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Digg goes bigg
Digg.com has just received $2.8m in venture capital funding from Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar, Netscape pioneer Marc Andreessen and Greylock partners.
Just the two first names should tell you that this is a company to watch. I've called Digg a Slashdot killer before, and I still stand by that assertion.
The site uses a voting mechanism (a vote is called a "digg") that allows its visitors to pick which stories should be on the front page.
The service has plenty of bugs to work out – currently the majority of stories on the front page are in the "man bites dog" or "20 cool wall papers for your desktop" category, that personally I couldn't care less about. But you can't argue with the masses. They will also face ever more Digg Spam – site cheating their way to the front page by recruiting a group of people to dig their own stories.
Digg's value lies in the fact that it allows for the smallest of blogs to reach a massive audience – 500,000 per day for Digg.com at this moment, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Of those 80,000 are registered users who are able to 'Digg' stories.
Digg's background is foggy – the site is a project of Kevin Rose, formerly of TechTV.
Tags: pierre omidyar, marc andreessen, greylock partners, kevin rose, digg
Forbes digs into the blogosphere's underworld
Forbes magazine current issue features a cover story on the dark side of blogs. Blogs can break companies, careers and politicians, as the publication illustrates.
The story makes some spot on observations. Blogs have made it easy to publish both positive and slanderous content. Nothing new there, but it's now easier than ever to do so.
Example 1 from the story:
Industry analyst Sara Radicati wrote a critical report on IBM Lotus Notes. Blogger Ed Brill launched an attack and rallied an army of consultants who make money from selling the application and undermined her authority by claiming the study was paid for by Microsoft.
Example 2:
Circle Group Holdings developed a fat substitute. The publicly traded company was on its was up, until an anonymous blogger attacked the company, calling its CEO deceitful, unethical and a pathological liar. Investors got scare and the stock plummeted. It turned out that the author of the slander pieces was a former stock broker who is under investigation by the SEC for taking part in stock price manipulation scemes.
The examples are fair enough. But reading the article, I kept feeling that the complaints are those of the old world versus the new world. Of a world that understands and embraces blogging (sometimes for the wrong reasons) versus one that shuns away from it.
The story actually goes on to illustrate how you can defeat attack bloggers at their own trade. Circle in the end found an ally in the FinancialWire online news service – they too had had a run-in with the blogger by the name of Timothy Miles. Together they dug up some dirt on him and put it out on the internet, fighting fire with fire.
These cases more than anything illustrate that companies need a blogging strategy. You need to have established a presence online so you can be ready when you need to be.
If an attack comes, clients and partners will look for your side of the story. If it isn't there, you're screwed.
Attack blogs are just like bullies in school. They're only successful it they catch you off guard. That is why Robert Scoble is such a huge asset to Microsoft – because they are probably the most attacked company in the world.
In the process, your blog can provide a powerful tool in advertising your company and your products. But that's something that Forbes forgot to mention.
Tags: blogoshpere, forbes
Performance issues for Silicon Valley Sleuth
You might have noticed that performance of this blog has been spotty at times. I'm sorry.
This blog is hosted by Six Apart, and they are in the process of moving their data centre to a new facility. This is causing the occasional outages.
Foreign call centres screw up big time
Outsourced call centres are degrading customer satisfaction, a study by Harris Interactive has found.
Consumers who have dealt with foreign call centre agents loath them more than consumers who haven't. This signals that these outsourced call centres do even worse than individual expect.
"Organisations that outsource call centres overseas may also have to contend with damage to their brand and reputation," said the Harris Interactive study.
47 per cent of the adults questioned in the study have less respect for companies that use Indian or other offshore call centres and another 50 per cent doesn't trust giving them financial details, fearing identity theft.
Was there nothing good to mention?
Why yes. A full 4 per cent said that the foreigners were friendlier than domestic agents and 2 per cent found them more helpful.
Photo: Janet Arndt
Tags: offshoring, outsourcing, call center
Hotmail ate my email
Take a look at some forums for large broadband internet providers, and you'll see users complaining that they are unable to send emails addressed at Hotmail or MSN. It takes a good observer however to notice the problems, because the email doesn't bounce. Instead it will simply vanish as if it never existed.
Microsoft too is puzzled by this issue. They were notified about a forum where Apple ranted about the problem on Tuesday. They have been investigating the problem ever since, but refuse to provide any background about what is going on.
The Hotmail outage doesn't just affect Apple users. Subscribers of Comcast, Rogers and Cogeco (all broadband internet providers) too have reported problems with sending email to Hotmail and MSN.
When presented with these problems, email security experts all have the same conclusion: spam filters gone bad.
In these days of botnets, broadband providers are the number one sources of spam email messages – one source told vnunet.com that Comcast is notoriously bad in curbing spam originating from its network. So the likely cause here is that whenever Hotmail gets fed up with one provider, they tweak their servers and make it harder for that one provider to reach them. This will then cause the provider to investigate what's going on and ideally have them call Microsoft – but in some cases (like Comcast's) they take more drastic measures and just shut down their servers.
"These things almost become like a comedy of errors," Andrew Lochart, director of product marketing for email security vendor Postini told vnunet.com.
It might be funny to Mircrosoft and the providers, but as usual the users are caught in between.
Tags: Microsoft, hotmail, spam, botnet, Comcast, rogers, cogeco
Apple accused of copying iPod ad
Apple is under fire for copying its latest iPod TV commercial featuring Eminem off an earlier add for Lugz boots.
The two use similar colours and concept. And given that Apple prides itself with its focus on unique design, admitting that the company copied the ad would be a moral defeat.
Apple's advertising agency ensures that it is merely a coincidence. And the Mac faithful are gathering behind their idol.
If there is any truth to the rumours, I doubt that we will ever find out.
Lugz
iPod
Tags: apple, lugz, ipod, eminem
Catholic school adds 11th commandment: thou shalt not blog
The Pope John XIII catholic high school in the state of New Jersey has instated an immediate ban on blogging for its students, according to a report in the The Daily Record.
The school's principal reverend Kieran McHugh told the 900 students that the personal journals attract sexual predators. Students have to cancel their MySpace, Typepad or Blogger accounts or face suspension.
The Catholic Church is an authority in knowing how great the threats from child molesters really is. The institution after all for years moved around child molesting priests between its parishes in an effort to cover up the sexual abuse scandal inside its church.
Mind you, McHugh isn't telling students not to blog from school – his blogging ban extends to after school hours.
"I don't see this as censorship," McHugh told The Daily Record. "I believe we are teaching common civility, courtesy and respect."
The story goes on to quote concerned parents and other parties who voice their fear of the gore that is apparently spreading on these blogs – that most parents never heard about until the ban. Of course something like that would never happen within the walls of a respected institution like the Catholic Church… oh… wait.
Never mind the free speech violations that the ban is obviously violating. The Pope John XIII high school is a private school, meaning that they board can come up with any rule it wants.
But then again, if the Church is fighting a new trend, you know it has to be good.
Forgive me father, for I have blogged.
Photo: Michal Adamczyk
Tags: blog, blogosphere
Blackberry bug sends mystery emails
The BBC has been hit by bug in its BlackBerry software that caused the service to copy fragments of other people's emails into messages.
Research in Motion confirmed to vnunet.com that the problem is caused by a bug in its BlackBerry Enterprise Server software version 4.02.
The bug could turn out to be a painful mistake by RIM. The company is facing increased competition from Good and Microsoft in delivering email to portable devices. While RIM has gained user loyalty with its robust and proven service, messing up email delivery could quickly kill that image.
Tags: blackberry, palm, treo, Microsoft, good
Google gone wild
Blogs showed their ugly sides once again today, with their failure to check facts and taking baseless speculation for fact.
Screen shots emerged of a new Google product called Google Base. The information to some seemed to represent a new online classified advertising service – especially because it offered to "post" information about several categories including "vehicles".
Not being stopped, the false prophets once again started their lie machines. Even The New York Times' John Markoff couldn't resist.
If only they had taken the effort to check their facts and visit the official Google Blog, where product marketing manager soon revealed that the service in fact allows publishers to submit information to the search engine to augment the information that Google already collects with its spiders.
Oops.
PS: Markoff actually quoted from the Google statement, but did so in a way that very much questioned its contents.
Tags: google, blogosphere
Are online gaming economies getting out of hand?
