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Eolas: "No need to change Internet Explorer, just pay us"
Microsoft on 11 April will release a patch that changes Internet Explorer so that the browser no longer violates a patent owned by Eolas. The change will require users to click or press keys before embedded elements on a webpage are activated.
The changes caused Eolas to lash out against Microsoft. They worsen of the users' browser experience, Eolas COO Mark Swords told eWeek. Instead, Microsoft should purchase a license on the dispute technology.
Is Eolas suddenly a consumer advocate? Or is the company really just looking to rake in some more money in addition to the $521m that it was awarded in a 2003 lawsuit?
Microsoft's decision significantly undermines Eolas' position. The software developer has shown that it doesn't need Eolas' technology, sending a signal that it doesn't plan to pay any outrageous sum. In essese, the update has downgraded the technology to the bargain basement: nice to have, but showing notable defects.
We witnessed how outrageous these license fees can get in the Blackberry-NTP case. There a jury awarded about $100m in damages for the patent violation. But Blackerry maker RIM had to pay another $500m to purchase a license on the technology.
The Eolas case just offers additional proof that there is an urgent need for patent reform, and that software patents should be treated differently from traditional patents for instance in the pharmaceutical industry.
I doubt however that this case will do anything to speed up that reform process. Microsoft is itself greatly profiting from the broken patent system, and will likely see this as a single incident. It's hard to be a patent optimist these days.
Photo credit: Ken Duncan
Tags: patent reform, patent, Microsoft, internet explorer, eolas
March 31, 2006 at 08:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Shaming more adware funders
Spyware researcher Ben Edelman got hungry for more after he and the Center for Democracy and Technology published a blacklist last week.
Adware is one of the problems at the root of the spyware and botnet problem, because adware makers pay "partners" to distribute and install the software. They have created an incentive for bored teenagers to create botnets and install adware on those zombie computers for financial gain.
Last week's report caused several advertisers to cancel their contract with 180solutions. This week Edelman is taking aim at the Direct Revenue programme. The adware network is funded by major brand names including Citi, HSBC, True.com, United Airlines, T-Mobile and Vonage.
If you feel that Adware is a nuisance and you do business with any of these companies, make sure you drop them a line and let them know how you feel. In most cases these companies don't even know that they are engaged in this questionable practice, and just exposing them will do.
Tags: adware, Ben Edelman, 180solutions, direct revenue
March 31, 2006 at 07:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Google gets cash hungry
Google is planning to sell an additional 5.3m shares. The main reason, according to the press release, is to increase the supply of shares available in the market, as the search engine will be added to the S&P 500.
What that doesn’t answer the question: why does Google need the $2.1bn that the floatation will bring?
The SEC filing doesn't give us anything either. It is using standard phrasing to say that there is nothing to say:
"We anticipate that we will use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital and capital expenditures. In addition, we may use proceeds of this offering for acquisitions of businesses, technologies or other assets that we believe will complement our business."
The acquisition note would be interesting, if Google wouldn't have used the exact same phrasing last year in August when the company sold an additional $4bn.
Surely you should buy an umbrella when it isn't raining. Google will have an easier time getting cash now that the company is still hot. But the more outstanding shares, the worse some of the key performance indexes are going to look.
Google as of 31 December 2005 had cash reserves of $8bn, according to its annual report. The company in the same document however pointed out that Microsoft (which the company considers one of its main competitors) has "significantly more cash resources than we do".
Anything beyond that is speculations. I'm going with the umbrella theory.
Tags: google, stock exchange, Microsoft
March 31, 2006 at 02:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Is Apple's volume patch an admission of guilt?
Apple yesterday released a software update that allows consumers to tune down the maximum volume level of their iPod devices.
The timing of the release is questionable. Apple is currently facing a lawsuit that alleges that the iPod caused some users to go deaf.
The iPod maker didn't mention the suit in its press release. But the opposing lawyers made sure to link the two (press release - subscription required), and claimed that the move amounts to an admission of guilt.
"It is good to know that Apple finally acknowledges that there is a serious flaw with its iPod product," said Steve Berman, an attorney for the plaintiffs.
He also made sure to point out a serious flaw in the patch: it only works on the iPod Nano and "fifth generation" iPods, locking a large group of iPod users.
"Unfortunately, this patch doesn't help the millions of people who own older models -- it is a jack-legged workaround that falls well short of what consumers demand and deserve," Berman was quick to point out.
It may be up to a judge or jury to decided if the patch amounts to an admission of guilt, but it certainly doesn't help. Apple either must be very sure of its case, or is confident that it will reach a settlement very soon.
March 30, 2006 at 09:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack
Diebold fights transparency at all costs
If having a transparent democratic election is your greatest goal, Diebold can be your greatest enemy.
The maker of electronic voting machines is fighting a local Utah clerk with the determination of a company that is trying to prevent any facts from leaking out.
When county clerk Bruce Funk received a batch of 40 Diebold TSx voting machines, he soon became suspicious of the device. Two of the machines failed a first test and had to be shipped back to the manufacturer. Other devices showed defects ranging from paper jams and memory card bay doors that wouldn't close.
