The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 1/17/08

GOOD: IBM remains patent king

IBM secured 3,148 patents in 2007, besting all other competitors for the 15th consecutive year, but Big Blue's lead is getting slimmer and Microsoft charged into the top 10 with 1,637 patents, according to an analysis by IFI Patent Intelligence.

BAD: Nightmare for DreamHost customers

Customers of DreamHost learned last Tuesday that the Web hosting company made a major billing mistake overnight that resulted in many getting their credit cards charged automatically for hundreds -- and even thousands -- of dollars. The company acknowledged that it ran "a standard billing cycle to clean up stragglers from 2007" but by mistake set the overdue-payment parameter for the end of 2008.

UGLY: Costly laptop theft

The theft of two laptops (at least one of which contains Social Security numbers of Nashville, Tenn., area voters) is expected to cost local officials about $1 million as they roll out identity-theft protection to those affected. County officials say that thieves broke into Davidson County Election Commission offices on the weekend before Christmas, smashing a window with a rock and then making off with a router, digital camera and pair of Dell Latitude laptops containing names and Social Security numbers of all 337,000 registered voters in the county.