Michael Gracie

The Montgomery County, MD Green Party just upgraded to the latest version of Wordpress, and they are quite happy about the anti-spam feature that they discovered inside.

Heh. They ain’t seen nothing yet.

The Blue Security fiasco took down SixApart, but it seems the trouble didn’t end there. Multitudes of related operations went haywire, begging the question - is the internet really that fragile?

Slashdot readers debate the issue. I wonder if embracing IPv6 would solve a lot of these problems.

Symantec has decided to sue Microsoft over intellectual property rights related to its Veritas acquisition, which may or may not have been included in the purchase (since MS claims they own them). Some of this technology is supposed to be included in Vista.

If there was any doubt over security companies moves, pending the release of the supposedly re-invigorated (security wise) operating system, well they should now be gone. No wonder John Thompson didn’t seem worried.

I don’t know what Microsoft’s next move will be, other than settle to avoid any more Vista delays. But I also wonder if Microsoft likes these lawsuits, as they just keep on buying security companies.
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“if you are not doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to worry about” is more straw-man reasoning made by political types (as if they had any other type of debate skills) when there is no other reason for putting cameras [in your home].

Bruce Schneier says privacy is “an inherent human right,” and moves to argue the point quite effectively.

Unfortunately, in a world where access is perceived as power, and responsibility for data maintenance is left unthanked, there is always going to be someone willing to cough up a record, for a buck or a future favor.

Seth Godin calls his latest email receipt the spam of the day - I call it the “New Nigerian.” Seems that a pile of funds, absconded by tyrants, in secret accounts, ready for expatriation by fine citizens with regular checking accounts, is no longer good enough.

It is all about offshore ostrich farms now, don’t you know.

PS: Anyone with specific knowledge in tropical ostrich farm management, please send help to “morfi.”

As noted by VentureWire (pay for view):

In a sign that everything old can be new again in the world of Web 2.0, FundingUniverse.com has raised venture capital to back its service offering entrepreneurs and angel investors a way to network locally. It offers a single site where entrepreneurs can post business plans and accredited angels can review them. One offering is a local networking event that the company calls “speed pitching.” Attendees pay between $500 and $1,000 to attend a speed pitching event, where a pre-screened group of entrepreneurs present their business plans in front of a group of angel investors. And FundingUniverse also sells another service where entrepreneurs can make a video of their pitches and post them online for angels to view.

This might be good for first-timers, if you don’t mind compacting your vision into thirty seconds and/or not knowing who is viewing your plan. I’d also like to understand how the “pre-screening” process is makes things better for those involved.

Generally, you see the prettiest business plan winning out. Meanwhile, the person with the most gumption and work ethic usually takes home the end game prize - that type of character hardly ever shows in an entrepreneur’s written plan. On the flip note, how is an investor to really know that the entrepreneur isn’t going to blow their money on launch parties - trust builds through face-to-face interaction, something that just can’t be substituted with an online video. Or any intermediary.

May be good practice for the first timer though.

The question is easily answered..no.

Unfortunately, they do it anyway..over and over and over again. Even the non-profits with partisan leanings get into the act, although they sometimes pick the wrong kind of target, in the worst kind of way.

Bruce Schneier notes that a recent Unisys study suggests people are willing to trade privacy for convenience, assuming they feel comfortable with the way the data is being handled (i.e. it is locked up tightly).

Yesterday, I attended a briefing entitled “Current Corporate Privacy Best Practices — The Good, the Bad, and Well…! which was put together by the local Privacy Foundation. In that meeting, a well spoken, obviously concerned Colorado state government employee chimed in, stating that her department was consistently riddled with questions from consumers as to why said department “had the data in the first place.”

So which is it? Do individuals really care if organizations have their personal information, being instead concerned only with how it is protected? Or do they like their local retailer handling it as long as they get good discounts as a result, while disparaging private data use in the public sector, knowing full and well that government isn’t going to give them any kind of break?

According to a comment from David Hart of TQMcube.com, Blue Security is no longer.

Maybe they are just hopping around, looking for a new host, or maybe they have the early summer blues…or maybe I am not very funny and should just shut my fat trap. The latter seems the best option right now.

Verified - whois says no nameserver for the site.

CONFIRMED: via WaPo.

***UPDATE***

Techdirt chimes in, although I don’t consider it a win for anyone.

The Slashdot crowd does too.

And The Redding Herring misses on the subtitle.

Fortune magazine took a look into the underground community running stolen credit cards on the net. The everyday citizen probably looks at the thugs as the lowest of the low, back alley types, cussing at each other, bumping each other off, and generally subject to all kinds of behaviour you generally get from The Sopranos. They’d think the business is bound to fall sooner or later.

Unfortunately, the credit card trade is booming, and I know why. The perpetrators are polite to each other.