Coconut Telegraph
Churning the rumor mill like Amish butter.
Very cool stuff! You can sell, donate or recycle your old computer equipment through this program, and it's great to see so many big names join the program.
eBay is spearheading a major recycling initiative involving manufacturers, government agencies and environmental groups to reduce the amount of computer equipment in the waste stream.
Joining the online auction portal in its Rethink Initiative are Intel, Apple , Gateway, HP, IBM and Ingram Micro, along with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the non-profit Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service.
source: http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=29545
source: http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/041110-071627
Rumors are swirling that MSN plans to release its new search technology this week. But why's that big news? After all, hasn't this technology already been released twice now to the public?
Yes, it has. But past releases have been via the MSN Sandbox site, a location really only visited by search marketers, webmasters, researchers and others wanting to play with the new technology.
In contrast, MSN may be planning to release the new search technology in places where the public is more likely to access it. Where might that be?
...
Nov. 11, 2004: If the rumors are true, MSN will move its new search technology to either MSN Search Beta or MSN Search on this day.
Checks To Clear Without Delay
source: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/37684.html
As of today, any check you write may be posted -- and the money deducted from your account -- within a few hours.
Savvy consumers no longer can count on a delay of a day or two or three -- the float -- as a paper check moves through the banking system.
The speedup is a result of the new Check 21 law, which goes into effect today. It allows banks to make an electronic image of a check and send the electrons, not the paper, through the system.
P2P company sues RIAA over patent
source: http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5357332.html
Altnet, a company that sells music and other digital goods through file-swapping services, sued the Recording Industry Association of America on Wednesday for alleged patent infringement.
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In the summer of 2003, it announced that it had purchased patent rights to the process of identifying files on a peer-to-peer network using a "hash," or digital fingerprint based on the contents of the file.
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Altnet's lawsuit says that antipiracy companies Overpeer and MediaDefender are still on the hook, however. Overpeer is a "spoofing" company that posts millions of false or corrupted files on networks such as Kazaa, trying to make real files harder to find. Media Defender uses "interdiction" techniques, which essentially clog networks with requests that block real download efforts.
Both of these services use unauthorized versions of Kazaa and the underlying FastTrack peer-to-peer technology, and so are using Altnet's patent without permission, the company contends.
Apple launches affiliate web site program for iTunes
source: http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=12788
The battle for sales of digital music has moved to the affiliate front. Apple Computer Inc. has launched an affiliate program that provides links to music sold through its iTunes Music Store. It’s the first digital music seller to roll out an affiliate program.
In affiliate marketing, participating web sites host links to a retailer and receive a commission every time a consumer clicks on the link and buys something from that retailer.
The iTunes Affiliate Program pays a commission for both single songs and album sales, says Eddy Cue, vice president of applications. Apple has sold more than 125 million songs through iTunes since the service debuted in April 2003, the company says.
source: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/35988.html
New programs like SharePoint, LiveMeeting, OneNote and InfoPath have been introduced in the past year or so as part of the "Office system," a term that Microsoft adopted last autumn to replace "Office suite."
The new design makes programs like Word, Excel and Outlook e-mail part of collaborative work spaces. In theory, an employee working in Word could tap into all the corporate information on a customer or project.
"Making collaboration faster, easier and more efficient will be the next revolution in worker productivity, and we want to be in the forefront," said Peter Rinearson, vice president for new business development in Microsoft's information worker group.
This may very well be the longest title for a programming-related book! I dig the blog, and this will be on the birthday list for sure (5 weeks in case anyone's feeling generous).
From Joel's blog today (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2004/08/19.html):
It's meant to be a "best of" the website, in other words, there's not a heck of a lot of new material. Gary Cornell and I chose what we thought were the most timeless 45 articles (362 pages) from the Joel on Software archive, and I spent some time cleaning it up and adding occasional postscripts for the book version. Besides the fact that you can read it in the bath, the biggest advantage of the book is that when you throw it at your colleague's head after a very frustrating argument about whether to throw away all your code and start over from scratch, it makes more of an impact than a URL. So buy several copies and keep them handy for winning arguments at work. We tried to keep the price low (it's under $17 today at Amazon).
Joel on Software: And on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, and to Those Who, Whether by Good Fortune or Ill Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity
source: http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3386371
The U.S. service, in conjunction with MSNBC, constantly tracks more than 4,800 news sources around the world, and aggregates the top stories into a categorized home page. In both design and sources of information, NewsBot is similar to Google news and other online news aggregators.