As Funk was responsible for the elections in Emery County, he decided to get a second opinion from BlackBoxVoting a non-profit group that is critically following electronic voting. They found that there was a critical memory shortage in seven of the machines that would eat up to 20Mb of the devices' memory. The shortage more importantly left the voting machines with insufficient memory to store a backup file with the election results.
Diebold claimed that the shortage was the result of different fonts being installed on the machines, but BlackBoxVoting quickly dismissed that explanation. Fonts would account for a few 100 Kilobytes, not 20 megs.
The voting machine maker later changed its story to say that it shipped three different models of the voting machines – but didn't account for the memory shortage and inability to store the backup file.
By then however, the company decided to go on the offensive. The third party testing had invalidated the warranty and required the machines to be recertified – at a cost of $40,000.
In a heated debate, Funk offered to resign. But the next day, he decided to fight for his position as an elected official and hired an attorney.
This isn't the first time that the accuracy of Diebold voting machines has been scrutinized. But the company keeps fighting any outside effort to verify the accuracy of its machines. We can only speculate why the company is trying to hide thing from the public.
Tags: Diebold, black box voting, elections, democracy
March 30, 2006 at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Intel and MIT take different routes to bring computers to the developing world
Intel today released the specifications for its "Community PC". The devices were designed for use in rural India, where people rent their computing time in small kiosks from local merchants. There they stay in touch with relatives and file or access government forms.
The fact that many people share a single computer combined with the Indian climate and environment make that your typical Dell desktop system isn't up to the job. The systems have to deal with errant power supply, bugs (the kind with legs) and dust tend to invade the units, and high temperatures and humidity often render the computers useless.
That’s why Intel years ago hired a group of anthropologists to find out how it could increase the market for its processors in such markets like India. The chipmaker believes that Western technology can be sold in emerging economies, as long as it solves a real problem.
So the Community PC features a backup power source, dust filter and additional cooling to cope with the harsh climate. The computer also comes with a special feature that allows the owner to quickly "reset" the unit to get rid of any worms or spyware that uses might have downloaded during their sessions.
This Tuesday, Nicholas Negroponte is scheduled to deliver the opening keynote at LinuxWorld in Boston. Negroponte is the driving force behind the $100 Linux laptop for developing nations. While the laptop attacks some of the developing world's problems such as erratic power supply, it doesn't aim to solve any specific problems. Instead the project leaves it up to the users to find applications for the units, much like the way that we're constantly finding new uses for PC technology in the West.
The $100 laptop project is focused on creating a low cost computer, Intel thinks that the right application will justify the investment. The two are taking a dramatically different approach. Both have some claim to validity, but years of aid work have shown that Intel's approach tends to work better than MIT's.
Tags: intel, aid work, emerging economies, nicholas negroponte
March 30, 2006 at 01:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Europe tells Microsoft to stop playing games
European anti trust regulator Neelie Kroes has given Microsoft a dirty look – the kind that parents give their children when they haven’t done anything wrong… yet. And then they leave it up to little ones to determine where they should draw the line.
In a letter to Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, Kroes warned the software vendor to show restraint in bundling services with its forthcoming Vista operating system. She didn't say which specific services were off limits, but mentioned that an ban on Vista sales is a very real option.
Security and online search allegedly are two areas of concern. Microsoft is new in the anti-virus and anti-spyware markets, and its MSN search engine only recently has become as capable as Google's and Yahoo's. So in both cases there are legitimate concerns that the company could use its Windows monopoly to push those services.
But Microsoft has publicly stated that it won't bundle its anti-virus software. And although MSN for years has been the default search engine for Internet Explorer, that hasn't stopped Google and Yahoo from beating the service on both features and market share.
It appears that Kroes is making a strategic move more than that she is making any real threats. Microsoft has yet to reach an agreement with the EU in the anti-monopoly case there, and negotiations are anything but smooth. Threatening with a ban on Vista sales might provide some grease to the process.
Tags: windows vista, microsoft, european union, neelie kroes
March 29, 2006 at 08:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Jobs gets a good tax bill
Steve Jobs last week had to sell about $300m worth of Apple stock, because he was awarded $600m earlier.
In short, the taxman wanted its cut of a plush pay package that Jobs had agreed upon in 2003. At the time, the executive agreed to a $1 annual cash salary plus the 10m Apple shares, which would vest in 2006.
Everybody benefits. President Bush gets to purchase some new Humvees for Iraq and Jobs gets a new turtleneck.
Apple shareholders are left to pick up the bill. And given that Apple stock has been down 29 per cent since it peaked at $86.40 in January, they might be less thrilled.
Tags: apple, steve jobs
March 29, 2006 at 06:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Google folds on Print advertising
Google's foray into the print advertising market has crashed, Business Week claims.
The programme was a first, and cautious, attempt by Google to expand its AdWords programme to print publications.
The test programme pitched pages in publications such as Martha Stewart Living and Road and Track. The first one sells its advertising at a rate of $59,000 for half a page. One advertiser paid a mere $4,000 through Google.
Google's advertisements are successful because of their pay-per-click model. Because the end user consciously clicks on the ad, the technology is effectively a lead generation tool.
