10 Biggest Microsoft Surprises of 2005

IZ Reloaded writes "The Microsoft Watch has a top 10 list of the biggest Microsoft surprises of the year. Among the surprises are Internet Explorer rising from the dead, Microsoft gets RSS and Microsoft Office team blogging. From Microsoft Watch: MS 'gets' RSS: While some folks were less than overjoyed that Microsoft was tinkering with the "little orange RSS box," Microsoft ended up looking like a company with a clue when it came to outlining its company-wide RSS strategy in 2005. RSS support will be built into not just Internet Explorer 7.0, but also Outlook 12 and Windows Vista itself. Almost all Microsoft blogs and sites have RSS feeds these days. RSS is gospel in Redmond these days."

Comments

Microsoft and RSS

[ergo98]

RSS is gospel in Redmond these days

It must be a bit bittersweet, given that RSS is basically a sloppier version of Microsoft's "push" technology CDF, which was introduced with Internet Explorer 4.0.

Re:I dont 'get' RSS

[hey!]

I either run a .BAT file which opens several webpages, or "open each bookmark in this bookmark folder in a separate tab".


Sure. I can also calculate using a pen and paper, it doesn't mean it isn't useful to have a computer be able to peform them for me.

The thing to remember is that RSS is an interface. As such it needn't, in fact, oughtn't do very much. It just has to be standardized. Since it is standardized and does just enough for the job, it can be used to bolt together information services, albeit in a limited way. This is what allows you to subscribe to podcasts in software other than iTunes, or for that matter the same rss feed that iTunes uses to update your podcast create a slashbox in your slashdot or a content box yahoo home page.

If everything was done by creating batch files to cache unstructured HTML pages, this wouldn't be possible.

Here's #11

[Cally]

Sadly this list was drawn up before the events of yesterday and today... a new 0day Windows vuln is out, and an exploit has been written and packaged for the Metasploit Framework. So that's an unpatched remote root with a pick-your-own payload web interface allowing you to inject it along with a reverse shell, a VNC server, or whatever else you want to try....

A lot of people are going to get owned by this in the next few days / week, especially with so many people out of the office until next week...

see SANS / ISC for more info.