Portrait of the young mogul as a dumpster diver
Microsoft is, of course, shocked, shocked that Oracle would stoop so low as to have someone rifle through its trash.
In his younger days, though, Microsoft's own Bill Gates was not averse to doing a little of the ol' dumpster diving himself.
We learn this is an interview he gave in 1993 at the Smithsonian Institution (thanks to the Register for the tip). He describes how he and some friends (including Paul Allen), skipped gym in high school to work on a DEC PDP-10 at Seattle's Computer Center Corp:
We were moving ahead very rapidly: BASIC, FORTRAN, LISP, PDP-10 machine language, digging out the operating system listings from the trash and studying those. Really not just banging away to find bugs like monkeys [laughs], but actually studying the code to see what was wrong.You can read the whole interview; skip to School Experiences for more on his formative years as a code student.
What do you make of it all? Jump into our Microsoft's trash forum. Tell us what you think and see what others have to say.
Yet Another Domain Hijacking Story
Wired has a bizarre one: Last week, Nike had its domain hijacked (via Network Solutions, of course). Whoever convinced NSI to switch ownership of the domain re-routed traffic to a British ISP. Now the owner of that ISP wants money from Nike, claiming it let its domain get hijacked by using a low-security registration option with NSI and that the traffic harmed his concern. Not so, counters Nike - it used the highest registration security and so it's all NSI's fault.Adding to the fun, the ISP owner is the same guy who last year registered amazon.gr as "Greece's largest bookstore" and then tried to get Amazon.com to partner with him. It sued him instead.
What if there were no Amazon.com?
Speaking of Amazon: As the dotcom bubble continues to deflate, the snarling ink-stained wretches of the Washington Post have sunk their sharpened canines into "Amazon.gone," with a speculative piece on life after online bookstores:"It'd be great! It'd be manna from Heaven!" says Terri Merz, owner of Chapters bookstore in the District. Her voice is lilting. There is joy in her heart. She might as well be singing "Ding, Dong, the Witch Is Dead."
6/29/00
Beware the early warning signs of cyberphobia
Bald? Paunchy? Worried about the young guys coming up in the ranks?You need help immediately, warns a South African counselor.
Speaking at a marriage conference in London this week, George Lotter, the director of a "counselling centre" at Potchefstroom University, said victims of "cyberphobia" are middle-aged men obsessed with "the young, virile computer whiz-kids who are shooting up the corporate ladder," the Times of London reports breathlessly. Victims quickly spiral downward in despair, destroying both their careers and their marriages, he says. Hair loss and weight gain are early symptoms, he says.
The problem, he continues, is that in many cases, cyberphobes are justified in their paranoia: Those young guys really are whiz kids with a better understanding of technology and they're unafraid to push the fogies aside in their mad dash up the food chain.
The solution: Understanding wives and lots of prayer. No word on whether that'll stop the hair loss, though.
Achoo!
When the Internet became the Next Big Thing, one company started buying up lots of domain names. Now it's hoping to make money by selling them off.Greedy cybersquatter? Nah, it's our beloved Proctor & Gamble, which is selling off names like flu.com and thirst.com.
We are being overrun by fiberglass animals
A few weeks back, I discussed the plight of vandalized, giant Mr. Potato Heads in Rhode Island. But it seems like the entire country is under attack by giant (or sometimes life-sized) fiberglass creatures. St. Paul, Minn., is full of fiberglass Snoopies. Toronto is terrorized by fiberglass moose. Giant fiberglass pigs are tearing up Cincinnati. New Yorkers are valiantly fighting an attack of fiberglass cows by sawing off their horns. Holland, Mich. is responding likewise to an onslaught of fiberglass pigs. And somewhere in the Midwest, a photographer has captured a shocking scene: an innocent tourist about to be pecked to death by a giant fiberglass prairie chicken..
6/28/00
Smileys everywhere
A survey on e-mail usage by Vault.com claims that 63% of respondents like smiley faces in e-mail and that somewhere out there, people are asking for raises via e-mail.But if you want to use a smiley in a parenthetical thought, should you, in fact, enclose it in parenthesis? Take the parenthetical smiley poll, then see the latest results (as I type this, more than two-thirds of people with way too much time on their hands, um, respondents, say using the closing ) of a smiley is just "totally wrong"). Thanks to MetaFilter for pointing these out.
