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Backspin

By Mark Gibbs

Comments to backspin@gibbs.com.

Gibbsblog
The place to discuss Gibbs's columns.

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SCO and just desserts
07/17/08
SCO is in Chapter 11 and now must pay Novell over $2.5 million. Are we getting near to the end of the story?
Privacy and the red pill
07/10/08
Let's face it. Your privacy really doesn't exist. For a few bucks anyone can get the details of your life. What can be done to get our privacy back?
Top-level domains rethought
07/02/08
At ICANN's recent Paris meeting the board unanimously agreed to allow the creation of arbitrarily named top level domains by those with deep pockets. Gibbs thinks that this is not a good idea.
Privacy? Hah!
06/26/08
Continuing from last week’s Backspin Gibbs relates some user feedback and discovers that your data (and his) is available to pretty much anyone who wants to look at it.
Debt collectors mining your secrets
06/19/08
Gibbs gets a call from a debt collector and learns about skip tracing and the largely unregulated industry behind it.
Managing institutional memory
06/13/08
Companies have things they need to remember such as domain renewals but how can they remember them over years or decades?
Handling your product problems
06/05/08
When you have an application or service that you have rolled out to hundreds or thousands of people and you discover a serious problem what do you do? Are you a big boy about it or a weenie?
Evolving enterprise IT
05/29/08
Many enterprise IT shops are stuck with big, expensive systems and applications that e-fossilized into place. Time to make changes!
Windows Media Center RIP?
05/22/08
Microsoft’s Windows Media Center obeys the broadcast flag when it doesn’t have to, and consumers won’t be happy. This could kill off the Microsoft Windows Media Center product line.
The IT Curmudgeon cuts loose
05/15/08
The IT Curmudgeon has been quiet for too long. He’s been biding his time, waiting for the right moment to cut loose, but then he realized that in the world of enterprise IT there never will be a right time to vent his spleen and that there’s no time like the present.
WoW license spat could be trouble for IT
05/08/08
If Blizzard prevails in the case of World of Warcraft cheating software, licensing could become more complex.
Microsoft hack pack spells trouble
05/01/08
Microsoft has announced a suite of tools called COFEE that makes forensic analysis of Windows easier. This means that there is a whole universe of potential exploits just waiting to be found.
Knock, knock, it’s the FBI
04/24/08
In what appears to be an overzealous attempt to catch pedophiles the FBI has created “honeypot” links, but the consequences could be far reaching.
Fighting off strangers bearing candy
04/17/08
Users aren't naive, they are willfully ignorant. The latest installment of a experiment shows just how easily users can undermine IT security. Here's a summary of the survey and four ways to reduce the impact of user ignorance.
How will you own the customers?
04/10/08
The big opportunity for businesses is to “own” consumers, but to do so a whole new level of support will be required from IT.
Internet music tax, a bad idea
04/03/08
Warner Music is proposing a tax on Internet users to cover industry losses on illegal music sharing, but what it amounts to is a protection racket.
Politics and technology
03/27/08
A potential thin wedge of censorship shows that politics and censorship are intertwined and inseparable.
Reviewing your top IT hates
03/20/08
The recent Backspin column "My Top Eight IT Hates" got a lot of feedback. Here,s a selection of reader comments.
Vista vs. Darwin
03/13/08
Vista has introduced too many interface changes and users are having problems. Add to that the issues of SP1 and you've got a real mess.
Military insecurity
03/06/08
The Internet domain of a small town in England was confused with the domain of a nearby air force base. Not only did it receive private data, it was also sent secret military information.
My Top Eight IT Hates
02/28/08
The Web is full of “top” lists, and Gibbs weighs in with his own Top Eight IT Hates.
Budget cuts herald the IT Ice Age
02/22/08
As the recession looms it looks like IT budgets will be hit hard. Pondering belt tightening and a product that could save you money but runs counter to conventional IT thinking.
Comcast, serving users or itself?
02/14/08
Comcast has admitted to shaping traffic. Yes, it has that right – as long as consumers have choice.
Complex software? Plan to fail!
02/08/08
I just got some feedback from reader Stephanie Bice, the regional manager of Digital Warehouse, about my recent Gearhead column concerning my adventures with Network Solutions’ ecommerce offerings.
Trend Micro sucker punches Barracuda
02/01/08
If Trend Micro gets its way in fighting Barracuda Networks, free open source software could be a new club for intellectual property owners to beat other companies into submission.

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