Microsoft tries to hijack RSS

Microsoft are hijacking the RSS format... or at least that's not what they would say. In a recent talk to Gnomedex, and posted on their Blog they explain that IE 7 will have auto-discovery support for pages that present an RSS feed. Just like Mozilla/Firefox/Safari does right now. However they then went onto explain that they are also extending what you can do with RSS. [Anyone get a sinking feeling yet?]

That's right... Microsoft will be implementing their own extension to RSS... hey, it's another 'Microsoft Standard'. This time, they seem to be trying their 'we'll make it heavily used by big corporates' (eg. Amazon) and then the RSS format will just have to accept our extension. Mean-time, whilst the standards are being discussed, IE 7 will have another bash at monopolising the Internet Browser. Truthfully, I doubt this will work - people (especially IT administrators who roll out updates to entire networks) aren't so gullable nowadays.

I think people will ignore Microsoft's non-standards, I for one wouldn't start using an RSS extension that isn't ratified for use by the developers of RSS... and if it every manages that, then we could start using it. That's the point of having standards. A mistake made early on in the Internet Browser wars, I don't think that'll be happening again.

Technology news and/or political comment?

You decide - Bill Thompson's latest blog entry appears on the BBC Technology News website.

Basically it's a rant about Bob Geldof, using the media hype surrounding the eBay + live8 ticket touts issue.

Whilst many have commented on the outspoken nature of Sir Bob, and I myself think he is taking things a little too far, to have this listed on the Technology part of the site strikes me as a bit odd... there are plenty more decent journalistically balanced articles surrounding this issue. The only reason I can think that this appeared on the Tech website is because Bill's blog often appears there no matter what it is about.

You know what Bill? In your eyes it may be "sanctimonious preaching" by Sir Bob - but show a little respect, he has certainly raised awareness in the events by constantly being in the media for his outspoken nature! (eBay, Maritime Commission, Edinburgh Council, etc, etc) Good on him for using/abusing the media - of which you are part. Why not do an article on how technology helps Oxfam, or some other charity? Bob's clearly had enough publicity.

Ethernet over Power - novel idea?

I'm just not entirely convinced that 'features' should appear on a 'news' website, especially when they cover a subject that is several years old. I'm talking about the article 'Home network on electricity wires' that made it's way onto the BBC Technology News page today.

Ethernet over Powerlines has been around for quite a few years, I know I've spec'd it for clients/friends before now. You can get anything from bridges to routers, wifi access points to networked security cameras.

Whilst I agree that this subject is something that consumers haven't really bought into as yet, and the BBC's 'Click Online' (a 'technology lifestyle program' broadcast on BBC World/BBC News 24) is right to cover it, I don't necessarily agree that this should be on the News Page. If it was about some new advance within the technology, fair enough... but it is just a review of how it works.