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Gates: Most spammed person in the world?
 Tech's favorite dancing machine says Bill Gates is the most spammed person in the world.
At a Microsoft conference in Singapore, Steve Ballmer told the crowd that Gates receives 4 million e-mails a day, and the company has a whole department dedicated to filtering through Gates' mail. Wonder if they also start his car and taste his food?
"Bill Gates (is first) because he is Bill Gates. Bill literally receives four million pieces of e-mail per day, most of it spam," Ballmer said.
He notes that only about 10 out of the 4 million e-mails actually make it into Gates' inbox.
Via BBC News
Posted: November 19, 2004
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India plans outsourcing city
 Any thought that India's being coquettish when it comes to attracting foreign jobs goes out the window with the announcement of "Smart City."
The country's southern Kerala state is planning to build a 1,000-acre area where worldwide tech companies can call home. Smart City will boast office space, residences, schools and an entertainment complex, said Kerala's Industry Minister P. K. Kunjalikutty.
"Smart City ... will be an exclusive IT zone where foreign companies can easily set up shop without any stringent formalities of registration and licensing," Kunjalikutty said.
Left unsaid is how the country's new 36% foreign firm income tax (one experts say could shoot the country's outsourcing boom in the foot) will affect the plan.
Via My Way News
Posted: November 19, 2004
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Blogging hits "The West Wing"
 Blogging's really starting to make some moves on TV these days.
First, it was a "Jeopardy" category, and earlier this week blogging was a featured part of a "West Wing" storyline.
We don't watch "The West Wing", so bear with us here. You know that kinda wimpy guy who loves that blonde woman, but won't ever make a move? (Ed. - Yes, Josh and Donna. Continue.) OK, well, apparently Josh was test-driving an SUV and accidentally hit a Prius, and the story breaks via a political blog, complete with cameraphone pictures of the crash. Hilarity ensues.
Get the lowdown here, and an episode recap here.
How long until somone gets murdered over a blog in "Law & Order"?
Via Waxy.org
Posted: November 19, 2004
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Online matchmaker sued
 A Virginia woman was awarded $434,000 from a federal jury this week after suing an online matchmaking service for setting her up with an abusive man.
In the first U.S. case of its kind, Ukrainian Nataliya Fox sued Encounters International of Bethesda, Maryland, for introducing her to James Fox, who she said beat her during their marriage. She also alleged the owner of Encounters International said Fox would be deported if she left her husband.
Company owner Natasha Spivack said she only introduced the couple and should not be held accountable for the result.
Via USA Today
Posted: November 19, 2004
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How top spammers work
The trial and felony conviction of North Carolina Jeremy Jaynes has provided an interesting look at how a top spammer operates.
Prosecutors say 30-year-old Jaynes had 16 high-speed lines going into his "nondescript" North Carolina home, from which he sent out 10 million e-mails each day. Jaynes hawked bogus work-at-home schemes and FedEx processing and mortgage processing services, averaging only 1 order out of each 30,000 come-ons sent. However, thanks to the massive mailing volume, that was enough for Jaynes to earn $450,000-$750,000 each month. His overhead - including his bandwidth tab - was $50,000 per month.
Although successful, authorities say Jaynes' operation was pretty unsophisticated, nothing he didn't even use zombie servers like many other prolific spammers.
"I was surprised at how simple his operation was," said John Levine, author of "The Internet for Dummies" and witness for the prosecution. "If he were more clever, it would have been much harder to catch him."
Via My Way News
Posted: November 18, 2004
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New ads hit Tivo
 The days of blazing through commercials scott-free on Tivo'd shows are coming to an end.
Starting next March, Tivo will still let users blip (Ed. - "Fast forward" to non-Tivo users) through commercials, but they'll be hit with "billboards" - small logos that will pop up over the commercials as you rush through them. The billboards will offer contest entries, giveaways or links to other ads. If you opt-in, your info will be sent to the advertiser, engendering - no doubt - more junk mail.
The Los Angeles Times takes a look at Tivo's move and its unprecedented market research advantage, as it can tell advertisers what America is watching second-by-second and how they watch it (see Jackson, Janet).
Via tvtattle
Posted: November 18, 2004
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Texas school kids RFID'd
 Suburban Houston certainly is on the cutting edge of technology these days. You've got people hunting live game via the Internet in one part of the area (see post below), and in the nearby Spring Independent School District, students are being outfitted with RFID tags.
