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Linked List: May 22, 2007

Tuesday, 22 May 2007

Emulex Hoax 

False press release in 2000 forged by former employee and issued via a wire service the company had never before used. The hoax PR caused Emulex to lose 62 percent of its market cap in 16 minutes of trading. (Thanks to reader Charlie Loyd.)

Michael Arrington, Proud to Be a Jackass, Too 

Michael Arrington on last week’s Engadget fiasco:

I have to say that I, too, would have posted this news based on the source. The email was in fact sent from Apple’s email server to Apple employees and was then forwarded to Engadget from a trusted source. Ryan says “For a reporter, this kind of thing — an internal memo to a company’s employees — is solid gold” and I agree. This was almost as good as a formally issued press release.

Email: Easy to spoof.

Formal press releases from a major corporation: Difficult to spoof. (Can anyone think of an example of a fraudulent official press release from a major corporation?)

The Stupidest Thing I’ve Read All Week 

Chris Barr of MyiPhone.com speculates that the bogus iPhone/Leopard delay email last week was part of a deliberate plan by Apple executives. I’m at a loss to describe how stupid this idea is.

I mean, yeah, sure, who wouldn’t risk going to prison for securities fraud to get a link on Engadget?

Breen on the Media’s Perception of Apple 

Christopher Breen on the sea change in mainstream media coverage of Apple:

What was unusual about that coverage was that — for once — it didn’t portray Apple’s products as pretty but overpriced and Apple’s customers as artsy-fartsy kooks. Rather, the press seemed willing to entertain the notion that Mac users might be savvy consumers seeking quality and ease of use in an attractive wrapper.

Markzware Files Patent Lawsuit for Preflight Software 

Markzware, makers of FlightCheck, have filed a lawsuit against the makers of a competing preflight document-checking app, on the grounds that it violates a patent for a “Device and method for examining, verifying, correcting and approving electronic documents prior to printing, transmission or recording.”

It sounds like they’re claiming to own a patent covering the entire concept of preflight software. For shame.

Microsoft Threatens Patent War Against Open Source Software 

From a feature in Fortune last week, by Roger Parloff:

So if Microsoft ever sued Linux distributor Red Hat for patent infringement, for instance, OIN might sue Microsoft in retaliation, trying to enjoin distribution of Windows. It’s a cold war, and what keeps the peace is the threat of mutually assured destruction: patent Armageddon — an unending series of suits and countersuits that would hobble the industry and its customers.

Or, as Tim Bray says, “Litigate or shut up.”

Bogus iPhone Delay Email Was an Inside Job? 

Chuq Von Rospach, on the question of whether it was easy to send a bogus email through Apple’s internal announcement mailing list:

Well, I wrote the listserver used to distribute groups internal to Apple, so I can comment on this (a bit). The easy answer is “hell, no, Apple’s not an idiot”. But that doesn’t mean the server can’t be spoofed; any email system can be spoofed if you understand email and study the system. Someone here clearly did. It’s even somewhat possible that the message originated offsite (depending on how the list was configured), but one thing I can guarantee — wherever it originated, there was someone on the inside of the company who put time and energy into understanding how to spoof the system to make this work.

The Onion — Fake News or Oracle? 

Yesterday in the L.A. Times:

With CD sales tumbling, record companies and musicians are looking at a new potential pot of money: royalties from broadcast radio stations.

The Onion, October 2002: “RIAA Sues Radio Stations For Giving Away Free Music”.

(Via Reddit.)

‘Time Is Going by Really Really Really Really Slow’ 

Police officer in Michigan confiscates marijuana from suspects, bakes it into brownies; then he and his wife eat them and get really high. The fun starts when he thinks he’s dying and calls 911.

(Via Dooce.)

Adobe CS3 Installer Turns Off Mac OS X Firewall 

Astoundingly bad form.