RFID Secretly Tags The Internet Summit

By | November 24, 2011
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The Washington Times has an interesting piece about the the Internet and technology summit in Switzerland last week. Delegates, it says, were unknowingly bugged with RFID tags, according to researchers who attended the forum.

RFID is Radio Frequency ID, which means the tags could have contained and given off all sorts of information, including the wearer’s exact location. The badges were handed out to more than 50 prime ministers, presidents and other high-level officials from 174 countries, including the United States. Researchers questioned summit officials about the use of the chips and how long information would be stored but were not given answers.

The three-day forum focused on Internet governance and access, security, intellectual-property rights and privacy.

Beware The Granny Spammer

By | November 24, 2011
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Here’s a different take on the spam wars: the granny spammer. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution tells the story of Flo Fox, a graying grandmother in a “What Would Jesus Do?” T-shirt who uses a couple of shopworn computers to out millions of junk e-mails for merchandise ranging from land in Belize to blessed coins.

What I found interesting about the story, apart from the granny bit, is that the spammers interviewed say they have established Internet accounts in countries where spam isn’t controlled, though they won’t say where. “You’re not going to stop it,” one of the spammers is quoted as saying. “Most of us go offshore now. You have to hide where you are.” This is where Asia comes in, big: Korea, China, India, Pakistan and possibly Malaysia top my list of suspects.

(More discussion about the people in question, by people who apparently go to church with them, on Slashdot, the place where everybody knows your name.)

Windows 98 – Is Microsoft Really Dumping Users?

By | November 24, 2011
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This from reader Jim Erlandson on Microsoft’s declining support for Windows 98:

“Windows 98 support isn’t dropping off the face of the earth according to Microsoft. $35 per incident phone support is. How many people do you know who have spent $35 for a phone call to Microsoft lately?

And a quote in C|Net indicates that security updates will probably still be released as needed. The company’s policy would not ordinarily call for Microsoft to provide any security-related patches, but in an e-mailed statement, the company said it would evaluate future threats as they emerge.

“In addition to the robust set of third-party security products we encourage all Windows customers to use, including antivirus and firewall products, (after Jan. 16) we will evaluate malicious threats to our customers’ systems on a case-by-case basis and take appropriate steps,” Microsoft said.

That bit about “more than 80 percent of companies surveyed were still using Windows 98 and/or Windows 95.” would be more interesting if they quoted percent of desktops. By their method, a company with thousands of Win XP machines and a single Win 98 box in the basement running the boiler would add to that 80 percent number – but not in a meaningful way.”

Thanks, Jim. All good points.

More Search Tools

By | November 24, 2011
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Search seems to be this week’s Thang. eWeek reports that Groxis is about to launch a new version of its desktop software that can retrieve results from multiple search engines and instantly categorize them. Rather than returning a simple list of results, Grokker 2 groups them into various categories that are displayed in a visual map of icons, allowing users to drill down to find specific sites or content.

In Version 2, eWeek says, Grokker has its own intelligence engine that analyzes content in order to categorize it on the fly. It also pulls search results from significantly more sources of information. Don’t expect Grokker 2 to be cheap: Grokker 1 cost $100 for a single user license.

Google The Portal?

By | November 24, 2011
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At what point does Google stop being a search engine and start being what we used to call a Portal? Or has it already happened? Yesterday it announced a new search feature for tracking shipments via Federal Express and United Parcel Service. Type in your tracking number into Google and it will take you directly to the relevant company’s webpage, CNET reports.

The new “Search by Number” feature also brings up information linked to other kinds of numbers, such as patent numbers, equipment identification numbers issued by the Federal Communications Commission, and airplane registration numbers from the Federal Aviation Administration (for checking flight delays).

As Gary Price of ResourceShelf points out, offering such specialized information is not new: Ask Jeeves has been working on something called Smart Answers, AltaVista on Shortcuts for even longer. It’s intriguing that what folk a few years back thought would be popular — lots of noisy graphics and titbits of news in an all-flashing, all-dancing big brand portal — is being overtaken by something very, very simple: a quiet, white interface that lets you find what you want, whether it’s a recipe or a patent, fast. I kinda like that.