The district is tagging 28,000 students with RFID-equipped ID badges that are read when children get on and off school buses. The children's' locations are automatically sent wirelessly to police and school administrators. School officials say the $180,000 system was enthusiastically supported by parents as a school safety measure. We're guessing the kids haven't yet hired ACLU or EFF lawyers.
Via Drudge Report
Posted: November 18, 2004
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Internet animal hunting
 Hunting is a somewhat controversial subject, but we think even hunters may not back the following idea.
A Houston man has sunk $10,000 into a camera/rifle/platform contraption that would let Internet users hunt animals on his 330-acre ranch.
Liveshot.com already lets 'Net users target practice with a .22 (and tin cans, we hope) but John Underwood wants to expand the targets to include live deer, antelope and wild pigs.
Underwood said he got the idea when visiting a Web site that takes live pictures of animals in the wild:
"We were looking at a beautiful white-tail buck and my friend said 'If you just had a gun for that.' A little light bulb went off in my head."
Via Reuters
Posted: November 18, 2004
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XP on the road
 In his travels, reader Will saw this set of 'Net access instructions and thought of us:
"I was traveling in Southern Oregon and came across this little sign in the lobby of a motel that offered Internet access. I find it highly amusing that Microsoft's flagship product, XP, still requires DOS commands to access the Internet."
Click here to see Will's photo, as well as the pretty funny pro-Mac endorsement in the last sentence. Got a funny tech-related photo? Send it to layer8@nww.com, we'd love to share.
Posted: November 17, 2004
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eBay ships holiday catalog
eBay's taking a page from the old Sears Wishbook, compiling a catalog - a printed catalog - of holiday gifts for you and yours to dog-ear, underline and highlight.
The 32-page color catalog, called eBay Holiday 2004, is being mailed to several million eBay customers this week. It lists popular gifts, descriptions and average selling prices.
So why would an online behemoth like eBay feel the need to print and mail a catalog? "This is a next major step for us," says Michael Dearing, eBay's general merchandising manager.
A study of U.S. consumers found that more than half consider catalogs "a key factor in deciding where to shop online."
Via USA Today
Posted: November 17, 2004
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NBA says no to iPods
 The NBA is starting to resemble the NFL (No Fun League) with its latest ruling.
The basketball overlords have told Toronto Raptors guard Vince Carter that he's no longer able to listen to his iPod while participating in pre-game warm-ups. The 27-year-old says he listens to music to relax, focus and prepare for the game during shoot-arounds. Yet the NBA nixed his ritual because Carter's headphones "did not conform to the league guidelines on proper attire on the court."
Via iPodlounge
Posted: November 17, 2004
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Virtual reality Pac-Man
 Singapore researchers have sprung Pac-Man from the arcade cabinet, letting him roam the streets of the read world.
Well, actually, you roam the streets as Pac-Man, via a backpack and a virtual reality helmet. Just like the original, the path in front of you appears filled with yellow dots, which you gather by walking "through." The game's made possible by WLANs, Bluetooth, GPS, head-mounted displays and inertia sensors.
Sounds like fun. Not as much fun as the low-tech Pac-Manhattan, but still a new twist on an old favorite.
Via CNN
Posted: November 17, 2004
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Gates gunning for iTunes
Steve Jobs & Co. are running away with the online music business and Bill Gates doesn't like it one bit. Flash back 25 years ago when Apple was leading the home computing market. We all know how that turned out, and Gates is hoping the MSN Music v. iTunes music battle will be deja vu all over again.
The New York Times takes an in-depth look at what it calls "Gates vs. Jobs: The Rematch." An interesting piece, especially this scene-setter:
"A few days after Apple's U2 extravaganza, Mr. Gates, Microsoft's chairman, paced around his office overlooking the rolling hills of suburban Seattle and recalled another advertisement that Apple made 25 years ago. 'When I.B.M. came out with their PC, Apple ran an ad saying, "Welcome," said Mr. Gates. 'They haven't yet run the ad welcoming us into the music business. Apple should.' "
Anyone else think Gates was wearing an eye patch and stroking his pet cat when he said that?
Via iPodlounge
Posted: November 16, 2004
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Microsoft boots gamers over hacks
If there's one thing we know about Microsoft is that it doesn't want anyone monkeying around with its stuff. So it's no surprise a wave of users were booted off the Xbox Live online gaming service recently because they were found to have hacked their consoles.