Must-have server accessory
Make your newest server the envy of all the people in your shop - add way cool flame decals to show just how hot that machine really is (only $23.99).
6/27/00
Reverse hacking the hackers
The Honeynet Project set out to snare some hackers and then monitor their actions. They succeeded. Somebody calling himself D1ck took the bait, taking over a Solaris computer (or so he thought) and using it for an IRC system-cracking gabfest to discuss further exploits. Honeynet (made up of security experts from a variety of organizations and companies, including Sun) recorded it all for your edification - along with a log of how the guy got into the system to begin with.They may not be technically competent, or even understand the tools they are using. However by focusing on a large number of systems, they can achieve dramatic results. This is not a threat to take lightly. They are not concerned about what harm they may cause. They focus only on achieving their goals.
Not just Java
Microsoft's .Net strategy bears more than passing resemblance not only to Sun's original Java concepts but to America Online's Mozilla - which, beyond being a beta browser, is actually a way to connect end users to networked applications via XML.
WAP madness
To promote a new WAP-enabled Internet phone, Siemens plans to lock four people in a car in England for a week with only £50 and one of the phones with which to order food, water, etc. "Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb," is how The Register puts it, since these people could order all that stuff with plain old voice calls on a regular cell phone. The Times of London was even more aghast:
This is possibly the stupidest thing we've ever heard, and we think people will die.
Great googlymoogly
Google says it has now indexed 1 billion Web pages (Question: How many of those are on GeoCities?) and is now calling itself Giga Google. Or is that Googa Giggle? I get so confused. Google also announced that Yahoo is now using Google for its non-Yahoo searches, replacing Inktomi, which saw its stock fall on the news.
6/26/00
.Net: Where have we heard that before?
As you read about Microsoft's .Net strategy, see if you can spot the fundamental differences between it and Sun's original concept for Java - you know, applications on demand, the network is the computer and all that.OK, so maybe WordPerfect for Java was ahead of its time. And maybe Sun fixated too much on network computers (whazzat?) instead of how to generate a guaranteed monthly revenue stream from applications. With everybody soon to have 10M to the home (right?), now's the time for Microsoft to do it right and become the world's largest ASP, no?
One person who thinks so is Web usability consultant Jakob Nielsen, who calls the .Net strategy a brilliant strategic move against the Justice Department
In any case, key to dot-netting (as opposed to Sun's dot-comming) is XML. XML.com has an interesting article on how XML is a "disruptive technology" that will change the way the Internet works. Question: Will Microsoft do to XML what it's trying to do to that public security spec called Kerberos?
Plane crash or death by co-worker?
Halfbrain.com's death calculator lets you see the comparative risks of various causes of death (you're 10 times more likely to be murdered by a colleague than dying in a plane crash).Beyond the bizarro effect, there's some interesting technology behind this and other "BrainMatter" calculators at Halfbrain.com - they're all done in dynamic HTML - and they have hundreds of free ones to download (well, you have to register first).
RELATED LINKS
Compendium archive: Week of 01/21/02 Week of 01/14/02 Week of 01/07/02 Week of 01/02/02 Week of 12/03/01 Week of 11/26/01 Week of 11/19/01 Week of 11/12/01 Week of 11/05/01 Week of 10/29/01 Week of 10/22/01 Week of 10/15/01 Week of 10/08/01 Week of 10/01/01 Week of 9/24/01 Weeks of 9/10/01 - 9/17/01 Week of 9/3/01 Week of 8/27/01 Week of 8/20/01 Week of 8/13/01 Week of 8/6/01 Note: Compendium's entire staff took the week of 7/30 off. Week of 7/23/01 Week of 7/16/01 Week of 7/9/01 Week of 7/2/01 Week of 6/25/01 Week of 6/18/01 Week of 6/11/01 Week of 6/4/01
Tracking down a stolen Mac; Dead C Scrolls; Googlewhacking; How bad is it in the Valley?; Storage lessons from the Wayback Machine; The pub-seeking handheld; Internet gang wars; Outlook XP breaks MIME.
