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Baker Capital puts the bad in VC
Showing why you should be very careful in selecting your investors, online retailer Wine.com just got screwed over big time by Baker Capital.
As the name suggests, San Franscico Bay Area based Wine.com sells wine over the internet. Business had been decent, claimed the San Jose Mercury News. But in need of an additional investment, the company started talking to potential suitors that could buy the company. In the end Liberty Media offered $67.5m.
Baker Capital however, which was on the company's board of directors after an investment round last year, blocked the deal and pulled a stunt that is suitable for a summer movie twist.
With cash running out quickly, the VC undertook a much needed financing round. But this time the company was valued at only $35m. By investing $10m, Baker obtained a 65 per cent stake in the e-tailer. Management had no other option but to go along – it was either Baker's investment or bankruptcy.
Corporate raiders will probably applaud the move for its cunningness. Anyone with a conscious should curse Baker.
Baker is growing sour grapes
photo credit: Katia Grimmer
tags: wine.com, baker capital, corporate raider
August 31, 2005 at 09:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
The patent threat in the web's closet
Putting all the wrong things in the words "corporate turnaround", EpicRealm has gone from a company selling internet acceleration technology to a company that hold the internet hostage, hoping to enforce a dynamic web content patent.
EpicRealm over the course of the past months has filed lawsuits against 13 companies that are allegedly infringing on its patents, demanding damages and a licence fee.
The accused are (spread out over 3 lawsuits):
Speedera (has since been acquired by Akamai)
Autoflex
eHarmony
Friendfinder
Grande Communication Networks
Its Just Lunch (has since started settlement talks)
Transplace
Franklin Covey
Clark Consulting
Macerich
Safelite
Herbalife
Pink Sheets
As it goes with patent cases, it's hard to say how broadly the patent can be applied. It could apply to "most modern e-commerce sites involved in dynamic web page generation and caching", according to Ira Rothken, founder of the Rothken Law Firm that is representing FriendFinder.
EpirRealm's counsel Kevin Meek with Texas law firm Baker Botts downplayed how broadly the patents could be applied.
At the end it depends on the judge to rule on the validity of the patent (EpicRealm didn't exactly invent dynamic webpages) and how broadly they can be applied.
For Friendfinder Rothken is convinced that this all will have a happy end. The company only uses load balancing technology but none of the dynamic web page generation technology that is part of the patent.
But back to EpicRealm. It once used to compete with Akamai but somewhere around 2003 the plug was pulled. Technically the company didn't go bankrupt, but let's just say that there is little going on at its office on Crescent Court in Dallas, that doesn't even list a telephone number.
Click here to download court documents:
Photo credit: Ken Duncan
tags: epicrealm, litigation, patents, patent litigation
August 31, 2005 at 05:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
No bloody pictures for Germans
Backbone provider Level 3 Communications has cut off German websurfers from the Ogrish.com website.
The site allegedly violates local legislation by failing to do a proper age check. Level 3 didn't wait for a court order, but instead simply cut off access to the service after a German watchdog group called "Jugendschutz" (translated: Youth Protection) contacted the firm.
Ogrish offers rather unpleasant pictures and movies of people dying in accidents, war situations and natural disasters. The site admits that the images are distasteful, but at the same time claims that they are part of everyday life.
Level 3 is a backbone provider, selling access to the internet to internet providers, hosting providers and large enterprises.
The telco feels responsible for the website because it is hosted by a customer of a customer of a customer. As a result it now blocks users of certain German internet providers that buy bandwidth of Level 3's network.
Although I didn't enjoy looking at the pictures and certainly wouldn't want any children to be confronted with them, there is something smelly about the path that Level 3 took. The company is fine hosting the website, but will also block access to it for its network customers.
Level 3 could easily block access to the website from all German IP addresses. Instead it chose to add an IP block for the website's IP on its routers in Germany. This only prevents German customers of its network services from accessing the content, leaving the site open to customers of providers that rely on other backbone providers.
Why take such a lacklustre approach if you want to protect innocent children from viewing disturbing materials? There is only one answer: PR move. Level 3 can now say that it has acted against the site without hurting its business.
Speek no evil
tags: ogrish, level3, censorship
August 31, 2005 at 02:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Zotob author: "look at me!"
The 18-year old Farid Essebar who was arrested last Thursday for writing the Zotob, Rbot and Mytob worms, was quite a productive virus writer as it turns out.
The Russia born man had authored around 20 worms, Sophos thinks. His creations currently hold 6 of the top 10 virus positions.
It all goes to support the theory that Farid isn't a very smart virus writer. His creations might have been a success in terms of infections, but failed as a business venture.
Any person that takes the virus charts by storm is going to attract attention. If you want to avoid the flak, you should stay under the radar.
photo credit: Andrew Brigmond
August 30, 2005 at 09:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Larry Ellison goes to the races - and shows his team spirit
Larry Ellison was racing in the America's Cup trials at the weekend and managed to win an unexpected victory.
Ellison has been one of the key players in transforming the America's Cup from a four yearly competition to a continuous regatta of competing teams. On Monday the BMW/Oracle racing boat, on which the software company has lavished €100 million, managed to beat the widely favoured New Zealand team thanks to some aggressive tactics and a broken jib sheet which crippled the Kiwis on the final lap.
Larry turned up to the regatta, held in the Baltic off Malmo in Sweden, in his 400+ft yacht. The vessel is the product of a long running feud between him and Jim Clark, formerly of Netscape over who has the biggest toys.
Sadly your correspondent didn't get to see much of the man in person, since the second the race was over he abandoned ship, jumped into a speed boat and was off to his floating gin palace as it's less than affectionately known around the America's Cup paddock.
(brought to you from SV Sleuth's European correspondent)
Oracle (left) jockeys for position
After the race Ellison made a quick escape back to his yacht, leaving his team to clean up the mess he left down under.
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tags: oralce, larry ellison
August 30, 2005 at 05:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Newspapers are now officially a niche product
Having been beaten to death by Ebay and Craigslist, the San Diego Tribune has decided to waive advertising fees for classified ads for goods under $5,000.
The drop in advertising coincides with a similar drop in readership of print newspapers.
In a story about its move, the newpaper quotes Gordon Borrell, president of Borrell Associates, a media consulting firm in Virginia:
"Seldom has a new medium come along and completely killed another. But . . . the Internet is squeezing newspapers into a niche product. Classified is being walloped."
In an attempt to save face, the newspaper's director of advertising Scott Whitley however maintained that this wasn't a move out of desperation, but rather "about growing readership with content – and advertising is content."
Classifieds are content, he argues, and will help him regain readers that found out that internet not only gives you access to more ads, it also allows you to search them much better and receive better product information.
Whitley is fighting a rising tide, and showing typical behaviour (AKA: denial) for a company in despair.
outdated
photo credit: Carin Araujo
tags: craigslist, advertising, ebay, classified ads
August 29, 2005 at 11:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Judge issues restraining order against AOL
New York's attorney general Eliot Spitzer and America Online have settled a lawsuit, with AOL agreeing to pay a $1.25m fine for making it too hard for customers to cancel their service with the internet provider.
AOL has been living in its private bubble ever since the world discovered broadband internet. The company tried to hold on to its subscribers by making it very hard and in some cases impossible to cancel their accounts.
In one case, the company refused to cancel a account of a deceased person because their relatives couldn't provide their "screen name", reported the New York Times.
The company itself still is wearing its reality distortion glasses, and pretends to be actually grateful for the settlement.
The company told the New York Times that it was "pleased to have reached agreement" and that is would "assist with the verification of certain member intentions online."
Back in the days when I tried to cancel my AOL account, they just kept offering me additional months of free subscriptions. After six months of not paying for dial up, I finally decided to switch to broadband after all.
AOL is your typical example of a company that just doesn't understand how to compete in today's economy. The websites and blog posts about its horrible customer care record will remain online for years to come. Even if they ever succeed at creating a product that people actually want (no the internet on training wheels that they sell now), they'll have a really hard time convincing consumers to pay them for it.
AOL keeps thinking its customers are at this stage, but little girls grow older
photo credit: Charly Empey
Tags: america online, AOL
August 29, 2005 at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Apple gets ready for another iPod moment
Rumour mills and websites have gone into overdrive after Apple said that it would make a major new announcement around its iPod music player next week on Wednesday in San Francisco.
The invitation was brief:
"1000 songs in your pocket changed everything. Here we go again.
Please join us at Moscone West in San Francisco on September 7 at 10:00 a.m.
Registration begins at 9:00 a.m. Arrive early for this invitation-only event."
Theoretically Apple could just open a chain of Apple pie stores, but the phrasing of suggests that the announcement is centred around this iPod music player or iTunes music store.
The Motorola iTunes phone would be a good guess. After numerous delays, the device was recently cleared by the FCC. But don't be surprised if Apple goes the extra mile and launches a mobile operator at the same time. The phone so far has failed to charm existing phone companies because it forces them to loosen the grip on their customers (read: fewer ring tones and less data traffic = less revenue).
A video iPod would be another good guess, although analysts have suggested that such a device won't be ready until 2006.
Number three would be the obligatory update of the iPod Shuffle, adding a display and possibly radio tuner to the device.
I'm putting my money on the Motorola phone plus Apple Mobile phone company, but we'll all have to wait until next week until we know for sure.
Steve Jobs earlier this year at MacWorld in San Francisco
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August 29, 2005 at 08:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
The Windows hole that isn't
For every story that makes it into the media, a dozen is killed before a single word is written about them.
Russian security expert Igor Franchuk discovered a weakness in Windows that could be used to hide certain information.
Without going into too much detail: it could allow an application to go into the Windows registry, add a string and make it invisible. This could for instance be used to make Windows load certain applications when it boots up. A spyware maker would like to be undetectable.
I'm no security expert and nor do I pretend to be one, so the fact-checking began.
Microsoft confirmed the vulnerability, but also pointed out that it occurs in the "Registry Editor", not in Windows itself. For the rest followed the standard statements that the company is looking into the issue.
Microsoft has to be cautious, and I don't blame them for it. They have to take every flaw extremely seriously or risk getting flamed later on.
On to Symantec to see what they made out of this. They actually invested the time and effort to see if they could replicate the flaw, and more importantly, cause any harm.
Symantec's answer was extremely clear:
"While you can create an extra long reg key, it does not look like the information can actually be saved/stored/exported from the key itself. We tried exploiting it and came up with nothing. So while the vulnerability is valid, the ability to exploit it to accomplish any misdeeds is unproven at this point (and presumably unlikely)," director of product management David Cole wrote in an email.
What might have been a story, several hours later turned out to be just a blog posting about a security hole that isn't.
---
update:
litterarly 2 minutes after this post was published, Cnet News.com published a report claiming that this "allows hackers to hide the presence of their applications," according to security vendor StillSecure.
The error in StillSecure's reasoning however is that they mistake an flaw in a Windows tool for a system vulnerability. There are plenty of tools that WILL display the "hidden" registry entries.
tags: symantec, microsoft, windows, security
August 27, 2005 at 01:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Evil virus writers busted
Police in Morocco and Turkey have arrested two individuals for their role in the design and releasing of the Rbot, Zotob and Mytob viruses.
The good news is that two delinquents are off the streets, the bad news is that they were stupid enough to get caught.
Let's hope for 21 year old Atilla Ekici that the prisons in Turkey still operate in a similar way to what was shown in the movie Midnight Express, and that 18-year old Farid Essebar is treated in a similar way. They are responsible for knocking down computer systems for many corporations including the New York Times, ABC, American Express and Kraft Foods.
But the duo also represents a bygone era in virus writing: the time of the mega worms. Clever virus writers create worms that infect only a few computers, in an effort to stay under the radar of authorities and anti-virus software.
Creating large scale worms like Zotob makes you an easy target. Microsoft, playing an instrumental role in the capture of Ekici and Essebar, can use the case to show the world its dedication to fighting viruses.
This isn't that much different from the judicial strategies in many countries. They will crack down on highly visible petty crimes that hit civilians, but are less focused on tackling organised crime – as long as it doesn't come out into the open.
It's impossible to stop all crime, so you create the illusion that you do. It also is impossible to stop all virus writers, but at least you want to create the illusion that you have the situation under control.
photo credit: Alvaro Prieto
August 27, 2005 at 12:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Meet the Community PC (IDF videoblog)
How does Intel plan to conquer the Indian market? This community PC is a first attempt. Intel chief executive Paul Otellini (left in the video) had Bill Siu, general manager for the Channel Platforms Group, demonstrate the computer on stage at Intel Developer Forum earlier this week.
Intel earlier this month unfolded a new initiative that to allow the chip maker better address local markets in emerging markets through the creation of four new Platform definition Centres.
Watch the video to see Siu demonstrate the dust filter, power backup and image restore option.
Click here to watch the video (6.42Mb .wmv download)
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Tags: IDF, Sun, Sun Microsystems, Intel, AMD, intel developer forum, dual core
August 26, 2005 at 02:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Remote desktop management for consumers (IDF Videoblog)
Aming to lower the cost of help desks, Intel demonstrated a new technology that offers consumers the option to have a remote helpdesk worker the access their computer.
The "Fix my PC" feature was demonstrated in Don MacDonald's keynote on Wednesday
Click here to watch the video (2.56Mb .wmv download)
Don MacDonald
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Tags: IDF, Intel, intel developer forum, dual core
August 26, 2005 at 01:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Intel re-wires its "unwire" campaign
Having preached the wireless gospel for years now, Intel made a remarkable move on Wednesday at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco by rejoining the Homeplug Powerline Alliance.
The organisation oversees a technology that moves data over the power cords inside your walls and floors, and could even deliver broadband internet through your power plug. Intel had previously been a member of the organisation, but cancelled its membership back in 2000 when it started preaching the WiFi gospel.
Intel now is starting to realise that wireless isn't going to cut it.
"Wireless is great, but it's not always the right tool for the job. We need a good wired solution," Don McDonald, general manager for Intel's digital home group told delegates at the event.
Intel's Homeplug guy Matt Theall and the new chairman of the Alliance provided some additional details about the reasoning behind the decision: consumers today demand more bandwidth than wireless can provide. If Intel is going to allow us to simultaneously watch multiple high definition television streams, we will need a wired solution.
And then HomePlug suddenly isn't so outdated anymore, given that its 200Mbit delivers enough bandwidth to power three HDTV streams.
Don MacDonald
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tags: wireless, homeplug, intel, wifi, IDF, intel developer forum, dual core
August 26, 2005 at 12:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Can Google break the IM stalemate?
Ask not what Google can do for instant messaging, ask what you can do for IM.
Google Talk, the new IM client, could break the deadlock in the market for instant messaging clients, analyst firm Gartner noted in a research brief.
The software for now is highly underpowered, offering few desirable features. And like giving me a phone that won't call anyone else, I don't know anybody that is using the client.
Meanwhile the software does offer one nice feature by automatically adding users to my contact list that are already in my Gmail address book.
Garnter has a point: if Google can't break open the IM market, nobody can. Few companies have such a loyal following, and if Google succeeds at gaining a reasonable market share, the pressure will be on Yahoo, MSN and AOL to stop their foolish strategy blocking third party clients.
I would love to get rid of my MSN, Yahoo, AOL and ICQ accounts, and having interoperability would help me achieve that goal.
That's why we all HAVE to start using Google Talk, to send a strong message to the IM monopolists that they should listen to their users, not their pocketbooks.
videochat - another feature that Google Talk should add (no, the dude with the mustache isn't me, nor is the gal)
tags: google, google talk, google
August 25, 2005 at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The future of TV
If you think internet will revolutionise television, think again, warns John Stewart, host of the Daily Show on Comedy Central.
"The Internet is just a world passing around notes in a classroom. That's all it is. All those media companies say, 'We're going to make a killing here.' You won't because it's still only as good as the content," Stewart said in an interview with Wired.
Stewart has some first hand experience with that, as a video of him appearing CNN's crossfire has been watched by millions and the today show itself might have more viewers online than through cable.
Read the interview – it's a blast an just like the Daily Show it mixes humor with insight.
tags: media, blog, blogosphere, john stewart
August 25, 2005 at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Gates' checklist: First drown kittens… then make Windows Vista less evil?
Microsoft must have heard some of the disapproval that surrounds the trusted platform module (TPM), because the company's forthcoming operating system Windows Vista will disable some of the chips most controversial features.
"There are some operations that use public key information that could potentially be perceived as privacy risk areas," Stephen Heil, technical evangelist for Microsoft's Core OS Division told delegates in a session about Secure Startup at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.
"Things that do quotes and attestations […] are turned off by default."
The TPM is a security chip that could be used to enforce digital rights management technology, track users and fulfil other privacy nightmares. It also happens to allow Microsoft to encrypt your hard drive so a laptop thief won't be able to access your data – that's what a new technology called Secured Startup in Windows Vista uses the technology for.
If you want to be a true cynic, this is the time to start shouting that Microsoft only is playing nice for now, waiting to switch on the chip's evil features at a later stage. Or you can believe that Microsoft has really changes and is ready to be a good corporate citizen.
so the headline is highly politically incorrect, but it did allow me to use this brilliant picture
tags: vista, windows vista, microsoft, NGSCB, secure startup, longhorn
August 25, 2005 at 06:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
The crack in Intel's digital home record
Hearing Intel talk about the digital home is like hearing a twisted sales pitch for its processors processor.
There is something inherently wrong with that approach: the technology shouldn't dictate the application, the application should dictate the technology. Intel probably knows that too: during a keynote at Intel Developer Forum they even brought anthropologist Genevieve Bell on stage to underline the notion that consumers determine which technology succeeds in the market place.
Of course Intel want to put its computer processors in home appliances, but consumer electronics makers know that there are more elegant and cheaper ways to solve the same problem. Having a Pentium in your TV might do the job, but its much like installing a diesel engine in a sports car.
Consumer electronics vendors including Sony and Philips have been developing chips that are extremely good at decoding audio and video, putting a sleek gas engine in your sports car.
Intel also unveiled a new marketing and logo programme that christens entertainment PCs 'Viiv' (pronounced as Vive). The programme hopes to do for the digital entertainment sector what Centrino did for Wifi.
It did work extremely well for Centrino, but the situation if slightly more complicated for entertainment PCs because there are much more factors involved that are outside of Intel's control. Just take the Windows Media Center Edition operating system, which is a piece of software that you wouldn't set loose on the living room of your worse enemy.
Again, makers of consumer electronics devices know how to create a box with only a few buttons that does a few things very well. Computer makers give their customers a box that does everything, making it impossible to manage. Slapping on a Viiv logo isn't going to make that much easier.
Don MacDonald, general manager for Intel's digital home group
Genevieve Bell, an anthropologist working for Intel, explains that if a product is crap, consumers won't buy it
That's Viiv, as in vive, rhymes with five. But really, any product names that comes with pronounciation instructions by definition is flawed.
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Tags: IDF, Intel, intel developer forum, dual core
August 24, 2005 at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Intel's Gelsinger touts the management tools
The stars are aligning for Intel's Active Management Technology, Pat Gelsinger claimed in his keynote at Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.
The general manager for Intel's enterprise group unveiled the technology earlier this year. It promises to make it easier for enterprises to manage computers in their networks, but following the initial announcement got only limited support from computer makers.
Today Gelsinger presented several manufacturers, all the major brand names are still missing.
Pat Gelsinger
Jayshree Ullal, senior vice presdient for data cenre, swtiching and security technology group at Cisco systems.
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Tags: IDF, Intel, intel developer forum, dual coreb
August 24, 2005 at 05:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Paul Otellini's keynote toys (pics)
Which new goodies did Intel's chief executive unveil during his opening keynote at Intel Devleoper Forum in San Francisco? See it for yourself:
Early version of a chip using Intel's unnamed new, low power micro-architecture. Introduction: second half 2006.
Community PC - a computer developed for the Indian market that offers added features including a filter to keep out dust and bugs (as in: insects, not computer bugs) and a "image reinstall" option to prevent users from being affected by malware that previious users installed. It also offers backup power through... a car battery (the grey box on the left). Introduction by early 2006.
Handtop computers - all day battery life for an oversized PDA. Introduction early 2006.
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Tags: IDF, Sun, Sun Microsystems, Intel, AMD, intel developer forum, dual core
August 23, 2005 at 05:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Intel takes on power consumption
kIn his opening keynote at Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco today, Intel chief executive Paul Otellini gave a first public demonstration of Intel's new, low power micro-architecture. He promised that the new technology will cut power consumption tenfold while delivering a tenfold seed jump for all computer processors in the coming years.
The new micro-architecture (meaning that is sits one level under the IA-32 architecture) doesn't have a name. Intel just plans to unveil names for the chips. The codenames of the chips that are scheduled for release in the second half of 20006 are: Merom (mobile); Conroe (desktop); Whitefield (server).
Don't just think laptop computers – low power chips will allow for fanless desktop computers and cooler running servers too.
But low power also will enable that creation of the "handtop" computer, a mobile device that Otellini said will be available early 2006.
Bill Gates already showed off this handtop computer at WinHEC earlier this year.
Otellini shows off the handtop computers
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Tags: IDF, Sun, Sun Microsystems, Intel, AMD, intel developer forum, dual core
August 23, 2005 at 05:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
AMD and Sun turn the dual core knife at IDF
What was the first thing delegates saw this morning when they arrived at the Moscone convention centre for the opening keynote?
AMD and Sun Microsystems had set up camp across the street, handing out free coffee under a banner that said: Dual core servers available now (not later this year).
The little publicity stunt is a reminder of the fact that AMD beat Intel at delivering the first dual core chip and that Intel has yet to start shipping a dual core version of its Xeon processor for servers while AMD's Opteron has been humming inside servers from Sun and many others for months.
Sun and AMD serve up some java
registration
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Tags: IDF, Sun, Sun Microsystems, Intel, AMD, intel developer forum, dual core
August 23, 2005 at 04:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Oops, another data leak
More than 33,000 airmen with the US air force will have to closely watch their credit reports for the coming months if not years, because a database for the Air Force Personnel Centre has been compromised. The airmen were notified last week about the data leak (PDF download of the letter here)
Data thieves used a legitimate login account to pillage the database. Officials finally found out about the hack because this one account showed an unusual level of activity.
Data thieves often share or sell login information for compromised accounts.
Now… maybe its time to talk about those plans for dual factor authentication again, combining "something you have" with "something you know". A chip card or secure USB key could have easily prevented this case of data theft.
Just one more thing to worry about
tags: identity theft, data theft, security
August 22, 2005 at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Google's goes on a widget hunt
Google today unveiled beta 2 of Google Desktop. Where the first beta was all about searching for documents and emails your computer, the second beta revolves around a new feature called the "sidebar".
Think of the sidebar as a self-configuring RSS reader, crossed with the tiny JavaScript applications called widgets.
Monitoring which websits a user visits, the software uses that information to automatically subscribe to RSS feeds, filter news stories from mainstream media and build a list of bookmarks.
The auto learning feature could give a major push to the use of RSS – once Google Desktop becomes a final product, because it succeeds in completely hiding the technology from the user. After all, technology should be so easy to use that the user doesn't even need to know it's there, much like the engine in your car.
Google also published a list of application programming interfaces (APIs) to allow external developers to create additional plug-ins.
If the sidebar didn't already remind you the widgets that Yahoo and Apple are offering, the availability of the APIs certainly should.
It's these APIs that can make Google Desktop a true success. Within days, you should expect a host of new plug-ins to be made available by individual programmers, similar to what happened with widgets. You only have to look at the available widgets there to think of possible applications (currency exchange rates, anyone?)
The application has one major disadvantage over the widgets however. It doesn't nearly look as sleek and its size is going to limit the kind of applications that will be made available.
Personally I like Google's the no-nonsense look and feel. All the graphical gimmickry actually made me uninstall Konfabulator after one week. For now it seems like the Sidebar is a keeper.
tags: widget, google desktop, google
August 22, 2005 at 07:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Podcasting for oldies
The average podcast user is over 45 years old, a study by CLX has found.
I hope Dave Winer, Adam Curry and other followers of the podcasting hype are paying attention, because this study shows that as a medium, podcasts appeal mostly to the pre-MTV generation.
In today's age of TV and other 'fast' media, podcasts take too much time and offer too little information.
photo credit: Russel Thomas
Tags: podcast, Podcasting, Music, Podcasts, technology, iTunes, mp3, queercast, Blog.
August 22, 2005 at 05:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
CA tries R&D for a change
Computer Associates has set up CA labs, a research organisation that is set to "support and further establish innovation in CA’s key growth areas."
If the world's number four software company (after Microsoft, IBM and Oracle) only now founds a labs organisation, it makes you wonder how they ever got to the number four spot to begin with.
Any old time CA user can answer that question. By doing acquisitions. Lots of them. CA used to be the vacuum cleaner of the software industry, buying up providers that were past their peak at pennies for the dollar. It's a tricky business model, but works if you're really big – like CA is.
The secret is in cutting back development and support of these products and rely on the installed based to keep paying for upgrades and support - its like licking the frosting of a cake and then selling it for double the original price. The plan worked – especially in the space of software tools for mainframe computers.
But as the growth of mainframe sales came to a standstill, so did CA's business. And then the company was forced to face the horrible reputation that it had built over all those years. Top that off with a financial scandal that cost two successive CEOs their jobs and you enter into the era of current chief executive John Swainson.
Swainson so far has proven to be the fresh wind that can provide the much needed changes. Consider CA Labs part of that understanding. Although CA keeps doing its share of acquisitions, the creatino of CA labs signals an understanding that innovation can't come from acquisitions alone. Engineers and researchers play an important part too.
Swainson
Photo courtesy of CA
tags: CA, computer associates
August 20, 2005 at 12:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
In case you ever want to get rid of you Google tattoo...
I don't normally pay much attention to the ads that Google places next to my search results, but this one caught my eye:
looking for Google inside the vnunet.com domain, someone wants the help me get rid of my old tattoos. Surely someone must think that people got Google tattooed on their foreheads and are now starting to get second thoughts...?
August 20, 2005 at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sun blogger waves farewell to Google ads
Sun Microsystems' director of web technologies Tim Bray, who publishes the Ongoing blog, has removed the Google Adsense ads from his webpage.
The blog is one of the better known Sun blogs, but the ads only made Bray $150 to $200 per month.
"I’m not surprised the revenue is low, the ads are lame and uninteresting, I wouldn’t click on ’em either," Bray wrote.
The topic of his posts don't exactly make for great advertising, he notes. In all honesty, only blogs that get huge levels of traffic or report about hot niches like mobile phones are likely to make their authors lots of money.
Bray didn't start writing his blog to compensate for the lacklustre performance of his Sun's stock options and will to post. But let this be a warning to all the bloggers that think that Google adds will pay for their Ferrari and hope that getting Slashdotted or Digged gets them there… it won't happen.
Tags: sun microsystems, google, adsense, blog, blogging, blogosphere
August 19, 2005 at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Amazon goes erotic
Amazon has quietly started selling erotic goods including vibrators and condoms.
To celebrate the store's opening, Amazon is offering free standard shipping for orders over $75.
The "Sex & Sensuality" store is part of the online retailer's Health and personal care aile. So shoppers going through the store's best selling items list should expect the occasional vibrator to pop up next to the nose hair trimmers, diapers, shavers and electric tooth brushes.
I… eh… just happened to see the store while shopping for toothpaste. Honestly.
You see $3 rope - Amazon sees Japanese Silk Bondage Love Rope - that'll be $12.30 please.
tags: amazon
August 19, 2005 at 09:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Yahoo tackles its employee's lacking parking skills
Yahoo has taken drastic measures to deal with mounting frustrations with its staff over the parking situation at its Sunnyvale headquarters.
The company has grown so large in recent months that parking lots were getting full. Employees last month started the "ycantpark" Flickr stream, exposing cars that were taking up dual parking spaces and hoping that a public humiliation would lead to improved parking skills.
