America Online Inc. co-founder Steve Case said Monday he is resigning from Time Warner Inc.’s board of directors. Case, who co-founded America Online in the mid-1980s, later orchestrated AOL’s $112 billion merger with Time Warner in January 2001.
But as shareholder value plummeted in the wake of the merger, Case, in 2003, stepped down from his role as chairman of Time Warner’s board but retained a seat on the board.
(Source: eWeek)
{S Goodbye
Steve Case quits AOL, but I’m sure that rich bitch still has his money after he trainwrecked that company. He still has weight to throw around, him and his bazillion stock options for himself.
Tech News
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (Reuters) — Apple Computer Inc. faced a lawsuit that alleged the company knew its Nano portable music player was defective but still decided to press on with the product’s release last month.
he credit card-sized Nano, which replaced the best-selling iPod mini and is smaller than the traditional iPod, met with rave reviews. But users quickly started grumbling on Internet message boards that the device’s screen scratches too easily.
Consumers have filed a proposed class action lawsuit in San Jose, California, on Wednesday, claiming the Nano scratched “excessively during normal usage” and alleged Apple released the product knowing the problems and led consumers to believe it was durable — forcing them to shoulder the cost of replacing defective music players.
The complaint blamed the Nano’s defectiveness on the film of plastic resin that covers it to protect it from damage. Previous versions of the iPod were coated with thicker and stronger resin, the suit said.
This is Laaaaaaaaame! I dont feel its Apple’s fault if your screen scratches up, its your responsibility if it scratches. I also disagree that this is some plan to turn profit into this. Apple is at the end for attack, as usual Customer Vs. Corporate Entity, therefore Apple is guilty by association. I commend Apple for their developments lately. If I had the money, I’d buy a Mac Mini.
(Source: CNN)
Tech News
I will start creating a log of blog spammers. I will define “blog spam” as any comments to someone’s post, where they leave links to an irrelevant [commercial] website in it. Often spammers will say “I like your site…” then post their junk. This is will they will be listed, and defamed, as any unsolicited mail, popups, and now blog comment spam will not be tolerated. However, to be fair, if person with a commercial site, they may still use their web address, but must be within the website field, and can not be listed in the actual comment.
< BLOG COMMENT SPAMMER ABUSE LIST >
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I’m currently in the new beta Yahoo Publisher program. It is similar to Google AdSense, with dynamic text ads, but with Overture advertisers. Its pretty neat and easy. The rules are just about the same as AdSense.
Check it out, and sign up for the beta at http://publisher.yahoo.com/
Tech News
I would like to make it clear that in order to quote my content, you must obtain my explicit permission before you use my material to contribute to your article’s value.
Thank you. 
http://www.cnn.com
http://www.slashdot.org
http://news.google.com
Politics
Rants
After facing what seemed an insurmountable decline in desktop PC sales during the first six months of 2005, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) captured a 52% share of the US retail desktop PC market in September, according to Current Analysis. AMD’s performance during the back-to-school shopping season topped chip giant Intel’s 46% share by six points, said the market research firm. Despite its past successes in surpassing Intel desktop sales in select retail sales weeks, September 2005 marked the first time AMD was able to outperform Intel for an entire month, the research firm stated.
Sweet. AMD beat Intel for sales. If I had money, I’d get a new AMD system too Athlon 64 4000+ (code name San Diego). Anyhow. Congrats to AMD, keep it up! w00t
Tech News
(Source: BetaNews)
Microsoft and Yahoo are set to announce on Wednesday a blockbuster interoperability deal that will reshape the landscape of the fragmented Instant Messaging market. The companies will connect their IM networks so users on each can communicate with one another using text and voice chat free of charge.
I take it Microsoft is trying to follow this logic, if you can’t buy your competitor (AOL), just partner with their competitors and control it. This partnership between the IM market with MSFT+YHOO will result in a total marketshare of 44% of the Instant Messenger usage.
Honestly, I rarely, if ever, use MSN Messenger, ditto with Yahoo too. AIM is my primary client, although I’m connected with all three via Trillian with no problems.
Tech News
From juberti’s recent posting…
The max buddy limit has now been raised to 500 Now you can have room for just about anyone you know on your buddylist. (An interesting article here indicates that the average person knows 290 people. So we’re giving you close to double that!) Because of some database constraints, the maximum number of buddies in a single group is still 200. We’ll see what we can do in the future.
Yay!
Tech News
At my work, social engineering is an inherent risk since you work for a large Internet Service Provider. You have access to something others want - ability to reset passwords, in addition to open an account’s information and see all the info on an account and really mess someone over. Now, to the worker, its just customer service. To the caller/attacker its a goal and essentially a game.
Well, it gets to be annoying when you see your own peers next to get their Internal account compromised, and starts IMing you to perform CSR functions like Password Resets - via Instant Message. Its not that hard to master computer security. It is in no place of you to help others on how to get a virus scan, firewall, and spyware protection when you carelessly click links in email and sign in. Then your account is in someone else’s hands. Not to mention having strong passwords. Thats still not a skills with workers of the largest ISP have mastered yet.
Social Engineering via IM is fun - so long as the other person being targeted doesnt do anything for real, and just plays along. I love it. Its thrilling to “pwn” them back. Excert from a friend toying with them
Lamer [8:29 PM]: Hello
Lamer [8:29 PM]: Are you currently in call center?
Worker [8:29 PM]: Call center? What are you talking about?
Lamer [8:30 PM]: ***** Call center.
Lamer [8:30 PM]: i am in jacksonville
Worker [8:30 PM]: I’m just going to verify your employee status, one moment please.
Lamer [8:30 PM]: ok
Worker [8:31 PM]: I am unable to verify your employment. Please provide your first and last name, employee ID, and supervisor’s name for verification.
Lamer [8:31 PM]: look up my name in keyword *******
Lamer [8:31 PM]: by screenname
Worker [8:32 PM]: As I said. Please provide that information.
Lamer [8:32 PM]: No ty
Worker [8:32 PM]: Okay. Thanks for IMing me. Ta-ta.
Anyhow. The sad thing is, is that once they trick someone, they take full advantage.
I ought to run a seminar on account security - since obviously many people need it. There is no excuse for any internal accounts to get compromised - especially for someone who’s “trained” on not getting compromised. It doesnt matter how much encryption or passwords you have - its the human variable that will determine if your are penetrable. Just as my favorite shirt says “There is no patch for human stupidity.”
DONT CLICK LINKS IN EMAIL!! How many times does this have to be reiterated. As much as you may think - you WILL NOT get fired via email or IM. Its that odd meeting they have with you, only you, that you gotta get worried about.
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