A gamer has paid $100,000 for a virtual space lot in the online role-playing game Project Entropia.
While it is common to players to sell virtual goods in massive multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs), I've never before heard of so much money being shelled out for virtual goods.
Project Entropia is different from most MMORPGs in that players don't pay monthly fees to play the game and can download the client software for free. Instead the developers sell virtual tools and arms that you need inside the game for real cash. And in this case they even sold an entire space resort.
The new owner can make money by renting out the 1,000 apartments on the property, its mall and billboards. He gets to tax for hunting and mining rights. And all that money he can change back into real dollars.
But the buyer has few guarantees that his investment will be worth anything. What if developer Mindark of Sweden tomorrow decides to pull the plug on the game? What if a space invasion tears down the apartment complex?
The game developer allows the laws of the economy to kick in by auctioning all goods. But what's next? Nothing is keeping the game developer from staring a bank that creates loans for the games' currency: the Project Entropia Dollar (PED) (which has a fixed exchange rate of 10 PED for one dollar).
Last month a gamer was arrested in Japan for hacking into a computer game and robbing fellow players. Now if you hack any game, I would target a thriving economy like Entropia's – so far $150 million was spend in 2005. While the hacking is illegal, no laws prohibit a mugging in the game because nothing is actually being stolen.
Am I the only one that starts to have visions of The Matrix here?
Tags: MMORPG, gaming, entropia, mindark
Walmart folds Xbox 360 demo
Walkmart has unplugged all models of the Xbox 360 that it had on display because the devices interfered with in story systems.
The gaming console transmits a signal over the 2.4GHz band (it isn't clear what part of the device is doint that) – the same band used by Walmarts hand scanners for the store's inventory system.
The 2.4GHz band provides free unlicensed wireless spectrum that is used by a plethora of devices, ranging from cordless phones to the Wifi networking technology. Microwaves also cause interference in this band.
Microsoft has since created a software patch fixing the problem, which has already been distributed to the Walmart stores.
Tags: Microsoft, walmart, xbox 360
DoJ warms up for another fight against Oracle
The Department of justice has requested additional information from Oracle about the company's planned acquisition of Siebel Systems as part of a routing anti-trust investigation.
While the investigation itself is routine, it's less common to ask for additional information. That is sure to get the rumour mills spinning as to whether we can expect a repeat of last year's legal battle over Peoplesoft.
For all the money that was wasted on the lawsuit – both taxpayer's and Oracle shareholder's – it was a fun event that helped us get trough the usually boring (newswise) summer months.
We learnt about SAP's planned merger with Microsoft, and Oracle's other potential acquisition targets such as Siebel Systems and BEA. And of course the dramatic downfall of Peoplesoft soon after Oracle won the judge's approval for the acquisition.
Could a sequel be just as good?
Ellison unveils his plans for the merged Oracle and Peoplesoft venture last January
Tags: oracle, Peoplesoft, siebel, SAP, BEA, Microsoft
Contest rules general template
- To enter the contest, contestants have to create a post on their blog. (if you don't have a blog, you can get one for free here).
- In your post, link to the posting announcing the contest.
- Send either a trackback to the Silicon Valley Sleuth Posting or or leave a comment with the URL of your posting in the comments section so I can see your entry. Trackback has to show up on the Silicon Valley Sleuth blog posting for entry to be valid.
- Entries will be judged and the winner picked by Silicon Valley Sleuth staff using arbitrary criteria that won't be disclosed. The winner will receive notification by electronic communications. The price will be mailed free of charge to any street address in the world.
- This contest is supposed to be fun. Silicon Valley Sleuth reserves the right to cancel this contest if lawyers get involved, upset or hurt, or if things are getting overly complicated in any other way.
- Prices are delivered as is – no guarantees are made about their working condition. Some prices will not work in certain areas of the world because of the license by which they are governed. It's the price winner's responsibility to comply with all the rules and regulations set forth in the product's license. Any local taxes or fees (such as custom's fees) are the prices winner's responsibility.
- Employees of VNU and any of its subsidiaries are excluded from this contest.
- The end date of the contest will be posted in a blog posting on the Silicon Valley Sleuth blog.
Motorola's iTunes phone goes bust
We can officially write off the Motorola Rokr, better known as the iTunes mobile telephone, as the largest technology disappointment of 2005.
Return rates for the mobile phones are six times the industry average, claimed Albert Lin, an analyst with American Technology Research. Users are complaining that the devices are impossible to hook up to the iTunes music playing software.
The phone has plenty going against it. Costing $250, it is one of the more expensive models on the market today - only high end smart phones are priced more expensively. And then you get a phone that artificially caps off the number of songs that you can play at 100 for no apparent reason.
That didn't stop Motorola from launching a marketing campaign that touted the device as music player. Consumers saw the TV commercial featuring Madonna where a bunch of musicians are crammed into a phone booth and concluded that the Rokr was a music playing mobile phone.
But it isn't.
"People were looking for an iPod and that's not what it is. We may have missed the marketing message there," Motorola chief executive Ed Zander told Bloomberg last week.
Zander is really saying that if you're looking for a music playing mobile phone, get the Nokia 3250 music telephone or the Walkman phone from Sony Ericsson. The Motorola Rokr isn't up for the task.
Steve Jobs unveils the Motorola Rokr last September in San Francisco.
Tags: apple, motorola, walkman, sony ericsson, nokia, itunes, rokr
A day in the life of a Silicon Valley journalist
Below is an unedited conversation I had with a PR spokesperson over Instant messenger... only names have been altered for privacy and job security reasons.
[18:37] SV Sleuth: uh.... one more question...
[18:37] SV Sleuth: John's business title would be?
[18:38] PR flack: hold on
[18:38] SV Sleuth: (not in his bio...)
[18:40] PR flack: it is not in his bio?
[18:40] SV Sleuth: nope
[18:40] PR flack: yeah... we're pretty good at this stuff
[18:41] SV Sleuth: I could say something about such info being more important than knowing that he likes ocean kayaking, but that would be cheap
[18:41] PR flack: we're still new at this PR stuff... too many of us mistake PR
[18:41] PR flack: for internet dating
[18:42] PR flack: and enclose the wrong info
[18:42] SV Sleuth: can I quote you on that?
[18:42] PR flack: only if you include my picture
[18:42] SV Sleuth: deal!
Any similarity to Tom Cruise is coincidental
Microsoft makes a bid for the forced software bundling crown
Bundling software appears to be the nasty trick of choice this year to gain users.
Yahoo in September got flamed for hiding a slew of applications in the download package for its instant messenger. It caused Yahoo blogger Yeremy Zawody to call his employer "insulting and disrespectful". But cautious users at least could stop Yahoo's bundling before anything nasty happened.
Apple last week went even further. Users looking to download the new Quicktime player – needed to play movie trailers and video streams of Apple corporate – are forced to install the iTunes music player. If you feel like you don't need yet another music player, you can manually uninstall the application, but Apple conveniently fails to point that out.
Apple's unasked bundling might trump Yahoo, Microsoft still gets the first price in the contest for the most evil bundling scheme.
Illuminata analyst Gordon Haff wanted to view some Microsoft documents that the company had made available in the Microsoft Document Explorer format. Inconvenient, but nobody can force Microsoft to use PDF. But things don’t stop at the Document Explorer – this application requires the .Net framework version 2.0… which is still in beta. Which is in beta because… it isn't yet a finished product. Not even a bureaucrat in Soviet Russia could have come up with that one.
and the winner is...
Tags: yahoo, Microsoft, apple, messenger, yahoo messenger, Microsoft Document Explorer, bundling, quicktime, itunes
What is Oracle's CFO hiding?
Oracle this week for the second time cancelled a meeting with financial analysts. (free registration)
This made for the second time that Oracle cancelled the meeting, the first time being in September.
The software maker claims there is nothing going on. Fincial analyst Adam Holt with J.P. disagreed, telling Marketwatch.com that it "raises questions about Oracle being unprepared to give an update to fiscal 2006 guidance, or something being more fundamentally wrong."
He added that "we can't recall another example of an analyst day being postponed this close to the meeting and for the second time."
Credit Suisse First Boston' Jason Maynard however said there is nothing to it: "We do not believe there are any other ominous or problematic reasons for the cancellation," claiming that the company was just tied up with the Oracle Open World user event last September and the recent acquisition of Siebel Systems.
