Security:

Last days we had some problems with website security. First problem was reported by Zinho regarding some minor problems with cross-site scripting. I think it's only a minor issue because there was nothing wrong that could be done, nothing to steal or reveal. However we took seriously this problem and fixed it. Thanks Zinho.

Second one, I think unrelated with first one, was an attack of our forum. Somebody found our site with google.com.vn and used an IP address from Australia. Then used an old SQL injection vulnerability, posted something in forum and changed admin password. This problem also has been solved now.

I don't find interesting these attacks especially second one, as long as they used old methods public documented on security sites. If you want to prove something find new holes in softwares and help people make them more secure, not applying old, no-brain script.

Iraq Cultural Property Monitor:

I received a very interesting email from Mr. John Simmons, Chairman of The Baghdad Museum Project (Iraq Museum International) saying they used our ebay2rss free script to create an eBay automated monitoring for stolen Iraq artifacts. They also provide a real-time RSS feed with live auctions from eBay, based on this script, at http://www.baghdadmuseum.org/icpm_rss.php.

Unfortunately, selling stolen artifacts is a reality, difficult to control or monitor. Any effort in stopping or reducing this problem is appreciated. Of course, we never thought when made this script that could be used for such a purpose, but we are very glad if helped.

Thanks for letting us know about using ebay2rss and good luck in your work.

IE7:

I've just read about Bill Gates' announcement at RSA Security conference in San Francisco about new Internet Explorer 7. You can read more details about this news in IE blog. As you can see the main target are Windows XP users, especially those with SP2. What about Windows 200 users? We'll see.

If you want to see how IE 6 (or 5) is doing right now try these stats from W3Schools.com. In Jan. 2005 IE 6+5 had 69.7% market share, and this month (Feb. 2005) is 69.2%. So, 0.5% less users are using IE, moving to other browsers, especially Firefox. In this case (Firefox) the trend is ascending, from last month they have 0.7% increase, reaching 20% of the market this month.

So, it's pretty clear Microsoft has to do something with its browser to get back their customers. Just for fun, see where MS was in Jan. 2004: 84.1%.

I'm very interested about what new IE7 will offer regarding RSS & syndication. Hopefully, we'll find out soon.

New web based RSS reader:

A major player has just launched their new web based RSS reader: Newsburst.com from CNET. After Bloglines.com aquisition by AskJeeves this market become more and more competitive. Some solutions include companies like Yahoo (my.yahoo.com), Microsoft (my.msn.com), Bloglines.com, Rojo.com and new Newsburst.com. Where is our simple RSS news reader ? :)

RSS e-book:

This news is quite old now but never it's too late ...
There is a new interesting e-book about RSS marketing called Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS published by MarketingStudies.net. If RSS interests you I'm pretty sure you'll find something new in this e-book. It covers many aspects of RSS marketing (of course), but starts with the beginning: what is RSS? what problems solve RSS? and how to use it? It has parts for RSS publishers but also for RSS consumers with practical examples like using client side or web based RSS readers or where to advertise your RSS feed.

This book has also something interesting: many interviews with people behind some of the RSS related websites you are using currently. One of these interviews is with me :)
Read in this e-book what they think about RSS or where RSS will go.

eBay RSS:

We have just posted a free PHP script (ebayrss.php) to create RSS feeds from eBay categories or user products. If you are are selling products on eBay and have a web site you might be interested to add RSS feeds with your products. You could get visitors from RSS users because your RSS feed is available virtually for any RSS reader. This page is easy to install, full documented and simply to use. You should try it.