How's this for nerve? Former IBM employee James Pacenza admittedly spent hours
at Big Blue not working, but trolling the Internet, cruising some of the more
licentious and lascivious spots.
When he got fired, it wasn't his fault. It
was IBM and his boss' fault because they never dealt with his Internet addiction.
Boohoo! Pacenza went through so much hassle that he clearly deserves the $5
million his lawyer is asking for.
What would you give Mr. Pacenza? Tell us at [email protected],
and try to keep it cleaner than Pacenza's Web cache!
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/19/2006 at 1:15 PM1 comments
The October cover story for Redmond magazine talks about bad IT people taking
advantage of their access to information. The stories are scary, and should
serve as a lesson: IT folks should play it clean, and smart IT managers should
protect assets from other IT people as much as from end users. Read the story
here.
Not all bad IT people get away with it. An ex-systems admin tried to get back
at former employer UBS PaineWebber by sabotaging
the computers and making money from what he hoped would be a dramatic stock
drop. The sabotage worked and 1,000 computers lost their files. However, the
stock held up better than Dick Clark. As a result, Roger Duronio got caught
and is now sentenced to eight years in the pokey.
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/19/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Time magazine doesn't make a lot of mistakes. I know firsthand how its fact
checking works and it's pretty darn rigorous. But one thing I have long been
unimpressed with is its Person of the Year. Looking back, a couple of winners
are more obscure than your college rock band (admit you had one!).
And too often it just picks the easy choice, like the president of the United
States, which it has chosen 19 times! But this year, the choice is strange and
fawning: the
person of the year is YOU.
I guess the idea is that blogs, social networks and sites like YouTube make
us all the center of attention -- we drive the content.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Russia is changing by the minute, North Korea
is rattling sabers, Israel is under increasing threat, disease and hunger is
ravaging the Third World and, oh, the Middle East is a heartbeat away from all-out
chaos -- and Time thinks blogs are the biggest thing that happened in 2006?
Are blogs changing your world? Let us know (and not just by sending a link
to your blog) by writing to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/19/2006 at 1:15 PM1 comments
Symantec is beating back a worm that
attacks
its anti-virus software. But in this case the hackers aren't exactly Johnny-on-the-spot:
Symantec finished a patch for the flaw back in May, so the worm only attacks
systems that haven't been fixed. Best get to patching!
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/19/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
You're probably used to Microsoft salespeople knocking on your door, but more
and more you may be exposed to joint Microsoft/HP sales calls. The two have
long been tight, but based on a brand-spanking new
$300
million services deal, the companies will be seeing a lot of each other.
The big areas of focus are messaging, business process, business intelligence
and unified communication.
Not sure how Michael Dell feels about the deal.
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/18/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Firefox 2.0 is pretty cool -- not quite amazing, and I find some of the basics
like navigating and creating bookmarks clunky. But I love that it can print
perfectly without needing to click the printer-friendly option. (Ever try to
print from Microsoft.com without using printer-friendly? It's a disaster, Fay!)
Maybe I'll be more bowled over by Firefox
3.0, which is now in alpha (just the fact that Mozilla doesn't invent new
terms for alphas and betas is enough reason to use Firefox).
I'm still waiting to find out if they will actually build the file system
to manage search and bookmarks they specifically promised me. Here
is my blueprint for the perfect Web browser.
Tell me if I'm nuts or on to something at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/18/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
When I steal an idea, I admit it (unlike Dilbert's Scott Adams, who hasn't come
clean for stealing my Bill Gates for president proposal!), so this next item
was lifted directly from Bob Brown, a former colleague and executive editor
of
Network World.
Bob discovered a wacky new site where
you upload your photo and learn
what celebs you look like. Bob, a world record-holder in the yo-yo and former
national toboggan competitor, ran Bill Gates (who looks like Placido Domingo)
and Steve Ballmer (who resembles Michael Moore) through the process, along with
a host of other vendor execs.
As for me, I'm not sure if I'm ugly, good-looking or a woman: Apparently, I
look like Al Gore, Viktor Yushchenko (after his face was destroyed by dioxin
poisoning), Christopher Walken, Leslie Neilsen, Pierce Brosnan and Samantha
Fox.
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/18/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
When Microsoft announced plans to offer developers free licenses to use
the Office UI for their apps, I was skeptical. First, I thought back to reporting
I did a decade or so ago at InfoWorld, where Microsoft announced pretty much
the same thing.
Then, I wondered how competitors would feel. Turns out it doesn't matter how
they feel since -- at least, according to one ISV -- competitors aren't invited.
Gen-9 was all set to support
the UI for its data management tool. But after learning that rivals can't use
the interface, the company ditched its plans because it "might" overlap
with some Microsoft tools.
And a partner today is a rival tomorrow. So what happens when Microsoft decides
to get into your market? Do you have to give the interface back?
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/13/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
A small percentage of users will move to Vista in the first year, but that small
group will still account for some
$70
billion in overall revenue, according to IDC. One chunk is the 35 million
copies sold that will be sold in 2007, but most of the dough comes from new
hardware, applications, migrations and, of course, support!
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/13/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
When the 'Net first started, criminals from around the world used it to communicate,
conspire and, sometimes, commit the crimes themselves.
Now the cops are fighting back, identifying
criminals and gathering evidence from Web postings. Most times, the criminals
are too dumb for their own good -- posing with weapons or stolen goods, or making
detailed threats. The lesson here: Be careful of what you or your kids post.
It may come back to bite you!
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/13/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
A Seattle man caused an accident involving three other cars and a city bus --
all because
he was busy with his BlackBerry.
There was no word on whether the driver was a Microsoft employee, or if the
mail was work-related or just a note to his mistress.
With its tiny keys, there's no way I could crank out a message and look
at the road at the same time -- even if it was to my mistress!
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/13/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
As we mentioned Monday, Patch Tuesday is this week. If you haven't started
plugging the latest holes, you're a day late, so get to steppin'.
There is a flaw in Visual Studio 2005 that lets hackers take over your machines,
but it takes a lot of effort to build the exploit. In any event, it might be
wise to fix this hole anyway, as the attacks can be severe.
IE 5 and 6 got patched, so all you pioneers that have IE 7 (or Firefox) needn't
worry. Get full details here.
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/13/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments