Exchange

Overheard: PGP is just an envelope

Perhaps you think your E-mail is legitimate enough that encryption is unwarranted. If you really are a law-abiding citizen with nothing to hide, then why don’t you always send your paper mail on postcards? Phil Zimmerman, Why do you need PGP?

Phil Zimmerman is an interesting guy. You may remember that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California tried to put him in jail for making his email encryption program, Pretty Good Privacy, public. It was a crazy story.

So what’s he up to now? VoIP security.

Video: Microsoft’s “I’m making a difference” campaign

This collaboration between Windows Live Messenger and nine non-profit organizations has raised $1.3 million dollars so far. Every time a user starts a conversation using Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft shares a portion of the program’s advertising revenue with one of the non-profit organizations.

Overheard: 75% of businesses still block instant messaging

According to a report released at Infosec 2008, nearly three quarters of businesses are blocking the use of free instant messaging (IM) applications. Asavin Wattanajantra, Infosec 08: Businesses clueless on instant messaging

The report says that retail and distribution companies were most likely to block instant messaging, while financial companies were most likely to allow instant messaging ( but they monitor its use).

Ironically, I read the article above the very same day there were blogswarms about Apple adding an instant messaging application to the iPhone — and Microsoft announcing that their Windows Live Messenger campaign has raised $1.3 million so far.

Tom Newton from Smoothwall (they commissioned the report) says that as time goes on, business will have to change. He points out that while today’s network administrators didn’t grow up with instant messaging, today’s kids are skipping right over email and using a combo of instant messaging and MySpace or Facebook to communicate with friends. I can’t argue with that. It’s that way in our house.

So here’s my question: With a whole generation (think consumers) growing up using instant messaging, how come it’s the only major communication service that isn’t interoperable? And might that have something to do with business not “getting it?”

Overheard: Is Kraken buzz just Damballa’s attempt to make a name for itself?

“Many folks in the anti-virus and broader Internet security space say Damballa is trying to make a name for itself by hyping this threat, and that Kraken is nothing more than a renamed and repackaged “Bobax,” a worm of similar lineage and methods that was discovered several years ago.” Brian Krebs, Kraken Spawns a Clash of the Titans

Overheard: Don’t use gMail for business

I’ve read in the comments on other websites that I deserved what I got, and that to use Google’s free GMail service for anything business-related is naive. David Airey, WARNING: Google’s GMail security failure leaves my business sabotaged

Mr. Roger’s mother told her little boy that when bad things happen, look for the helpers. If you have a few minutes, read through David Airey’s nightmare experience. A cracker hijacked David’s business domain name and then tried to sell it back. It seems the evil-doer had access to David’s email and timed the hijack with David’s vacation. Very scary story.

Then come back and read about the helpers. David’s story has a happy ending and the world is a friendly place.

Overheard: Let’s all declare email bankruptcy and start over January 1

Did you ever wish you could delete all your email without responding? Maybe you can. It’s called email bankruptcy. You realize you are never going to dig yourself out from under the pile of email in your inbox so you just declare that you won’t. You start afresh. Anne Zelenka, Before You Declare Email Bankruptcy…

I got another notification this morning that my mailbox is over its limit. Geesh. One of the best Facebook wall posts I read this year was from a developer at Microsoft who said that his mailbox is so out of control that he just periodically wipes everything out and just starts again — and if I wanted directions for how to do that, to email him.

Overheard: Robots take over distribution centers at Walgreens and Staples

The scene is a constant swirl of activity, like a ballroom dance, with dozens of robots and pods in motion at any one time. APICS The Association for Operations Management, Dance of the Bots

Robots move completed orders to a staging area. When the truck is ready, all the pods that have completed orders for that destination get up and move to the loading dock.

Check out this video from AT&T TV. You’re watching Kiva Systems robots. The little orange roomba-like robots follow adhesive bar codes in a high density grid pattern on the floor. They communicate with a centralized server in a big game of “Mother May I?”

Overheard: Spammers are just direct mailers

“But spammers are not dumb. They’re just direct mailers. They’re going for the 1 percent that thinks “OnlineBootyCall message” actually might mean romance is in the air.” Daniel Terdiman, The game of subconscious spam filtering