loose wire blog

After del.icio.us, a Directory of Other Things Yahoo! Should Buy

The Loose Wire Yahoo Blessing continues, as del.icio.us gets bought by y.ah.oo!. From Joshua Schacter’s blog:

We're proud to announce that del.icio.us has joined the Yahoo! family. Together we'll continue to improve how people discover, remember and share on the Internet, with a big emphasis on the power of community. We're excited to be working with the Yahoo! Search team - they definitely get social systems and their potential to change the web. (We're also excited to be joining our fraternal twin Flickr!)

Congratulations, Joshua. A lot of people still don’t seem to get del.icio.us; I’m glad Yahoo! does. As Jeremy Zawodny of Yahoo! Search puts it:

And just like we've done with Flickr, we plan to give del.icio.us the resources, support, and room it needs to continue growing the service and community. Finally, don't be surprised if you see My Web and del.icio.us borrow a few ideas from each other in the future.

It’s probably good news for del.icio.us, but there are those who think the touch of Yahoo! isn’t always as light as it could be. For my part I’m smugly totting up the services I’ve tried to champion over the years that have ended up getting bought by Yahoo! There was oddpost; Upcoming; Bloomba; Konfabulator and Flickr. Of course, lots of other people loved these products too, but it’s uncanny how I get excited about something and then Yahoo! wanders in and buys it.

So here are a few other things I like:

• Text Monkey: Easily clean copied text
• blummy: Great bookmarklet aggregator
• MSGTAG - MessageTag: Email receipt alert
• Klips: you got Konfabulator; buy the rest
• Anagram: Translates copied text into Contact, Calendar, Task, and Note items for Outlook, Palm etc
• Multiplicity: Control all your computers from one keyboard n mouse
• TiddlyWikis: they’re not for sale but they’re great
• ActiveWords: Do everything without leaving the keyboard
• 37Signals: The whole Writeboard, Basecamp, Tadalist thing
• Flock: great browser, good way to pull all Yahoo!'s juicy new bits together (thanks, Tom)
• clipmarks: don’t save bookmarks, save clipmarks
• MyInfo: free-form information organizer

Thassall for now.

A Directory of Monitor Extenders

This week’s WSJ.com Loose Wire column (subscription only, I’m afraid) is on getting more screen for nothing:

People of the future will laugh at us for many reasons, no doubt, but one of the most likely sources of their mirth will be the miserly size of our computer screens. It isn't that our screens haven't gotten bigger, both in size and in what we can fit on them (this is the so-called resolution, allowing smaller fonts and images so we can pack more on, so long as our eyesight holds up).

I’ve written about the joys of having two monitors before, and I’m still surprised that very few people do it. Mind you, I was called a dinosaur yesterday by someone who has a 23” screen, so I guess I can’t get too snooty. Anyway, the column mentions a couple of programs you might want to try out:

• MaxiVista ($30 from www.maxivista.com), which lets you use your network to extend your existing screen onto those of your other computers. It's like buying a second or third monitor, but without actually having to, because you are using the screens you already have. I
  
• Multiplicity ($40 to $70 from www.thinkdesk.net). Multiplicity does something similar to MaxiVista -- corralling extra computers on your network -- but instead of enslaving them to become one long screen for one computer, it creates a team of computers under one boss. In short, you control all the computers from one keyboard, and one mouse. (Update: The guys at MaxiVista tell me that their product does the same thing, but I haven't tested this feature. Thanks, Mario)
  
• For Mac and Linux users (and Windows users who don’t mind a less friendly interface, or don’t have any money) there’s Synergy, which does more or less what Multiplicity does.
• And there’s also a Mac-only freeware program called teleport. (Thanks, Julian)

I’m now using Multiplicity to run a separate laptop next to my two-screen rig, which is running iTunes, my Skype stuff, as well as doing some backups, running my Klips among other things. Takes the load of the main rig, and yet I don’t have to move a muscle to run it.

Then there are a few other bits and bobs you could try out to grab extra screen real estate.

