In what seems to be a blow to Microsoft Office dominance, the EC has sent Sun a letter that indicates that the “International Organization for Standardization” (ISO) looks like making the OpenOffice.org XML based file formats as the standard ISO file format for office documents.

The reason is pretty simple I believe, OpenOffice formats are just that, totally open. Anyone inclined to, can knock out a program that can read and write OpenOffice format files. The same can not be said for Microsoft office file formats, which have traditionally been very hard for Microsoft competitors to use, and in fact may result in patent lawsuits for people that try.

This is a huge bonus for the free open source office application suite, because if it happens, Microsoft will likely be forced to add OpenOffice file formats to their office suite to ensure compatibility. This means that one more reason to stick with expensive Microsoft software is gone. You will be able to use OpenOffice as your office suite and be sure that MS office users will be able to read your documents.

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For those of you still using Outlook Express to retrieve mail from their free Hotmail account will have to find an alternative sometime in early 2005.

Microsoft have said they are stopping it due to spam concerns, but aren’t they lucky that it adds value to their paid service as well?
Actually, in this case, I agree with them. One of the ways to make Spamming easy via webmail is to provide access to external local mail clients. I doubt many spammers want to try and use a web interface to send mail, and the only alternative on Hotmail now will be to try and code a script using something like Perl’s LWP module to simulate a browser login.

Now Microsoft just has to think of a way to stop paid users from registering with stolen credit card numbers and setting up SPAM ops from there.

Regards

Franki

Well, they did it, twice.

Spreadfirefox started out with the goal of getting 1 million people to download the preview release of Mozilla Firefox 1.0, and they reached that goal in about 4 days. Then they decided that they should up the ante to 2 million before the end of the ten days. And they did that too. Not a bad record for a program that isn’t even at the “official” release status yet. I’ve been using it for ages as my main browser now, and found it to be a joy. Apparently I’m not the only one.

Perhaps it’s time for you to give it a try.

Regards

Franki

Well, they made the effort, but the Microsoft patent/license issues appear to have completely killed off the MARID group. I’d guess that Microsoft decided that if they couldn’t have their patent and license included in the standard, then the standard shouldn’t get a chance.

I’m rather miffed about that, I already get over 300 SPAM a day, so anything that stood a chance at stopping or lessening that is a fine thing.

Read about the death of MARID at Eweek or Groklaw.

If you every find yourself in a conversation with someone from Microsoft, perhaps you should inform them that sometimes the needs of the Internet at large outweigh their need to line their pockets with everyone else’s money.

Regards

Franki

gapingvoid: the sex & cash theory is interesting. The guy explains the natural tension in life between what we want to do and what we have to do. Some get lucky and find the blend. I think retirement may allow the sex to overtake the cash, but by then so many people are tired, cynical and unable or unwilling to take the risks … someday will that be me? Let’s hope not. Feel free to donate to the htmlfixit cause maybe that will improve our blend 🙂

The latest from News.com has it that Microsoft will only be keeping Internet Explorer bug fixed and secure if it is running in Windows XPSP2.

What that means for the other 200 million Windows users, is that you can give Microsoft cash to upgrade Windows, or you can install Firefox and get a better more secure browser for free. Tough choice isn’t it? I’m already running Service pack 2 on my XP machine and I’m still using Firefox, simply because it is a better web browser.

Considering that many companies have only recently upgraded to Windows 2000, it is unlikely that they will be ready to upgrade to XP just to keep as secure as Microsoft can make it. (which if history is any indication is not particularly much.) So this may well be a good opportunity for Firefox to get it’s foot in the door of the corporate world.

Read the full story on news.com here.

Regards

Franki

It has been long known that it is always a bad idea to actually use the “opt out” links in the bottom of SPAM emails. Doing so will result in even more SPAM because they now know that the e-mail address is real and working. But recently a new reason not to use the opt out link has appeared.

TheRegister reports that one site is using a JavaScript bug in Internet Explorer to trigger the download and execution of a Trojan horse worm that totally compromises your Windows PC. They can then use you to send the next batch of SPAM, or steal your bank details, or use you as part of an online attack (Zombie).

This new problem only affects Windows users, Mac and Linux are as usual, not affected. Also not affected are users of Firefox or Opera web browsers.

There are lessons to be learned here.:
1. Don’t use Windows.
2. If you must use Windows, don’t use Internet Explorer.
3. If you must Windows and Internet Explorer, don’t click on opt out links, view web pages, or connect to the Internet.
4. Never click anything that arrives in a SPAM.

Regards

Franki