Alex Feldstein blogs On Microsoft’s RSS platform. “Microsoft Monitor site has a very good three-parter on Microsoft’s RSS Platform announced today.”
“The three parts are: The What, The How, The Why. Interesting reading.”
Tag Archives | Microsoft
Microsoft to announce some RSS innovations at GnomeDex
Dave Winer posts on Scripting News: “In April I visited Microsoft to hear about some interesting ideas they had about RSS. On Friday they will explain these ideas publicly. Today, with their permission, I have a preview of part of what they will talk about. I hope everyone who’s interested in RSS listens carefully. I know I will. ”
Looking forward to seeing what Microsoft announces!
No Open Source Avalon nor Indigo should be no surprise
OSNews tries to ignite a controversy with Microsoft Puts OSS Roadblock on Avalon and Indigo. “Novell’s Mono open-source group had been successful in porting Microsoft’s .Net Framework, but Microsoft is insisting its Avalon and Indigo intellectual property rights requires that any attempt to produce open-source versions of these two will require licensing.”
I’m surprised this is news. Microsoft was pretty clear, I thought, in making their common runtime environment a standard (that’s what Mono has been building, if I understand correctly), and pushing C# out to a standards body for more support. But to suppose that meant Microsoft was giving away the whole tool chain, or even all of the layers of software needed to generate a Windows-style app on a competing platform, was näive at best. Microsoft is not out to lead by example, set industry standards and then beat its competition by having the best product.
I’d welcome hearing from other people who were expecting something else.
HTML Help exploit live in the field: patch those boxes!
In case you were going to let other folks find out if the last week’s batch of Microsoft patches were naughty or nice, it’s time to patch. The SANS Institute’s Internet Storm Center Daily Handler’s Diary notes that the HTML Help exploit described in MS05-026 is out in the wild and coming in as spam to an unsuspecting mailbox near you.
Microsoft Patches for June – something for everyone!
InfoWorld: Application development reports Microsoft patches critical bugs in IE, Windows. “Microsoft released 10 security patches, including three deemed “critical,” for bugs in a variety of the company’s products. Released Tuesday as part of the company’s monthly updates, the critical patches repair flaws in Windows and Internet Explorer that could allow attackers to take complete control of a computer, Microsoft said.”
Affected software includes Internet Explorer (an integral part of the OS which can’t be removed or disabled, according to Microsoft), HTML Help (see IE), Microsoft’s sharing protocol called SMB, Exchange 5.5, Outlook Express, ISA Server and more. Three “Critical” flaws allow a remote user to assume complete control of your machine. Affected versions of Windows include Windows 98, 98 SE, Millenium Edition (“ME”), Windows 2000 SP 3 and SP4, Windows XP SP1 and SP2, Windows XP 64-Bit Edition SP1 and Version 2003, and Windows Server 2003 original, SP1, Itanium original and SP1 and x64 Edition. (Microsoft no longer supports nor offers updates for Win95 nor NT editions, but you can presume these are likely affected, too.)
Windows Security Bulletins MS05-025 through MS05-034 are described on the TechNet web site. It is the 25th week of the year.
Alex Feldstein and David Stevenson blog VFP Advisor DevCon 2005
Alex Feldstein blogs Visual FoxPro Devcon: Keynote.
“VFP Devcon’s Keynote in Las Vegas was well attended. Present from Microsoft were Y. Alan Griver, Ken Levy, Randy Brown, John Koziol and Richard Stanton.” Read lots more on his blog.
For the stereoscopic view, David Stevenson heard the same keynote, a few seats away. In David Stevenson’s Talking Fox, he blogs:
DEVCON keynote shows early Sedna ideas. “At the opening keynote session at the Visual FoxPro DevCon in Las Vegas Sunday night, Ken Levy and Randy Brown of the Microsoft Visual FoxPro team showed several early prototypes of features that might be included in the Sedna release in 2007. Ken emphasized throughout the session much of the same information that has been posted publicly so far, including the fact that Sedna will be focused on making Visual FoxPro 9.0 work better with the Longhorn operating system, .NET 2.0, SQL Server 2005, and other upcoming technologies.”
FireFox: inch by inch…
InfoWorld: Top News notes that Firefox keeps chipping away at IE’s share.
The Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox managed to slightly increase its usage share in the Web browser market in May, as it continues to compete against the market’s Goliath: Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE).
Firefox’s market share reached 8 percent in May, up from 7.38 percent in April, while IE’s slice of the pie shrunk a bit to 87.23 percent, down 0.77 percent, according to a statement released Wednesday by NetApplications.com, an Aliso Viejo, California, maker of applications for monitoring and measuring Web site usage.
Although IE’s share is colossal, Firefox is consistently increasing its share by between 0.5 percent and 1 percent from month to month.
Cringely: Apple-Intel more than it seems
Bill McGonigle of BFC Computing in his comment to my previous post “Maybe it wasn’t about the Mac Mini After All” that Cringely sees a vast conspiracy behind the Apple-Intel switch. I’ve heard a lot of discussion, including some pretty wild speculation on Slashdot (this one was a favorite. Warning: this one uses the “shit” word, so stay away if easily offended.)
A fellow member challenged me on the ProFox list on whether I thought the Apple switch was bad for Microsoft. No, I think the Apple switch is good for Apple. As far as Microsoft goes, I think they are on a self-destructive death spiral that they brought on themselves. It isn’t going to be Beauty that kills the Beast. In this case, the Beast needs no help.
Microsoft bans "democracy" for China web users
From the Financial Times: Microsoft bans “democracy” for China web users: “Microsoft’s new Chinese internet portal has banned the words “democracy” and “freedom” from parts of its website in an apparent effort to avoid offending Beijing’s political censors.”
Patch Tuesday packs a wallop!
Microsoft Watch from Mary Jo Foley says It’s Going to Be a Packed Patch Tuesday. “Mark your calendars, Windows fans. Microsoft is planning to issue 10 new security bulletins on the upcoming Patch Tuesday, June 14.”
Have a Happy Flag Day, folks!
Hopefully, it will be a smoother day of patches than the faulty April patches. Darned if you do and darned if you don’t, eh?