Few people will use AdSense to run an image campaign. That’s where print, radio and television excel and to a certain extent banner ads.
Image campaigns rely on repetition (frequent exposure to a brand name) and association (if a hot girl is drinking Pepsi on TV, all Pepsi drinkers must be hot and cool). AdSense offers the consumer to solve his problem that very moment.
They serve a different goal, and also attract a different type of advertiser. Coca cola won't start buying advertising around keywords like "cool" and "sexy" on Google, just like a Philadelphia real estate agent won't run commercial on CNN.
Tags: google, adsense, adwords
March 28, 2006 at 01:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
E-commerce 2.0
The screenshots prety much say it all...
Shots from tshirthell.com
via: Jeff Nolan's Venture Chronicals
Tags: e-commerce
March 28, 2006 at 12:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Calling Apple's DRM bluff
It's time for Apple to show its true colours. Does the company want to hold on to its grip on the digital music download market through digital rights management, or does it seek to empower its users and let them use their content in whatever (legal) way they see fit?
Apple last week said that it would defend the first when the company opposed French legislation that would outlaw closed digital rights management technologies.
But as a Songbird developer pointed out, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said in 2002 that if: "If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own."
The French law will ensure that consumers have the right to manage their digital media on all devices that they own. Yet Apple opposes the pending French legislation.
So what is it, Steve? Were you just providing lip service to interoperability in 2002, or do you feel that Apple's profits outweigh ease of use?
Songbird, by the way, is an open source media player that aims to compete head to head with iTunes.
Last January, Steve Jobs was rejoicing over his firm grip on the digital music market, thanks to his even firmer grip on the Fairplay digital rights management technology.
Tags: ipod, apple, DRM, france
March 27, 2006 at 08:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack
Hitting adware makers where it hurts
Three advertisers have cancelled their contracts with adware maker 180solutions after the companies were exposed earlier this week by the Center for Democracy and Technology.
All three claimed that they either weren't fully engaged in adware campaigns (Altrec for instance said that it had only spent $440) or weren't aware that they were using such an annoying medium. Given that they responded within days, we should give them the benefit of the doubt.
The CDT campaign therefore appears very successful at raising the awareness of the adware problem with advertisers. The adware makers themselves haven't been very cooperative, the anti-adware lobby will tell you.
Tags: zango, 180solutions, spyware, malware, adware
March 24, 2006 at 01:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bloggers explore the art of corporate trashing
Microsoft never comments on Apple's security record. Besides the question if Microsoft has the moral right to lecture anyone on security, there is a golden rule in marketing that if you're number one in a market, you never talk about the numbers two or three (Linux after all is still number two before Apple).
That's why Microsoft security program manager Stephen Toulouse is foolish to blast Apple's security record over on his personal blog and call upon the company to create the position of a security czar. In the blogosphere, there is no difference between a personal opinion and the official Microsoft party line. Especially not if you're constantly padding Microsoft on the back.
It becomes a different question if you're talking dirt about your own employer. Yahoo! blogger Jeremy Zawodny today explained why Google Finance makes him sad:
"It makes me sad because I end up thinking about how Yahoo! Finance has stagnated for a long time. It never really recovered from the pain of the dotcom crash. So many of my old Finance coworkers have either left the company or moved on to other groups (several moved into Search last year). Heck, I encouraged many of them to get out!"
The posting will be misinterpreted and pulled out of context. And no doubt there is a crying or raging product manager jumping up and down in Zawodny's cubicle as I'm writing this.
But knowing Yahoo, the company will recover and use this experience to get stronger. Things might get stirred up just enough for Yahoo to put its Finance pages back on track. No readers will shun away from Yahoo Finance because of Zawodny's blog postings, and nor will any advertisers.
These two examples show that the power of corporate blogs is in their ability to make your company stronger, not in their ability to trash the competition. I guess Robert Scoble should have a chat with Toulouse about that.
homework for Toulouse.
Tags: blogging, robert scoble, jeremy zawodny, yahoo, google, apple, Stephen Toulouse, security, microsoft
March 24, 2006 at 12:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Acer is crafting Jim Allchin voodoo dolls
Of the major PC vendors, Acer is set to get hit hardest by the Windows Vista delay.
The computer maker achieves 33.7 per cent of its annual sales during the holiday shopping season, far more than the industry average of 19.6 per cent, according to Current Analysis (report available to paying subscribers only).
Acer is trailed by Gateway and HP, which achieve 21.2 and 19.7 per cent of their computer sales in the period.
As Windows boss Jim Allchin revealed on Tuesday, Windows Vista PCs won't be available this Christmas. Computers therefor are unlikely to become a hot item this year.
Microsoft could alleviate some of the pain by offering a free upgrade programme to customers who purchase a Vista-ready PC in December. But except for the die hard PC enthusiasts, upgrading doesn't seem like an appealing offer.
Jim Allchin shows off Windows 1.0 at last year's Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles.
Tags: Windows vista, microsoft, Acer, HP, Gateway
March 23, 2006 at 05:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Novell takes the business Linux approach
Novell chief executive Jack Messman predicts that over time there will remain only two Linux distributions: Suse (owned by Novel) and Red Hat.
