Tuesday, August 03, 2004

Trade deal exports DMCA down under. President Bush signs a trade deal that extends controversial software patents and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to Australia. [CNET News.com] 5:41:20 PM    comment []

August 03, 2004. SoftwareCEO.com has a feature about Fog Creek Software on their home page this week: “In fact, Spolsky takes a skeptical view of almost every bit of received wisdom he's ever heard about running a software company. His views are refreshing and thought-provoking, and they certainly work in his niche.” (Read it this week, as SoftwareCEO archives are open to paid subscribers only.) [Joel on Software] 5:40:58 PM    comment []

Engadget on hidden iPod features. [Scripting News] 5:40:37 PM    comment []

Bulk of year's PC infections pinned to one man, by Munir Kotadia, CNET News.com. Sven Jaschan, self-confessed author of the Netsky and Sasser viruses, is responsible for 70 percent of virus infections in 2004, according to a six-month virus roundup published Wednesday by antivirus company Sophos. 3:46:29 PM    comment []

Two from Salon.com: Get a life. Online fantasy games are booming worldwide, but as their popularity has grown, a strange new economy has emerged, in which a good player in South Korea can sell his 'avatar' for big bucks to a less skillful player clear across the globe. Tuesday's must-reads   9:27:03 AM    comment []

In Competitive Move, I.B.M. Puts Code in Public Domain. I.B.M. plans to announce that it is contributing more than half a million lines of its software code, valued at $85 million, to an open source software group. By By STEVE LOHR. [The New York Times > Technology] 8:32:43 AM    comment []

The Review of Reviews. In Amazon.com's Real Names program, designed to prevent reviewer fraud, your reputation depends on what others say about what you say. [The New York Times > Opinion] 8:28:42 AM    comment []

Wi-Fi Shootout in the Desert. Hackers gathering for DefCon's annual conference think they may have broken a world record for Wi-Fi connectivity. But even if they didn't, they had lots of fun trying. Kim Zetter reports from Las Vegas. [Wired News] 8:27:34 AM    comment []

This is Rumor Control is a weblog with anonymous posts by people in the military and intelligence establishment in Washington DC about foreign policy and the Middle East. [Scripting News] 8:27:27 AM    comment []

Blockbuster Tries To Reverse Late Fee Anger. The Boston Globe is running a story about how the local Blockbuster stores are lowering late fees and are offering amnesty to those with late fee balances, hoping to keep angry customers from defecting to Netflix or video-on-demand. Interesting tidbit from the story: Blockbuster is also offering a one-time amnesty to Boston area customers with late-fee balances to coax them back into its stores. Company officials won't say how many of these customers there are, but Martin says the number is considerable. Based on his experience in Providence with an earlier amnesty test, Martin said the amnesty should convert about 500 inactive customers to active status at a cost of about $12,000 in waived fees per store, or about $1.3 million for all 110 Boston stores. The Boston amnesty program runs through Aug. 22. Thanks to Mark for sending this in. [Hacking NetFlix] 8:26:23 AM    comment []

Useit.Com: Deceivingly Strong Information Scent Costs Sales. Usually, of course, it's good when websites have both clearly defined navigation and labels that explicitly state what users will find at the other end of each link. The problem arises when some links are clear (and have strong information scent) and others are vague (and have weak information scent). [Tomalak's Realm] 8:20:22 AM    comment []