Slashdot Mirror

prostoalex writes "Remember Flooz? Or Beenz? With a few notable successes (PayPal, and that's about it) online micropayment industry is saving its success stories for future generations. New York Times reports about two nascent micropayment systems, one coming out of Stanford, one out of MIT, that are supposed to help the content producers and Internet users to engage in less-than-a-dollar financial transactions without huge overhead costs, so typical of credit card payments. BitPass requires you to purchase a virtual debit card with a certain amount on it to pay for products and services, and PepperCoin consolidates numerous micropayments into one bill that is then split between the content providers that managed to sell their product to the Internet user." I still believe that single penny transactions will revolutionize the net.

Slashback tonight brings you updates on the current doings (and name) of J. Jovan Philyaw, the man behind the :CueCat, the alleged worldwide infestation of file-trading computers with an RIAA-sponsored worm (not true, they say), the privacy implications of GeoURL markup, and more. Read on for the details.

When pranksters float your trial balloons for you. ninenet writes "A follow-up on the story posted earlier on Slashdot ... The RIAA has now officially stated that the claims of an elaborate P2P worm are 'a complete hoax.' A story on eWeek quotes an RIAA spokesman as saying, "Someone forwarded the message to us and that was the first we heard or read about it.""

<Location>,<location>,<location > A few days ago, we mentioned the interesting geographic lookup / markup system of GeoURL. Joshua Schachter, the fellow who runs GeoURL (and editor of memepool, to boot), writes with "some responses of mine to comments posted:

Q: "Why not use the WHOIS database for address information?"

A: GeoURL is geographic content markup. Nobody cares where your server is - where are YOU? That said, I'm waiting for someone to hook their GPS into their web page and keep GeoURL updated.

This way different URLs can have different coordinates, as well.

Q: "Blah blah blah blah privacy."

A: If you want privacy, don't put your location on your web page.

Q: "You're evil and you're going to steal this information and go private, just like CDDB did."

A: The content is marked up on the pages and not entered into my database. Anyone could easily write a similar service (and I hope they do.)

I plan to create a page containing lessons learned and useful code snippets for other people who would like to implement similar stuff."

Most importantly, I hope this helps the development of distributed speed-trap logging and mapping!

Making this up would be too easy. An anonymous reader writes "Egomaniacal former Dot.Bomb 'entrepreneur' J. Jovan Philyaw has escaped the asylum and is back with even bigger delusions of grandeur. When last we saw him, J.J. was trying to shove the misbegotten :CueCat/:CRQ combination on unsuspecting users. Now, he's apparently writing a couple of books, selling his 'power crystals' that adorned the offices of Digital:Convergence, and changing his name: his sites refer to him now as J. Hutton Pulitzer. Apparently the utter and complete failure of Digital:Convergence (loss of at least $185M) hasn't dented his ego one bit. In his bio, he actually compares himself to Thomas Edison. A hilarious must-read for those who followed the :CueCat debacle (and for those of us who worked there)."

I hope all these things can be adapted for recumbents. Jamie Briant writes: "Saw your update to the slashdot story on games for exercise bikes. I'm a developer for exertris.com that makes a bike with LCD screen built in, which we sell primarily to gyms, but you can buy in the UK at Harrods. We write and tune the games specifically to motivate you to exercise."

renard writes "Slate is carrying a column by Brendan Koerner arguing that reviving the Ricochet city-wide wireless network infrastructure would be a better idea than blanketing the nation/world with 802.11-ish WiFi. He reviews all the usual silly reasons why Metricom, the original owners, were unable to make a go of it, and makes a good case that things may go better the second time around."

dc_cypher asks: "Soon after I read these two articles, I stumbled across a secure unified IM client powered by Bantu on a Sprint site. While many people are turning to electronic communications to enhance (and protect) their reachability in the midst of the recent terrorist activities, what can we do to keep these useful non-corporate alternatives from being legally and financially slaughtered, only to end up joining their file-sharing bretheren in the internet graveyard?"

mertzman writes: "Rather than wait for the government assaults on civil liberties to reach full steam, ClearChannel, one of the nation's largest radio networks, has decided to do some censorship on their own! According to F***edCompany, ClearChannel has created a list of banned songs with "questionable content" in light of the recent tragedies. Stuff ranging from Drowning Pool's "Bodies" to Nena's anti-war hit "99 Red Balloons" have made their list." ClearChannel owns many radio stations, so this probably affects you. Update: 09/18 18:30 GMT by M : The San Francisco Chronicle has more on this - ClearChannel says it isn't an official mandate, just some sort of internal memo circulating. Update: 09/18 23:18 PM GMT by T : Fuzzy points out that "snopes.com has an explanation of the ClearChannel hoax. ClearChannel has also sent out a press release saying they have released no such list."

