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The Weekly Round-Up: 12.08.05
Bill Gates - our hero! (Google? - no comment)...

By silicon.com

Published: Friday 12 August 2005

Bravo for Bill Gates! No, really. Microsoft has turned the legal screw on former spam king Scott Richter in a court case in New York.

A spokesman for the brobdingnagian software company said on Tuesday it had settled a lawsuit against Richter - the so-called "spam king".

After feeling pleased at using the word "brobdingnagian" not once but twice in the same technology column, the Round-Up was also pleased to learn that, as part of the settlement, Richter and his company has agreed to pay $7m to Microsoft.

Richter understandably baulked earlier this year when faced with the prospect of a day in court with Bill and his screeching army of flying legal-monkeys (just like the ones in The Wizard of Oz but wearing sharper suits and carrying $1,000 briefcases). Prior to the case, Richter filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, no doubt in anticipation of paying out monster damages.

Richter's company, OptInRealBig.com, dominated Spamhaus' Register of Known Spam Operations (Rokso) longer than Bryan Adams' (Everything I Do) I Do it for You plagued the music charts. But no more - OptInRealBig was recently removed from Spamhaus' worst offenders list.

Earlier this year, Spamhaus director Steve Linford said: "It's looking like he [Richter] made a real turnaround. The legitimate business is working for him. The good thing is that it shows it can be done. That would worry some spammers and prompt them to change to the legitimate side."

Which must be a novel experience for him - and also for Microsoft's legal monkeys to work for the prosecution rather than the defence.

Richter's other source of revenue - a sideline selling ladies spam-branded pants - was shut down after meat manufacturer Hormel served him with a cease-and-desist letter that claimed it holds the rights to the word 'spam'.

Look, the Round-Up's really not making this up. See?

Still, considering that Richter used to make around $2m per month out of his spamming activities, we're sure he'll get by.

Meanwhile, yet more kudos is showered down on the hard-up Seattle-area software firm for investing most of the money it won in internet enforcement efforts and boosting technical and investigative support to help law enforcers to address computer-related crimes.

The rest of the cash is being spent on legal fees. Quite how much isn't known for sure but judging by a Seattle-bound order of 800 metric tons of bananas and the complete series of LA Law on DVD it was probably a lot. Unless that was just Steve Ballmer planning a quiet night in.

Anyway three cheers for Bill and his lawyers for proving that spam doesn't pay. In celebration of the Gap-clad, bespectacled one - and in response to popular demand (no really, we have had requests) - here's a picture of everyone's favourite chief software architect sprawled seductively across a desk giving the camera his filthiest bedroom eyes. Grrr.

Rest assured, the Round-Up will be back to putting the boot into Microsoft next week...

The next time you leave the office after a hard day updating your antivirus protection and tank down the motorway in your beloved motor with wireless gadgets a-blazing, rest assured that pesky malware authors have absolutely no chance of infecting your onboard computer.

SCREEECH! Wait, that's not quite right. Let's try again.

The next time you leave the office after a hard day updating your anti-virus protection and tank down the motorway in your beloved motor, bear in mind that security experts are now warning that pesky malware authors may be able to infect your onboard computer via your Bluetooth gadgets.

SCREEECH! There, fixed it.

Car industry officials and analysts this week claimed that hackers' growing interest in writing viruses for wireless devices puts the auto computer systems at risk of infection.

As carmakers tweak on-board computers to allow consumers to transfer information with MP3 players and mobile phones, they also make their vehicles vulnerable to mobile viruses that jump between devices via the Bluetooth wireless technology that connects them. Or so they say.

Yevgeni Kaspersky, head of antivirus research at Russian firm Kaspersky Labs, said: "I'm afraid there is a risk in using a Bluetooth connection in cars.

"If the smart phones and on-board computers have the same channel to transfer the data... sooner or later the hackers will find the vulnerability in the operating systems of on-board computers and... will definitely use it," he added before screaming and diving headlong out of a window.

Companies so far have seen no reports of viruses in auto systems, and studies have shown it is not easy to transplant a virus into a car but carmakers have insisted they are taking the risk seriously.

The first mobile phone virus, Cabir, has spread to more than 20 countries, ranging from the United States to Japan and from Finland to South Africa, using only Bluetooth.

Don't despair though. Symantec mobile virus specialist, Guido Sanchidrian, smiled reassuringly. "I am very sure that you will be still able to drive your car on your own," he said dusting off his bike and tossing his car keys into the nearest canal.

Is nothing sacred?

Given Apple's recent spats with a couple of rumour websites and blogs which published details of its as-yet-unreleased products, it's hardly surprising the company feels a little sore at the blogging community.