What sets NewsBot apart are the history and personalization features designed to help you easily find news relevant to your own interests. As you read stories, the site tracks the topics that you're interested in, suggesting similar stories in related areas.
The site captures no personal data other than the stories you've read. Recommendations for similar stories are made based on stories that other NewsBot users have read. "A great comparison is much like what Amazon does today," said Justin Osmer, product manager for MSN Search, citing Amazon's "Customers who bought this book also bought" feature.
Google, or "GOOG," as it will be known on the Nasdaq exchange, could raise up to $3.8 billion when it launches its IPO later this year. Shares will sell for $108 to $135. The company is setting the price high to avoid the risk of seeing a too-rapid rise when the shares hit the market, which then could precipitate a price crash.
source: http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=26014
Interesting point raised by this article (but not discussed directly): Is Microsaoft's acquisition of Lookout a response to the Google Deskbar? Could be.
Dell, HP Think Green
source: http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=25867
Dell and HP are encouraging users of computers and other electronic devices to recycle, rather than discard, their unwanted equipment. Dell is launching a free home pick-up program, and HP is collaborating with Office Depot on an in-store recycling effort.
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HP has hooked up with Office Depot on a nationwide, in-store electronics recycling effort, in which consumer and business customers can drop off any brand of unwanted electronics at any of Office Depot's 850 retail locations in the U.S. The program runs from July 18th through September 6th.
I have to give props to HP to launching a better campaign. I can finally clean out that closet in my old home! We need a new laptop, and it may very well be an HP simply because of this program.
<edit 2004-08-19>
Here is the direct link to Office Depot's page:
http://www.officedepot.com/promo.do?file=/promo/pages/recycle.jsp
source: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,64046,00.html
A small social-networking software company has filed suit against Google, claiming that much of the source code behind orkut.com, the search engine's popular social service, was stolen by a former engineer.
In its lawsuit, Affinity Engines, based in Palo Alto, California, said engineer Orkut Buyukkokten illegally took the code that he had written for the company -- which he co-founded -- with him when he joined Google. Affinity Engines also claimed that Buyukkokten promised Affinity Engines that he wouldn't develop a competing social-network service for Google. Affinity Engines, which filed the claim on May 25 in Santa Clara Superior Court, is seeking unspecified damages and royalties.
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"In its initial investigation, AEI (Affinity Engines) uncovered a total of nine unique software bugs ... in AEI's inCircle product that were also present in orkut.com," according to the lawsuit. "The presence of these bugs in both products is highly indicative of a common source code.... orkut.com contains software and source code copied, developed or derived from AEI's inCircle software or source code."
Hot off the IIS5 mailing list:
Hi,
Just a word to let you know that I’ve post RC1 of Authdiag.exe to IISFAQ.com. AuthDiag is a new tool to assist with authentication troubleshooting. This is one of Microsoft’s most ambitious IIS troubleshooting utilities and is the latest in a series of tools (ssldiag, logparser), that are aimed at helping to solve problems most frequently encountered by admins. The utility goes beyond simply checking NTFS permissions, but reports on registry, metabase, UNC path problems and others configuration issues. There is a command line and GUI implementation. Look for CR2 to be coming out shortly.
...
Thanks,
Brett Hill
Description from iisfaq.com reads:
Microsoft has released to CR1 of AuthDiag, a new IIS troublshooting tool designed specifically to assist with troubleshooting authentication. This is no ordinary utility in that it can help wtih diagnosing problems with NTFS, privledges, invalid registry key permission, incorrect metabase properties, UNC properties, and more.
Thanks to Brett and the MS IIS Team for another great tool!
http://www.defensivethinking.com/main/CallforHackers.html
See your story in print! -- even if you choose to use an alias and only your hacker friends know it's you!
Publisher John Wiley & Sons has just commissioned me to co-author my second book, telling the untold stories of computer hacking and social engineering into the most resilient organizations on the planet--Corporations, and government and military installations.
Hat tip: dude from IIS5 mailing list (iislists.com)
From the "scum of the Earth returneth" department...
Pop-up toolbar spreads via IE flaws
An adware purveyor has apparently used two previously unknown security flaws in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser to install a toolbar on victims' computers that triggers pop-up ads, researchers said this week.