Tons of companies today are using Linux to run hardware appliances (TiVo for instance). Until Novel and Red Hat stop charging for their software, these firms will continue to opt for free alternatives.
Furthermore, as long as there are developers with too much free time on their hands, distributions like Debian will stay around. At their jobs, they'll use it for non-production testing, or sneak it into production environments.
And as long as there are developers, there will be silly flame wars over KDE versus GNOME. There will be many more rifts and split off and forks within the open source community.
What Messman is hinting at however, is that these forks often are the result of religious beliefs taking precedence over common business sense. Businesses demand a level of support that individual programmers can't provide.
So, yes, for enterprise class server applications, Red Hat and Suse have set the standard. But there is a much larger Linux market out there that those two distributions will fail to service.
Messman at LinuxWorld Boston last year.
Tags: linux, novell, red hat, open source, tivo, jack messman
March 22, 2006 at 11:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Linux crashes in mid-air
Microsoft has lost its monopoly on displaying embarrassing error messages or blue screens of death on kiosk displays. As this Flickr entry shows, the Linux powered in-flight entertainment system on an Air Algerie Airbus crashed recently.
The photo lacks detail to show the exact error message, but the penguin is clearly visible.
March 22, 2006 at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Vista delay a blessing in disguise
There's no denying that Microsoft's decision to delay shipping Windows Vista until January 2007 will deal a blow to the PC industry. But the move could end up paying off on the PR front.
Shipping Vista in 2007 will cause PC vendors to miss out on the holiday shopping season. And more importantly, consumers will likely delay purchasing new systems – even if Microsoft offers free updates to recent purchasers (which it typically does).
Investors certainly paid attention. Microsoft announced the software delay after the major stock exchanges had closed. Shares of Dell this morning opened slightly lower (1 per cent) Gateway fell nearly 3 per cent and HP 2 per cent.
But Windows Vista not being the hottest item on this year's Christmas wish lists could be a blessing, eWeek's David Morgensterm speculated, because it will prevent a lot of clueless new Vista users flooding bulletin boards during their Christmas holidays complaining that the application sucks.
A January launch instead will create an early market of technology enthusiasts and slowly ramp up Vista computer sales over time. Much better on the helpdesks, and the negative PR.
Windows Vista gets 8 seconds to catch its breath - but that might be enough to make it win the fight.
Tags: Windows vista, microsoft
March 22, 2006 at 08:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Another useful feature on the internet… besides porn
In a re-run of a 2003 episode of the Scrubs TV series recently, one of the characters argued that if they removed all the porn from the internet, there would one site left. It would say: bring back the porn!
We can now officially say that's wrong. Thanks to Google video (and YouTube and the likes), users can spread their home made creations to the horror of the entire world.
To tie it all together in another perfectly enjoyable waste of time, we now have Google Idol. Vote for the best lip synching video and the best music video. And it's a nice change from all the porn (link is workplace-approved).
Tags: google video, google idol
March 22, 2006 at 05:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Innovation by features doesn’t always work
Google has unveiled a financial portal – beta of course.
While the site looks sleek, it is held back by Google's tendency to use cool technology . While most Google services appeal to the tech crowd, a financial audience won't fall for rounded corners that easily.
Finding stocks based on their actual name instead of a ticker symbol is a nice innovation. But few investors will have an urge to drag through a stock chart the way that Google Finance enables them to do.
The feature that links a news story to the historic stock chart is also questionable, because it suggests a link between the news story and stock movements where the might be none.
In that perspective, the listing of blog postings is outright dangerous, or would at least require a very strong disclaimer. We've seen too much examples of blogs spreading false information in the past weeks.
Tags: Google finance, stock quote, ticker
March 22, 2006 at 02:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The much delayed Windows Vista gets hit again
"Microsoft Updates Windows Vista Road Map," Microsoft said euphemistically in a press release today.
But there is no way that the headline could sugar coat the actual news. Windows Vista is delayed – again.
Consumers won't be able get their hands on the software until January 2007. Enterprises however get access in November. But then we're talking about just the disks. It is unlikely that preinstalled and certified Vista business systems will be available this year either.
So who's to blame? Windows boss Jim Allchin during a conference call was walking on egg shells, but after being peppered with questions, he finally gave in. Microsoft needed "just a few more weeks" for unspecified quality reasons. That in turn pushed manufacturers over the edge, who claimed that they would be unable to have Vista systems in the market in 2006.
To prevent a hysterical race between computer makers to launch Vista PCs in time for the crucial holiday shopping season, Microsoft took the embarrassing decision to delay the consumer launch.
The delay is probably a wise decision because it prevents poorly tested, error prone systems from hitting the market. That could have caused irrepearable PR damage to Microsoft's "most major operating system release since Windows 95".
But the Vista operating system was originally expected around 2003, two years after Windows XP. How a 2 year development cycle turned into a 6 year monster project will be material for tons of management books.
Tags: Windows vista, microsoft
March 21, 2006 at 11:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Gmail domain hosting hands on (screenshots)
Gmail is building out the beta of its "Gmail for your domain" service.
