The betting among those who have been tracking Microsoft’s pursuit of international standards recognition for its Open Office XML formats (the voting by national standards bodies closed at the weekend) is that the software company will emerge victorious.

If correct, this is a significant breakthrough for Microsoft. To have lost would have handed a huge victory to the IBM-backed Open Document Format. The blessing of the ISO, on the other hand, would serve to further cement the de-facto standard that already exists around Office.

The official word from the ISO is not due until Wednesday, but Websites that have been trying to piece together the picture from individual national announcements point to what seems a big swing towards Microsoft among those countries that objected to OOXML as a standard when this came up for a vote last September. The Openmalaysia blog claims seven countries that had objected before have now either decided to support Microsoft or abstain - though the sourcing of much of this is far from clear (the UK’s decision to throw its weight behind Microsoft is attributed to open source standards lawyer Andy Updegrove.)

Until the formal count is in it would be rash to predict that this saga is over. But even hard-line opponents like the Groklaw blog now seem to have conceded Microsoft’s victory and have been left muttering about possible appeals against the way the ISO decision was reached.

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Google’s anti-Microsoft strategy continues to unfold. Today brings news that its online Docs applications will soon step beyond the Web and onto the desktop. (This is accomplished with the Google Gears browser plug-in, which lets you access internet applications while offline by using the hard drive as a cache - a company representative offered to “whitelist” me so I can start using it today, but the less privileged among you will have to wait until this feature becomes generally available over “the next few weeks.”)

Google likes to cloak its new product features in uplifting rhetoric: the company only looks to delight its users, it isn’t motivated by the sort of competitive strategy that other companies employ, and so on. But the evolution of Docs has always looked like a very deliberate plan hatched with its Redmond rival in mind.

Early on, CEO Eric Schmidt talked down the capabilities of Docs as a rival for Office: the main attraction was the ability to share documents, spreadsheets and other files over the Web, and anyway browser-based apps were very poor relations of their desktop cousins. 

Then, nearly a year ago, the tune changed. Having rounded out Docs into an Office-like suite of apps, Google said it was adding “applications” to its corporate mission statement (alongside search and advertising.) For good measure, Schmidt said that online apps were starting to become a real alternative to desktop software since browser technology had advanced far faster than he had expected (what a surprise!)

Extending Docs offline looks like the next step. Giving users the ability to write, edit or view files while not connected to the Web (any changes are automatically synchronised with the version on Google’s servers once the machine goes online again) removes one of the main disincentives for using Docs.

Google’s leaders have at times given tell-tale hints about the real strategy here. Last year Mr Schmidt conceded that while many companies might not yet consider adopting Google’s applications, they were still likely to use the threat of switching away from Office as a way to get a better deal out of Microsoft. Thanks to the new offline capabilities, this negotitating leverage is about to get stronger.

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Every new story about a computer service that “reads” user words terrifies privacy advocates, who say our machines will soon know everything about us.

Perhaps that will happen one day, but that day certainly isn’t here yet.

I use Gmail, which supposedly reads email and then delivers relevant ads based upon what you and your friends are talking about. The only problem is that the ads are generally comically irrelevant.

This weekend, I wrote a friend who went to UNC and lives in Charlotte to ask whether he went to the stadium and saw his alma mater play live. He responded to say, yes, he saw them and was hoping to buy Final Four tickets to see them again in San Antonio next weekend.

So were the ads for ticket sellers? No. That would be smart, relevant advertising.

No, the ads were for a horror movie called “The Ruins.”

Why? Because the system read the word “saw” in our conversation and decided (despite the fact that “saw” is a very common word) that we simply must be talking about the horror movie “Saw.”

Another ad was for a tile saw.

The end of privacy may be coming, but it’s not here yet.

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Because if the picture quality on Comcast’s service is really this embarrassing compared to Verizon’s Fios HD service, then I’m beginning to understand why so many people don’t ever bother to sign up for HD service when they buy an HD television.

Via Slashdot.

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I spent about equal time this weekend watching college basketball and sitting through AT&T ads.

After about the 20th ad (so roughly midway through the first game I saw) I got to wondering how much AT&T spends on advertising and why they choose to annoy potential customers by running the SAME DAMED AD to roughly the same audience SEVERAL DOZEN TIMES.

(The same thing holds for Verizon Wireless, which also runs the same ads over and over and over and over and over. Verizon didn’t dominate the basketball like AT&T, but if I never see the network geek with the glasses again, it will still be too soon.)

I have yet to learn the value of repetition, but I did discover that AT&T spent about $2.24 billion on advertising last year and that most advertising insiders expect it to spend close to $2.5 billion this year.

I’m sure there’s some method to the madness, but I can’t see how its current advertising scheme can possibly help the company more than spending and extra $1 billion or so on better services — on top of the $17 billion or so it already spends on such things — and the remaining $1.24 billion on advertising.

I think I’d be just about as brand aware if I’d only seen 100 AT&T commercials this weekend.

I’m also prepared to throw my support behind any presidential candidate who promises a law that forbids TV stations from running the same ad twice in one broadcast.

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For casual computer users, a new keyboard is a frivolous luxury; the one that came with your PC works fine, right? But you and I know that a good keyboard can boost your productivity, save your wrists from repetitive-stress injuries, and add a little style to your desktop. No matter which of these are important to you, we’ve reviewed a keyboard that’s a perfect match.

Some are designed solely for comfortable typing and mousing, like Microsoft ’s Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000, with its split-keyboard design and bulky mouse. I use this keyboard and mouse in the office, and it’s completely eliminated the type of wrist ache that so many power-users suffer from.