It does appear however that there is something fishy going on SAP's Jeff Nolan is all to happy to point out.
Tags: oracle, SAP, analyst meeting, Jeff Nolan
Scoble to Microsoft's rescue
Robert Scoble hits the nail on the head when he analyses his value for Microsoft in this interview on Activewin.com:
"People liked us (Microsoft employees) after meeting us. That reduced their fear and got them to see that we were just passionate technologists and not quite as evil as they'd heard about us."
He is talking about the Channel 9 website, but I would argue that the same goes for Scoble as a blogger. He has put a human face on the company that has been tainted by Bill Gates' and Steve Ballmer's quirks and infamous fame.
Robert Scoble is the prime example of a corporate blogger. For many people in the technology field he is the third best known Microsoft employee, trailing only behind Ballmer and Gates.
But I keep asking myself the question to what extent a "Scoble" would have an equal impact for Apple, IBM or Google. Fact is that following the anti-trust suit, Microsoft's image had become that of the monopolistic crime syndicate that doesn't innovate and everybody hates. Few companies share that fate (Computer Associates comes closest, but I don't know of any CA "Scobles").
Blogs have allowed Microsoft to break down the Berlin Walls that the company built in the past decades – the "Ministry of non-information" AKA their Waggener Edstrom PR firm is living proof of that.
Unique problems here called for a unique solution called Robert Scoble.
PSP hacking feast
As previously reported, Sony's PSP is being targeted by trojans. The most aggressive trojan around will actually delete critical files from the system, rendering it useless.
Security firm F-Secure has created a video demonstrating this and other exploits for the PSP.
One will show how a bug in the PSP operating system allows a specially crafted image file to crash the system – without any permanent damage. In another demonstration, the security experts show how arbitrary code is run on the device, and lastly, they "brick" the device. To brick, in case you're wondering, means that code makes your PSP just as useful as a brick. You can stack it and throw it around the room, but it's useless as a gaming device.
Luckily these are all exploits that the user has to download. Users aren't going to be in real trouble until we start seeing PSP worms that spread themselves like Windows viruses.
I am no Mac whore
Media are biased towards Apple because "90 per cent of the mainstream writers [are] Mac users," John Dvorak writes in his latest PCmag column.
He goes on to argue that this is Microsoft's bad, because those writers no longer can relate to the Windows platform as Microsoft gets ready to launch Windows Vista.
Dvorak points to technology columnists for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and other mainstream media, who have all admitted to being Mac users. Especially the WSJ's Walt Mossberg, it seems, has never met a Mac he didn't like.
But I regret his notion that: "Every time Steve Jobs sneezes there is a collective chorus of "Gesundheit" from tech writers pounding away on their Macs." And the 90 per cent is highly overstated - at least at the technology events that I attend.
This blog is published by vnunet.com. We don't do "blogs on the side" like most media but have made them part of our online publishing strategy. On the vnunet.com news site we too write about Apple products. Why? Because people read it. Actually, people read it like crazy. Yesterday's story on the new Powerbooks and Power Macs was the number one traffic driver. Last week's coverage about the new video iPod too got us readers by the dozens.
So do stories about Windows Vista by the way. Just because we write about it, doesn't mean we like one better than the other. I might drive in a Ford, but don't take that factoid to say that I hate Toyotas.
We strive not to be biased in our reporting. If Apple does something right, we'll write it down. If they screw up, we'll again report it. The latter will cause the Mac faithful to start jolting verbal manure in our direction. They are just proving that behind a keyboard, everybody can pretend to be a big man. I don't edit those comments, except when they contain obscenities or rant for the sake of ranting (the single line: "you suck" kind of comment. If you try to explain why I suck, I'll gladly leave your comment).
Please let me know what you think. I already know that I occasionally suck, but if you can make a good point, go ahead.
Uhoh, a photo of Bill Gates with a Windows powered Treo. Bias allert?
Tags: Dvorak, apple, microsoft, media bias
The irrelevant war: Blu-ray vs. HD DVD
Few standards wars are relevant, but in the larger scheme of standards feuds, the struggle between the Blu-Ray and HD DVD backers has set a new low.
Yesterday HP gave the Blu-ray Association a public scolding by asking the group to include technologies that would enable compatibility between Blu-ray and HD DVD.
The two groups are battling to set the standard for your and my next generation DVD player. They believe that we need tens of Gigs of storage space to store high definition movies and lots and lots of bonus features. The bonus features, they believe, are actually the main reason why you and I still buy DVD disks.
Of course there are technology license revenues at stake, which justifies a good old battle. But as always the two are completely leaving out their customer: us.
I don't care which one wins, just like I don't care about Pepsi or Coke. Create an artificial battleground as much as you want, you won't get me excited. We all know that the standard with the most porn wins anyway, so go into your studios and get to work.
But please gentlemen, keep pulling each other's hair and say nasty things. In the mean time I'll be patiently waiting for IP TV to take away your business altogether. The longer you take, the further your window closes.
working prototype of a blu-ray player by Sony.
In the UK, Gmail now stands for greedy mail
Google has changed the name of its gmail service in the UK into Google Mail following a dispute over the Gmail name with Independent International Investment Research (IIIR).
The latter has been using a email service called Gmail since 2002. Even IIIR realised that it had little affiliation with the name, but it appears that the firm got greedy, demanding up to $64mln for the UK Gmail naming rights.
Google however thought I could make better investments with its billions of dollars, and called IIIR's bluff. Starting today, all new accounts in the UK will receive the googlemail.com domain.
What the world knows as:
in the UK now is:
Drunk drivers ask judge to open breathalyser source code
A group of more than 150 defendants accused of driving under the influence of alcohol are asking a judge to give them the source code of the device that police used to prove their guilt.
The more I think about this, the more it makes sense. A computer does a calculation and tells me I'm guilty (of being drunk). But who says that the computer is right? As long as computer programmes have bugs, there is a chance that they will cause me to get wrongly convicted.
The DUI case is real, and will come before panel of Florida judges this Friday.
But surely the state of Florida has certified these Intoxilyzer 5000 machines?
Yes, back in 1993 they have. The manufacturer, CMI (with the great URL: Alcoholtest.com) has since made changes to both the hardware and the software.
In once case the company even shipped the device with a bug and had to recall it. The bug was rather obvious. The breathalyser takes two breath samples. If the results of those aren't within a certain range, it will tell the officer to take a third sample. But in this case the application was challenging correct samples and didn't challenge incorrect ones. So don't say that the machine can't have bugs.
It gets even more fun. Theoretically a judge could force CMI to open the application's source code, but this is highly unlikely. The company, which refused to discuss the case, instead claims that the software code for the 25-year-old device is a trade secret. Never mind that the actually application is less than 24 kilobytes in size (yes, kB) and still runs on z80 processors that were introduced in 1976.
It seems that there are plenty of reasons for the defendants that justify taking a closer look at the source code for this device. And if previous rulings are any guideline, they have a pretty good chance that their request will be honoured.
While the ancient technology being used gives you a feeling of the 'state of the art factor' of these trade secrets, it also indicates that this case will only have a limited impact acting as a legal precedent.
But just for the sake of it, let's think what other applications have closed source codes and could cause harm to individuals….? Oh wait, I'll make this one easy: which application doesn't?
Speed detection lasers, credit card transaction software, software with utility companies that calculates you monthly phone and gas bill would just be a few examples. Wonder how far we can take this.
tags: open source, dui, Intoxilyzer 5000
If you ever spat from a tower…
If you ever spat from a tower, threw rocks in a lake or did any other useless yet highly amusing experiment with gravity, then this movie is for you.
For a yet to air Sony TV commercial, the crew launched 250,000 bouncy balls down San Francisco hills. Now there's a job that I would have liked to have.
The above link contains a "the making of" movie.
Tags: sony, bouncy balls
GPS navigation live traffic update demonstration (video demo)
How does receiving live traffic updates to your route navigation system help? This post contains a video that gives you a demonstration of TomTom 5 live traffic updates. Read the previous post for more details about this software.
In the movie, I'm asking the system to calculate a route from a random address in Mountain View to a random place in downtown San Francisco, which it claims will take 45 minutes. Then I fetch the latest traffic information. Turns out there has been an accident on highway 101 at the Holly street exit. Pressing 'avoid' creates an alternate route that takes 6 minutes longer than the original one, but avoids the backup on the highway.
