Michael Gracie

Being ever wary of social networking and contact management sytems that run on the web, I have always stuck to the desktop. The fear is that after inputing all my contacts, somehow, someway (and without my knowledge), all the email addresses will wind up getting some kind of promotional message that will piss off my friends and colleagues. I hope others share my penchant for being anti-social, as if you only have three friends and two colleagues like I do, you can’t afford any bad blood.

But for those Windows/Outlook Express/MSN Explorer users who don’t care much about what I am saying, they now have a chance to foul up their relationships, and maybe even inadvertently acquire a new email address to boot.

I can’t test Woody’s conclusions on the messed up functions in MSN Explorer Beta 2, as I don’t own a Windows machine. But it sounds like unsolicited viral marketing at its finest.

Michael Milken once said “It isn’t okay to leverage to buy overvalued assets,” and I have been sticking to that adage for a while. Maybe the buying window is about to open, and maybe it is not, but Alan Greenspan has certainly become very chatty about asset price euphoria. I recollect a trader friend of mine saying that houses are trading like bonds, and if you read the article above closely, you’ll see that Greenspan might just think so too.

What’s the catch?
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Folks need to understand some key points about pump-and-dump stock scams before they decide to go the get-rich-quick route.

Pump-and-dump stock scams target micro and small cap stocks for a reason - lack of liquidity. These stocks generally trade at very light volumes, hence existing owners cannot sell the stock without causing the price to go down as there are few buyers for the unknown shell company. So, scammers promote the stock through sleazy (and illegal) marketing tactics. You then buy what they are selling. The sellers get liquid, and you get stuck with the stock on the back end.

There are no two ways about it, and trying to day trade a penny stock will get you cleaned out by even the lowest commission broker.

Best advice is to just stay away.

I spent the last week rafting the Green River through Dinosaur National Monument. Four days on the water, and five nights in a tent. Accompanied by seven other people who together created an adventure beyond easy comparison. Yes, it was laid back, fun, exciting. But what I didn’t expect was actually learning something besides how to row a boat. That something was about being dialed in.
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If Choicepoint’s most recent investigation is on target, they are stealing it, that’s where.

Choicepoint recently discovered that some private investigators, an insurance company lackey, and…get this…a Miami-Dade police officer, were using Choicepoint data for their own devices.

Where should we go from here? I say the hell with the data broker’s profit margins. Lock the data down tighter than a snare drum, and make anyone who wants to access it go though a “top secret” level government security clearance screening.

Techdirt asked if a firm should be held responsible for false positives in its anti-phishing tools, while Earthlink was deemed innocent of such.

The answer could be over-complexified, but my opinion is NO!
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While wireless carriers and phone manufacturers make inroads in security, an Arizona court has found a creative way to make inroads against text message spam. An appellate court in the land of scorching pavement has ruled that bans on auto-dialers for cell phone solicitation also applies to text message spam.

It is a good thing my carrier quit the practice already!

Mobile phones are getting ever more sophisticated, which means it is only a matter of time before sneaky types find a way to make you suffer. Fortunately, phones will (hopefully) stay small, which means processors and software will remain small too. Nonetheless, carriers are taking no chances, and getting security features into those phones (and their networks) now.

I was out for the last week, riding river waves and eating spam. Actually, I wasn’t eating spam - it was more like chicken cacciatore and dutch oven cakes, but so be it. I am back from vacation, and so is Spamroll.

I agree, to an extent, with the commentary over at the Register that paints hackers as casual thugs. It is awfully easy to connect to a free wi-fi hotspot, phish away for a few hours, then disappear into the dark. However, I have a sneaking suspicion it won’t be that easy for that long. Exploits may take strange shapes, but if a guy like Kevin Mitnick (a smart cookie) can get tracked around by cell phone signal (and many years ago to boot) and eventually busted, then I doubt the weekend warrior thief is going to dodge the bullet of the law for too long.

Of course, with data thieves getting mere slaps on wrist for stealing from internet users, it is no wonder the crime is viewed so casually.