Top Items:
Brian Jones / Office XML Formats:
Standardizing the Microsoft Office Open XML formats — Today we are making a really important announcement about our XML formats. We are going to bring the Microsoft Office Open XML formats to a standards body with the intention of eventually making the formats an ISO standard.
RELATED ITEMS:
Martin LaMonica / ZDNet:
Microsoft to standardize Office formats … Microsoft intends to submit file formats for its new Office 12 applications to the European standards body ECMA International. The company hopes this will allay concern about its level of control over document formats.
Scobleizer / Microsoft Geek Blogger:
Microsoft standardizes Office formats - Jean Paoli interview — I just interviewed Jean Paoli, co-inventor of XML (he usually works a few doors down from my office in building 18, so we talk often). He has been bragging to me for days now about what we just announced 22 minutes ago …
Discussion:
Don Dodge on The Next …
Maija Palmer / Financial Times:
Microsoft to give Office access to rivals — Microsoft will on Tuesday announce it is opening up access to its Office file formats to competitors, as part of a move to ensure the software giant does not lose lucrative government markets for its Office software.
EFF: Breaking News:
EFF Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Sony BMG — Company Should Repair Damage to Customers Caused by CD Software — The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), along with two leading national class action law firms, today filed a lawsuit against Sony BMG, demanding that the company repair …
RELATED ITEMS:
Matt Daily / Reuters:
Texas sues Sony BMG for spyware violations — HOUSTON (Reuters) - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a civil lawsuit on Monday against Sony BMG Music Entertainment (6758.T) for hiding "spyware" software on its compact discs in a bid to thwart music copying.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Companies I'd like to Profile (but don't exist) — There are companies I review every day that I don't write about. Reasons vary - it's been done already and the product isn't even as good as what's been done, its a mostly or totally one-way application, or it isn't consumer focused …
Discussion:
Web 2.0 Explorer
New York Times:
Google's Shopping Service to List User's Local Stores — Google executives said last night that the company planned to move quickly to capitalize on its new Google Base database service, adding a feature that lets merchants provide local shopping information.
Discussion:
Aaron Wall's SEO Book.com, CrunchNotes, ComparisonEngines.com and Niall Kennedy's Weblog
microsoft.com:
Xbox 360 Arrival Spawns Midnight Madness Frenzy — More than 4,500 retailers will open at 12:01 a.m. to sell the next-generation video game console. — REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 21, 2005 — In less than 24 hours, gamers and adrenaline junkies alike will converge on thousands of retail outlets …
RELATED ITEM:
Saul Hansell / New York Times:
AOL Joins Start-Up Company to Offer Web Video Distribution — America Online reached an unusual arrangement yesterday with a start-up company that will allow almost any producer of video content to distribute programming on its service, splitting revenue from advertising or fees.
Lisa Vaas / eWEEK.com:
Microsoft Aims to Mesh Disparate Calendars, Contacts — Microsoft Corp. is working on a new RSS extension that Ray Ozzie is referring to as the "RSS of synchronization"—a way to synchronize the mishmash of competing calendars and contact list software and services to set up a "mesh" …
RELATED ITEM:
microsoft.com:
Microsoft Security Advisory (911302) — Vulnerability in the way Internet Explorer Handles onLoad Events Could Allow Remote Code Execution — Microsoft is investigating new public reports of vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer on Microsoft Windows 98, on Windows 98 Second Edition …
Munjal / Recognizing Deven:
How Riya Recognition Works — Viswadep wrote here about what might happen if the technology behind Riya was used for evil. Let me address how the Riya recognition system works and how its limitations make it very unlikely that we could use this for security or "evil" applications.
Yuki Noguchi / Washington Post:
Self 2.0: Internet Users Put a Best Face Forward — Web Chatters Upgrade Their Identities for Virtual Life — Jeff Maynard has created an online alter ego, Klepto. — Klepto is slightly trimmer but otherwise looks and dresses like Maynard. He races cars and attends black-tie weddings.
Ben Edelman:
Cleaning Up Sony's Rootkit Mess — Late last month, Windows expert Mark Russinovich revealed Sony installing a rootkit to hide its "XCP" DRM (digital rights management) software as installed on users' PCs. The DRM software isn't something a typical user would want; the "rights" …
John Hudson / Wired News:
Monster Scope to Dwarf Rivals — Astronomers are preparing to build the world's largest telescope that could be 100 times more powerful than the Hubble and will peer back to the very beginning of the universe. — The new TMT (Thirty-Meter Telescope) will be the first of a new generation …
Discussion:
Geek News Central …
David A. Vise / Washington Post:
World Digital Library Planned — Library of Congress Envisions Collection To Bridge Cultures — The Library of Congress is launching a campaign today to create the World Digital Library, an online collection of rare books, manuscripts, maps, posters, stamps and other materials from its holdings …
Discussion:
TeleRead