The service was first unveiled in February. It allows organisations use and manage the Gmail service for their custom domains. Concretely, San Jose City College is providing its students and staff with sjcc.edu email accounts that are hosted by Google.
This however isn't just a solution for large organisations that want to get rid of their in-house mail servers. Individual domain owners too could benefit from this. Owning a custom domain for me has made migrating mail services and internet providers a painless experience, but domain specific email addresses tend to cost money.
Setup is a breeze, but there is one big issue that you need to consider before you switch: the service creates a new Google account for your custom domain. If you're currently using Gmail, your archived messages will be stuck in your old account, and Google (as of yet) doesn't offer any migration services.
There is a way to solve this using Fetchmail, but it requires Linux and the amount of computer knowledge that comes with it. Helpdesk!
Signing up for the beta only uses one page on Google
With the second past offering instructions on the changes that are required for the domain.
Your domain registrar has to support MX records (some registrars offer this only as a paid premium service!)
It all looks the same as a regular Gmail page, except that the URL includes "/hosted/" plus your domain name. Also, if you're the domain administrator, a link is added in the right top corner to "manage this domain".
You also HAVE to use a custom login page at google.com/hosted/yourdomain.com/
March 21, 2006 at 08:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Today is pick on Oracle Day
Oracle on Monday released its earnings, and the database giant's competitors made sure that they tried to spoil the party.
Ingres chose today to unveil that it had snatched away Bill Maimone, a 20-year Oracle executive who was a key part of the Oracle's "unbreakable" initiative.
Ingres is headquartered mere miles from Oracle in Silicon Valley, and the company is determined to sign up Oracle's disgruntled customers and partners. The company already has a big contingent of former Oracle workers, including CTO Dave Dargo.
Ingres is excited about its latest hire. But Oracle is expected to ignore the company as long as it possibly can. Because apparently in Larry Ellison's kingdom, just acknowledging the firm as a potential competitor would amount to giving it too much credibility.
SAP meanwhile touted that it had stolen over 200 of Oracle's enterprise software customers through its "Safe Passage" programme. The programme is primarily set up to capitalize on insecurity with Peoplesoft customers about the software's future course after Oracle bought the company last year.
And Oracle's earnings? Profit over the past quarter was up 42 per cent to $765m and revenue was up 20 per cent to 2.8bn, thanks to acquisitions that closed in the past quarter.
And it made sure to mention that sales of enterprise software in SAP's European home market went up 100 per cent.
Like little kids quarelling... will they ever grow old?
Oracle's Larry Ellison shows solid performance while taking in some competitor's punches.
March 20, 2006 at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Website claims Google has an obligation to link
Kinderstart.com is suing Google for dropping the site in the ranking of its search results. The site seeks financial damages and information on the workings of Google's Pagerank technology.
The site is blaming Google for a 70 per cent drop in its visitor numbers last year in March 2005 after the site's ranking fell dramatically. As visitors stayed away, advertising revenue witnessed an 80 per cent plunge.
The site claims it has a right to know why Google bestowed this horrible faith on the Kinderstart portal.
Except that Google is a corporate entity that has no obligation to include sites in its search results, let alone give them a top ranking in the search results. With 80 per cent of their revenues at stake, the legal approach smells of desperation.
What people won't do for advertising
Tags: google, kinderstart, frivolous lawsuit
March 20, 2006 at 07:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Pulling a Google-Sun acquisition out of thin air – one last time
Just more proof that Daniel Harrison was interested more in pushing an agenda of spreading unfounded rumours than in the facts when he wrote a series of speculative blog postings suggesting that Google was about to acquire Sun Microsystems.
In his third post on the topic, he cites a conversation with financial analyst Mark Stahlman at Carris & Company. (better save the post – Harrison's blog postings have a tendency to get edited after his errors are exposed). He is the same guy that suggested to Forbes that Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy could soon step down.
The blog posting doesn't actually attribute any information about a acquisition to the conversation with Stahlman. Yet it is written to look like Stallman agrees with the theory.
So to get the facts behind Harrison's fiction, I decided to give Stahlman a call.
"I did speak with him at some length. I told him in no uncertain terms that this is not going to happen," Stahlman said.
"His conclusion is nonsense and therefore I think finding other motivation for doing this is appropriate. In myy judgement, it's a guy who is looking to draw a lot of attention to himself."
The latter is a very good point to make. Why would Harrison knowingly leave out Stahlman's comments that he believed "it's not going to happen"? First he portrays the analyst as highly knowledgeable. But when his insights don't fit his Google-Sun acquisition theory, he decides to stuf it under the carpet?
We didn't need more proof that Harrison's blog postings were utter rubbish. But just in case, here you have some more. And that's the last time I'll waste any of your time on this character (until he errs again).
Tags: sun microsystems, digg, google
March 20, 2006 at 05:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Sun-Google rumour blogger tries to cover his tracks
Blogger Daniel Mark Harrison, who authored the error ridden speculation pieces about Google acquiring Sun Microsystems, appears to be covering his tracks.
Passages in which he mentions that Sun chief Scott McNealy "received $10m" in Sun stock have been edited. In two of his earlier posts, he claimed that the transaction was typical pre-merger behaviour and in one of them attributed the information to an anonymous source.
Information about the transaction is in fact publicly available through the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and shows that McNealy exercised stock options. The typical procedure there is to purchase Sun stock and immediately sell them. In McNealy's case, he made and easy $2.9m last February, but nothing close to "typical pre-merger behaviour".
The game is much better than the Sun-Google acquisition fable
Tags: sun microsystems, digg, google
March 19, 2006 at 08:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
US government still doesn’t know cyber security
The US Government for the second year received a "D+" for the state of it computer security. For non-Americans: that's pretty close to failing.
Eight of the rated agencies failed altogether to comply with the 2002 Federal Informaiton Security Management Act, including the department for Homeland Security that is supposed to protect that nation against terror attacks.
In all honesty, another five agencies received the highest possible mark: an A+. Yet another five didn't get beyond a D.
Instead of attacking the sorry state of insecurity, agencies are starting to attack the grading system for being overly bureaucratic. Another gripe is that technology is changing too fast, causing organisations to fall behind. This would be a great argument if the same applied to attackers and online criminals as well.
Tags: security
March 18, 2006 at 01:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Apple patches patch for a patch
Apple on Thursday issued a version 1.1 of the security update that was released earlier this week. That patch, by the way, was a follow up after a January update that closed the door on several critical security vulnerabilities.
While every effort to increase the quality of OS X is to be applauded, three patches over two weeks must drive the average system administrator nuts. The first patch was warranted and should have been issued as soon as humanly possible, as Apple did. But proper testing could have (and should have) eliminated the need for the 1.1 patch.
Tags: os x, apple, patch, security update, safari
March 17, 2006 at 06:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Could Digg be used for Sun stock manipulation?
Something extremely weird is going on over on Digg.com. Today for the third time in a short period, a story got promoted to the front page where a blogger raises a baseless rumour about Google buying Sun. And as is explained further down, it appears that this is the result of a coordinated effort to fool Digg into promoting the story.
The blog author has no sources, zero credibility and most importantly his reasoning is completely erratic.
It all kicked off when author Daniel M. Harrison on 26 February put up a post discussing Google's stock price, and then out of the blue predicts that Google will acquire Sun Microsystems. As proof, he points out that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is a former Sun employee. Secondly Sun CEO Scott McNealy has recently "received 10 million dollars in Sun equity". The blog author fails to explain how that proves a pending sale, and leaves out the fact that McNealy cashed in his stock options and sold the stock the very same day, as SEC filings show.
On 7 March, a second posts goes up referring to a Forbes article in which a financial analyst predicted the departure of Sun CEO Scott McNealy. Google played no part whatsoever in the Forbes story, yet the blogger connected those non-existent dots.
In a third post Harrison used the fact that Sun employees read his second post to claim that there is credibility to his theory. Amazingly, the post makes it to the front page on Digg.com. Apart from the ridiculous assertion that Sun employees reading the posting is proof, the blog author makes a fool of himself when again points to McNealy recent stock transaction but now attributes it to an "anonymous source" instead of an SEC filing.
Today in a fourth post he notes that Sun stock has been up slightly, adding a mere $500m to the company's $16bn market capitalization, and again sees that as proof for his theory (as in: insiders are spending their life savings to strike it rich when the deal is announced. Except that the SEC investigates all insider trading around major mergers). He also points to the fact that a blog on the New York Times' website (which he amusingly claims is "the most authoritative source of financial information on Wall Street") picked up his posts. He conveniently leaves out the fact that the New York Times blog concludes: "according to people involved in the partnership, the speculation is unfounded — at least for now."
Regardless of the credibility question, it's very odd that all these blog posts make it to the Digg.com front page.
The first blog post never makes it to the Digg.com front page, but with 33 diggs, it gets close. The blog author also tries submitting an identical posting on his personal blog to Digg.com, but it only got 9 votes. It's also the very last story that he submits and diggs - with that account at least.
The second post does significantly better, with 312 diggs.
Both the third and the fourth story do very well on Digg.com, and coincidentally are posted by the same person.
Even more amazingly, several users consistently turn up as early diggers for all of the stories: olseneric, ebrage, MarkIsCranky and ZRock.
They found the story even when it wasn't on the Digg front page, and decided to deem it Digg worthy. Or more likely: they have teamed up to manipulate the Digg voting system and get these posts promoted to the front page. Once there, any story will receive plenty of votes. Especially if it has one of the magic four in the headline: Apple, Microsoft, Google or Linux.
Eric Olsen, it turns out, is another author on the Blogcritics.org website - so there is definitely some teaming up going on.
I can only guess about the motives of this group. Hopefully they are just trying to prove that Digg is easy to manipulate – in the worst case, they are speculating against Sun's stock price for financial gain.
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UPDATE: Just spoke with Digg CEO Jay Adelson. He said that there is no indication that anything extraordinary happened with the way that these Diggs got promoted to Digg's front page. He also said that: "I don't think it's possible to game Digg because it requires such a mass of people who have been vetted through our algorithms."
