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Microsoft Proposes RSS Extension
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft Chief Technical Officer Ray Ozzie said this week that his company is working on a new extension to RSS that would help users with different contact and calendar software and services synchronize each other's information." From the article: "If this sounds familiar to those using IBM's Lotus Notes, it should. SSE was conceived after Microsoft's recently recruited chief technology officer Ray Ozzie brainstormed with members of the Exchange, Outlook, MSN, Windows Mobile and Messenger Communicator product teams shortly after he joined."
Microsoft's "new" RSS format will be XML based, it will turn out in six months that they have filed a patent on it, they will offer a RAND license, they'll submit it as an ECMA standard, and they'll proclaim that it's open. Microsoft will recruit Apple and Oracle to sign up for "free" licenses of their "standard" and proudly announce their adoption of it.
And then Microsoft will try to create FUD (through strategically placed speakers) within the open source community whether it is really possible for open source software to implement their "open" standard. They'll do this in an effort to scare away commercial users from adopting open source software based on the "open standard".
That way, they'll try to achieve the appearance and widespread adoption of an "open" standard while still interfering with its open source implementation.
Right. So anytime Microsoft looks to add to an open-standard (you know, the thing open standards are meant to enable) they shouldn't be allowed? Wow, talk about openness. It's open for everyone, except those we dislike.
Yes, Microsoft does have a habit of destroying standards by extending them. But they're going to do this regardless. They might as well work through a standards committee, and there isn't any indication that this will result in a proprietry product becoming part of the standard. Is there any reason other then "Cause Microsoft is evil" to not consider adding this extension to the standard?
The vulnerabilities that you are referring to are called "Buffer Overflow Attacks", and it has nothing to do with the format. The problem lies with the viewers. Even TXTs can have buffer overflow attacks injected to them, though no TXT viewer is known to be supceptible yet.
>I can't wait to see this one.
You don't have to wait, it is already published. Instead of just spouting off, go read the spec and judge it on its technical merits, instead of adding another needless me too "MS sucks so this must suck" post.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/xml/rss/sse/
Then come back and give a reasoned opinion about the flaws in the proposed extension.
May I point out that when IE extended the abilities of the WWW, we ended up with worms and exploits up the wazoo.
XMLHttpRequest was one of those extensions and it's given us Gmail and other "AJAX" interfaces. Not all extension is bad; if it was how the heck would the industry progress?
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Why? Well, simply because we don't like Microsoft."
More like, we don't trust Microsoft. Keep in mind that this animosity is not undeserved.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Microsoft's RSS Checklist:
1) Embrace
2) Extend
3) Extinguish