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Slashback: Zip, Language, Opportunism

Slashback tonight brings you updates and corrections from recent and ongoing stories, including (this time around) non-silver silver paste, the return of the Orkut, Mike Rowe and his not-so-epic battle with Microsoft (one last time, I hope), the future of Zip for Microsoft Windows, and more. Read on below for the details.

Funny name, well-executed idea. YourMother writes "After almost 4 days of being offline, the social network Orkut is back online. The Orkut development team has been working nonstop since bringing it down on Sunday afternoon and quite a few new security features have been implemented to protect users information. Within the first 48 hours it was up, it gained almost 100,000 users, growing many times faster than other social networks like Friendster or Tribe. Did Google hit the social network bulls-eye?"

glinden points to a story with some more information about those security holes. "From the article, 'Sources close to Google suggest widespread XSS (cross-site scripting) hacks forced the closure of the service. It isn't clear how much personal data or communication was disclosed.'"

Playmate. Playmate, playmate playmate. An anonymous reader writes "A week after an appeals court ruling revived a Playboy Enterprises Inc. trademark infringement lawsuit against Netscape Communications Inc., the companies have reached a settlement in the case (See a ZDNet report) The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed. This puts an end to a closely watched case in the search engine advertising field. Several other lawsuits over misuse of trademarks in search engine ads are still in place. Google e.g. is embroiled in a lawsuit with Luis Vuitton regarding keyword-based ads in France and asked for a California court's ruling to back its trademark policy for AdWords after facing the threat of a lawsuit from American Blind & Wallpaper Factory Inc."

You have to admire such brave nomenclature. Michiel Frackers writes "Thanks for the link to my site, I got 3 gigabyte of traffic in a few hours! If I would have known, I would have written something in English. I have added an update about the Strangeberry product and its relation to Tivo at the URL you linked to.

I also included a link to my private blog (as www.frackers.com is more about my work in media & technology). Hopefully this clarifies some things for your readers, I did not intend to make this some kind of quest or game at all: it's just that I promised Arthur and his colleagues not to disclose what they are exactly doing, as you will understand."

And Anonymous joe writes with this link to an intriguing bit of Strangeberry speculation at the Register.

Nokia to port Python to Mobiles, not Perl An anonymous reader writes "Nokia was mistaken. In fact, El Reg reports that Python, not Perl, is the preferred language for scripting on its smartphone platforms. The availability of a Python implementation for mobile phones is part of a broader plan, including a JVM-based BASIC interpreter."

However, the Register article linked says that Perl is being considered, it's just that Python is being looked at as the primary language.

I wouldn't trust their pearls, either. Blade Leader writes "OCZ has issued a recall of OCZ Ultra 2 thermal paste after the Overclockers.com article on their lack of silver content. They blame the lack on their supplier, and claim they will be pursuing legal action."

A piece of history (or at least a piece of somethin' ...) Artemis writes "Searching along E-Bay and MikeRoweSoft.com I noticed that Mike Rowe has decided to sell the Microsoft Cease-and-Desist Letters and WIPO book he received on E-Bay. He is selling the WIPO book with the 25-page letter received from Microsoft's lawyers on January 14/2004.This inch-thick book contains copies of web pages, registrations, trade marks, other WIPO cases, emails between me and Microsoft's lawyers and much more. There are 27 annexes filled with information. This package also comes with the 25-page complaint transmittal coversheet that was sent with the inch-thick book."

What's wrong with gunzip, tar? whitefox writes "CNet News is reporting that PKWare & WinZip have settled their differences and will maintain Zip file compatibility for the foreseeable future with each supporting the other's security extensions. In addition, PKWare will include its SecureZip in the code it licenses to other software makers. This is good news in deed for users and developers alike!"

21 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. Please?! by bluewee · · Score: 1, Funny

    Will someone invite me...?

    --
    [blue] - The Ministry of Information approved this message...
    1. Re:Please?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      and me? Who do you have to screw in Google to get invited?

  2. Am I the only one... by cliffy2000 · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...who associates the name "Orkut" with the Hanna-Barbera Smurfs ripoff, "The Snorks"? ...I loved that show.

  3. Did Google hit the social network bulls-eye? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They haven't let me in, so I suspect the answer is yes.

    1. Re:Did Google hit the social network bulls-eye? by Valar · · Score: 2, Funny

      because the the same quote has come up in just about every thread about orkut...

    2. Re:Did Google hit the social network bulls-eye? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      woody allen says "I wouldn't want to belong to any club that would accept me as a member"

  4. Re:Slow week then. by iminplaya · · Score: 2, Funny

    H2G2?

    --
    What?
  5. Bytecode my interpreter! by stephenisu · · Score: 2, Funny

    OK, So we are deciding that running interpreted languages on a byte-code interpreting virtual machine is a good use of a phone right?
    I need to go write a JVM in BASIC now (if it hasn't been done already) so that when I have kids, they can see what games under 6000fps look like.

    --
    Sigs? We don't need no stinking sigs!
  6. Re:Hum... by momerath2003 · · Score: 4, Funny

    You don't even have to read the article to pick this up:

    "Slashback tonight brings you updates and corrections from recent and ongoing stories..."

    That's all it is.

    --
    I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
  7. Re:Orkut by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    So are any of you guys members yet?

    No, I have real friends.

  8. why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    i can't believe you'd deal with a lawyer just to get money.

  9. Re:Zip is old school by molafson · · Score: 2, Funny

    I am sorry but zip is one of those things that has been around too long. Ace, rar, bzip2...

    Argh, ACE was the worst! Simply because there was no need for it. RAR already existed to distribute multipart binaries (i.e. warez). But for a while it was the case that any warez you would download would consist of ZIP files inside RAR files inside ACE files. WTF?

    These days I prefer Apple's DMG.

  10. Re:Orkut by rjelks · · Score: 5, Funny

    The first rule of Orkut: You do not talk about Orkut.

    -

  11. A Fair Deal... by Fnkmaster · · Score: 4, Funny
    Alright, you invite to join Orkut, and I will invite women. Lots of women. Some of them even like geeky guys (assuming you know how to shower and brush your teeth). I will bring these women into _your_ social network and introduce you to them. That's right, you could actually meet real women. Invite me and you MIGHT even get laid.


    Think about it - can you afford not to invite the Fnkmaster into your Orkut family? I didn't think so... don't be afraid... push that invite button...

  12. Re:Orkut by generic-man · · Score: 5, Funny

    Orkut is actually just a scam designed to fleece unsuspecting Internet users out of money. The record so far is $11.00.

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    For more information, click here.
  13. Re:Orkut by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh, you mean they didn't ask you? Ummm, we're all members already.

  14. A Simple Plan by 7Ghent · · Score: 2, Funny

    1. Supposedly violate Microsoft's Trademark
    2. Sell cease and desist on Ebay
    3. ???
    4. Profit!

    1. Re:A Simple Plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      > 1. Supposedly violate Microsoft's Trademark
      > 2. Sell cease and desist on Ebay
      > 3. ???
      > 4. Profit!

      Is it just me, or is the third step kinda unnececasry.

  15. Re:Zip by cscx · · Score: 4, Funny

    I still don't know how to copy a zip file created by WinXP to a floppy disk. Any ideas? Trust Microsoft to screw it up

    Yes, take your computer, unplug it, place it back into the box it was delivered in, and ship it back to the factory.

  16. I'll PayPal You $1 If You Invite Me... by MS_leases_my_soul · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dude, if you join and invite me, I will paypal you $1. Then, when I go to work tomorrow, I will be all like, "Yeah, I'm on Orkut" and all the geeks at work will be like, "Dude, you are the alpha geek. Let us in!" and I will be all like "No way! You guys are lame!" and they will be all like, "Dude, you totally suck, now let us in" and I will be like ... well, you, like, get the point. 'Cause cliques are like, totally.

    It will make my Friday. I'd buy that for a dollar! ;=)

  17. Re:Orkut has no focus by orthogonal · · Score: 2, Funny

    [For an Orkut invitation] Sure thing. Email me at dojothemouse@mac.com

    Oh, you're not fooling us, Mr. Ashcroft!

    dojothemouse@mac.com

    And neither are you, Michael Eisner!!