UPDATE 2: Talking to more some more folks and it seems unlikely that Harrison manipulated the Digg system to get his stories promoted. But they all agree that the theoretical threat is real (contrary to what Adelson says).
Sun and Google chiefs Scott McNealy and Eric Schmidt fall victim to only stock manipulation
Tags: sun microsystems, digg
March 17, 2006 at 06:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (60) | TrackBack
Trust is good, control is better
The UK is suspecting that the US government might have built a secret abort button into the Joint Strike Fighter, the could allow it to disable the billion dollar gadgets at will.
The scenario would look something like this: if the UK decides to defend the Falkland Islands and Bush disagrees, all he has to do is hack into the jets and they'll drop from the sky likes dead birds.
The solution would be quite simple: show all the blueprints and software code. Show that you have nothing to hide.
If the US refuses to cooperate, the Eurofighter is still a plausible alternative.
Too easy to hack?
Tags: joint strike fighter, open source, eurofighter
The headline, by the way, is a quote from Joseph Stalin, ranking second on the world list of known mass murderers. Even villains can make wise remarks.
March 16, 2006 at 09:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Blogging legend calls it quits
Blogging legend Dave Winer has announced that he plans to quit his blog later this year.
Winer is considered the godfather of RSS and his blog is ranked 112 in Technorati's ranking of most linked blogs.
In a post on Monday he announced his "retirement" by claiming that he had accomplished his mission of turning the internet into a platform (that is, people publishing and accessing information and applications on the internet rather then through OS X or Windows or Linux): "Blogging doesn't need me anymore".
In a second post on Wednesday, he added that the flip sides of the online publishing business had gotten the best of him. There is a online Dave and a real world Dave, he said, and the real Dave is sick with being held accountable for what the discussions that the virtual Dave engages in.
"Over time, this duality has gotten further off track to the point where people come up to the real guy in restaurants and shake the virtual guy's hand. People threaten to hurt the virtual guy, and mistakenly hit the real guy. The real guy has serious health issues and has to take care of himself, and everyone who reads this blog knows this, yet they still create huge battles with the guy, and otherwise considerate people stand by and watch and do nothing."
"Eventually the real guy decided enough of this bullshit. I just want to be the real guy."
Every journalist who has ever had a load of manure thrown at him for writing a story that points out something bad in Apple or Steve Jobs, knows exactly what Winer is talking about.
But if bloggers really want to make true on their claim of being journalists, they'd better get used to this.
Tags: dave winer, blogging, amateur journalism
March 16, 2006 at 02:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Guilty of imagination
A California customs agent has arrested a 45 year old Tekle Zigetta for trying to bring a fake 1,000,000,000 dollar bill into the country.
The one billion dollar bill pictured featured an issue date of 1934 and a picture President Grover Cleveland.
Apparently it is illegal to forge a non-existent bill, even if by definition you can't forge something that doesn't exist.
Tags: forgery
March 16, 2006 at 02:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Apple talks security
Apple deserves credit for jumping to the challenge when its security came under attack last month: at patch was released with in one week.
But the story didn't end there. On Monday Apple released another patch that addresses the very same problems that were supposedly fixed two weeks ago.
And a first in the company's recent history, OS X architect Bud Tribble actually went out and spoke to the press about Apple's security record.
But his message if anything shows that Apple either doesn't understand the enterprise market, or doesn't want to address it.
If you're managing a corporate computer network, you want to be able to plan and prioritize. That's why Microsoft issues its patches on a monthly release cycle and has severity ratings allowing system administrators to determine which patches they should test and apply first.
But severity ratings won't happen for OS X, said Bud Tribble.
"We don't, for example, say that these two are "critical" and the other ones are not critical. We don't do that, because we recommend that if we put out fixes in a security update, that you install them all. That's why we put them there."
And neither will a monthly update cycle:
"We issue [patches] as they are needed. We don't have a fixed schedule, say a monthly specific update. We actually are driven by making sure that the issues we find are addressed in a timely manner. We realize that certainly some IT managers desire a fixed schedule, but we think that the majority of our users are served by us getting the fixes out in a timely manner, when it makes sense."
On the second page, the story turns into a teflon interview (whatever you throw at him, nothing sticks), with Tribble dodging all the questions with generic, non-descriptive answers that fail to address the actual question. This guy has had his media training.
March 15, 2006 at 07:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Sony goofs up on PS3 release
The much anticipated launch of the Play Station 3 (PS3) gaming console has been delayed to November.
The company blamed the production problems with the digital rights management technology in the Blu-ray drive. But rumour has it that there is a lack of gaming titles or that the graphics ships are showing disappointing progress.
The delay didn't come as a complete surprise, as in Februari analysts started suspecting a delay.
Still the November release is a moral defeat for Sony in the battle against Microsoft's Xbox 360.
March 15, 2006 at 05:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Teen exposes Google News flaw
The issue with an automated news services like Google news is that they are easy to fool, if you know where to look.
Google News taps into a slew of pre-screened news sources, which include news wires such as PR Newswire, Business Wire and the free I-Newswire.
That is: free as in costing nothing. Everybody and their uncle can use the system to spread their news, or lies. Without a shred of screening, as the author of the Wigblog found out.
"In any event, once word gets out on this, I can imagine lots of bloggers submitting "press releases" with their daily blog entries, enhancing their visibility by spamming Google News," the blogger noted.
That triggered Tom Vendetta, another blogger, to perform a test. The 16-year-old sent out a press release, claiming that he was hired by Google and had become the youngest employee in the search engine's history.
As the seed was planted, users over on Digg.com caught the virus. They dugg the story and set the long tail into motion.
Vendetta's prank demonstrated a real issue with Google news, or at least the credibility that people attribute to the service. And the same goes for Digg.
Tags: digg, google news, google
March 15, 2006 at 02:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Judge to sanction government data grab
A US judge is about to rule against Google and will force the company to cough up information about the searches that people perform and the URLs those queries lead to.
The government isn't hunting down some terrorist or saving the nation. It is merely gathering data to allow a scientist to analyse the internet and determine whether American children are at risk of running into online porn.
It remains a riddle why the judge gives the government the power to subpoena commercial entities, allowing it to further a political agenda of reviving a law limiting online pornography.
What special power does the government have that justifies this data grab? Why doesn’t this set a precedent for Apple or Microsoft to request a similar sample of Google's search queries? What is the judge seeing in this case that everybody else is failing to see?
Photo credit: Joana Franca
March 15, 2006 at 01:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The French look out for the user in DRM
The French government is looking to adopt legislation forcing sellers of digital media to unlock their content for all devices.
Effectively, the law legalises breaking digital rights management technology is a vendor attempts to lock in users, which every DRM is doing today.
Apple's Fairplay DRM for instance is supported only on the iPod and Apple stubbornly refuses to allow third party manufacturers to support it – Motorola's Rokr and Razr are the only exceptions.
The iPod doesn't support Windows Media DRM, although Microsoft would be happy to license the technology to Apple (at a fee).
The ability to play your music on any device may sound great, but in practice the propose legislation will merely kill the music download market in France. Apple for sure will pull the iTunes music store out of the market, and others will likely do the same.
Still, it's a nice thought and one that could gather some momentum if the rest of Europe joins in.
Tags: apple, itunes, microsoft, windows media, drm, france
March 15, 2006 at 12:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Porn goes mobile? Not so fast
Porn on mobile phones is growing, a story in the San Jose Mercury News claims.
The biggest claim to fame is the fact that adult content tops the Google mobile search queries. But while the story points out that operators typically don't offer adult content, its fails to connect the dots.
Wireless browsing on a mobile phone is cumbersome to say the least, forcing most users to stay within the operator's websites mobile internet where they experience a certain level of ease of use. Users go to Google for their porn queries because they have to, not because they want to.
Of course porn producers will claim that mobile porn on tiny screen sizes is going to take off in a big way. But do you see yourself watching a 5 minute porn clip while waiting at the doctor's office instead of a sports show or news update?
March 13, 2006 at 06:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Get back at Bin Laden – starting at $1
An organisation has registered the expired Saudi-binladin-group.com domain and started to sell advertising space on the website starting at $1 per 100 pixels.
The website is banking on advertisers that are seeking pay-back against the man that is held responsible for the terrorist attacks of 9/11 – and who has been cut off by his relatives. (Apperently you can spell it both Bin Laden and Bin Ladin.)
The current owners claim that the domain was once owned by the Bin Laden family and expired on the day of the terrorist attacks. They also claim that even four years after the expiration of the domain, it is still being used by people seeking to email the family and for "terrorist related material".
Call me cynical, but this smells like a cheap money making scam and a million dollar homepage ripp off. Any emails that reach the account today surely must be coming from people who have nothing to do with the family (who else would use an email address that expired 4 years ago?). Besides, the firm provides no actual proof that the domain name was once owned by the Bin Laden familiy.
The compay claims it is planning to donate part of the profits to charity. I keep telling myself the same when my pay check comes in. And then stuff happens (mostly restaurants happen) and I postpone the noble donation plans for another month. Plans don't build houses, actions do.
Paste a Star of David on Osama's forhead for about $4.
Tags: bin laden, binladin group, scam
March 13, 2006 at 05:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Silicon Alley is back
New York's digital media Mecca is alive and kicking, claims the New York Times (free registration). That wouldn't be so surprising if it weren't for the fact that many had proclaimed "Silicon Alley" dead after the 1999 dotcom burst.
The resurgence shouldn't surprise anyone. New York already is the print advertising and media capital of the US. So when it comes to online publishing, the city has had its part to play. But where there used to be no money in the online publishing business (except when you're called Ebay, Yahoo or Google), there is in the blog age. Gizmodo publisher Gawker Media and its competitor Weblogs Inc (acquired by AOL) are both New York based. So are Meetup and heavy.com.
Still, the technology snobs in Silicon Valley shrug their shoulders on the news. Silicon Alley for started has never been a threat to the Valley. And secondly, the valley has been declared dead numerous times only to come back stronger a few years later.
March 13, 2006 at 05:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack