First up was a brief revival of last year's hit musical "Oh God, my smartphone is dead" as RIM's Blackberry network bit the big one for a second time in less than a year, leaving millions of addicts — including a certain Leader of the Free World who shall remain nameless — without their beloved Crackberries. RIM — anybody else think they should rename it RIP? — is blaming it on a routine upgrade gone wrong, but we're thinking it's time to switch to Android, 'cause everyone knows crack is wack.

Speaking of all things wack, the UK is planning an ISP-level game of Wack-A-Mole with file-sharers under a new proposal that would require ISPs to disconnect users who access pirated materials under a three-strikes-you're-out system. The ISPs say the plan just isn't cricket, as cutting off pirates could cost them billions of pounds in lost revenues. Meanwhile, New York is moving to cut off registered sex offenders from sites like MySpace and Facebook, which frequently act as an online smorgasbord for predators. The plan — which would require registered offenders to hand over their screen-names to the government so they can be blocked by social networks — seems a bit naïve given the technical loopholes available online, but if passed would be the first of its kind.

While we're on the subject of government regulation, Intel's German offices felt the sting of regulation yesterday as EU investigators raided several locations and and collected evidence for the Commission's ongoing anti-trust probe. Intel says it's "cooperating," but we suspect that means "hiding the evidence while they climb the stairs." Comcast, meanwhile, has , admitting openly to the practice in their response to the FCC's probe, despite several months spent denying the practice to everyone from customers to Congress. Here's hoping they get what they deserve.

Last but not least, it's your daily dose of Yahoo news, with the shocking announcement that the stock-picker in charge of the investment fund that owns the second-largest share of Yahoo wants Microsoft to offer more money. Gasp — how could we not have seen that coming, a stockbroker wanting to sell high? Meanwhile, Yahoo finally scored one on their arch-competitor, convincing T-Mobile to drop Google for Yahoo as fast asStarbucks dropped T-Mobile for AT&T. The day wasn't a total bust for the number-one searcher, though, as Nokia announced they still have love for Big Daddy G.

That's about all the wack we can take, so we're out.

Crackberries Go Wacked, Downloaders Get Smacked, and Intel's Been Jacked

We all thought it was time to party, that the enemy was finally vanquished, that it was time for Champagne and cigars. We learned our lesson yesterday afternoon, though, when SCO smacked us all in the face with a hundred million dollars.

That's right, SCO suddenly has deep pockets, courtesy of their friend Stephen Norris, the uber-finance geek. Norris and his private equity firm — Stephen Norris Capital Partners, LLC — have decided to buy a stake in SCO, though the exact amount won't be clear until the Utah courts decide how much SCO has to pay IBM and Novell. What is clear is that they suddenly have a $95 million line-of-credit to pursue all the litigation their cold, black hearts desire. Others have pointed out that these guys are the biggest, baddest, beat-the-crap-out-of-anyone-in-their-way-ist, and won't have a moment's pause about coming after everyone in the Linux world, from IBM and Novell right down to us, the everyday users.

As the ever-vigilant White Knights over at Groklaw point out, there's still some hope — the all-powerful Bankruptcy court can quash them with the stroke of a pen, and the European Commission not to mention the SEC may well have a thing or two to say — but the outlook certainly isn't as rosy as it was on Wednesday.

Lord have mercy..

I think i am going to vomit...

SCO is Back, and This Time It's Personal | Linux Journal

For several years, marketers have been transfixed by the possibilities of influencing and engaging large audiences via the Internet. While it's true that the use of Internet marketing has skyrocketed, it still remains (for the most part) a one-way pipe. Email marketing, paid search, banner advertising and other online derivatives of one-way, offline techniques lead the way.

New research by KnowledgeStorm and Universal McCann identifies that this may be changing. This report, the second in a series of studies looking at the impact emerging online applications have on B2B technology marketing, finds that blogs and Real Simple Syndication (RSS) are catching on more quickly than previously thought. This year, for the first time, blogs have joined top-rated communication tactics such as free-trial demos, Webcasts, and white papers as successful means for attracting high-quality technology prospects, according to MarketingSherpa's 2006 Business Technology Marketing Benchmark Guide.

The rising importance of blogs - and to a lesser extent RSS - cannot be understated, and is significant because these technologies are inherently bi-directional. They represent the core and spirit of the Web 2.0 ethos whereby millions of daily peer-to-peer conversations and dialogs occur throughout the Web. Now, instead of these conversations simply pertaining to politics or world events, they are also coalescing around topics such as CRM software and network intrusion detection and other B2B technology topics. Indeed, this report finds that the blogosphere is making inronull

How Blogs & Real Simple Syndication (RSS) Impact B2B Technology Purchase Decisions

BusinessWeek apparently doesn't need anyone to help it boost its Web traffic.

According to a blog post on Gawker, BusinessWeek not only asks people not to link to its site, it specifically directs them to its user agreement that prohibits the practice of "deep linking."

Gawker points to the example of SmugMug CEO Don MacAskill, who writes in his blog that after being interviewed for a feature story in BusinessWeek, he was expressly told not to link to the story. "Yes, that's right, an ad-driven publication doesn't want us to drive traffic to them," he says in his blog. In addition, he was urged to review the company's user agreement.

According to the user agreement on BusinessWeek's Web site, a user may not:

"use or attempt to use any 'deep-link,' 'scraper,' 'robot,' 'bot,' 'spider,' 'data mining,' 'computer code' or any other automated device, program, tool, algorithm, process or methodology or manual process having similar processes or functionality, to access, acquire, copy, or monitor any portion of BW.com, any data or content found on or accessed through BW.com, or any other BW.com information without prior express written consent of BW."

While some online publications have a policy on deep linking, it's pretty unusual to enforce it. Most sites obviously consider it a boon for page views and look on it favorably, as long as the content is credited to the correct source.

MacAskill speculates that BusinessWeek's stance is the result of corporate red tape, and not something that would be embraced by its reporters and editors. "To spend all of this time and energy on their articles, only to have the crazy business people make it impossible for people to read their work, must be incredibly trying," he says in his blog.

hmm...

'BusinessWeek': Don't link to us

Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the third largest U.S. mobile service, said it sued four service providers for infringement of its Voice over Packet (VoP) patents and sought injunction and monetary damages.

The company alleges that each of the four companies infringed at least 6 VoP patents by selling services that utilize Sprint's patents.

The lawsuits are against NuVox Communications Inc, Broadvox Holdings LLC, Big River Telephone Co and Paetec Communications Inc, Sprint Nextel said in a statement.

(Reporting by Neetha Mahadevan in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)null

can someone help me find out what these patents are? I cant seem to find any info...

Sprint Nextel files patent suits against 4 firms

Wal-Mart pledged Wednesday to cut the energy used by many of its products 25 percent, to force the chain’s suppliers to meet stricter ethical standards and to apply its legendary cost-cutting skills to help other companies deliver health care for their employees.

In a lofty address that at times resembled a campaign speech, the chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores, H. Lee Scott Jr., said that “we live in a time when people are losing confidence in the ability of government to solve problems.” But Wal-Mart, he said, “does not wait for someone else to solve problems.”

He then laid out sweeping plans for the company on several health and environmental issues, and he hinted that even more ambitious goals might be on the horizon. Mr. Scott said, for instance, that Wal-Mart is talking to leaders of the automobile industry about selling electric or hybrid cars — and might even install windmills in its parking lots so customers could recharge their cars with renewable electricity.

Ok I can see WM selling low cost electric cars but what to do when you need repair? WM parts department?

Wal-Mart Chief Offers a Social Manifesto

Fears that 2008 will see the looming recession in the US spreading to every other continent triggered a global crash in share prices yesterday, wiping £77bn off the value of the City's blue-chip stocks in the biggest one-day points fall in London's history.

On a day of panic selling, hefty overnight falls on far eastern stock markets prompted a ripple effect through Europe and left the City's FTSE 100 index down 323.5 points at 5578.2 at the close.

Since the start of the year share prices have dropped by 14%, with the near 900-point fall in the FTSE 100 wiping out all the gains of the last 18 months and putting renewed pressure on pension funds. Yesterday's 5.48% fall was the biggest in percentage terms since the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks but less than half as big as the record 12.2% drop in October 1987.

In the City's money markets, traders were betting that the risk of a synchronised global downturn would force the Bank of England to cut interest rates by a full percentage point during the course of 2008 despite its concerns about inflationary pressure. Economists are expecting the toughest year for the UK since the pound was removed from the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992.

In the US, pressure is mounting on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by 0.75 points at its meeting later this month, taking its main policy rate down to 3.5%. Some analysts believe it will be necessary to cut rates to 1% by the end of this year to prevent the contagion from bad loans to subprime mortgage borrowers causing even more damage to the rest of the economy.

Shares in London closed near their lows for the day amid concerns that the market rout would continue today when Wall Street opens after being closed for the Martin Luther King public holiday. Last night, there were indications that the Dow Jones industrial average would open more than 600 points lower.

