoft’s mis-named “Open XML” be free from RAND licensing fees, patent encumberances, or the onerous licensing terms that made it inaccessible from GPL software?

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