Richi Jennings

Links for Oct 16, 2009

2009-10-16T16:36:00.001Z

Google CEO Schmidt: "Android adoption is about to explode"

Hyperbole aside, Android is clearly strategic enough for Google to aim for at least the #2 spot in the smartphone platform wars. But that's not the company's only target for the OS.

WeFollow acquired

Albeit "acquired" by another company run by the founder, Kevin Rose. WeFollow is a Twitter user directory.

Twitter opens beta test of "Lists" -- allows users to categorize the people they follow

Links for Oct 15, 2009

2009-10-15T14:57:00.001Z

Microsoft/Danger confirms it will recover "all or most" Sidekick user data

T-Mobile breathes huge sigh of relief

Tandberg rejects Cisco takeover offer

The shareholders are revolting

Anatomy of a Facebook app exploit

AVG researcher spills the beans on Russian iFrame injection attacks

Weird news dept.: Twitter launches its own wine label

Cheers! It's all for charity.

Links for Oct 14, 2009

2009-10-14T14:56:00.000Z

Latest iPhone 3GS defeats jailbreakers, for now

Facebook growing faster than Twitter, which is plateauing

Facebook gets 96 million unique visitors in September, vs. Twitter's 21 million.

Digg.com has found a successful new way to make money from advertising

Asking users to vote for/against ads seems to be working.

Links for Oct 13, 2009

2009-10-13T14:55:00.000Z

Microsoft/Danger may be able to recover lost Sidekick data

Despite saying yesterday that the data are probably lost forever, Microsoft's Danger subsidiary seems to be changing its tune. T-Mobile will be hopeful that the feat can be pulled off.

ViVu raises $3 million for interactive video conferencing

Competes with WebEx and GoToMeeting.

Gist now offers free iPhone application

Gist merges data from email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more.

Google Docs now has shared folders

Most request new feature.

Links for Oct 12, 2009

2009-10-12T18:07:00.001Z

Death of email predicted (yet again)

This time it's the Wall Street Journal that's not thinking straight. Email is still good for what it's good at; what we're seeing is other applications that are better at doing things that email is unsuited for, but previously was the least-worse way of doing. Email was the hammer, so those tasks looked like nails.

Searchtastic: yet another 'real-time' Twitter search startup

Twitter denies rumors that it's adding video functionality

Death of Sidekick/Hiptop platform predicted, as Microsoft loses users' data

Microsoft has lost all users' personal information for the T-Mobile Sidekick service (aka Danger Hiptop). Little hope of recovery. Looks like there was a disk failure in its Danger subsidiary, and no working backups.

Links for Oct 8, 2009

2009-10-08T18:06:00.000Z

FBI finger 100 phishers in Operation Phish Phry

Phishers arrested and charged in Southern California, Las Vegas, Charlotte, N.C., and Egypt. First such joint investigation between Egyptian law enforcement and U.S. agencies, including FBI, USAO, and the Los Angeles Electronic Crimes Task Force.

Ray Ozzie says Google is biting off more than it can chew with Wave

Trying to replace email, IM, with a new paradigm is too hard, says Ozzie, based on his experience with Notes and Groove. It's even more of a challenge because people don't understand what Google Wave is, he opines.

Links for Oct 7, 2009

2009-10-07T18:05:00.000Z

Google testing ''Cloudboard'', a server-side clipboard

Allows users to copy/paste data between Google services, such as Docs and Gmail.

Links for Oct 6, 2009

2009-10-06T18:03:00.000Z

Windows Mobile 6.5 gets poor reviews

Increasingly, it seems the race for smartphone platform is between iPhone, Android, Palm, and BlackBerry.

SlideShare Business announced

SlideShare experimenting with new revenue models

Links for Oct 5, 2009

2009-10-06T12:57:00.000Z

Amazon EC2/EBS DDoS drills hole in Bitbucket

Amazon's EC2/EBS cloud infrastructure isn't invincible against distributed denial of service attacks, it seems. Code hosting service Bitbucket blames its recent 19+ hours of downtime on an Amazon DDoS. Offers harsh feedback to Amazon's support organization.

AVG fights back against Microsoft's free AV with version 9

AVG's free product is an important route to market for the company. Microsoft's Security Essentials is a threat. Version 9's enhanced link scanner and claimed performance improvements should help counter it.

Vonage app. for iPhone and BlackBerry

Important VoIP provider enables access from important smartphone platforms. Perhaps surprising that Apple allowed this, but FCC investigation into Google Voice refusal motivates Apple to be seen to play fair.