In other markets, Japan's Nikkei index was down almost 4%, while Germany's Dax and France's CAC index both fell by 7%. With markets in the developing world also suffering, the MSCI gauge of stock markets globally sank 3.3% percent, falling below its 2007 trough to lows last seen in December 2006 and taking it down more than 12% so far this year.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, warned western countries to expect knock-on effects from the slowdown in the US, the world's biggest economy. "The situation is serious," Strauss-Kahn said after meeting the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy. "All countries in the world are suffering from the slowdown in growth in the United States, all countries in the developed world."

After briefly rising above $100 a barrel earlier this month, the cost of oil fell by $2 a barrel to $88.59 yesterday in expectation that weaker demand for energy would push down the price of crude. Mining stocks were among the biggest losers in London amid concern... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

'And in the end the age was handed, The sort of shit that it demanded.'

On December 27, the IRS announced that despite recent changes to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) law, the vast majority of taxpayers can begin filing in mid-January. Unfortunately, as many as 13.5 million may have to wait as the IRS reprograms its systems to account for the new law. The individual AMT laws, intended in 1969 to affect only the wealthy, have not been adjusted to account for inflation. As a result, the AMT potentially affects more taxpayers each year. To remedy this, Congress has passed a patch for the last several years to minimize the effect of the AMT. However, this year's patch was late enough in the season that it will affect the IRS's readiness to process tax returns and pay refunds.

Although the IRS is asking certain taxpayers to wait until February 11th to file, H&R Block customers can file now - depending on your tax situation, we will hold your return securely and file them automatically when the IRS is ready.

Taxpayers who use the following forms will be affected:
Form 8863, Education Credits
Form 5695, Residential Energy Credits
Schedule 2, Form 1040A, Child and Dependent Care Expenses
Form 8396, Mortgage Interest Credit
Form 8859, District of Columbia First-Time Homebuyer Credit

All other e-file and paper returns will be accepted starting as scheduled in January. The IRS urges affected taxpayers to file electronically in order to reduce wait times for their refunds. Taxpayers who e-file and use the direct deposit option get refunds in as little as 10 days, while paper returns take four to six weeks.

Wont hurt me... Does it you?

13.5 million impacted by AMT patch

- Genesco Inc. and United Rentals Inc. plunged in the past week after deals to acquire them faltered, heightening concern that takeovers won't help small U.S. companies overcome a slowing economy and higher borrowing costs.

Genesco, the shoe retailer seeking to be bought by Finish Line Inc., fell the most in five years today after UBS AG asked a judge to let it out of an agreement to finance the $1.5 billion acquisition. United Rentals dropped to the lowest in a year after Cerberus Capital Management LP last week backed out of a $4 billion agreement to buy the largest U.S. construction-equipment rental company.

A jump in borrowing costs sparked by subprime-mortgage defaults is making takeovers more expensive. At the same time, profit growth at the smallest companies may slow as the housing recession spreads to the broader economy, diminishing companies' ability to pay down their debt. The Russell 2000 Index, whose members have a median market value of $589.7 million, has declined 12 percent from its July record.

``With tight credit and the feeling of uneasiness in the market, you're going to see a lot of institutions not willing to loan money for a buyout,'' said Andrew Seibert, who helps manage $400 million at Nextier Wealth Management in Pittsburgh. ``If there is a slowdown in the U.S. economy, that will have a major effect on any company that's leveraged highly.''

Announced U.S. mergers and acquisitions totaled $95.7 billion last month, down 64 percent from this year's peak monthly pace of $267.3 billion in May. Some buyout firms remain unable to finance debt for leveraged buyouts at terms they need to make the acquisitions viable.

Slowing Economy

U.S. gross domestic product will probably grow at an annual rate of 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter, down from a 3.9 percent pace last quarter, according to the median forecast in Bloomberg survey of economists.

A slowdown may hurt earnings at companies in the Russell 2000, which relied on the U.S. for 84 percent of their sales last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with 73 percent for companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.

Genesco Inc. and United Rentals Inc. plunged in the past week...

iRobot's soap-opera-esque trade secret and patent lawsuits against rival Robotic FX entered a new phase last night, as the US District Court in Boston handed down a preliminary injunction preventing Robot FX from acting on a $279M contract to build Negotiator robots for the Department of Defense. Saying that Robotic FX CEO Jameel Ahed's admissions that he'd destroyed evidence "profoundly undermined" his credibility, the judge ruled that there was enough of a likelihood that iRobot would win its trade secret case to warrant an injunction -- the idea being to keep Robotic FX from gaining any benefits from a possible theft. The judge didn't make the exact terms of the injunction public, but she did order a trial to begin no later than April 4 -- which means there's still a lot of drama to come.

iRobot wins injunction against Robotic FX ...