For this demonstration the iPaq was in its docking station, which allows it to use my computer's internet connection – data wasn't fetched over the wireless GPRS data connection.
Click here to view the movie (5.6 Mb .wmv download)
Tags: tomtom, route navigation
Be the traffic master
TomTom has finally released the US version of its TomTom 5 GPS navigation software – it has been available in Europe for a few months. Getting my hands on the upgrade, I must say that I'm delighted to find out that the software can now use a GPRS connection to constantly get updated traffic information. This will help me get to my destination as fast as humanly possible.
In Europe you're seeing GPS phones being sold with the TomTom software bundled with the device, making for a zero headache installation. Here in the US I'm running the application on an HP iPaq. Bluetooth provides a link with the GPS receiver, and also hooks up to my GPRS enabled mobile phone that is connected to the internet.
Setting up the latter has been a pain in the butt. My wireless carrier Cingular refused to help me setting up the device ("You didn't buy it from us, so we won't support it," the bastards said. Never mind that it's their data service that I need to log on to).
But any problem I have, somebody else has had before me, and so Google in the end lead me to the answer. But let it be said that dialing in to number *99# with area code 0 isn't something that you can easily figure out yourself.
After wasting an hour or so to get the internet connection working, I can now receive traffic updates while driving. The software will automatically update the route based on those traffic updates. How cool is that?
I'll give the software even more shouts for getting only traffic information for the route on which I am travelling – getting only the bare minimum of traffic data and keeping my data bill under control. If you want to be more cost sensitive, you can also use your internet connection at home to get the latest data just before you leave and pray that nothing nasty will happen in the mean time.
The traffic information service is part of TomTom Plus Services and is free until the end of the year. I just hope that they'll price it at a decent level thereafter.
The technology is there, now we just need to make it a little easier to set up.
Tags: tomtom, route navigation
Barney the whiner
In a case of "you can still try, of course", the owners of Barney the purple dinosaur are suing websites that depict the children's cartoon character in a violent manner.
"Your Web site depicts a plush Barney toy in a violent manner or position," lawyers for Barney trademark owner Lyons Partnership wrote to website operators. "We are writing to request that you remove this violent content toward Barney on your Web site."
Barney, in case you don't watch the US Public Broadcasting System (PBS) a lot, is a purple dinosaur from the toddler TV show 'Barney and Friends'. He is happy and joyful to the extend that you suspect that he's on drugs. His unwarranted jubilations tend to drive some people crazy.
If your first response to the legal complaint is: "freedom of expression", you are probably right. As a public figure, Barney can expect his fair share of parodies.
And as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) told Cnet, Lyons should know this. The foundation told the venture to shut up back in 2001 after it sent out similar letters, which they did. Even further back, in 1999, the company lost another case where Lyons wanted to limit what individuals could say and do with the Barney character.
You can try, but you will fail every time.
Photo: Internet weekly parody news story
And another potential target for Lyons' legal machine
Tags: barney, lyons, frivolous lawsuit
Gates' billions fund computer history museum
The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA has received a $15m donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The funds represent the largest single donation in the museum's history. They will be used to further build out the museum's exhibition by creating a "timeline of computing history" exhibition.
The museum currently has only a small part of its collection on display, showing some of the early mainframes and other big iron computers. It's the largest collection of 'stuff your wife won't let you have in the living room' that I've ever seen.
The Computer History Museum currently however is best known for the numerous events and press conferences that it has hosted, such as the recent Sun-Google partnership and last year's Bill Gates speech.
The museum itself is part of Silicon Valley's history too – being housed in a building that was originally constructed to house the corporate headquarters for Silicon Graphics (aka: SGI). The moving plans were abandoned shortly after the company was forced to significantly downsize after the burst of the internet bubble.
Photo: computer history museum
Tags: bill gates, gates foundation, bill and melinda gates foundation, donation, microsoft, computer history museum, SGI
Microsoft's culture clash
There are two Microsofts. The first is the old Microsoft, that thinks that the word "compete" is synonymous to "kill". It's the Microsoft that got into a truckload of trouble for abusing its Windows monopoly, and the kind of Microsoft that has gotten weaker after Steve Ballmer took over as CEO back in 2000 from Bill Gates.
Ballmer started building the second Microsoft, which tries to compete the fair way: by making better software.
Anybody working for the new Microsoft will confirm that this division within the company exists – as they have told me. They will also tell you that this transgression to the new Microsoft is still in progress. Because despite all the work that the new Microsoft has done, the old Microsoft every now and then rears its ugly head.
The proof is in this posting on the Windows Server blog, where 'Patrick' (no last name posted) with the Windows Server team has a field day picking on MySQL. He enthusiastically points out that the open source database company has been flamed by some open source advocates for doing a deal with SCO, and then continues to rejoice in the fact that Oracle acquired Innobase, a company that is a contributor to the open source project. He suggests that the acquisition has dire consequence for mySQL.
Why does 'Patrick' represent the old Microsoft?
For starters he completely missed the point on the use of blogs. Nobody is interested in hearing an obviously biased point of view on a company with which Microsoft competes. Use blogs to defend yourself against attacks or explain what you are doing and why. Don't try using them as a blunt weapon – it will backfire.
Secondly, his comments are completely irrelevant for Microsoft users. Patrick, instead of ranting about the open source competitor, take a deep breath, wipe the foam off your mouth and start looking at how you can help your customers and users. You don't win over customers by pointing to your opponents misfortunes, you do that by creating value in your products.
Patrick is stuck in the era of the cold war in software, when Microsoft's business plan was build around the knowledge that customers would buy its software because they had slaughtered every competitor in the marketplace.
Those days are over. You can't slaughter open source projects the same way you slaughtered Netscape or Be OS. Microsoft's multi billion dollar bank account is useless against a competitor that doesn't have a business you can steal away. The new Microsoft understands that. The old one has to evolve or become a dinosaur.
Tags: microsoft, competition
A Silicon Valley bookstore fairy tale
Kepler's ookstore in Menlo Park, a small town in Silicon Valley, is your old fashioned, welcoming kind of bookstore. The staff is knowledgeable and friendly, the selection is broad. And most importantly, the café next door has the best outdoor area in all of the San Francisco Bay Area that's great for sipping wine in the evening sun.
Menlo Park is home to Sand Hill Road, the street with the largest concentration of venture capital investors in the world. Including some of the investors that funded Amazon.
Kepler's last August went out of business. Knowledgeable staff is of very little economic value when Amazon will tell you exactly what book you need. And never minder that bookshops like Borders and Barnes & Noble actually did evolve and seem to be doing well.
The community that failed to keep Kepler's in business in the first place now was outraged. Fundraisers followed, volunteer pools were formed. A group of 23 patrons donated over half a million dollars to relief the store's debt. So early October the store reopened.
In a bizarre twist of fate, Silicon Valley came to the rescue of the store that it had killed. One of the donors who gave more than $25,000 is venture capitalist John Doerr, who allowed Amazon to kick off its bookstore killing venture.
Changing industries is fine, as long as it doesn't hit home?
Tags: keplers, amazon, silicon valley, doerr, KPCB,
Xbox 360 sold out already
Even before its official introduction, it appears that the Xbox has sold out.
Amazon.com had been taking pre-orders, but stopped doing so. On its UK and German website, the web shop has put up a message stating that:
"We have been informed that the Xbox 360 will be in short supply on the day of release, and, unfortunately, this means we can't guarantee that pre-orders will be delivered by day of release. We are working with our suppliers to ensure that we fulfil all orders as soon as possible, and will ship the consoles as soon as we receive them."
If you were determined to get your hands on one of the new Xbox gaming consoles, you can still try and get one in a retail store. But then you'd better get your sleeping back out.
Microsoft's next generation gaming console is set to start shipping in the US on 22 November and Europe on 2 December. Having a large stock of Xbox 360's is of great importance, as Microsoft needs all the sales it can get in competing with Sony's Playstation 3. The latter isn't scheduled for release until 2006 and Microsoft needs all the sales it can get leading up to that day, because the PlayStation will greatly out-perform the Xbox through the new Cell processor.
Tags: xbox, xbox 360, amazon, Microsoft, sony, psp, psp3
Win free iPod goodies!
Silicon Valley Sleuth has received a poster showing the new video iPod as well as gift certificates for one free download of Desperate houswives, ten free iTunes music downloads and one free iTunes audio book download.
