Top Items:
Lisa Vaas / eWEEK.com:
Critical Impact: Windows Metafile Flaw a 'Zero-Day Exploit' — Updated: Code for what Secunia is deeming an "extremely critical flaw" in Windows Metafile Format files is being exploited on fully patched systems. Researchers are currently tracking thousands of sites distributing the exploit code.
Discussion:
Matt Cutts, Security Fix, Neowin.net, Incremental Blogger, Sunbelt BLOG and Microsoft Watch
RELATED ITEMS:
Joel Spolsky / joelonsoftware.com:
The Perils of JavaSchools — Lazy kids. — Whatever happened to hard work? — A sure sign of my descent into senility is bitchin' and moanin' about "kids these days," and how they won't or can't do anything hard any more. — When I was a kid, I learned to program on punched cards.
Paul R. La Monica / CNN:
Does Ma Bell want a DISH? — There are rumors that AT&T may bid for EchoStar. Speculation seems premature but a deal makes sense. — NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Cable companies and telecoms are at each other's throats. — Cablers Comcast (Research) and Cox are trying to steal customers …
Discussion:
Techdirt
RELATED ITEM:
Ken Belson / New York Times:Offspring in Charge, and Ma Bell Gets a Makeover
Discussion:
IP Democracy
Brian Krebs / Security Fix:
Sony BMG to Settle Class-Action Lawsuit — Sony BMG Music Entertainment has agreed to a settlement that would end a nationwide class-action lawsuit brought against the company over security flaws in anti-piracy software that it shipped on millions of music CDs.
RELATED ITEM:
Hugh Macleod / gapingvoid:
BLOGGING DOUBLED STORMHOEK SALES IN LESS THAN TWELVE MONTHS — [The original brochure that came with the bloggers' Stormhoek bottle.] — A journalist phoned me yesterday about an article she is writing about business blogs for one of the large UK trade mags.
JD Lasica / New Media Musings:
Top 10 Tech Transformations of 2005 — Everyone else is making Best of 2005 top 10 lists, so here's a quick list of Top 10 ways in which technology has impacted our culture during 2005, in no particular order. I didn't check any other writer's lists, so I probably missed some big ones.
TDavid / Things That:
Amazon Connect program not an author blog hosting experiment — The new Amazon Connect program aims to increase the connection between author and readers by providing an Amazon hosted 'blog'. Ok, that's what Clickz is calling it, but that doesn't seem to be what Amazon is actually using for a description …
San Francisco Chronicle:
Google team sets sights on big screen — Entertainment-savvy co-founders invest in Stanford friend's independent film, shot in S.F. — After becoming Internet moguls, Google Inc. co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are dipping their toes into Hollywood.
Discussion:
Search Engine Watch Blog
Jeremy Reimer / Ars Technica:
Microsoft predicts Xbox 360 to become profitable by July 2006 — Microsoft has taken the bold step of announcing that the Xbox 360 will become profitable by the start of the company's 2007 financial year, which begins in July 2006. While this is an admirable and ambitious target …
RELATED ITEM:
George Liu / thensr.com:
Hacking AIM — Special Note: The NSR, nor any of its writers, condones the use of the programs and techniques shown. — When America Online launched AOL Instant Messenger in late 1997, it quickly became a smash hit. It was a new form of communication that took the world by storm.
Deborah Fallows / pewinternet.org:
How Women and Men Use the Internet: Women are catching up to men in most measures of online life. Men like the internet for the experiences it offers, while women like it for the human connections it promotes. — A wide-ranging look at the way American women and men use the internet shows …
Discussion:
IP Democracy
Ashlee Vance / The Register:
Overstock shares fade as CEO warns of 'drugs or dead body' caper — Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne continues to break new ground as the head of a publicly traded company. In a single TV interview last week, he shocked investors by revealing that holiday sales were far below expectations …
Discussion:
Web Publishing Blog
Search Engine Watch:
dannysullivan — Reputation: — As it happens, I was at a friend's house yesterday who has a completely new site, only a month and a half old. He was wondering why another site was outranking him. I'm probably going to go into detail about what I found, but fair to say, there was a sandbox effect for everything I could see.
Nick Wilson / Performancing.com:
John Battelle Talks to Performancing about FM Publishing — Over the holidays I had a chance to talk to John Battelle of FM Publishing, a new but much discussed blog ad network that's currently in beta. FM has a whole bunch of high profile bloggers working with it already …
Discussion:
John Battelle's Searchblog
Read/WriteWeb:
Acquisitions and The Big 3 — William Slawski has compiled two very useful lists of acquisitions, first by Google and now by Yahoo (see also The Guardian's list). I'll add the third, Microsoft's acquisitions as listed on their corporate site. From 2003 on: — Nov. 3, 2005: FolderShare
ABCNEWS:
iPod Replaced With Meat — Unsuspecting Mom Gives Son iPod for Christmas — Discovers Mystery Meat Inside — HAWAII, Dec. 29, 2005 — Rachel Cambra couldn't wait to see the look on her 14-year-old son's face when he opened a very special present on Christmas morning.