The company reserves the right to ban users who've modified their Xboxes to cheat, play pirated software, run Linux (gasp!) or play music. By signing up for Xbox Live, users agree to let Redmond poke around their consoles to make sure everything's hunky-dory. The throngs heading online to play the much-anticipated "Halo 2", has lead to the uptick in those who've been discovered with hacked machines.
One analyst says Xbox's makeup begs for modification: "The very thing that made the Xbox a rapid success is also what made it easy to hack. To modify it to the umpteenth degree is simply a byproduct of the geek culture of the hardcore gamer."
Via My Way News
Posted: November 16, 2004
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RFID hits med bottles
We imagine privacy wonks are losing their minds today on word that the FDA and major drug manufacturers have ordered RFID tags embedded in medication bottles.
Advocates say the RFID-enabled bottles will curb the blackmarket sale of in-demand prescription drugs such as Viagra, OxyContin, Lipitor and more. While counterfeit medication is still a nascent industry in the U.S., authorities say it's growing and starting to attract the attention of organized crime.
Privacy-rights supporters and civil liberties groups are concerned that the use of RFID in such personal matters is the top of a slippery slope of privacy erosion.
Via Drudge Report
Posted: November 16, 2004
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Maxim for net admins
 Do you love network diagrams? If you can't get enough of those found in Network World each week, head over to ratemynetworkdiagram.com, where each visit you can judge the wonderfulness of another box -> line -> cloud -> line -> other box piece of art.
Via Good Morning Silicon Valley
Posted: November 16, 2004
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New contest starts today
 Camera phones are handy for taking blurry pictures of celebrities and embarrassing photos of your family and friends, such as that displayed at left.
What's really going on here? That's where you come in. Send us the funniest caption and we'll send you fantastic Fusion gear. Send your winning words to layer8@nww.com by end of day Friday and just win, baby. Click the picture for a larger, more disturbing look.
Posted: November 15, 2004
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Latest contest winner
"What joy is there in all this fancy new technology when he still hogs the remote?"
We hope there's joy (just not Digital Joy) at Tom Biggs' desk today as he's the winner of the latest Weekly Caption Contest. Tom has won fantabulous Fusion gear - and you can, too. Check back later today for the start of a new contest, and click the link below to read the work of the great runners-up.
Go on, read the whole thing ...
Posted: November 15, 2004
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Stupid user tricks
 We love hearing idiot user stories - provided they're not about us.
Which is why we like this BBC story, which looks at stupid things users have done to their PCs - like freezing a broken hard drive thinking that would repair it or thinking the recycle bin was where you place files you want to keep.
Ontrack Data Recovery shared several frightening tales with the Beeb, all of which underscore your need for home back-up and recovery gear. Backing up your data at home is on your to-do list, we know, right between taping down that throw rug in the hallway and cleaning out the gutters. Reading these stories might move it up on your list.
(Ed. - So are you gonna share your tale of password-protecting your home XP laptop, then forgetting the password?)
Um...no.
Via BBC News
Posted: November 15, 2004
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Paying through the nose for blogs
 If you're a customer or business partner of ABC, Fujitsu or Bank One you may want to reconsider your affiliation with them as they pay between $50,000-$150,000 for blogging software. Maybe they have solid gold toilet seats, too.
Why would any company pay that princely sum for software that "allows employees to participate in internal blog discussions, and to search and save conversations happening on internal blogs" when you could get the same functions on the cheap? We have no idea, yet VCs don't want us - or you - asking that as they're trying to figure out how to capitalize on blogging.
Business Week looks at the blog market and VCs, and in the process uses our least-favorite expositional phrase: "Web logs, also known as blogs..."
Via Waxy.org
Posted: November 15, 2004
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MSN Search's inside joke
 Last week, MSN Search beta was barely a few days old when some astute geek with decent long-term memory realized he should search for "more evil than Satan." And, whaddaya know, the No. 1 result was "Google."
It was a clear, nerdy "How do ya like them apples?" return volley at Google, which in 1999 listed Microsoft as the No. 1 answer to that query on its then-young search engine. Yet Bill must have told developers to act like they've been in the end zone before, prompting the removal of the doctored up result.
Damn this fair play.
Posted: November 15, 2004
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Contact NetworkWorld.com Managing Editor Melissa Shaw
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