The audio book gift certificate is a limited edition version featuring a picture of the cover of the latest Harry Potter Book.
To do something meaningful with these items, I've decided to give them away through a contest:
To enter the content, you need a blog. If you don't have one, you can get one for free here.
The rules of this contest are:
- Create a post on your blog that: (A) says something about the iPod video or new iMac and (B) includes one of the photos from the Apple event that are posted on this blog under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 2.5 License. (meaning: it's free, but attribution required!)
- In your post, link to this posting. Then send a trackback ping to this URL or leave a comment with the URL of your posting in the comments section so I can see your entry.
- Entries will be judged and the winner picked by me using arbitrary criteria that I won't disclose. The winner will receive notification by electronic communications. The price will be mailed free of charge to any street address in the world.
- This contest is supposed to be fun. I reserve the right to cancel this contest if lawyers get involved, upset or hurt, or if things are getting overly complicated in any other way.
- It's the price winner's responsibility to redeem the iTunes gift certificates. As of this moment, the certificates are unused and I am convinced that they are legitimate (Apple gave them to me after all). However, no guarantees are made about the validity of the certificates. Some coupons can only be redeemed from inside the US. And otherwise: see rule number 4.
- Employees of VNU and any of its subsidiaries are excluded from this contest.
- This contest ends Friday October 21 at 5pm Pacific Time. The winner will be contacted within 7 days after that time.
The goodies:
poster measuring 2 by 3 feet (that's 60 by 90 cm, roughly)
harry potter - audiobook download coupon (retail value: $51.95)
video download coupon (retail value: $1.99)
Limited edition Harry Potter audiobook download gift certificate
Also includied (not displayed) a gift certificate for 10 iTunes music downloads (retail value: $9.90)
tags: apple, ipod, steve jobs
The patching race
Yet again security experts needed only hours to create a worm to exploit a recently published Windows flaw.
The company on Tuesday issued a slew of security advisories and patches, including three patches rated 'critical'. Within 24 hours Symantec was able to penetrate a system using one of the exploits. DeepSight too claims to have created proof of concept code.
There is no reason for concern just yet: these exploits are all issued by security vendors rather than real hackers. It's a rather obvious attempt to pitch their products, which will now defend against the very same attacks that they have proven to exist.
The message is clear: "If we can do this, so can hackers and worm authors."
US-CERT meanwhile said it has received unconfirmed reports that an exploit is available. It is also seeing increased scanning of port 3372, which is used by the flawed service.
So patch up!
A different kind of patch (to mix in some seasonal spirit)
Photo: Ben Pritchard
Tags: Symantec, deepsight, security, windows, patch
Remember that Microsoft car joke?
Do you remember the joke that if Microsoft would be making cars, we would crash in the middle of the highway? Crash as in: our software would cease to operate.
Well, turns out that we don't need Microsoft for this. Toyota is doing a pretty good job all by itself. The Japanse car maker is recalling 160,000 of its Prius hybrid cars. A software glitch in the automobiles can cause the warning lights to illuminate, prompting the computer to enter a "fail safe" mode that stalls the gas engine.
Luckily, the Prius still has an electric engine, which will enable the driver to keep driving and pull over.
The Prius is a wildly popular hybrid car that combines both a gas and electric engine. It saves power by storing the braking energy as electric power. Also the electric engine will power the vehicle at low speeds (up to 25 mph), speeds at which gas engines are less efficient.
Toyota Prius takes crashing to a new level (it should have come with a Ctrl-alt-delete button)
Tags: toyota, prius, hybrid, software, crash
Symantec warms up for the last dance
Symantec is seeking to squeeze a few additional dollars before Microsoft comes and ruins the party. The security company earlier this week quietly raised the prices for a renewal license of its consumer anti virus and firewall products by $10 to $5. Given its installed base of 40 million, Symantec could cash in an additional $250m, Merrill Lynch calculated.
The vendor itself claims that the prices reflect the addition of new features to its products. But there is reason to believe that the Symantec is merely milking the cow just a little more before Microsoft launches its OneCare consumer security suite and the enterprise grade Microsoft Client Protection.
Microsoft's entry into a market will likely bring down prices, and for once that may not be a bad thing:
"The existing vendors have made a very good living for the past few years," Current Analysis' Andrew Braunberg, a senior security analyst, pointed out when Microsoft announced Microsoft Client Protection, adding that the software behemont is likely to end the fat years.
Symantec's price hike is a move by a company that knows that the party is over. It's just turning up the volume one more time before the music ends.
Price gouching is everywhere...
Tags: microsoft, symantec, internet, security
Apple takes movie trailers high definition
As a minor part in yesterday's Apple event, CEO Steve Jobs said that the company has started offering high definition (HDTV) versions of movie trailers on its website.
HD trailers require QuickTime 7, which comes bundled with the iTunes 7 music player unfortunately – illustrating that Apple too will bundle software that doesn't have to be bundled. But after you sat through the install, you can download movie trailers with stunning resolutions.
The website talks about "480p", "720p" and "1080p", which I guess is supposed to (roughly) indicate the height of the movie window; the 480p option of the Ice Age 2 trailer opened a windows with a resolution of 850 by 450 pixels; the 720 shows the trailer in 690 by 1024 pixels.
Bear in mind that a regular television only does 640 by 480 pixels, and you understand that the detail in these trailers will blow you away.
Just make sure you have broadband. The 1080p trailer for Ice Age 2 will set you back 155Mb.
Tags: quicktime, hdtv, trailer, apple
Video iPod demo (video)
The new video playing iPod won't be in stores at least for another week, but Apple had some units available for demonstrations after Steve Jobs' presentation this morning.
Any iPod owner will tell you that using the device is straightforward, and with the new version nothing really changed, as you can see in this movie: 1.0 Mb .wmv download
The files shows me navigating to a folder containing episoded of the TV show "Lost" and starting to play an episode.
These photos on your website or blog?
These photos are available under a Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 2.5 License. Attribution required: www.SiliconValleySleuth.com
tags: apple, ipod, imac, steve jobs, video ipod
Apple's new iPod TV ads (video)
To promote its latest iPod models, Apple has created two new TV ads. You can preview both ads here, one with U2 and one with Eminem.
Watch the U2 clip: 1.82 Mb .wmv download
Watch the Eminem clip, including a preview of outdoor advertising by Steve Jobs:3.74 Mb .wmv download
These photos on your website or blog?
These photos are available under a Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 2.5 License. Attribution required: www.SiliconValleySleuth.com
tags: apple, ipod, imac, steve jobs, video ipod
Apple goes video (Photos)
New iMacs may be great, but what got everybody excited at this morning's Apple event was the video iPod in combination with the addition of music videos, short movies from Pixar and episodes from five Disney television shows to the iTunes store.
The new iPod comes in a 30Gb and 60Gb version selling at $299 and $399 respectively. Both feature a 320 by 240 pixel TFT screen, which is slichtly wider than the screen in current iPods.
Movie downloads from the iTunes store will all cost $1.99.
You've read the story? Now come see the pictures! Also make sure you check out additional posts on this site with more photo content.
The big surprise in Wednesday's announcement: downloads of five TV shows owned by Disney. It might not be much, but its a decent start for sure. These photos on your website or blog? 
The new iPod will still display photos...
But here Jobs is standing next to picture of the device playing a U2 video.
The new iPod family: left the video iPod, right the iPod Nano
Showing off the new iTunes6 media player which features a video purchase and download section...
and downloads of TV shows.
Jobs streaming video directly from the iPod in his right hand to the screen (that he's looking at)
These photos are available under a Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 2.5 License. Attribution required: www.SiliconValleySleuth.com
tags: apple, ipod, imac, steve jobs, video ipod
Steve Jobs shows off the new iMac (photos)
At a media event this morning in San Jose, California, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs unveiled a new version of the iMac. The new model, is available in a 17 and 20 inch version, selling for $1299 and
$1699 respectively. If features a build in camera and a remote control. You've read the story? Now come see the pictures! Also make sure you check out additional posts on this site with more photo content. Jobs demonstrates the remote control, browsing through a DVD menu. These photos on your website or blog?
Jobs demonstrating the new iMac.
The build in camera comes with an application called Photo Booth, which allows you to take pictures and comes bundled with several filters and distortion features.