All major smartphone platforms to get full-featured Adobe Flash, except iPhone

Flash isn't just for video and silly games. It's also a serious cross-platform development tool. Apple would probably wait until hell froze over to allow it on its platform, as the App Store is a strategic control point.

Links for Oct 2, 2009

2009-10-02T22:21:00.000Z

Google makes FriendConnect easier to install on your Web server

The war for consumer-focused federated identity rages on. The latest battleground is ease of use for webmasters. Google and Facebook are playing leapfrog.

IBM/Lotus challenges Gmail/Google Apps with LotusLive iNotes

IBM/Lotus wants you to reconsider "Going Google". It's now offering a SaaS/cloud hosted email service, with similar functionality to Google Apps' Gmail -- but undercutting Google's price.

Links for Oct 1, 2009

2009-10-01T22:20:00.001Z

Six Apart announces TypePad API and Pownce relaunch

API opened up and branded TypePad Cloud Platform; Pownce relaunched as TypePad Motion.

Cisco to acquire Tandberg

$3 billion buys respected Norwegian vendor of videoconferencing products.

Links for Sept 30, 2009

2009-09-30T22:19:00.001Z

All is well with bank email privacy problem, luckily

Bank sends sensitive info to wrong person by email; asks Google to delete it; asks court to force Google to delete it; Google says message was never opened; Google deletes message; further legal wrangling averted.

Yammer gets significant new blood

Sean Parker was instrumental at Plaxo and Facebook. Now he joins Yammer, the "Twitter for intranets".

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/29/sean-parker-joins-yammers-board-of-directors/

Criminals being very clever: editing online bank statements on-the-fly

If your PC is infected with this malware, not only will criminals extract money from your bank account, but it won't show up on your statements. That's because the malware is silently hiding the fraudulent transactions, and patching the balance. Horribly clever.

Yahoo releases YUI 3

YUI is a rich, lightweight framework for writing slick, interactive user interfaces for Web applications. It's widely respected; and version 3 looks like it will add to its reputation.

Google Wave invites being sent to 100,000 preview users

Google's collaboration tool is definitely one to watch, if the demo reel is any guide.

Microsoft releases Security Essentials (née ''Morro'')

This free anti-malware product for PCs replaces OneCare and threatens the established vendors: both free and paid.

Links for Sept 27, 2009

2009-09-27T22:18:00.000Z

Some Russian spammers earn a surprising amount

Sophos publishes research into Russian spamhausen SpamIt and friends.

Links for Sept 25, 2009

2009-09-25T15:20:00.001Z

Microsoft's Ballmer apologises for poor Windows Mobile execution

Steve Ballmer speaks at his annual VC summit. Attendees leak his mea culpa via Twitter, reporting that he said Microsoft has revamped the WinMo7 team with new blood.

Links for Sept 24,2009

2009-09-24T19:10:00.000Z

Microsoft's Looking Glass approaches launch

Allows marketers to aggregate and monitor social media. Private beta in October.

Finally, BlackBerry has software for MacOS

MacOS users will soon be able to sync their BlackBerrys without using Windows.

More Gmail Outages

Significant issues today for users of Gmail and Google Apps. Centered around users' Contacts. Initial reports said it was for just some users, but it appears most or all were affected.

Links for Sept 23, 2009

2009-09-23T15:16:00.002Z

Google Wave in IE, via Chrome Frame

If you want to use the new Google Wave in Internet Exporer, you'll have to install the Google Chrome Frame addon first. This ingenious plugin replaces the entire rendering area of the browser with code plucked from Google's Chrome browser.

Google Sidewiki

Sidewiki is a universal commenting system for the Web. A new component of the Google Toolbar. Watch out: Digg, Stumbeupon, Reddit, et al.

Skype for SIP to Integrate with Industry-Standard VoIP Kit

Skype currently uses a proprietary voice-over-IP protocol. Integrating with the standard Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) should make it more attractive to businesses.

DateCheck Launched at DEMOfall09

DateCheck is an iPhone app that allows consumers perform background checks on prospective suitors. Its launch has prompted some comment as to privacy implications.

Links for Sept 22, 2009

2009-09-22T15:14:00.001Z

Gelato Comes Out of Stealth at DEMOfall09

Gelato is "stream dating" -- online dating for the Facebook generation. To help users decide if they have things in common, it integrates with your lifestreams from Facebook, last.fm, Twitter, Hulu, Netflix, Flickr, etc.

