Michael Gracie

The fight against AOL’s Goodmail implementation is hitting a crescendo, with more groups joining the MoveOn.org fight (a total 15MM aggregate members, at someone’s count).

I don’t have a problem with any of these groups, but I do have a problem with this statement:

“This is a big step in the direction of a locked-down Internet,” says Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn, an advocacy group that sends 3 million to 10 million messages per week. “If this had been around a few years ago, MoveOn would never have existed.”

So what you are saying, Eli, is you grew on the backs of others, but even though those backs (and those of their paying subscribers) are breaking under the strain of spammers, phishers, and other lethal elements transported via email, you still demand a free ride?

Nice. Let AOL bear the full burden of cost to shut down operations like this, while you go about your merry way.

Sorry, but that is not how the world works. Wake up, adapt to the changing conditions, or maybe, just move on.

There is a bottom line to all this - email is dying, particularly as a mass medium. Instead of heading down a “slippery slope” what we are heading into is a whitelisted world. Like the phone banks before it (decimated by the do-not-call registry), email is quickly becoming an ineffective means to gather support from the unaffiliated.

I suggest everyone start thinking long and hard about technologies like RSS, that is unless they are hell bent on resisting inevitable change.
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Adware company 180solutions has once again been beaten on over its product, and again it seems they are positioning to push the problem on their affiliates.

The problem stems from the adware they distribute - it is supposed to be an approve-before-install thing, but the claim is that the software is still easily hacked to circumvent the process (meaning make it a stealth install).

180solutions claims it is a “bug,” and that spyware researcher Ben Edelman should have notified them before going public. As if 180solutions deserves that level of respect. After publically pointing the finger at affiliates and trying to position themselves as the good guys, I think the tolerance threshhold is just about broken by now.

Blackspider reports that a slew of password stealing trojans have been emailed out over the last few weeks, targeting Paypal account holders. The subject line contains a spelling error, which should clue users in.

Someone should tell that trojan writer they are behind the times.

The Register reports that the recently discovered threats are largely academic, noting too much interaction is needed on one, and that another was released as a proof of concept out of academia itself. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is all over the topic, quoting a Symantec engineer who is predicting a “gradual erosion” of OS X security as the platform continues its popularity climb.

No matter which way this issue heads, I’ll still be chuckling over one Slashdot commenter’s take on the WSJ position…

“A Symantec engineer predicts a ‘gradual erosion’ of the idea that Macs are a safer operating system than Windows.

Now there’s a neutral party with no agenda when it comes to security!

Honestly, the worst Mac malware I’ve seen so far had a Symantec sticker on the box.”

This is what he was referring to.

Ernst & Young has been waging a losing battle with laptop thieves. First they lost one that contained Scott McNealy’s SSN, and now four more machines have fallen prey.

On the first, the E&Y employee deserves a drubbing for leaving the machine in a car. That is just plain stupid. But regarding the laptops stolen from what I suspect was a client location, well that is another matter. The second incident is no different than the perps directly stealing a client’s machine out of an office cubicle, and no thief is really going to care much about a Kensington security cable - that is what wire cutters are for. If a consultant or auditor’s data trove isn’t safe in a client’s office, then the client has bigger fish to fry than E&Y.

Either way, however, E&Y does deserve whatever The Register dishes out for not disclosing the issue to affected parties in the first place.

…there’s still the hundred-hour work weeks, the race to market, the unexpected competitors, the fights in the hallway with the other founders, the divorce, etc. But, of course, if you fretted about all that minor stuff, you wouldn’t be entrepreneuring in the first place. - from Michael Malone - ABC News: Silicon Insider.

All those things are going to happen, whether you like it or not. Decide whether you and your partners can deal with it before you begin.

First America Corp’s real estate arm just completed a study of homeowner’s equity, noting that total equity across the US remains high, while some markets are full of stretched buyers and refinancers.

They quote $11 trillion in aggregate home equity - I thought the aggregate market capitalization of all residential real estate was only about $18 trillion. Guess I was wrong. Nevertheless, total face value of mortgage-backed securities in the EPN system alone is over $9 trillion, and I have heard that Fannie, Freddie, and the like back quite a bit more than that. Those bonds would have to be sold at pretty hefty premiums for the numbers to work.

So where are these numbers coming from - will someone set me straight on this? I’ll promise to fix my calculator if you do.
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Peter Kaminski discovered folks spamming his weblog with strange messages and five-digit numbers a while back, and I am curious to know if anyone figured out what it all means. Spamroll has been receiving them for the last few days, and they look like this:

Commenter: Janet Ashlow
Email: funnytime@yahoo.com
Comment: I can’t believe it, my co-worker just bought a boat for $76917. Isn’t that silly!

There are no links in the comments, so they don’t get bounced by normal spam filtering procedures. My suspicion is someone, someplace wants those words and numbers available for others to find, but unfortunately I am no puzzle solver - the tinfoil hat scrambles too many of my internal brainwaves :-). And don’t try using the one above to solve it - I changed much of the original comment, just to muck up the process (if there is one). Peter has plenty of examples here for anyone still interested in figuring it all out.

Internet “security experts” are warning that VoIP calls are less secure than traditional landlines. One notes that the next generation of spam will be through your VoIP voicemail, while another says not to accept calls from strangers.

I already get five plus “unwanted” voicemails a day from people I barely know, and yes, I am a VoIP user. But I get just as many on my cell. Why? Because I give out my business card every now and then! Call them “strangers” if you must, but I received five times that number of voicemails from folks when I did have a landline (although being too lazy to add my number to the do-not-call registry probably contributed to that).

“Don’t talk to strangers” is something I learned in kindergarten - its poorly crafted FUD if I do say so. If someone can show me a proof of concept on a VoIP privacy hack, I’ll stand corrected.

There are an awful lot of products and services being given away nowadays. Everyone has an advertising model at play, but you and I both know that won’t last forever. How do you capitalize on the this latest (and it seems, recurring) trend before it whithers? Well you could start an arbitrage fund - the targeted spread being an investment in the free services, and a short of the entrenched, charging corporates.

Interesting idea, but private company valuations are somewhat arbitrary, while listed stocks are easy to get a fix on. Figuring out how much to bet (which is just as if not more important that actually picking the winners and losers) on each side of the arb play is the missing link here.