The iMac also ships with a remote control included, which look a lot like the iPod Shuffle.
Windows computers have Media Centres, which come with remote controls too that are slightly larger, Jobs points out. He however failed to mention that Media Centre PCs have far more features than the iMac, including the ability to record television shows onto a hard drive.
These photos are available under a Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 2.5 License. Attribution required: www.SiliconValleySleuth.com
tags: apple, ipod, imac, steve jobs, video ipod
Apple delivers on the hype (photos)
There's nothing wrong with hype, as long as the facts justify the talk.
Apple today delivered on the buzz that it created by blazing into the uncharted territory of the video downloads.
You've read the story? Now come see the pictures! Also make sure you check out additional posts on this site with more photo content.
Steve Jobs: "There
is something bigger here today. Yesterday [...] you could buy music online, listen to it on your computer and bring it with you on your iPod. In one day we travelled a great distance. Starting today, you can buy video online, watch it on your computer and bring it with you
on your iPod."
The device that changed the music industry is now ready to do the same for the movie and video industry.
Disney CEO Robert Iger: "This is a first giant step in terms of making content available to more people
in more places"
Jobs and Iger seal their partnership.
Was it worth the wait? After Steve Jobs' presentation invited press and Apple guests got to play with the new iPods and iMacs.
These photos on your website or blog?
These photos are available under a Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 2.5 License. Attribution required: www.SiliconValleySleuth.com
tags: apple, ipod, imac, steve jobs, video ipod
Jobs video iPod: it is true!
Steve Jobs holding the new video iPod at the device's unveiling this morning in San Jose, California.
These photos on your website or blog?
These photos are available under a Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 2.5 License. Attribution required: www.SiliconValleySleuth.com
tags: apple, ipod, steve jobs
Designers ruin a perfectly fine phone
Samsung thought it hade made a brilliant move when it decided to team up with Bang and Olufsen for a new mobile phone. B&O after all is known for its hugely expensive and eye stroking design of consumer electronics.
But the new Samsung Serene mobile phone is just wrong. It's a typical example of what happens when a designer forgets to think about the user. The B&O folks started changing things for the sake of changing things. Numeric buttons are place in a circle while the screen is placed upside down for now apparent reason.
The Serene will start selling later this year in Europe for 1100 euros, which will further make sure that the device fails.
Yahoo declares blogs journalism
Yahoo has made a bold move and declared that blogs are the same as journalism by incorporating blog entries in the results when users search for news.
While some blogs could qualify as journalistic productions, others should be considered collections of columns or –worse case scenario – diaries of the events in the life of the blog author's cat.
Yahoo is taking a different approach from its larger search rival Google, which currently has a blog search engine in beta, which is one many services that aims to unlock blogs.
I won't go into the philosophical discussion of whether blogs should be considered news journalism. I think it will inevitably happen at some point, but first we need a mechanism to filter out the rubbish. By failing to put such a mechanism in place, the engine has severely injured its news section.
How do you create such filters? Just a thought, but Yahoo could look at the number of sites that link to a blog (Technorati already provides such information). Alternatively a Digg.com-like voting mechanism could do the trick. Either solution wouldn't cost Yahoo a penny while it would greatly improve the news service.
Om Malik (who definitely should be include in the service) summarises it best: this is Too Little Too Soon.
Tags: technorati, weblogs inc, gawker, gizmodo, engadget, weblogs.com, weblogs, blog, weblog, icerocket, om malik, yahoo, google
Is the iPod slowing down?
Apple earlier today released its earnings for the last quarter in its fiscal year. While Steve Jobs touted the "best year in Apple’s history," investors were less impressed.
In after hours trading Apple stock fell nearly ten per cent and it appears that the iPod had a lot to do with that.
Sales of the digital music player reached $1.21bn for 6.45 million units. In the same period last year Apple sold 2 million iPod for $537m. The third quarter of this year Apple sold 6.16 million iPods.
While this represents an impressive growth, the rise of the iPod appears to be slowing down. The past quarter leaned heavily on sales of the new iPod Nano, of which more one million were sold in the first 17 days following its launch (and the final 17 days of the quarter).
Without the appeal of the iPod Nano, I dare to say that the iPod wouldn't even have outsold the previous quarter.
Also the average sales price of the iPod has dropped from $268.5 in the fourth quarter of 2004 to $187.60 this year. There was no iPod Nano back in 2004, which partly explains the drop in the average selling price. But both figures show that consumers are flocking to the cheapest model of the iPod and aren't touching the more expensive high capacity models which also are more profitable.
The iPod might still be in a class of its own, but the player isn't as red hot as it once was.
Steve Jobs unveiling the iPod Nano last September in San Francisco
These photos on your website or blog?
These photos are available under a Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 2.5 License. Attribution required: www.SiliconValleySleuth.com
tags: apple, ipod, steve jobs
Microsoft gives a Server 2003 R2 release hint
Microsoft officially still isn't ready to give out the official launch date of the 'release 2' version of Windows Server 2003, but the company today pretty much said that the software will be released around 1 December this year.
The official party line is that the server operating system is set for release in the second half of 2005.
The license structure for the application will be updated starting 1 December, Microsoft had said, allowing customers to run up to four versions of the operating system on a single physical server using Windows Virtual Server 2005.
A source inside Microsoft told Silicon Valley Sleuth that R2 would be unveiled "close" to that date, but said that a final date still hadn't been set.
"Nothing is safe in the software development world," he said. "[but] we are still on track to deliver R2 before the end of the year."
Common sense would say that Microsoft is to unveil the software after the December 1 date. Otherwise some buyers would end up with the old software license while others would be governed by the new terms.
Microsoft gets ready for a party
photo: Brandon Blinkenberg
Tags: Microsoft, windows server 2003 r2
Robot cars make for the finish (photos)
After a disastrous first edition last year, five competitors in this year's Grand Challenge robot car race actually succeeded in finishing, with a car from Stanford University finishing first.
The winning team last Saturday took 6h 54m to cover the 132 long course with a Diesel-powered Volkswagen Touareg R5.
Each team received a CD with coordinates and had to travel a predefined course while steering around obstacles, followed by a car with officials that monitor the vehicle's movements.
The cars are controlled by computers and use sensors to scan their surroundings. The winning car for instance has the nasty habit of wanting to evade bird poop. During the event, the car puzzled the officials when it made an emergency maneuver at 35 miles per hour after it detected a bird dropping some poop, a team member said in an audio recording on the race's website.
A car called Dora running Apple's OS X on a G5 system failed to pass the qualifying rounds.
The challenge's organizers have put up a very cool website with plenty of background information, movies, pictures and audio content that's definitely worth checking out.
The winning car (photo: Stanford University)
Start of the challenge
Caltech shows team spirit...
...but Alice, its Ford E350, was disqualified for taking a detour after travelling for 8 miles.
Opening ceremony on September 30
Qualifications in September: tank trap tests the car's navigation system
Qualifications in September: go around the hay, not through it!
Qualifications in September: and the same goes for walls.
All photos except when indicated otherwise: DARPA
Tags: Darpa, Grand challange
Police set free 100,000 zombie computers
Dutch authorities have arrested three men of 19, 22 and 27 years old who are suspected of operating a 100,000 node botnet. In a press release, prosecutors claimed that it was the largest botnet ever detected.
What do you need a 100,000 system strong zombie army for? Allegedly the trio used its to blackmail website, threatening to launch a denial of service attack if the site doesn't pay up. Police are investigating at least one incident in which an US site was threatened.
Business apparently went well. When the police made the three arrests on Tuesday, they also confiscated cash and a sports car.
Shouts for the Dutch cyber cops. Taking care of one single botnet might not make a big dent in the grander scheme of things, but it’s a start. And personally I just love to see these kids spend some time behind bars and allow them to realise what they have been doing.
Can they have one on each foot please?
Tags: botnet, zombie, security, netherlands
Anything but my cellphone!
"I felt like I was missing my arm, I never want to do that again," wrote 10-year-old Pinky after a recent experiment.
What made the child respond like a crack addict that had gone without a shot for a day? In an experiment by the Consumer Electronics Association (better know as the organiser of the CES tradeshow in Las Vegas every January) took away her cellphone for 24 hours, the San Jose Mercury News wrote.
The experiment isn't just good for the anecdotes, the industry would very much like to find out at what age they can start reeling in customers. Trust the parents to fold as soon as they think of the security benefits that a mobile phone brings.