Foursquare Has Plans to Make Money; Raises Anonymity Concerns

Foursquare is a location-based social network. Allows people with similar tastes to meet up. Allows local business owners to build relationships with repeat customers.

Google's Gmail now Supports ActiveSync Push for iPhone and Windows Mobile

Also works for Google Apps email. It previously only supported ActiveSync for contacts and calendars: users had to use IMAP for email.

FAQ: Suffering Backscatter

2009-05-15T15:34:00.002Z

Dear Richi, I have about 20-30 returned emails from some entity/person who is somehow using my domain to send out bulk email. How is that even possible?

Sadly, it's trivial for a spammer to forge your address. It's not your Web host's fault.

Some badly configured email servers auto-reply to spam. That's what you're seeing.

If you want to complain to anyone, complain to the people running the servers who are auto-replying to you. Here's a template complaint I've used before...

Hello. You are sending spam to me by bouncing spam to an unrelated person. I did not send the spam to your server: spammers forge the message sender. Hence, your reply goes to an innocent third party.

Perhaps you sent an unsolicited bounce because your mail server is incorrectly configured. Please don't do that. You should *reject* during the SMTP conversation, not *bounce* after accepting the spam message. It is not necessary for your MTA to send a non-delivery DSN -- you should reject at the point of SMTP RCPT with a 553 error or equivalent.

Or perhaps you're auto-replying to spam. Presumably you filter spam before delivering inbound email. In which case, this reply shows that spam is getting through those filters.

It's bad practice to accept a message for a non-existent user. If you accept and then bounce, you're sending spam. For more information, please see http://www.spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/329.html

If this was an isolated error, there's no need to be concerned that you will be blacklisted as a spam source. It usually takes several complaints to illustrate a pattern of email abuse.

However, I urge you to correctly configure your mail servers.

More info at an old post of mine: I Got 25,000 Spam Messages in Two Days!

CNN: carbon footprint of spam

2009-05-02T14:10:00.003Z

Finally, I have the CNN footage.

Amusingly, they mixed up the captions, so Woody got my title...

No video? Click here for the carbon footprint of spam video.

A "Monster" Spammer (NYSE:MWW)

2009-04-29T19:47:00.005Z

Update May 1 3.30 UTC: several listwashing requests.

Dear Monster.com (NYSE:MWW),

You are spamming me. Stop it. Please.

You're sending marketing email to an address that has never given informed consent to receive it.

Not only that, but you're even breaking the spirit, if not the letter, of the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act. While your unwelcome missive does include the proscribed physical address and unsubscribe link, they are displayed in white text on a white background.

Yes, really. (I dare say they'd be more visible if my email client displayed HTML images by default, but like many clients, it doesn't.)

Naturally, it's also in violation of the law in which your UK subsidiary operates. There was no "prior consent" given, within the meaning of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. Offenders are liable to a fine of up to £5,000 in a magistrate's court, or an unlimited fine if the trial is before a jury.

Update May 1 3.30 UTC:

I've received a couple of email messages and a Twitter DM from Monster, expressing apologies for the situation. Sadly, these expressions of regret don't extend to actually fixing the spam problem; they appear to be an attempt to listwash.

Sorry, Monster; listwashing is bad practice. My standard operating procedure is to never unsubscribe from a list that I did not subscribe to.

If Monster wishes to solve this problem, it would stop sending email to addresses of people who did not subscribe. I'm open to a public dialogue on this subject: feel free to tweet or comment here, rather than privately emailing or DM'ing.

Today's Tweets

2009-04-29T02:03:00.001Z

07:32 The swines! Flu panic blamed on Twitter and blogs ping.fm/D7j7T #itblogwatch #swineflu Voices of reason drowned by twits #
08:00 @djtechnocrat Yes, but it was always thus. Twitter makes the whole thing grow faster, whipping ignorance into a huge frenzy. #swineflu #
08:56 I'll be at Infosec on Thursday afternoon only. Currently available for briefings 1.45pm-4pm. #
11:48 @hprice Loudmouth workers leaking data through social networking sites tinyurl.com/d4p7uc #
11:50 Planning to keynote at Inbox/Outbox in mid-June. inbox-outbox.com #
12:11 @hprice LOL #