This animosity seems to run deeper than previously thought. According to the definition of 'blog' in OSX's dictionary widget, weblogs are "run by twenty-something Americans with at least an unhealthy interest in computers".

You can't help but think that Apple is taking the bad feeling a bit too far. Anyway, "unhealthy interest in computers"? How is that possible? Unless we're alluding to interfacing with a hard drive in an intimate way.

Mac fans are known for their enduring love of their computers - could that possibly extend as far as dimming the lights, lighting some candles, slipping some Marvin Gaye onto the stereo and.. (Ed: Stop that).

At the end of the day it's not Apple's doing. All the definitions for the dictionary widget are sourced from Oxford American Dictionaries. But hey, why let the facts get in the way of a good story?

The Round-Up considers itself an amiable enough sort. Helping old ladies across the road, whether they wanted to cross it or not, and endlessly reconfiguring the father-in-law's sodding firewall have surely stockpiled some healthy credit in the karma stakes.

Yet the dear reader might be shocked to learn that its presence in the reception area of Google's headquarters right now would be as welcome as a drunken thunder god in a Royal Doulton showroom.

A writer at silicon.com sister publication CNET News.com published a story recently about the data that Google collects on individuals.

She opened her report with an exposé of Google chairman Dr Eric Schmidt. According to her article, Schmidt, 50, was worth an estimated $1.5bn last year.

Earlier this year, the former Novell boss pulled in almost $90m from sales of Google stock (cool and loaded) and made at least another $50m selling shares in the past two months as the stock leapt in value to $300m per share.

The details go on - where he lives, the name of his wife, politicos he probably likes and even his visit to the Burning Man festival in Nevada. All this information was gathered using Google's standard internet-based search tool. And clearly, the Round-Up thinks, to prove a point.

Only Google wasn't impressed. Following publication of the article, the end result has been Google refusing to speak to any CNET News.com reporter for a year (until July 2006). Call the Round-Up biased but that does sound like it might be a slight over-reaction.

The News.com article claimed the amount of personal information gathered by search engines, of which Google is the market leader, potentially poses a risk to privacy.

The reporter's concern is that hackers, over-zealous government investigators or even a Google insider who falls short of the company's ethics standards could potentially abuse that information.

Privacy advocates say information collected by search companies and other ecommerce companies poses similar risks.

Kevin Bankston, of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Google is amassing data that could create some of the most detailed individual profiles around.

"Your search history shows your associations, beliefs, perhaps your medical problems. The things you Google for define you," he told News.com.

Google has struggled a little with its new corporate persona since its IPO earlier this year and the company's reaction to the article is a misguided one by its management and communications divisions. It needs to maintain trust it's grown in its brand and products in the marketplace, and refusing to speak to one of the world's most-respected tech media outlets isn't going to do it any favours.

The article did not allege the company was abusing the information, or that it had anything but the highest standards in place to protect it. Something Google confirmed both to the reporter and in its company philosophy.

This is an exciting time for the search engine arena as the battle for the Chinese market hots up. Yahoo! this week bought a $1bn share of Alibaba.com to boost its ecommerce and search businesses.

After the deal, Alibaba.com will consist of Alibaba.com, Alipay, Taobao.com and Yahoo! China. The business will offer instant messaging, ecommerce, online auctions, search services and a portal.

China is seen as a huge emerging market for the search business. Only last week China's largest web search company, Baidu.com, raised a higher-than-expected $109m in its initial public offering.

The Round-Up will be watching the events unfold with interest in the coming months and tracking the developments from all the big players - Baidu, MSN, Yahoo! Alibaba - and Google.

With comment or without.

"If God is a DJ / Life is a dance floor
You get what you're given / It's all how you use it"

Although he may not approve of the rest of the lyrics in Pink's song, tech-savvy Catholic priest Father Roderick Vonhogen has certainly taken advantage of what he's given (a computer with a microphone) and used it (to produce a virtual sermon via podcast).

Vonhogen is better known by his net alter ego, Catholic Insider, and his ideas about how to spread the Good Word have apparently caught the attention of the upper echelons in Vatican City - possibly via the latest MP3 players.

(Heck, if we are to believe that Her Majesty is an iPod fan, then why not His Holiness? A white model to match the robes, clearly.)

His latest podcast - or Godcast - looks at Christian mythology in another modern 'religion' - Harry Potter.

The podcasts are available from the iTunes Music Store but also from his website CatholicInsider.com - so digital pilgrims needn't be concerned about only being able to receive salvation in non-proprietary formats.

The Catholic Insider website features a slick parody of the iPod ads - a brightly coloured background with a silhouetted figure wearing headphones. And a dog collar. Nice touch, father.

0:-)