News: Copy the customer, get a bigger tip

By | November 24, 2011
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  A report in Nature confirms what we all knew: the waitress (or waiter, presumably) who imitates the customers gets a bigger tip. Huh?
 
 
Turns out, according to some Dutch psychologist Rick van Baaren of the University of Nijmegen, that “Mimicry creates bonds between people – it induces a sense of ‘we-ness.  You know that what you’re doing is ok, and you become more generous.” Van Baaren’s team studied staff in an American-style restaurant in southern Holland: In half of the tests, they primed a waitress to repeat customers’ orders back to them. In the other half, she said something else positive, such as “Coming right up!”
 
When copycatting, the waitresses’ average tip almost doubled, to nearly 3 guilders (US$1.20). 

News: The Law and Blogging Revisited

By | November 24, 2011
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 Further to my earlier posting about a court ruling last week that Web loggers, website operators and e-mail list editors can’t be held responsible for libel for information they republish, Mark Glaser of the University of Southern California’s Online Journalism Review takes a more nuanced view, saying “What really happened in this ruling is much more complex than that and only protects third-party content that’s being passed along to an e-mail listserv, a forum or perhaps a Weblog’s comments section. When a blogger starts making original commentary, he/she is liable for these comments.”

News: Baffled by tech terms? You’re not alone

By | November 24, 2011
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  A new study from the Global Consumer Advisory Board of chip maker AMD says many people are delaying buying new technologies because they don’t understand the language of the technology industry. The Technology Terminology and Complexity Study found, among other things that only 3% of correspondents “aced” their quiz, correctly identifying 11 of 11 multiple-choice definitions for various technology terms.
  • Most respondents got only 7 or fewer correct
  • Less than one quarter (22%) got 5 or fewer
  • Less than one tenth (9%) got 3 or fewer
Needless to say, I’m not surprised. If everyone adopted my own suggested terms, I think we’d all be happier.
 
Download the summary in PDF format.

News: Have you been brand spoofed yet?

By | November 24, 2011
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 SurfControl, an anti-spam company, says that “brand spoofing spam” – where a spammer sends fraudulent email that pretends to be from a well-known and trusted company — is getting worse, after only a few months of its existence.
 
 
The spammer, posing as a customer service or security official, directs the unsuspecting recipient of the spam to a phony Web site. The site then requests confidential financial information or a Social Security number that allows the spammer to commit fraud or identity theft. Over the last few months, SurfControl said in a press release, Best Buy, UPS,
 
Bank of America, PayPal and First Union Bank have been brand spoofed. Four large Australian banks also have been brand spoofed, including the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Last Thursday, Sony Electronics reported that it had become aware of a deceptive spam e-mail that had been sent to consumers, requesting personal information such as password and e-mail address, claiming to come from “SonyStyle Customer Service.”
 
SurfControl says brand spoofing spam was first seen in March and has been growing steadily since then. Brand spoofing spam has grown from zero before March to more than five a month. The increase in such dangerous spam is linked to the growth in the availability of open proxy servers, which allow spammers to send anonymous, nearly untraceable e-mail. According to a researcher at the University of Oregon Computing Center, the number of identified open proxies grew from 1,000 in October 2002, to 100,000 in April 2003.

News: Camera phone manufacturers ban camera phones

By | November 24, 2011
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The limits to camera phones
 
 CNET Asia reports that some Korean manufacturers like Samsung and LG Electronics “may be fiercely promoting camera-equipped phones to consumers, but are wary about allowing their use on their own company grounds.” Both companies have barred employees from using the gadgets in some of their factories to prevent “industrial espionage and intellectual property theft”, the report says, quoting Korean daily Chosun Ilbo (here’s the original report).
 
This is another chapter in the fast moving saga of camera phones. They’ve been banned in some public areas — changing rooms and the like — and CNET says bookstore owners in Japan “are also mulling measures to stop female shoppers from snapping pictures of magazines with their camera-phones”. Korea, CNET says, is considering a law which makes it mandatory for phone makers to install a “noise emitter” in their camera-equipped handsets.
 
Hmm. It’s not all bad, though: I’ve read other stories about folk snapping shoplifters, hold-ups and other criminal activities. The debate is bound to go on, probably until it’s overtaken by miniature cameras that no one can see, built into ties, sun-glasses, or whatever. And of course, with wristwatches and PDAs sporting cameras, where exactly do you draw the line?