Thanks: LoudTwitter

Today's Tweets

2009-04-28T02:03:00.001Z

19:49 @haiyo D'oh, sorry, I think I was confusing it with WLS. [Wanders away, mumbling quietly...] #
22:12 RT @tamar a list of journalists on twitter: muckrack.com/ #
23:00 So, WhenDidYouJoinTwitter.com ? Me: 767 days ago. #
23:10 @Scobleizer JungleDisk? Sure, if you have more money than sense... #
07:46 @kaibrach @elliotjaystocks @squaredeye Everyone says the new Mac version is way better. If restore build takes more than an hour, call @Mozy #
08:17 Windows 7 RC1 is here... almost ping.fm/gD3z2 #itblogwatch The official release of the Windows 7 release candidate #
08:33 World's Best Headlines: BBC News ping.fm/kXUpR "BBC editors consistently do an awesome job" #
08:41 @NaiveLondonGirl Ill-advised photo-op, not an "intercept" abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6782403 #

Thanks: LoudTwitter

Today's Tweets

2009-04-27T02:03:00.001Z

07:54 @markwu Dropbox isn't a backup tool; Mozy is. They solve different problems. richi.co.uk/mozy #
09:26 RT @fdestin Suddenly reminded of ... cartoon: "I used to tweet but I went back to pointless incessant barking" -- bit.ly/ZHfy9 #
12:59 @haiyo Dropbox isn't a backup tool; Mozy is. They solve different problems. richi.co.uk/mozy #
13:55 @haiyo Yes but DropBox doesn't do versioning and recovering deleted files. As for your mozy problems, let @Mozy know. He's good; he'll help. #
14:02 @hprice "piqued" ;-) #
14:43 RT @AllenHarkleroad Debt collector threat over BT bill for £0.00 ($0.00) tinyurl.com/djrs3h #

Thanks: LoudTwitter

Today's Tweets

2009-04-26T02:03:00.001Z

20:33 Some thoughts about vendors I met at the RSA Conference ping.fm/IVfZw #
20:39 @LivingInHD Pretty happy with my Viera 50PZ80B plasma, but surprised how poor the blacks are. Quite a lot of light when screen is "black". #
20:44 @berkmancenter Thanks for the linkluv #
23:35 @mengwong thanks /LogicQcwLogiQ^[ZZ #
08:17 WANT: Smart Fourtwo powered by Tesla EV drivetrain ping.fm/bfcKM Hey aftermarket peeps, how about a conversion kit? #
11:21 RT @AllenHarkleroad To Tweet or to Re-Tweet that is the question.... #
11:31 @travelingcircus Hi. Interested in what people are saying about spam (not to mention @spam) #
11:39 @awaken319 No need to be a euro-hater. Of course, some European countries are worse than others. #
11:39 @signatureladyj I only know enough to be dangerous ;-) #
18:45 @hprice Try @Thepeoplefinder for that task #
18:52 @hlslaughter I did a test disaster-recovery of about 185GB. It averaged 500KB/s (would have been faster, but for my 6Mbps DSL). #
18:55 @mozy do you think that @dornquast is being fair? e.g., twitter.com/dornquast/status/1616523717 #

Thanks: LoudTwitter

BoxSentry Ditches Challenge/Response; Fights False Positives

2009-04-24T22:35:00.008Z

Update Apr 25 6.30am UTC: fix name of product (thanks, Meng)

Singapore-based BoxSentry has historically been known as a challenge/response spam filter vendor. Readers will probably be aware that I'm no fan of C/R.

As time goes by, BoxSentry has gradually de-emphasized C/R, but until recently it was still sending challenges for a small but significant proportion of the spam it received -- and hence was sending unsolicited "replies" to people who had never sent email to the BoxSentry user.

Manish Goel, BoxSentry's CEO, confirmed to me that his company no longer uses C/R. That's great news for Internet users. Well done, Manish; I know that I and others have been thorns in your side for a while about this; I appreciate your good humour in our occasional, heated debates!

Manish also brought other news. While beefing up their technology base -- in part to compensate for the loss of the C/R layer -- the company has developed new techniques to better identify false positives.

BoxSentry has wrapped the new techniques in a product it's calling LogiQ. The idea is that it can run alongside a traditional spam filter and automatically retrieve any false positives it finds.

As an illustration, Manish offered a "typical" example: over the test period, a deployed spam filter from one of the well-known vendors delivered 11,500 legitimate messages, but LogicQ found an additional 680 false positives in the filter's quarantine. That's a roughly average false positive rate, in my experience. Not the exactly state-of-the-art, but pretty representative of deployed spam filters. It might equate to one false positive every week per user.

Manish says that 100% of the false positives identified with these new techniques really are false positives -- although they may not catch all of them.

A bold claim; I'm looking forward to digging into the details of the techniques under NDA...