An anonymous reader noted that Slashdot's Parent Company VA Linux Systems has made an appearance on f'dcompany. I'm sure I'm not the only one who frequents the site, so I won't bother explaining it. The report says that VA is planning a lot of layoffs. Amusingly enough, it also mentions that VA hardware largely powers F'd company. Your guess is as good as mine wrt the truth in this rumor, and what it means if it is.

Cambridge writes: "ArsDigita University, which has been previously featured here, has lost its funding for the 2001-2002 year, and so won't be accepting applications. While it is all perfectly reasonable to expect that the good and great causes rising out of the Internet Boom will suffer the same fate as the many bad causes in the Internet Bust, I find it rather sad nonetheless." Note that the course materials will remain online, though -- so while it's still a sad turn that they can't accept applicants for the on-campus program for now, there is a silver lining.

Kurt from Joystick101 sent in linkage to a report of a presentation on the XBox which shows things like the molding process, hardware layout, involved developers and more. idcmp sent in something a little stranger: its a letter allegedly from nintendo talking about an un-named company (obviously microsoft) and the affect they are having on the industry. No clue if its real, but it sure looks like it might be.

Gridle writes: "In short, eFront was a company which bought out successful websites and turned them into cash cows by maximizing profit through different ways of banner and other advertising. Not a bad idea, except that their methods aren't exactly pretty ones. A disgruntled employee obtained some crucial ICQ logs (mirror), which show the true spirit behind eFront. It includes cheating on banner companies, cheating on top100 sites, talking about raping a female webmaster because she doesn't agree on some points, tax evasion, delaying payment to webmasters, literally harrassing sites out of existance and all kinds of other nasty stuff. Somebody put together a summary about how it concerns the emulation scene. Also notice OverClocked's comic about it and Tim Eckel's previous ventures against the emulation community, and Penny Arcade. And it's all over the place already. FuckedCompany, SomethingAwful, Lum the Mad (and their forums), Get High Forums, mame.dk support pages and Retrogames' General and Current Affairs boards. Somebody even found that their CEO has earlier been convicted."

blurzero writes: "Remember DotComGuy? The Texan who decided to prove that people could buy everything they needed through e-commerce by locking himself in his home for an entire year, and Webcasting the entire thing? Well, DCG made it through all 366 days! F*ckedCompany.com, however, is reporting that DCG's sponsors have all dried up, and he will be receiving none of the $100,000 he was supposed to be paid. There's no word on the DCG homepage." This guy would have been a lot braver to try this 10 years ago. Seems like the only real problem for the modern online hermit expecting $100,000 is enough room to exercise.

Extra, extra -- Read more about it! Yes, that means another round of Slashback, bearing this time: The stillborn auction of [expletive deleted]company.com's domain name; why EPIC has decided to stop sailing with Amazon; and another tantalizing glimpse of a world so advanced we can watch instruction videos on personal computers. More, too.

Even Richard Feynman could have figured this out! Logos writes: "It seems that EPIC has decided to end their relationship with Amazon. Here is a link to the letter that I received on their mailing list. The final straw was Amazon's announcement that they are no longer able to ensure the privacy of their Customer Info."

How apropos! Servius writes: "Doublespeak is a wonderful thing. CNN has this story about EPIC dropping out of the Amazon affiliate program because of Amazon's recent relaxation of their rules for the use of personal data. Quote: 'The new policy is actually stricter than the previous one because it spells out the conditions under which personal information can be transferred.' I hope that makes you feel a lot safer."