• If you do have two screens use Ultramon to control them. Adds some excellent management features to Windows rather basic support for more than one monitor. The guy who runs Ultramon also has an excellent resource page about multi-screen systems.
• There are lots of Desktop Managers out there, which basically let you have lots of screens on one. Microsoft’s own version is called the Virtual Desktop Manager and it’s included in the PowerToys for XP. There are lots of others. I know some folk love these set ups but I’ve never gotten too excited about them. Sorry.
• Another approach is WindowSizer, which gives you more control over how you manage and rearrange your windows. I love the idea but I’ve never quite mastered it. I’m still looking for a program that lets me organise my windows really easily and then remembers the layout until I tell it not to.

The Penguin Embraces the Frog

Blue Frog, the anti-spam ‘vigilante’ software that has courted some controversy, has introduced a Linux Version :

This new offering will enable the 29 million Linux platform users to participate in the Blue Community and register in the company’s Do Not Intrude Registry to actively fight spam and safeguard personal and business e-mail accounts though a hands-on, community-based approach.

The Linux version of Blue Frog was created directly through the contributions of Blue Community members and Linux developers and enthusiasts at large. The Blue Frog visible source program allows users and developers to contribute to the development of the Blue Frog client by providing feedback and comments to the company to enhance the Blue Frog software and assist in adapting it to other platforms. Users and developers can click to join the Blue Frog development effort.

The press release from the company, Blue Security, says that

[s]ince the launch of the Do Not Intrude Registry in the summer of 2005, approximately 65,000 e-mail addresses have been registered and protected through the Blue Community. Preliminary results of the Beta service have users reporting 50 percent or greater reduction in the amount of spam they receive, indicating that a number of spammers already comply with the Registry and avoid sending spam to Blue Security customers.

The Phisher King is Back

I’m glad to report Australian phisher king Daniel McNamara has revived his Code Phish website which dissects phishing attacks and associated scams. He’s just taken a close peek at one ‘mule ad’ (as I call them) or job scam as he calls them: DHL Mail Job Scam.  These are efforts by the phishers to repatriate their illicit earnings by hiring unsuspecting individuals to let the stolen funds pass through their accounts. It seems that Eastern Europe is still the main source of such scams:

What's really interesting however is where this scam is located. It's sitting on the same hoster as the Ukrainian National Animal Welfare Foundation Job Scam and the GlobalFinances Job Scam. This would indicate they are mostly likely all being run by the same gang. The hoster is probably unaware of these sites scam status but we have seen them used numerous times over the last year to host scam sites which would indicate they most likely offer some sort of "get hosting working in minutes!" automatic setup for payments by credit cards and if it's one things phishers have steady access to, it's stolen credit card details.

Welcome back, Daniel.

Give Your Mouse A Bath

Those who got excited about the idea of a washable keyboard (which I wrote about in a WSJ.com column a few weeks back — sorry, subscription only; a version appeared on the BBC World Service, and is available as a podcast) can now get excited about Washable Computer Mice, from Unotron:

Unotron's pioneering mice design configurations and materials allow these patented products to be easily washed, immersed and disinfected by commercial-grade detergents and anti-bacterial agents while providing users with comfort, control and reliability. SpillSeal washable mice are manufactured and assembled to support restrictive cleaning/disinfection procedures without any detrimental effect to the exterior or the products' internal components.

Makes sense, actually. As I realised when I was doing the keyboard column, we spend an inordinate amount of time with our fingers on these things, and while we may not spend quite as much time using the mouse, there’s still enough gunky activity going on for us to pay the same attention to keeping the little rodents clean. Sadly no pictures or details of mice having a bath are available on Unotron’s website yet, so here’s a picture of a keyboard getting washed instead:

The Lessons of Wikipedia

The Seigenthaler/Wikipedia case is attracting attention from strange quarters. I’m not sure what it means, but it’s fodder for pondering on the nature of truth, falsehood and deliberate obfuscation. From OfficialWire, there’s this piece: “It's Your Story...You Tell It Anyway You Want On Wikipedia”:

After four months, Seigenthaler was finally able to get Wales to remove the offending piece from Wikipedia and from the other online 'resources' that simply copy from Wales' pool of data, but not before it had been read by tens of thousands of people, who may or may not have repeated, copied or stored the nonsense.