Why should iMac owners have all the eye candy?; Luxo Redux; So you think your job is bad; Google as a DNS replacement? Not so fast; Nokia exec cites stock plunge in speeding-fine appeal; The tragedy of the .coms; The Google parlor game; Some people *like* Steve the Dell Guy; Ban all Microsoft attachments?
Dot-com to bare all; iMac Dance; Wendy's remembers Dave; Search engine bites the dust; Wendy's Web site ignores Dave's death; Geek comic strip; Youngest security expert ever; Spam poetry; Confessions of a hacker; Breathless Apple; Dave Barry does Windows XP.
Dropping everything to vote; The best Apple rumors, ever; Guess Steve Case isn't getting into Harvard; Make your own O'Reilly cover; Boosting your wireless juice; Telnet lives!
This space intentionally left blank (vacation).
The most useless software ever; Is Microsoft getting ready to squash PC vendors?; Excite@Home: The Watergate of the New Economy?; No more 3Com Park. Is CMGI Field next?; Are you an e-bore?; This site'll have you coming and going; Entertainment Weekly's loss of innocence; Ensign Crusher as Entertainer of the Year; Oh, for the old days.
The Museum of Broken Packets; Just in time for Thanksgiving; Tourist Guy found; Why virtual offices suck; A domain ruling that sucks; Hacking the iPod.
Why you shouldn't ship computers via UPS; When .Net requires Java; High-tech grafitti artists; Spam from beyond the grave; New group tries to oversee the whole Internet; Paging Dick Tracy; Students use PDAs to cheat; Windaz for Aussies, Newfies; Another alternative to Passport; A virtual honeynet
Bill Gates: Father of open source; Verizon exec: Monopoly is good; Weird molecule names; E-mail: too much of a good thing?; A cluster of one; More woes for dot-bombers; Spam as weapon in the war on crime; Just when you think the Web can't get any better; Just when you think the Web can't get any worse; More proof I shouldn't be a wiseass; Using your Web logs to ID hacker attacks; Help save the FAQs; Who do you trust, baby?; Powerpuff Girls powerless against virus; Big IP pipe between US, Europe.
The profit of turning thugs into programmers; Work Name Generator; A programmer's lament; The world's best ATM; Are anti-spammers killing people?; Web services and storage; Get your Aerons here; Perl for the XXI-imum century; Microsoft's blocking of non-IE browsers.
Government info taken off the Web since 9/11; Beware hackers who talk too much; A contest you can enter sitting down; Now don't try this in the office; Bob Patterson must die; Finally, a useful 404 page; Tech calls from hell; Teletubbies XP; More XP fun; Anthrax and e-mail; Larry's ID card; World's longest gum-wrapper chain.
Let's drop PDAs on Afghanistan; Voice control? Try grunt control; Spam gets back to business; A content-management portal; Share your system tray with the world; Would you let the recording industry onto your network?; Al Queda's low-tech high tech; 9/11 archive; Shoe company gets open source after all; Pod people, coming soon to a cube near you.
Larry and Scott's dueling ID cards; Cringely: Broadband is dead; The dangers of Photoshop; The dangers of copy protection; Microsoft mining whois for telephone solicitations?; How to REALLY throw a LAN party; Good fences don't make good 'Net neighbors; How Google adapted to 9/11 news; Web services as over-hyped hooey; Why shoe guys shouldn't do open source; Online air hockey.
AT&T waives 9/11 wireless charges for some; Shifting gears; Craig Burton on the Novell/Microsoft suit; In search of the post-PC interface; Vibrating PDAs and wearable phones; Gary Condit's Web site; No, that isn't a real photo of a WTC tourist; How to throw a LAN party; How sucky is your intranet?
For grizzled 'Net veterans; UK ISP forced to pull deceptive ads; Pretty Good encryption controversy; Are you as smart as Miss America?; Really securing your computer; Still lots of insecure IIS servers; Kids, don't try this at home; Anthrax Kills; Larry's national database; Nimda hysteria?
Attack and post-attack items.
