Mission Creek

from techcrunch.com

I think this may be a promising use for social networking. Aren’t some of the most interesting jobs always filled by a friend of someone who knows someone……..

Do job seekers and employers outside of Silicon Valley want user generated content, tagging and feeds in their employment services? The premise that they do will likely be put to the test on a global scale now that the fast growing job search site Jobster has landed $18 million more in venture funding from a team lead by international publishers Reed Elsevier. The company has now recieved almost $50 million in funding, from funders also including Ignition Partners, Mayfield Fund and Trinity Ventures…

full story here

from cio.com

This is the increasingly blurry line between the private use of computers at the workplace. Though the corporations are squarely in their legal rights, many people view computers and the internet as an increasingly personal extension and many will balk at this strict legal construction.

A large chunk of employers are letting staffers go for violations of computer and Web communications policies, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The news comes from the 2006 Workplace E-Mail, Instant Messaging and Blog survey from the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute, according to the Journal.

The survey found that more than a quarter of the employers queried had fired an employee for violating company e-mail policy, up 9 percent from the 17 percent of employers who let employees go for similar violations in 2001, the Journal reports. On top of this finding, the survey also said that 2 percent of respondents had fired workers for instant-message correspondences that weren’t appropriate, and another 2 percent of employers said they’d fired a staffer for posting distasteful content on a Web log—or blog—be it their professional or personal page, according to the Journal.

full story here

from cnet.com

Here are 2 divergent perspectives on Net Neutrality. Of course, if you want a laugh, you can hear how Ted Stevens from Alaska describes the internet here.

WASHINGTON–Two Internet pioneers dueled on Monday over whether proposed Net neutrality regulations supported by companies like Google and Amazon.com are the best way to prevent “abusive” behavior by broadband providers.

A debate here hosted by the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan research institute that brags of challenging “conservative thinking,” pitted Google Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf, who co-developed the Internet’s backbone protocols and has emerged as a leading proponent of congressional antidiscrimination mandates for network operators, against Dave Farber, a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist widely considered to be a “grandfather” of the Internet.

The pair of technologists appeared to agree on at least one thing: Network operators, in general, shouldn’t be allowed to interfere with Net users’ activities. Where they disagreed was on the role that Congress and federal regulators should play in the ongoing debate over so-called Net neutrality, the idea that network operators must generally give equal treatment to all content that travels over their pipes.

full story here

from infoworld.com

As the security techniques become more complex, it seems that the most basic scams still work their magic….

Scammers have found a way around new token-based authentication systems that have been adopted by some banks.

ver the past few weeks, approximately 35 phishing Web sites have been set up that use the new attack. They attempt to trick users into divulging the temporary passwords created by the security token devices used by banks such as Citigroup Inc., said Rich Miller, an analyst with Internet research company Netcraft Ltd.

Phishers have only recently begun looking for ways around token authentication, using what is known as a “man-in-the-middle” attack, Miller said. “These attacks are worrisome because they took advantage, fairly early on, of a system that’s seen as enhancing security for banking customers,” he said.

Token devices are used to create a temporary second password for online banking customers. These passwords are valid for a very short period of time and can be used only once, making it impossible for attackers to steal them for later use. U.S. banks have been offering the tokens to users in an effort to comply with federal guidelines that call for stronger, two-factor authentication for online transactions by year’s end.

full story here

from cnet.com

California judge on Thursday dismissed a Web site’s lawsuit against Google over its fall in the Google search index, but left the door open for the lawsuit to be amended and refiled.

KinderStart, a directory and search engine for information related to children, sued Google in March after it fell to a “zero” ranking in the Google index. The lawsuit claimed that by lowering KinderStart’s site in its PageRank system, Google had engaged in “pervasive monopolistic practices” that led to the denial of the site’s free speech rights, prevention and destruction of competition, and predatory pricing, among nine counts total.

As a result of the drop in ranking, traffic and monthly page views to KinderStart’s Web site fell 70 percent or more and the company’s revenue from advertisements through Google’s AdSense syndication program fell by more than 80 percent, according to the lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel for the Northern District in San Jose dismissed all nine claims, saying that KinderStart’s claims were insufficient or failed to allege facts or conduct to support that the claims or were too vague.

full story here

Here is a Goggle blog entry explaining its position on click-fraud.

blog entry here

from nytimes.com

Here is a great op-ed from the NY Times on the recent rulling by the NY Supreme Court on same-sex marriage.

full op-ed here 

from businessweekonline.com

Here is an interesting take on the Friendster patent and its uses.

Friendster.com may be losing some of its “friends” to upstart MySpace.com. But the old-school social-networking site just got something that MySpace lacks: a patent on—you guessed it—social networking.

The patent, issued on June 27, refers to a “system, method, and apparatus for connecting users in an online computer system based on their relationships within social networks.” While that’s pretty general, it certainly covers the activities of the dozens of other social-networking Web sites that have sprung up since Friendster filed for the patent in June, 2003.

It’s not yet clear how Friendster will use the patent, which names original founder Jonathan Abrahms as the inventor. Friendster President Kent Lindstrom says the company is in the process of determining whether the site will be able to charge licensing fees. “Any kind of businessperson would say, ‘Hey, we’re going to prosecute this to the full extent we can and get every penny we can out of it,’ ” says Lindstrom. “But we do work in a community of businesses and don’t want to just cause trouble if there is no reason for it.”

But trouble is waiting, should Friendster decide to wield the patent. “There is a legal presumption that the patent claims were properly issued over the earlier technology discussed in references that were considered by the Patent Office while the application was under examination,” says intellectual-property attorney Bill Heinze of Thomas, Kayden, Horstemeyer & Risley. “It’s very difficult for someone to convince a judge to go back and say the examiner is wrong.”

full story here 

This really makes me wonder, if more people had the resources to stand up to the RIAA, if the RIAA can ever prove up any of these cases.

Mothers. You’ve got to love them. They give birth to us, feed us, clothe us, teach us to chew with our mouths closed, and go to bat for us against the RIAA.

An Oklahoma mother, Debbie Foster, was accused by the RIAA of copyright infringement back in November 2004, and her daughter Amanda was added to the complaint in July 2005. According to the RIAA, the Internet account paid for by Debbie Foster was used for file sharing, with an unspecified number of songs downloaded.

The music group offered to settle the case for US$5,000, but Foster decided to take her chances in court. She requested that the RIAA provide specifics such as the dates of the alleged downloading and the files involved. The RIAA failed to provide the requested information and Foster filed a motion for summary judgment. In turn, the RIAA decided to cut its losses and asked the court to withdraw its case. The court approved the RIAA’s request, but named Foster the winner and awarded her attorneys fees over the RIAA’s objections.

In his opinion, Judge Lee R. West wrote, “because this Court finds that the plaintiffs’ voluntary dismissal with prejudice services as a complete adjudication of the issues set forth in their complaint and acts as a bar to further action on their claims, the court concludes the matter has been finally adjudicated in the defendant’s favor… [which] represents a judicially sanctioned material alteration in the legal relationship between Deborah Foster and the plaintiffs. Ms. Foster is therefore the prevailing party for purposes of the Copyright Act.”

…

full story here

link to decision here

from chicagobusiness.com

McDonald’s Corp. is striking back in the ongoing fast food breakfast war with a new billboard in Wrigleyville.

Designed by ad agency Leo Burnett with the input of an engineer, the billboard features a real sundial whose shadow falls on a different breakfast item each hour until noon, when the shadow of the McDonald’s arches are dead center.

full story here