I may not have looked hard enough at this, but I can find no support for that assertion in Seigenthaler’s original piece. He visited the site in late September, and doesn’t specifically say when the offensive remarks about him were removed. But he does say they had been up there for four months, which, given an initial publication date of May 26, I put at late September. In other words, it sounds as if pretty much immediately after Seigenthaler had complained to Jimmy Wales, the owner of Wikipedia, the remarks were removed. The OfficialWire piece is ambiguous, but a casual reader might well assume that Seigenthaler had been bugging a reluctant Wales for four months to pull the offensive text. Doesn’t sound like it was like that.

So, a distorted and offensive entry on Wikipedia now spreads like a stain in the retelling. Is it just an innocent mistake? OfficialWire is run by someone called Greg Lloyd Smith, who wrote the December 4 piece. In it he links to another piece OfficialWire put out back in early January, written by one Jennifer Monroe, who writes about the activities of a Wikipedia volunteer, Christian Wirth, whom the piece alleges to have been trying to “sully the good work” of an organisation called QuakeAID. QuakeAID is an organisation with the same owner as OfficialWire. These two organisations, and other linked groups, have extensive entries on Wikipedia, none of the material particularly flattering (sentences such as ‘The following indicators raise questions about QuakeAID's legitimacy and good faith’).

On first glance the contents of these articles seem damning and I’m not going to question their veracity. But is there something not quite right with this picture? It’s good that research is being done, and, to judge by the pages’ history, there’s plenty of “toning down” being done. But one can’t help asking the questionL Is there an ax to grind on the part of certain members of Wikipedia about Lloyd Smith and his activities, and, if so, is Wikipedia the correct forum in which to wield one? I wonder whether Seigenthaler’s case might not be offering us a more nuanced lesson than merely its occasional unreliability. After all, we still don’t know the motive (or the identity) of Seigenthaler’s character assassin. Perhaps it’s not mindless vandals we should be worried about on Wikipedia; it’s people using its benign offices to settle scores and run opponents out of town.

Podcast: Presence

Here's another podcast of a piece I did for the BBC's World Service 'World Business Report'. This one's on presence, a favorite topic of mine; Download it here.

(Thanks, BBC, for allowing me to republish it as a podcast. I'm told the WBR appears in the U.S. on WBUR and other stations in the NPR network, and in Australia on ABC Newsradio. I'm afraid I don't know times but they're all fine radio stations; I'd suggest listening to them 24/7.)

The Risk Of Mash-ups

It’s interesting to see how jarring old-world business behaviour is in the new world of blogs, remixing, mashing and market conversations. But I guess it’s also a reminder that the durability of the new world is not to be taken for granted. The latest episode, from Slashdot is this: RISK on Google Maps Shut Down:

Hasbro owns the copyrights for the game of Risk, as the guy who wrote the google maps based Risk found out. This was featured on slashdot earlier. However, he does not seem too discouraged and asks people to submit ideas for other games using google maps that will not have such legal wrangles." One thing this reminded me of is how cool Risk is. My office is now in its 3rd round... Africa will be mine!

The funny thing about all this, as One Tusk.com points out, creating the mash-up (using Google Maps for an online Risk-style game) was great publicity for the game itself:

As a result, he reminded everybody that there was a game called Risk and everyone had a great moment of nostalgia for board games as they paused from salivating over the next console game. But of course, we can't have everyday people out getting people interested in our games–Hasbro's probably gotten more play out of this than any advertising they cooked up themselves.

Hasbro, therefore, would have been much better advised to have considered the situation before leaping for their lawyers. Hasbro has made several variations on the classic board game: one Lord of the Rings version, one set in 2210 AD and one Star Wars version. There are two software versions, I and II. The latter was issued in 2000, a generation ago in gaming terms. Why didn’t they talk with the guy involved, thank him for reviving a near-dead brand, and either hire him or quietly tell him that by calling it something else, or a ‘Risk-like game’, he could keep going?

After all, there are several games out there that describe themselves as “Risk-like”, and, as far as I know they’ve not received any legal letters. There’s Attack! (which carefully only hints at its Risk-like nature), Mare Nostrum, Quest for the Dragon Lords and Empire XP (which decsribes itself as ‘a Windows version of the classic Risk board game’.) (More on Risk, and all the Risk clones, at Wikipedia.) All this makes the heavy-handedness even harder to understand.

Firefox Google Alert Extension

Does anyone know of a Firefox extension that would add a selected word to your list of emailed Google News Alerts?