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Cyber Monday turns into a dark Monday
Marketeers at Shop.org today are dancing a victory dance.
Shop.org is the applause machine for online retailers. In a clever but deceitful plan they came up with a way to piggyback ride on the "Black Friday" phenomenon that sees sales in retail store spike on the day after Thanksgiving.
The idea: claim that there is such a thing called "Cyber Monday" where workers after a three days of shopping in brick and mortar stores would continue their buying spree online, using their bosses broadband connections. Cyber Monday, in summary, was portrayed to be the largest day of online shopping in the year.
Some media took the bait. And some shoppers were fooled into thinking that there bargains to be had, causing a 35 per cent rise in internet traffic.
But Shop.org's executive director Scott Silverman quickly confessed his deceitful ways to BusinessWeek: "It's not the biggest day. But it was an opportunity to create some consumer excitement."
The Monday after Thanksgiving actually doesn't even come close to being the largest day in online shopping. It ranks at a mediocre 12th place. For your online shopping bonanza, you should've looked at November 22 (which is when Microsoft started selling the Xbox 360 in the US).
Crazy Thanksgiving shoppers are mostly found offline
Tags: shop.org, e-commerce
November 30, 2005 at 12:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Google stock takes a sanity break
Google's valuation in the stock market dropped by about $5.9bn today, its stock slipping 4.71 per cent to $403.54.
Investors dropped the stock after data was released indicating that retail sales in the past weekend were less bullish than hoped. Fewer retail sales could indicate a weaker economy, leading to a slowdown in advertising sales on Google's web pages (including its Froogle price comparison service).
Nearly $6bn might be a bit of an overreaction, but apparently some investors are finally starting to see that Google isn't in the business of printing money but instead will grow over time. This justifies valuations that are more in line with other normal businesses where the laws of supply, demand and competition apply.
Bull statue near Wall Street
Photo: myles davidson
Tags: google
November 29, 2005 at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
How long did Sony have to screw up the XCP?
As F-Secure already published when the Sony BMG XCP controversy first started spinning out of control, the company was already on Sony's tail before Mark Russinovich informed the world about this evil technology.
The difference being that F-Secure reported the issue quietly to Sony BMG to drive its consultancy business (helping fix the flaw before taking credit) where Russinovich was out to give Sony BMG a public whipping.
This story went back in time to seek out what exactly happened prior to the Russinovich blog posting. Most importantly it even further shows the level of incompetence that First 4 Internet showed in dealing with its own flawed code. The firm not only failed to act when it was first told about the security flaws in its software, it also derailed attempts to bring in F-Secure to help fix the issue (the parties couldn't agree on the terms of the non disclosure agreement). Given that First 4 Internet had created a patchwork of proprietary code combined with stolen GPL components, this isn't a big surprise.
First 4 Internet still won't comment on the mess it created. With lawsuits popping up against its technology all over the world, that's no big surprise. But the report in BusinessWeek only seems to make matters worse for both Sony BMG and First 4 Internet.
Creating insecure code is one thing. Knowing its bad nature and failing to act is even worse.
Tags: Sony BMG, first 4 internet, XCP, DRM, trojan
November 29, 2005 at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Are we being hacked by aliens?
Aliens could use the radio signals that we are trying to analyse with projects like Seti@home to hack into the world's computer infrastructure, D. Carrigan is warning.
That would mean that the signals have a hidden message that we fail to notice but that does succeed at hacking our computers. Carrigan advices that we act more carefully when analysing radio signals from outer space, using stand alone systems to prevent the alien worms from spreading.
How badly do we want to believe in the existence of intelligent life in space?
Carrigna's theory is fundamentally flawed, as F-Secure points out on its blog. Even if there is intelligent life closeby (say within 25 light year's range), it would take 25 years for the aliens to pick up human radio signals. They then need to analyse them and develop exploit code and send back a signal which again will take another 25 years to reach earth. By that time the computer architectures have fundamentally changed and the chance that the exploit still works is zero.
Most alien theories are easily deflated
November 29, 2005 at 08:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
The dirty Open Document war
The mud slinging in the format war down in Massachusetts is in full fare. As the Inquirer points out, both governor and Mitt Romney his CIO Peter Quinn have come under political fire after they decided to favour the Open Document Format (ODF), dealing a blow to Microsoft.
Quinn now is accused of accepting bribes because he failed to properly report trips to open source conferences. The allegations charge that he should have reported which companies sponsored the events.
A Microsoft servant was clearly firing a warning shot here. Besides the ridiculous nature of the complaint, the trips actually took place after the state decided that it like open formats better than proprietary ones. So far for charging that the event sponsors were trying to influence the decision making process.
Besides, Microsoft last week more or less opened its Office document format, which might outdate the entire discussion.
Still there is much at stake here for Microsoft. If Massachusetts keeps favouring ODF over the Microsoft, it will set an important precedent.
Tags: Microsoft, ODF, Massachusetts
November 29, 2005 at 01:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
DMCA used as a blunt weapon
In a society where companies file lawsuits before they sit down and think (or talk), it's no big surprise that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is being widely abused.