Some manage to get by on their looks, like Saitek ’s colorful USB Multimedia Keyboard, available in eye-popping colors like neon pink or blue. Apple ’s new keyboard falls into this category as well; it isn’t particularly comfortable or packed with features (not even a keypad on the Bluetooth version), but its profile is stunning.

Other keyboards are designed for specific tasks, like multimedia use or gaming. Microsoft’s Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000 has the looks, backlit keys, and multimedia controls necessary to complement a Media Center PC in your living room. The Merc Stealth also has backlit keys, but it’s for gaming in dark rooms, and the keyboard includes a ton of gamer-specific controls for your left hand so your right hand can stay on your mouse or joystick.

Check out these 12 keyboard reviews, and find the perfect one for your computing habits and budget.

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A staggering 3/4 of phishing sites are built on hacked servers that have been tracked down using pre-programmed Google search terms, according to research from brand-protection firm MarkMonitor. Among other activities, MarkMonitor tracks phishing attacks that target brand names. Researchers have compiled a list of 750 Google search terms that are used to track down websites likely to have easily exploitable vulnerabilities, most of these are PHP based sites.

The search terms return a list of sites likely to have particular vulnerabilities; the attackers then exploit the vulnerability, gain access to the site, and then use it to host malicious code or counterfeit web pages as part of the scam.

MarkMonitor found that 75 percent of the phishing sites it had discovered had been originally tracked down using one of the list of 750 Google search terms. The finding was based on a sample of one-quarter of the phishing sites logged by the firm.

The search terms, called “Google dorks,” are actively traded on internet forums, and are routinely scanned by IRC-based “bots,” which also scan Yahoo and AOL Search results, according to MarkMontitor.

Google has already made moves to block automated exploitation of the “dorks,” but they can still be used manually.

The websites exploited tend to be small, local PHP-based sites, which are less likely to have the latest patches installed, and are invaded via one of more than 1,800 known PHP bugs, MarkMonitor said.

In the fourth quarter of 2007, 412 organizations were targeted by phishing attacks, up 37 percent from the same period in 2006, according to the firm’s Brandjacking Index, published last month.

Auction sites were the biggest targets, accounting for 44 percent of the phishing emails in the fourth quarter, up from 36 percent in the first quarter of 2007.

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Xcor Aerospace has announced that it will compete with at least two other companies that are trying to become the “first private company capable of launching paying customers into space.”

The mini-ship, built by Mojave-based Xcor Aerospace and designed to fly to the edge of space, is expected to be ready for test flights by 2010, around the time Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic hopes to send its much larger spaceship on its maiden voyage.

More than half a dozen other companies — most, unlike Xcor, bankrolled by wealthy businessmen, including Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com and Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal — are building rockets and spacecraft that they hope will capture the imagination of space travelers. Most plan to finish testing their rockets and rocket planes in the next few years, and the Federal Aviation Administration has estimated the market for space tourism to be more than $1 billion a year by 2021.

Why in God’s name is anyone wasting money on this sort of idiocy? What would be the point in taking a plane ride to the edge of space? Plane rides are among the most miserable of all experiences. Who, other than a few rich Sci-Fi nerds, will pay huge amounts of money to subject themselves to a plane ride that takes to takes them right back where they started?

Folks who want to innovate in aviation should try something truly challenging: building a plane that doesn’t suck quite as badly as current models.

A plane that could economically fly at 800 mph rather than the current 600 mph (on a good day) would be a far larger accomplishment than a plane that could ferry billionaire nerds to the moon.

Indeed, nearly any innovation that improved regular old air travel would do more to benefit mankind than the sum total of everthing invented for manned space exploration. Here are some things that would be nice:

• A jet with sea-level air pressure so that flying didn’t exhaust passengers
• A jet with several entries so that loading and unloading could be done in 5 minutes
• A jet with a germ killing air system so that flying didn’t make passengers so sick
• A jet that made 80 percent less noise
• A jet that eliminated the need for taxiing (and runways) by taking off vertically

Yes, I realize that Boeing’s new “Dream Liner” claims to offer better pressurization and air circulation, but it’s taken Boeing more than a decade (and counting) to bring to market a design that offers only mild improvements on the status quo.

I’d really like to see the problem addressed by some of the original thinkers who are currently wasting their talents on the moronic quest to bring Star Wars to life.

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Sometimes you need to make sure that a file is clean before you dare to open it. For those occasions, VirusTotal.com’s free online service is invaluable. VirusTotal.com scans files with dozens of security programs to check for viruses and other malware. The VirusTotal Uploader also adds a one-click mechanism to Windows’s context menu to make this process even easier.

VirusTotal.com uses a boggling number–32 at last count–of programs to check for viruses. There are no guarantees, of course, but if your file gets a clean bill of health from Avast, AVG, Kaspersky, McAfee, Panda, and Sophos (to name a few), you may not feel the need to seek out opinion number 33.

Scans on VirusTotal.com are pretty fast–especially considering how many scanners are firing at once–but queue info and status bars let you know how things are going. VirusTotal Uploader speeds things up further, inserting an option into the Windows context menu. Right-click a file, select “Send To,” and choose “VirusTotal” from the send-to options. Then just sit back and wait for the diagnosis, the second opinion…and on through the thirty-second opinion.

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Okay, I cheated a bit by leaving all my inbox messages (all 2,506 of them) in the deleted items folder.

But I’m just giving myself a bit longer to make sure I haven’t forgotten about any messages I really do need.

On Monday, everything gets permanently deleted.

I feel like I just lost five pounds.

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