Everybody can relate to the laziness that mobile phones have brought into our lives. When meeting a person, you used to agree on a spot where to meet and be there on time. Now you just call when you get there.
But what if you grew up with a mobile phone surgically attached to your ear?
"We had this stupid assembly and I couldn't find my friends . . . so I wound up sitting with someone I didn't really like,'' wrote 17-year-old Nikki, another test subject. ``I had to actually take time out to physically communicate with them."
Some days I feel really old.
attending important business
photo: Bas van den Wijngaard
Tags: cellphone, mobile phone, CES, CEA
A week of blog acquisitions
If large acquisitions mark the moment when trends become hype (the internet became hype on the day of the Netscape IPO), this week blogs passed the grade.
Today Verisign unveiled that it has purchased Weblogs.com, a ping service set up by blog and RSS pioneer Dave Winer. Verisign spend $2.3m on the ping server.
Just yesterday AOL shelved out an estimated $25m for Weblogs Inc, a publisher of 85 blogs including Engadget.
And on Tuesday Gawker media inked a partnership with VNU, the publisher of this Silicon Valley Sleuth blog, for the creation of a series of European affiliates of the successful Gizmodo gadget blog.
While AOL and VNU are merely buying content and established blog brands, the Verisign deal is more intriguing.
Weblogs.com operates a ping server, which allows blog operators to notify the service when they have updated their site. Search engines and news aggregators can use this information to update their databases. Alternatively they would have to periodically scan each site, which could result in a time laps of several days between the posting and the inclusion in the search engine's database.
The market of ping servers shows evidence of a gold rush: plenty of parties want in on the action, but none of them is making any money. In theory one ping server should suffice, but in practice the world today lacks standards. For this blog I notify 48 ping servers with every new posting. Because Technorati has one, and Icerocket and Weblogs.com, and so on.
It's only a matter of time before a standard emerges, and Verisign is positioning itself to be this standard. The company already knows how to build high performance systems. It currently manages the .com, .net and .org domain names, handling up to 250,000 requests per second. And in taking a lead over the blog ping competition, Verisign is now talking about efforts to weed out splogs, short for spam blogs.
There currently might not be a business model for ping servers, over time this surely will evolve. Technorati will be off much cheaper using Verisign's service than collecting, storing and organising its own database.
Once the gold fever in the blog ping market has settled down, a few parties will emerge. I bet that Verisign is going to be one of them.
Tags: technorati, weblogs inc, gawker, gizmodo, engadget, weblogs.com, weblogs, blog, weblog, ping, ping server, dave winer, icerocket, vnu, vnunet, verisign
Silicon Valley billions create a housing controversy
Peoplesoft founder David Duffield might have lost in the software war, he seems determined to win against Bill Gates and Larry Ellison in the struggle over who has the biggest penis home.
The billionaire has upset residents of the California city of Alamo up in flames over his plan to build a monster home (free registration required) on Country Oak Lane.
The home would measure a whopping 72,000 square feet (6,700 square meters), not including another 25,000 square feet of "out buildings" such as a 20-car garage, stable and swimming pool. Surely Duffield needs to replace the current dwelling on the 22 acre lot: it only measures 8,000 square feet.
For all you wage slaves who can't picture a 72,000 square feet home, there is a simple fact: it would be larger than the White House or the Notre Dame in Paris, it would qualify as the largest private home in the entire Contra Costa county.
Neighbours have teamed up and wrote a protest letter to the entrepreneur.
"The square footage of the proposed improvements is well over three times as large as the square footage of all the other Country Oak Lane homes combined," the Contra Costa Times quoted from the letter. "We are unified in our desire that the Duffields consider the option of scaling down their project considerably and relocating it to the existing residence site with certain reasonable limitations and restrictions based on what we all had during the construction of our homes."
Duffield might be compensating for something after he lost the takeover battle of Peoplesoft against Oracle.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's home only measures 8,000 square feet, although the city of Woodside has a much nicer climate than Alamo.
Bill Gates might out-billion Duffield, his 40,000 square foot home is a mere shiver of the proposed project. Gates has lakeside property however, but still its in rainy Seattle.
Duffield poses for a photo with David Sohigian, a former Peoplesoft blogger who had his 15 minutes of fame during the Oracle-Peoplesoft takeover battle - today he appears to be reinventing the wheel
Tags: Peoplesoft, Oracle, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, David Duffield
Sony's PSP makes a case for closed platforms
As the first trojan for the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) has been sighted, it makes it very clear why Sony doesn't want outside developers to create applications for the portable gaming device.
First the quick facts: users have been creating applications for the PSP the moment it was launched. Sony recently started shipping PSPs with a version 2.0 of the firmware, which prevents outside applications from being installed. But a buffer overflow vulnerability was found that allows users to 'downgrade' back to version 1.5. Applications that do the trick are available for download on the internet.
But big surprise: one coding vandal now has created a bogus crack that will render your PSP useless by deleting some system files. It reminds very much of the early computer viruses (trojan horses) that would come bundled with pirated software. The risk of getting infected however is extremely low and evil sayers could even argue that Sony is behind this piece of malware.
The case of the PSP shows that any device that allows the user to create custom applications will some day face security issues. (For all the Mac fans: No, there hasn't been a single Mac OS X virus sighting, but it’s a known fact that both OS X and third party applications are updated regularly to fix security vulnerabilities.)
So when Sony says that it will keep updating the PSP software to block unauthorised applications, it is saving itself from a security nightmare. Not all users might be happy about such a closed platform and device, but the vast majority isn't waiting for yet another computer that they have to maintain and patch.
Tags: PSP, patch, security, sony
RIAA chases music pirates to the morgue
The RIAA has sued a dead woman for illegally trading music files over the internet.
Showing off the quality of its legal investigation, the organisation failed to notice that the 83-year-old woman died last December and didn't even have a computer in her home, nor would she have known how to turn on a computer, her daughter said.
The case provides great material for anyone who is still alive and has the pleasure of being accused of illegal file swapping. The RIAA's detection technologies are obviously flawed to the extent that their evidence should be inadmissible.
Next week, the organisation plans to sue the lama in the Clower Zoo in Hotsprings, AR.
Obvious file swapper
Photo: Marlene Barrett
Tags: RIAA, p2p, peer-to-peer, file swapping
Cyber scum ups the stakes
The days that net criminals could simply exploit security holes in Microsoft Windows are behind us. Now that Microsoft has pluged most of the low hanging security holes, hacker and worm authors are forced to divert their attention to some of the higher ones, which aren't limited to Microsoft's software.
Analyst firm Frost & Sullivan in a new report warned that hackers are increasingly targeting web applications with enterprises and recommends that firms start deploying so-called web application firewalls.
Earlier this week the anti virus software from Kaspersky sprung a serious leak, and on Tuesday Symantec anti-virus disclosed that its antivirus software had let down its defenses.
What more proof do you need that a lacking computer security is no longer a Microsoft monopoly?
what happens when you have more holes than pumps?
Tags: microsoft, security, kasperssky, symantec
This month's Apple rumours
Gambling websites should start taking Apple bets leading up to the company's product unveilings.
The iPod and computer maker has scheduled yet another event for next Wednesday, and as usual real and fake pundits are scrambling to predict what will happen.
Many are betting their money on the video iPod, which has been the prime rumour for every Apple event this year.
But ThinkSecret is betting on the underdog: a new PowerBook and Power Mac. I like rooting for the underdog, so my money is riding on a computer unveiling.
Because the iPod may be hip, let's not forget that Apple makes most of its revenues in the computer business. So here too we need the occasional product refresh to entice existing users to swap out their units and help out Steve Jobs' stock options.
Last time Apple scheduled a product unveiling, all the pundits failed to predict the announcement of the iPod Nano.
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Tags: apple, thinksecret, steve jobs, ipod, power mac, powerbook
Microsoft puts Linux Office on hold
In an everlasting game of Linuxworld chess, Microsoft has made its next official move in response to the latest manoeuvre by the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL).
Speaking at the Linuxworld conference in London, Microsoft's head of platform strategy Nick McGrath officially killed any hopes for a Linux version of its Office productivity suite:
"We have no plans at this time to build Office on Linux," he said, repeating the company's earlier stance.
At Linuxworld in San Francisco last August, OSDL chief executive Stuart Cohen had asked Microsoft to port Office to Linux.
But in the game of chess between Linux and Windows, Office is the queen. And Microsoft isn't prepared to give up such a valuable piece.
Next to a browser, Office today is one of the "must have" applications for a credible desktop platform. And while OpenOffice.org backers will argue that they are ready to step up to the plate, many enterprises seem reluctant to agree – at least for now.
Until then – or when Google gives OpenOffice some much needed credibility by offering the application 'on demand' - Microsoft will aptly exploit ownership of Office to protect its Windows monopoly.
Short of complaining and whining, the open source community has its task spelled out: further improve OpenOffice to the point where it outshines Microsoft Office. Then the market forces can determine which is the better platform.
Tags: Microsoft, OSDL, Linux, open source, office, openoffice
What does partnering with Google get Sun? (video)
During the internet boom, Sun Microsystems used to have a slogan that stated that "we're the dot in dotcom". That tagline backfired after investors and IT buyers treated anything 'dotcom' like it had to plague.
Today's partnership with Google in part is aimed at showing that Sun is still around… eh… back. Because if the hottest internet company of today wants to partner with you, that surely must mean something.
It worked for investors: following the announcement, Sun stock went up.
Click here to watch the video and see how Sun chief executive Scott McNealy answers the question.
From left to right: Jonathan Schwartz, Scott McNealy, Eric Schmidt
Tags: sun, google, google toolbar
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Sun and Google deflate the hype (pictures)
This morning's press conference by Sun Microsystems and Google must have disappointed some in the industry. After the two companies sent out invitations for the event on Monday, speculation arose that Google would start distributing OpenOffice as a hosted application. But the rumours were proven to be just vapourware.
The reality is that Sun will start bundling the Google toolbar with Sun's Java Runtime Environment. While OpenOffice is mentioned in the press release, the companies didn't announce anything around the open source productivity suite.
"What today is about is putting our assets together so we can leverage each other's distribution," Sun chief operations officer Jonathan Schwartz summarised at the media event.
Google promoting OpenOffice was "not one of the announcements of today", said Eric Schmidt, hinting that it could start doing so at some point in the future.
Such hints about what the collaboration could turn into were throughout the event.
"Google is going to become a Sun customer," said Sun chief executive Scott McNealy, hinting towards the company's new Galaxy servers and Solaris operating system.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt however countered that the company already is a Sun customer, and declined to further talk about his company's hardware buying strategy. "We have rules for what we talk about," he mentioned.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who once worked for Sun
McNealy makes sure to throw in a Solaris pitch
From left to right: Schwartz, McNealy, Schmidt
Scott and Eric's photo-opp.
Tags: sun, google, google toolbar
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Vint Cerf makes his first public Google appearance
Google last month unveiled that it had hired Vint Cerf as its chief internet evangelist. This morning the "inventer of Ethernet" and "father of the internet" made a first public appearance since he joined the company (his job started on Monday).
Cerf was present at the press conference announcing a partnership between Google and Sun Microsystems. The partnership itself for now is only limited to Sun bundling the Google Toolbar with the Java Runtime Environment that users download from java.com, but over time is expected to further expand.
Cerf didn't spend too much time after the event but in a brief conversation with Silicon Valley Sleuth told that he considers the deal strong endorsement for Java.
"The Google guys said to Sun: 'Keep doing what you are doing,'" Cerf said, as his assistant pulled him out of the room.
Vinton Cerf at the Google-Sun event
Tags: vint cerf, google, sun Microsystems, sun
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Kiddie porn cops slapped
Having child porn stored on your computer's hard drive doesn't prove involvement in a web kiddie porn ring, claimed computer forensic expert James Coombs.
In a world where about every other computer has been recruited for a botnet, few individuals have control over what is stored on their hard drives. So if authorities find pictures and movies of children being sexually abused, there is a chance that those were put there by botnet operators.
Think of if as a drugs dealer that hides his stash in his neighbours basement instead of his own. If authorities find the goodies, they'll have a hard time proving who the owner is.
There used to be a day that child pornography was readily available on the internet. But the international police crackdown has succeeded in little to stop its spread. If anything, the groups have been force underground where they have teamed up with the worm authors, black hat hackers and organised computer crime syndicates. It's the sad side of the internet revolution.
High tech crime fighting tool
Photo: badics laszlo
Tags: security, child pornography, worm, james coombes, spyware, botnet
VNU partners with Gizmodo
Information and media company VNU has inked a deal with Gawker media, the creator of of Gizmodo and other popular blogs to provide its audience with both original and localised content.
Under the terms of the partnership, Gizmodo's content will be translated from English into six European languages and beefed up with local content from VNU's bloggers.
VNU is also looking for potential bloggers to blog to Gizmodo for payment and is asking passionate technology bloggers to apply, with links to exisiting blogs if available.
In addtion, VNU in the UK has launched its personal blogging service that offers its readers the chance to set up blogs hosted on the VNU Network
gizmodo vnu
Google and Sun to launch partnership
Google and Sun Microsystems have scheduled a press conference for Tuesday morning.
A Sun spokeswoman confirmed to Silicon Valley Sleuth that the two would launch a penguin monitoring project in celebration of World Animal Day.
There are some other options however. Cnet speculates that the event is about Google and Sun launching a partnership around OpenOffice. But reading the story, it's nothing but speculation.
Don’t rule out that Sun has succeeded in reeling in Google as a customer for its Galaxy servers running on Solaris. Google currently maintains a huge cluster of Linux servers, and rumour has it that the vendor has had a big interest in Solaris. Add to that Sun currently has the leading edge in industry standard servers with its Galaxy models that were unveiled last month.
After all, Google is a search provider. It doesn't make sense for Google to spend valuable research dollars on creating a Google server – which is what the company is currently doing. They're much better of having Sun do their heavy server lifting.
Sun and Google's new pet project. Happy 4 October.
Photo: Paula Goes
Tags: Google, Sun, Sun Microsystems, Galaxy, openoffice
Exit Google Desktop
Google has fallen of its pedestal.
I've been happily using the beta for Google Desktop, which allows me to look for documents and more importantly lets me view copies of websites that I have visited in the past. The latter is a great feature when you're on an airplane without internet access.
But I just had to uninstall the application. For the past week it has been taking up CPU cycles like crazy. At times it would take commandeer up to 99 per cent of the processor, slowing down all other applications to crawling pace. (I'm not the only one experiencing this problem).
And you could just forget about launching any other application. If you're lucky it would be done by the time you made a fresh cup of coffee.
I realise that the software is still in beta, and things like this can happen. But disappointment has set in nonetheless, and Google has missed its chance. Microsoft desktop search is likely a likely candidate to fill the void.
This is the price that Google has to pay for treating "beta" differently. Other software developers use beta to indicate that the code is meant for early testing. With Gmail, Orkut, Froogle and other beta services, Google uses the label to tell the world that the technology is pretty much ready, but that it hasn't yet figured out a good business model.
Turns out that the Google Desktop beta really is a beta.
Tags: Google, Google Desktop Search
Dell reaches for high end computers
After complaining in its last financial quarter that the company is making too little money from sales of desktop systems, Dell has unveiled a series of new, high end systems.
High end means higher price, means more money for Dell.
But Dell would never say it that clearly: "What we are trying to do is appeal to customers with technological experience," Dell chairman Michael Dell said at the unveiling of the new systems.
Somehow this muffled tone of voice doesn't surprise me.
The computer last August admitted that it is selling too many cheap computer systems while it had failed to push its more expensive models. During his mea culpa, chief executive Kevin Rollins said that: "We got a bit more aggressive than we needed to."
Is this the new, less aggressive Dell then?
Michael Dell
Tags: dell, michael dell, Kevin Rollins
Salesforce continues to haunt Siebel
First Salesforce unmasked Siebel as an overpriced solution, taking away its momentum in the CRM market, now the company is secretly poaching its employees.
In memo to Salesforce employees, chief executive promised a $5,000 signing bonus to any Siebel employee that joins Salesforce before the end of the year.
Salesforce's Benioff is betting that Siebel employees are jittery about their future after Oracle acquired the company. And if history forms any guidance, they should be. Oracle after the Peoplesoft acquisition laid off 5,000 employees at the combined companies.
Marc Benioff earlier this year
Tags: oracle, Siebel, Peoplesoft, salesforce, larry Ellison, marc benioff
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