999,999,999 bottles of beer on the wall; Finally, a wind-up cell phone; Enough with the ringing!; The VoIP calculator; 802.11b insecurity; Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf explains IOS DHCP; Is ENUM the mark of the devil?; AOL gives user permanent demerit; The Ballmer music video; Cleveland news flash: Y2K was last year.
Re-routing around censorship; Us vs. them in scripting; The boss button; Fighting off the hackers for fun; Peer computing as a weapon of war; Unix poetry; The Windows Fatal Exception Decoder; New Fusion widget: Getting rid of spyware; The sound of 200 cell phones going off at once; Taleban Web site hacked; Hey, sysadmin, remember Sircam?
On the importance of flame wars; Bill Gates sees dead people?; A markup language for grunts and groans; Is Microsoft leaking those Ballmer dance videos?; Good Samaritan not so good?; Steve Ballmer works up a sweat; Open-source wireless cracking; When technology goes too far; Another dumb computer arrest?; Is Cisco Communist?
Moron marketers threaten 'Net users; Finding free wireless access; Complete wastes of time; OS holy war flares in North Carolina; Are programmers weird?; Somebody actually buys an X10 camera; We're number, uh, two!; Those after-hours computer discussions; An entire city running on Linux; Distributed spam fighter under development; Could a Warhol virus infect the entire 'Net in 15 minutes?; Tell AOL what to do with its CDs.
Fusion shatters a myth; Bridging .Net and Java?; AT&T Broadband cuts off non-IIS servers to fight Code Red; Bluetoothless; Tennessee town bites into Apple; And you thought TI-99/4A fans were over the edge; Biometrics coming to your local supermarket; Steve Ballmer a-hootin' and a-hollerin'; Speaking of Web images; Just how far PC prices have fallen; Does Starbucks' CEO get his own wireless strategy?
Crackers getting more sophisticated; Sex and Microsoft Office; The wonders of science, part MXXII; Finally, a useful virus; A shocking game controller; Big Ball of Mud school of programming; Two vitally important new resources; Adobe: Ooops; Eudora Welty, dead at 92; Centralizing Unix administration in Perl; Spellchecking the entire Web.
Worm turns on Microsoft Web servers; The day the ISP died; Cell-phone users have no shame; Even Internet consultants can screw up the 'Net; Symphony for Dot Matrix Printers; The ultimate cup of coffee; The solar-powered ISP; Everhost; Internet VCer: Oops; The Lego Palm and the pink fuzzy laptop; The Microsoft-English dictionary; Putting a loved one in the home.
Saving those all important VoIP calls; This site is a bright idea; Could wireless end messy divorces?; How much will that software really cost you?; Ghosts of failed dot-coms; The spy's guide to securing your Cisco routers; Oprah for Internet czarina?; What's Microsoft doing at an open-source conference?; Like a big pizza pi; Cyber-bullies; Better check your phone bill; Have some birthday pi.
How HP wastes energy to save energy; New toy for the bored and lonely; Weird programming languages; When sponsors are speakers; The case of the disturbing backwards monitor; Congress to ICANN: Drop dead; Yet another video game made into a movie; Smile, you're on Candid (Police) Camera; High-speed hotels; Network Solutions blocking name transfers?
One of the fathers of Usenet dead at 45; Are you ready for insta-spam?; Diary of a site collapse; Skirting the issue; Assimiliating the Web; Trolling for help; Software wars; Rating the rater; True tales from the help desk; How about spam embedded in your mail?
Unix diapers; A beautiful waste of time; A P2P taxonomy; This page is too stupid; Homeless dot-commer bogus?; Whee, Linux is fun!; Blue Screens everywhere; Forget viruses: This fungus eats CDs; Microsoft revises Smart Tags a bit; Homeless dot-commers.
Slashdot crashes the NSA; They may be Smart Tags, but they're not Original Tags; What open source and California wines have in common; Jakob Nielsen no tyro; How to make Windows 2000 really, really secure; Where the Internet begins; A useful computer bug; The clothes make the geek; The end of the Internet; Why PDF bites; Novel use of a wireless phone; Hidden info; When Web sites tell too much.
DSL modems are so '90s; Bye-bye Netscape; Get ready to upgrade those mail servers; The anti-.Net; The real reason to buy a Palm; Anatomy of a DDoS attack; Pain is good.
