29th December 2005 Archive

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Overstock shares fade as CEO warns of 'drugs or dead body' caper

Mark Cuban now part of the fun

Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne continues to break new ground as the head of a publicly traded company. In a single TV interview last week, he shocked investors by revealing that holiday sales were far below expectations, perplexed the financial crowd by talking about drugs and dead bodies being found in his trunk and initiated …

Financial News 29 Dec 2005, 00:07
NSA involved in snooping cookie shocker

What's next?

Holy global eavesdropping network, Batman! The NSA has - or rather had - cookies on its website. Daniel Brandt - he of Google watching and Wikipedia fiddling fame - discovered a pair of cookies lurking on the NSA's (National Security Agency) website. The cookies were set to expire in 2035 and could be used to track your online …

Public Sector 29 Dec 2005, 01:26
The case for open source ETL

Comment What you see is what you get

As far as I have been able to discover, there are four open source ETL (extract, transform and load) tools on the market. Somewhat surprisingly, two of them are homonyms: KETL and Kettle, the other two being Enhydra Octopus and CloverETL. Kettle is based on an ETTL paradigm, the extra ‘T’ standing for transport (which seems an …

Developer 29 Dec 2005, 08:03
2005 extended by one second

Extra drinking time this New Year

Scientists have extended 2005 by one second - the first time in seven years that changes in the Earth's rotation have necessitated a "leap second", Reuters reports. The extra snippet will be added to atomic clocks at midnight Coordinated Universal Time - the same as UK winter time - the US National Institute of Standards and …

Science 29 Dec 2005, 11:07
Spammers eschew porn for penis patches

Spice out of fashion in 2005

Porn spam has been knocked out of the junk email top ten for 2005 - to be replaced by ads "mentioning real estate tycoon Donald Trump", as Reuters puts it, and spam punting "Penis Patch" body enhancements. According to AOL, from whence the figures originate, "porn is passe when it comes to spam", now replaced by more …

Spam 29 Dec 2005, 11:22
UK man wins landmark spam victory

Spammers pay compensation for unsolicited mail

A UK internet businessman this week won a legal victory against a company sending unsolicited commercial emails in what's thought to be the first case of its kind to be decided by a UK court. Nigel Roberts from the Channel Islands successfully sued Media Logistics for sending spam about fax broadcasting and contract car hire to …

Spam 29 Dec 2005, 11:41
First among equals

Column The contract metaphor is an effective way of approaching API design

Whether formal or informal, a contract defines an (in principle) enforceable agreement between two or more parties with respect to a specific undertaking. The same is also true in code. The contract metaphor is an effective way of approaching API design and use [1]: "A contract is effectively an agreement on the requirements …

Developer 29 Dec 2005, 12:39
Claim back £300 per spam

Net crusader creates legal precedent

Net expert Nigel Roberts has won a landmark legal victory by chasing down a UK spammer and winning £300 in costs. Roberts, who runs his own Internet business as well as the Jersey and Guernsey country code domains, used his legal know-how to apply EU legislation to a UK company, Media Logistics. It is believed to be the first …

Spam 29 Dec 2005, 12:43
Trojan alert over unpatched Windows flaw

Incoming!

Hackers have created a range of Trojan programs which exploit a dangerous new Windows Meta File vulnerability. The vulnerability is rated critical, and so far, no patch has been issued. The WMF vulnerability exists in computers running Microsoft Windows XP with SP1 and SP2, and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and stems from a …

Anti-Virus 29 Dec 2005, 12:46
InterDigital wins big in Nokia royalty spat

That will be $250m. Plus interest, please

A US federal judge yesterday confirmed that Nokia must cough up $232-$252m in disputed patent royalties to InterDigital. Nokia had contested the decision made by in June 2005 by the International Court of Arbitration that it should pay InterDigital this amount in royalties on GSM handsets and network equipment sold between 2002 …

Mobile 29 Dec 2005, 14:02
2005: The year the US government undermined the internet

2005 in review And no, it's not what you're thinking

2005 will be forever seen as the year in which the US government managed to keep unilateral control of the internet, despite widespread opposition by the rest of the world. However, while this very public spat went on, everyone failed to notice a related change that will have far greater implications for everyday internet …

Music and Media 29 Dec 2005, 19:34
Open document man resigns from Mass CTO post

Tired of being a lightning rod

The main cheerleader behind Massachusetts' embrace of the OpenDocument format (ODF) has resigned, saying his role as the state's IT chief has been undermined by controversy surrounding the document battle. Peter Quinn, the chief information officer for Massachusetts since 2002, notified his staff of the decision to move on last …

Applications 29 Dec 2005, 21:53
Sony 'rootkit' settlement clamps down on DRM

Deal paves way for kinder, gentler music label

Sony BMG has agreed to settle with a group of plaintiffs in a New York class action lawsuit relating to the DRM software that triggered consumer outrage and a PR disaster for the company. As part of the settlement, Sony will compensate those who purchased infected CDs and fix their computers. The preliminary settlement was …

Applications 29 Dec 2005, 23:16