One flaw lets an attacker run a program on a victim's machine, while the other enables malicious code to "cross zones," or run with privileges higher than normal. Together, the two issues allow for the creation of a Web site that, when visited by victims, can upload and install programs to the victim's computer, according to two analyses of the security holes.
McDonald's to Offer a Little Munching Music from Sony
Starting Tuesday, McDonald's will give away one free downloaded song with every Big Mac as the world's largest restaurant chain continues trying to rebuild its brand with young audiences.
Intel To Release Open-Source Code for BIOS
Intel is releasing new open-source code for the computer boot-up process, now controlled by BIOS -- the oldest software technology in PC platforms. BIOS is what allows computer hardware and software to communicate.
Sun plans to open source Solaris
Sun Microsystems, one of the biggest names in the server world, reported that the company will now make Solaris an open source project. Sun is not sure as to when the move of making Solaris open source will take place at this point.
Add in some “free” hardware, and we're good to go!
Sun's giveaway gamble
...it was the prediction that future hardware may come at no cost that has put the company back on the radar. The comments came from Jonathan Schwartz, the former Sun software chief who has moved up to the president post and who is in charge of trying to turn the troubled company's fortunes around.
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Schwartz says Microsoft's Bill Gates agrees with him that hardware will eventually cost nothing, which is what you might expect when two software executives get together.
This is from the lates asp.netPRO newsletter. Pass along your good tips here or directly to the editor (I munged the e-mail address so the poor guy doesn't die in SPAM hell). I know there are some very good blogs out there, and I'm always curious to find more.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT ASP.NET BLOGS?
Blog blog blog; that’s all you hear about these days. So Scott Mitchell's cover story for the July asp.netPRO, "Displaying Syndicated Content," is especially timely. It definitely got me thinking about blogs, and I have some questions for you below...
Do you have a favorite ASP.NET-related blog? A least favorite? Do you find them useful at all? Do you prefer some for entertainment and others as technical resources? Please let me know, as I'm compiling a list for an editorial on ASP.NET blogs. I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks for reading,
Jerry Coffey
Editor-in-Chief
asp.netPRO, asp.netNOW
jcoffey [at] informant [dot] com
http://www.aspnetPRO.com
Service Tracks When E-mail Is Read, How Long and Where
An Internet service is about to test the frontiers of e-mail privacy.
DidTheyReadIt.com, which will launch Monday, allows anyone to secretly track e-mails they send. You'll see whether someone opens your e-mail, how long the recipient keeps it open -- even where geographically the recipient is reading it.
Anyone know how they're doing this? Embedded web bugs or javascripts? This works with all clients, but what about text-only readers? I'm curious, and yet a little firghtened by this. I'm starting to feel like I need to put that tin foil hat back on...
One of my favorite things about Google was that it was “just search“. I despise the scumware that infests computers, since I'm one of those people who spends a considerable amount of time removing it from friends' and family computers. But is this really Google's place? I'm not such a big fan of leveraging one's status for social engineering.
Google defines good manners for adware
In an attempt to cut down on misbehaving adware and spyware, Google has released a set of suggested principles for software makers to follow when writing programs that embed themselves on Internet users' PCs.
But here's an interesting tidbit in the article:
In a sense, Google's move is a defensive, self-regulatory measure aimed at encouraging the mainstream software industry to find a way to make spyware and adware acceptable.
Could it be, then, that Google is not engineering, but is rather looking at distribution partnerships or potential acquisitions of the companies that make their adware palatable to the general public? Is Claria's GAIN the next AdWords outlet? Is this a serious profit motive cloaked in some warm and cuddly “looking out for the general public” banter?
For all the crap MS takes over their security holes (much of it justified), I don't remember one this bad. This is a serious flaw.
Mac Hole Has Users, Hackers Abuzz
The security hole stems from the way Mac OS X handles a pair of commonly used protocols: Help and Disk. When either protocol is invoked by a Web link, browsers launch the Help Viewer program or automatically mount a disk image.
Trouble is, the Help Viewer is set up to automatically run scripts. A Web link invokes the Help Viewer, which runs a script, executing a Unix command. A good example can be found here: Richard Bronosky's script (Mac OS X systems only) invokes Unix's "du" command, which harmlessly reports the contents of a hard drive in the Terminal Window. The script is easily adapted to erase the Home folder.