A study from two California universities found that more than half of the DMCA claims were used as a scare tactic against direct competitors. Another 30 per cent of the claims that referred to the DMCA wouldn't stand up in court, 10 per cent of which should be discarded because the complaints were badly written.
The DMCA is widely criticised legislation that gives sweeping powers to copyright owners. The study focuses on the DMCA and publication of copyrighted materials, but the DMCA for instance also makes it illegal to 'reverse engineer' software. Reverse engineering is a useful technique to find out what software like the Sony XCP anti-piracy technology is actually doing or to hunt for security bugs.
Let's not forgot that the DMCA aims to serve the legitimate need for copyright owners like movie studios and record labels to protect their intellectual property. The industries were the main backers of the legislation, but a mere 6 per cent of the cases originated from there. The games industry accounted for about on quart of the claims, targeting publishers of cheat and authorisation codes (which enable illegal copies).
Every copyright owner is entitled to see his property protected. But this study hopefully will cause law makers to have a good look at the monster they created. Do the legit cases really justify the rubbish that comes with it?
Tags: dmca
November 28, 2005 at 08:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Opera ventures into the snake oil business
Opera today "revealed" that security concerns have prompted record downloads of its browser.
In a schoolbook of example of "don't send a press release if you've got nothing to say," the company sent out a press release for the sake of sending one.
The "revelation" isn't based on anything, as the reader will find out. It just combines two findings: more than one million copies of Opera 8.51 have been downloaded in the past week and Internet Explorer keeps getting pounded by security vulnerabilities. But Opera doesn't provide any data to back up the claim that there is a link between the record number of downloads and security concerns with Internet Explorer users (aren't the downloaders more likely to be upgrading from older version of the Opera browser?)
Add a link to the Secunia security website (deceivingly suggesting that the link will show the reader an independent test to verify Opera's security claims) and a generic CEO quote and you got yourself a case study for PR gone wrong.
Opera might have a decent (although far from perfect ) security track record, today's news release only sought to capitalize on the holiday shopping craze and the sad state of online security. Suggesting a link between unrelated facts is better left to the sellers of real snake oil.
Tags: opera, internet explorer, security
November 28, 2005 at 07:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Hosting for tree huggers
Webhosting venture AISO Inc is hoping that putting on a green face will help it gain some new customers.
The California company claims to have build a "green" design to its web hosting facility that will minimize the impact on the earth's resources. The building is powered by 120 solar panels as well as other environmental friendly design features.
It's no secret that hosting firms are big energy hogs, so naturally there are firms trying to make money off that. AISO is joined by several other 'green' hosting providers that power their data centres from renewable energy sources.
It probably makes good business sense. Hosting services are pretty much a commodity service where providers find it impossible to differentiate their products from the competition. Being green is a clear differentiator that could give profit margins a nice boost.
tags: green hosting, environmentalism, solar energy
November 28, 2005 at 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Smash my Xbox
The best $400 spend this week came from a group of pranksters who set up the website smashmyxbox.com.
The idea is simple: get in line to buy a new Xbox and then go medieval on it with a slash hammer in front of the Xbox faithful. Put up a movie on the internet and voila.
Except… that the prank itself was kind of lame. They bought their Xbox alright, but didn't have the guts to wreck the thing inside the store for all the Xbox wannabes to see and be shocked. Instead they went to the outside parking lot and did their magic in front of an audience of 3 Xbox buyers.
Their responses are amusing nonetheless – especially the guy that says: "Why?" several time and then starts nagging: "Can I have you controller?" But the effect would have been so much better if the group would’ve pulled the trick inside.
Another interesting point is made at the very beginning of the video when a store clerk from Best Buy tells the group of people waiting about the troubles that they had with the demo Xbox units. He ends with the phrase: "So, serious, guys…" and a look on his face that tells: don't buy it.
Tags: microsoft, xbox 360
November 25, 2005 at 06:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Amazon your place to buy... IDC research?!
Analyst firm IDC is selling research papers on Amazon. The firm is offering over 14,000 of its reports for sale on the webstore.
Business doesn't appear to be spectacular. The best selling paper, a $1,500 report on networking for next generation gaming consoles like the Xbox 360 from May this year, has an overall Amazon sales rank 240,430 in the books category.
At that price, nobody should be surprised that business is limited. Especially since I tend to visit Amazon to buy digital cameras and books. Still the online store claims that people who bought the gaming paper also purchased an Xbox bundle with Halo (mind you: this is the old Xbox and these discontinued bundles were overpriced ways for Microsoft to make Xbox fans pay for a T-shirt and hat).
This looks more like an experiment than a genuine part of Amazon e-commerce efforts. If people really would be buying IDC research papers on Amazon, you'd probably have seen office supplies or other business items pop up in the "customers how purchased this item also bought" section.
There is no information on the site indicating how long these sales have been going on. Amazon first started selling digital documents in 2001.
November 25, 2005 at 05:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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