Today Yahoo blogger Jeremy Zawodny reported on his blog that the company started offering employee valet parking. This not only reliefs workers of having to park within the lines (makes you think about their business skills...), it also allows the company to make better use of the available parking spaces by double parking and blocking in cars.
Yahoo will soon be moving some staff to a new office building, Zawodny wrote, which should ease the pain – for now at least.
August 19, 2005 at 02:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Inside Google's board room
How exactly did Google decide to offer 14,159,265 shares for sale? I can think of one way:
With Google stock price through the roof, investment bankers were constantly calling senior executives. They finally agreed to meet. As the bankers sat down with CEO Eric Schmidt, CFO George Reyes and the co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, they advised them to sell a few more stock to investors and cash in on the hype that kept surrounding the search engine.
It didn't take long for the managers to see that the deal made sense. I could never hurt to have some additional cash in the bank to allow for future acquisitions. But selling additional shares only a year after the initial offering, that wasn't very Google-like.
Another meeting was scheduled and as the plans progressed, Brin and Page kept thinking of a way to turn an ordinary stock sale into a geek event. As the investment banker showed them a draft of the prospectus, Brin's eye fell on the number of stocks that would be offered: 14.1 million.
He showed the sheet to his buddy Page and nodded. They connected instantly. Page grabbed a pen, crossed out the number of shares and entered: 14,159,265. The investment bankers looked puzzled, Schmidt shrugged his shoulders.
But both Page and Brin knew:
(pi – 3) * 100,000,000 = 14,159,265.
And so it was settled.
unidentified pi-loving foot
tags: google, wall street
August 19, 2005 at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack
EA pushes games into the classroom
Gaming giant EA Games has teamed up with a research firm NESTA Futurelab in an effort to push games into classrooms.
The $540,000 project is set to kick off in the UK and could later expand to other parts of Europe.
The study aims to find out if the game maker can push its existing line of games into classrooms, without letting preconceptions about the value of such software in education get in the way of EA's revenue potential.
"We're very keen to look right across the genres and not rule out the education benefits of any of the different styles out there," researcher Annika Small told Computing.
But as the cheers of the kids looking forward to playing Fifa Football 2005 and Medal of honor fade away, the researchers perhaps first could take a look at the state of the average classroom computer. Then they would realise that those often are underpowered for today's games to begin with.
EA is spending $540,000 to find out if this could be educational (screenshot from Medal of Honor)
Tags: EA, games, electronic arts, school, education
August 18, 2005 at 05:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Adware mob war erupts
Adware maker 180solutions maker is going after botnet operators, hackers and script kiddies that abused its affiliate programme.
It's an obvious case of the bad guys going after each other. 180solutions is one of the most notorious adware makers, if only because they keep claiming that their ad producing software isn't adware.
In recent months they have tried to create a more gentle image of themselves. But the window dressing doesn't fool spyware researcher Ben Edelman.
"I don't see them having any business model other than watching what users do online and serving them pop-up ads. Their software shows ads, they are adware," he told vnunet.com.
The adware maker however should be applauded for filing legal charges against its former "distribution partners". The illustrious seven installed the software on computers that they had hacked, taking in anywhere form 7 to 50 dollar cents per installation through 180solutions' affiliate programme.
None of the names of the accused - Eric de Vogt of the Netherlands, Jesse Donohue of Australia, Khalil Halel of Lebanon, Imran Patel of the United Kingdom, Zarox Souchi of Canada, Youri Van Den Berg of the Netherlands and Anton Zagar of Slovenia – rang any bells. Except for the very first.
Eric de Vogt earlier this year served 34 days in jail and was sentenced to 240 hours of community service for his share in a distributed denial of service attack against two Dutch government sites. The now 19 year old hacker had been so brilliant to act as a spokesperson for the hackers group that claimed responsibility for the attacks, and boasted that he had a botnet of 190,000 computers at his disposal.
Just the fact that the adware maker is taking out script kiddies would make you want to install 180solutions' software to support this worthy cause.
adware maker shows its teeth
tags: adware, malware, hacker, script kiddie, spyware
August 18, 2005 at 03:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Microsoft updates IE7 icon
Microsoft last week unveiled the new logo for Internet Explorer 7.
The first thing that comes to mind is that it looks like a logo that Apple would use. Lets hope the application itself is just as good.
Tags: microsoft, internet explorer
August 17, 2005 at 09:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Apple goofs up on OS X update
In what appears to the case of the missing library, Apple's latest security update has broken support for 64-bit applications.
The problems affect systems that have installed the latest patches that Apple started distributing Monday night.
Apple added support for 64-bit applications to OS X on systems powered by the G5 processor earlier this year with the launch of OS X 10.4 Tiger.
Informatica, a maker of a tool for technical computing (read: really hard calculations) in science, engineering, math and finance, unveiled a version of its software running on the 64-bit software last month. On Tuesday the company sent out an email to customers warning stating that:
"Due to an error on the part of Apple, this update prevents any 64-bit-native application from running. In particular, this means that Mathematica 5.2 will not run on any G5 system if it has installed this Security Update."