Potty mouth, potty mouth, Milkman Dan! Domain shoppers everywhere, your time to mourn has come. After placing the domain f*ckedcompany.com for sale on everyone's favorite auction site site owner Philip Kaplan pulled the auction.

h0ngk0ngph00ey writes:

"After a quick check back at eBay today to see how high the bidding went for f*ckedcompany.com, I was somewhat surprised to see that the auction was ended. A look at the bid history seems to indicate that either eBay pulled it for being offensive, or the seller just got too many responses from people who weren't at all serious. /.'ed to death it seems."

lee@lvcm.com has a different perspective:

"Well without warning the owner pulled the auction from ebay. I was one of the serious high bidders and was never contacted by the owner. CNNfn contacted me and asked me questions (along with several other news organizations) and they were all under the assumption that he really wanted to sell the domain. I guess it was all a publicity stunt."

Will the Geeks in Space have to play Apollo 13? rak3 writes: "The Sync, home for the broadcasts of Geeks in Space and JenniShow (of JenniCam fame), seems to have run into some troubles. The company was going to be acquired, but this has fallen through and they might have to shut down the site. Read more about it here."

It's sad, since the folks behind The Sync have served to support everyone from local artists to aforementioned Geeks in Space. Hopefully, they can pull through this. If not, smart companies everywhere will start mailing them job offers right about now!

Soon I will watch Carlito Brigante kick ass with penguin supervision. cyber-vandal writes: "Two days after the Ask Slashdot on Intervideo's LinDVD, the announcement has been made here. No sign of the actual player being available, but this is a good sign that it wasn't merely MPAA-inspired vapourware. At last I can look forward to fragging my Win9x partition."

And here's another tibdit to add to the DeCSS gallery, for anyone else who admires the technical possibilities of the DVD format but not the politics attached thereto, GeekLife.com writes: "[H]ere's the DVD Logo rendered in beautiful shades of gray using the DECSS code as ink. "

A reader "This is for real. FuckedCompany.com is for sale! The owner is selling it on eBay. Six hours ago it was at $2.24 with 2 bidders, but now it's up to 40 bidders, at $20,300. See the auction right now. " Somehow, I think this is the logical extension of the eBay philosphy. You can read about it on the Web site as well. Update: 09/11 01:53 PM by CT : Two points: this is a real Web site, not just a domain name. Its actually really funny: you rate companies' chances of survival. But this really is just a stunt to draw press (like this) and traffic (if you happen to click the link above) to a clever site. It's a cute one and an interesting site for gauging people's opinions of companies.

A reader "This is for real. FuckedCompany.com is for sale! The owner is selling it on eBay. Six hours ago it was at $2.24 with 2 bidders, but now it's up to 40 bidders, at $20,300. See the auction right now. " Somehow, I think this is the logical extension of the eBay philosphy. You can read about it on the Web site as well. Update: 09/11 01:53 PM by CT : Two points: this is a real Web site, not just a domain name. Its actually really funny: you rate companies' chances of survival. But this really is just a stunt to draw press (like this) and traffic (if you happen to click the link above) to a clever site. It's a cute one and an interesting site for gauging people's opinions of companies.

A bankruptcy judge has refused to prohibit Toysmart.com's customer information from being sold as an asset against its debts. See the New York Times or the AP wire (CNET) version. Judge Kenner notes that objections may be raised later, and believes that in the absence of a buyer, any decision now would be premature. This case is key because, if the web's privacy policies are not guaranteed after a company goes belly-up, they're mostly toilet paper. But the lawyer for the now-bankrupt company argued that the privacy contract between TRUSTe and Toysmart, allegedly guaranteeing visitors' privacy, "like others in a bankruptcy proceeding, may have to be broken in order to realize the highest value for creditors in a sale."

That lawyer went on to say that the "adverse publicity" raised about the auctioning-off of your privacy made it hard to find a buyer for your personal information. A shame. "Now we're back where we started."

Why is he so worried about not finding a buyer? Because information about customers is valuable. Don't let corporations pretend otherwise. Selling who you are and what you buy can be a substantial source of revenue; as far as these companies are concerned, that's just one of their assets, like their cash in the bank or their real estate. Toysmart will continue to try to auction off those databases, probably after media attention dies down and it becomes easier to make the sale quietly.

And sadly, even if privacy prevails this time, it may not be important enough to set precedent, since the presence of childrens' information makes the Toysmart case "unique."

Update: 08/18 04:09 AM by J : For background info on the dot-com going-out-of-business process, check out this PlanetIT article. Note in particular that it can be hard for many dot-coms to find any tangible assets to sell, thus, customer data becomes more important.