Apple wouldn't comment on the issue. But citing sources familiar with the matter, vnunet.com claimed that the problem was caused by a library that was missing from Monday's update.
Wolfram found the bug by testing Apple's update on Tuesday, mere hours after Apple made the patch available. So why didn't Apple test the update? Especially since this problem isn't limited to Wolfram, but affects all native 64-bit applications.
Is poor testing the price that OS X users will have to pay for the limited size of the software maker?
--
UPDATE 8/18 9:13am PDT:
Apple at midnight (PDT) last night released a patch to fix the problem. Called Security update 2005-007 v1.1, it replaces the security update that was released Monday night.
OS X breaks 64 bits applications
Photo credit: Rich Dubose
tags: os x, bug, update, apple
August 17, 2005 at 08:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
RSS backers get religious
There is a war brewing between the blogger pioneers and Microsoft over the name for RSS.
On the one side you have Dave Winer, creator of RSS, and Robert Scoble, the world's most famous specimen of a corporate blogger who receives a pay check from Microsoft.
On the other side stands Microsoft wanting to abandon the use of the three letter acronym that stands either for real simple syndication or RDF site summary. For now it calls RSS feeds 'web feeds', but the software developer is open to suggestions.
The general public doesn't know RSS, as recent studies have shown. There is no reason why we shouldn't consider changing the name.
And I'd like to argue that we actually should change the name that is used with the general public. Try explaining what RSS does to a person who doesn't know what the technology does, and you'll see that you are up for a challenge.
Winer has a point when he says that we shouldn't let Microsoft single-handedly change the name. That could lead to fragmentation of the technology and could impede its progress.
But his all-out refusal to even look at alternatives shows religiousness.
Scoble compares apples with oranges when he argues that the public over time will learn what RSS stands for, much like they learnt about DVDs and CDs. At least those acronyms make sense on a certain level. The average web user can't do anything with the term "syndication" in real simple syndication, let alone the geeky RDF site summary.
RSS deserves a better name. And we need Scoble and Winer to participate in the discussion to pick that name. Otherwise the risk of fragmentation just increase.
Feed makes for better illustrations too ;-)
photo credit: Helmut Gevert
tags: rss, scoble, winer, microsoft, internet explorer 7
August 17, 2005 at 03:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Google listens to the beat of blogs
To open with a huge cliché: blogs are changing the world. They give customers a way to rant and rave (but mostly rant). Even if you never knew that Dell had problems with its image, it only takes one blog post and its comments to expose their arrogance.
Google is leading the way in listening to the blogosphere, as the case of Jupiter CEO Alan Meckler points out.
The chief of the media company on his blog complained about Google Desktop Search, the application that lets you search your computer. Every time Meckler updated files on his machine, Google would start crawling like crazy, taking up precious computing time. It was enough for Meckler to switch to Windows Desktop Search. And he wrote about his trouble on his blog.
Somehow his blog posting ended up with a Google customer support agent who contacted Meckler to ask him for further details.
The search engine not only impressed a dissatisfied user, Meckler's trouble will also allow the organisation to improve its software.
To end with another cliché: those who listen to what the blogosphere has to say will beat those companies that prefer to put their heads in the sand.
Tags: dell, blog, blogosphere, google, customer service
August 16, 2005 at 07:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Microsoft uses Vista beta testers as network guinea pigs
Windows Vista new peer-to-peer networking PNRP protocol has some security experts up in arms.
The technology can be used to create networks between computers and could result in faster online gaming.
That's a nice feature to have because peer to peer networks relief the burden from centralised servers and generally makes for faster networks .The network is no longer build hierarchically with each client sending data to a server and the server telling the clients what to do next. Instead the clients talk directly to each other. Think of it as the difference between a classic monarchy and democracy, if not anarchy – a pyramid vs. a spider web model.
But users of the recently release Windows Vista Beta 1 are automatically turned into guinea pigs for the new service, the SANS Internet Storm Center found out. The feature by default is turned on to see how the technology behaves in a mass deployment.
That not only triggers alerts from several anomaly based intrusion detection systems, such as ZoneAlarm, it also violates one of the base rules of both the security industry and Microsoft: you don't open up a door (network port) in a computer unless you want someone to come in.
"It is just a beta," you argue? Then some of those beta testers would have liked to know that the software had this feature, argued Senior security expert George Bakos from the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College. He made the initial report on SANS' website.
"This could be used to identify an individual user and IP address. It may aid an attacker in gathering information about an individual. And if you are a privacy advocate and you don't want information about your system to be available to others, you may frown upon this," Bakos told vnunet.com.
tags: windows vista
August 16, 2005 at 07:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack