How Did Animals Escape Tsunami?, Wired News, 30 Dec 2004
“Wild animals seem to have escaped the Indian Ocean tsunami, adding weight to notions they possess a sixth sense for disasters, experts said Thursday. Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24,000 people along the Indian Ocean island's coast seemingly missed wild beasts, with no dead animals found.�
Mobile phone text messagers raising millions for Asian tsunami victims, AFP, 30 Dec 2004
“Italian mobile phone users were reported to have donated more than 11 million euros (15 million dollars) for the victims of the Asian tsunamis through a text messaging arrangement that seemed to be setting a trend in other countries. The Milan daily Corriere della Sera said Italians could contribute one euro to tsunami disaster relief every time they send a text message to a special number, thanks to a scheme sponsored by the country's four mobile phone companies and its main television channels.�
Customer Service: The Hunt for a Human, The New York Times, 30 Dec 2004
“Try to reach customer service at Amazon.com to fix a problem with an order and you will encounter one of the most prominent and frustrating aspects of the Internet era: a world devoid of humans. Not only is there no telephone number on Amazon's Web site, but the company makes a point of not including one. Instead, customers are asked to fill out an online form and wait for a response.�
Home Web Use by Country, November 2004, ClickZ, 28 Dec 2004
“Of the 11 nations for which Nielsen had fresh data in November, France led the growth, adding 1,360,355, or 9.56 percent. Four other nations, meanwhile, added close to 1 million users as well: the U.S. added 957,980; Japan grew by 936,606; and Spain by 886,904…Of eleven nations tallied, 3 experienced decreases in their active at-home Internet population. Brazil lost approximately 575,000 users, or 4.78%, while Hong Kong and Sweden lost 133,731 and 67,273 active at-home Internet users in the 3-month period.�
China tops 329 million mobile phone subscribers, AFP, 29 Dec 2004
“Mobile phone subscribers in China topped 329 million at the end of November, with the world's largest cell phone market expected to hit 402 million in 2005…Such numbers would mean that nearly one out of every three Chinese citizens would have a mobile phone.�
EasyLink Seeks To Develop Non-Core Domain Name Assets Through Arrangement with Gerald Gorman, Business Wire, 28 Dec 2004
“EasyLink Services Corporation (NASDAQ: EASY - News), a leading global provider of services that power the exchange of information between enterprises and their customers, today announced that it has entered into arrangements with Gerald Gorman relating to its portfolio of non-core internet domain names.�
EarthLink: Users Fighting Spam; 20% Stop All Unknown Senders, Investor’s Business Daily, 29 Dec 2004
“About 20% of EarthLink e-mail customers set their spam filters on "high," which blocks all messages from everyone who's not in their personal address book, the Internet service provider revealed Tuesday in an interview. That's a lot. This spam-filter setting, the highest possible, blocks almost all e-mails. The heavy use of "high" is more proof that e-mail users are fed up with junk mail.�
Japan teens like cute little mobiles, stuff.co.nz, 29 Dec 2004
“For the average Japanese teenager, a cell phone is a must-have item, used for email, taking photos and keeping track of dates, in addition to the simple phone call. But a quick stroll around the hip Shibuya district of Tokyo shows that cell phones in Japan have also become an important identity statement, with accessories like straps, antenna rings, photo stickers and fake gems reflecting the owner's personality.�
Government to pocket $11.4b from Bel-Air, South China Morning Post, 29 Dec 2004
“The deficit-laden government is expected to take a profit of $11.4 billion on sales of flats at the Cyberport development until 2010, according to a report submitted to the Legislative Council. Total proceeds from the Bel-Air luxury home sales at Cyberport were estimated at $17.6 billion, the report said. The government could take 64.5 per cent of the proceeds, the report said.�
SOS e-mail warns of starvation at ruined Aceh town, The Standard, 29 Dec 2004
“Swathes of coast were stripped of life in the isolated west of Indonesia's Aceh with reports of starvation and looting doing little to alleviate fears for areas from where there was only silence…While relief was reaching other parts of Aceh, the region at the northern tip of Sumatra island, there has been no contact with the main western town of Meulaboh, other than an SOS warning that time is running out for survivors.�
“It has recently put money behind initiatives to make its users' inboxes safer places, such as a new, free antivirus package as well as its recent acquisition of anti-spam specialist Mailblocks. However, there are definitely other factors at work: Some are directly related to AOL and others aren't. For example, there has been increased law enforcement directed at spammers, like this recent arrest that sounds like a small coup when it comes to nailing virtual villains…Of course, with any luck at all, there's also the glimmer of hope that Internet users will stop responding to spam altogether (unless they're messing with spammers' heads, like this enterprising gentleman, though the practice of baiting spammers certainly can't be recommended).�
T-Online Launches No-Frills Internet Brand, Reuters, 28 Dec 2004
“Germany's dominant Internet service provider, Deutsche Telekom unit T-Online International, has launched its no-frills brand Congster in a fight back against German low-cost rivals…T-Online's namesake brand, which connects 11.3 million users in Germany to the Internet, is significantly more expensive than those rivals as it offers additional services such as premium content, e-mail and anti-virus software.
Congster, without these additional services, is offering its cheapest rate at 3.99 euros per month including 2,000 megabytes of data. Freenet (news - web sites) charges 5.90 euros for the same data volume, and T-Online's fee is 9.95 euros for just 1,500 megabytes.�
D.Telekom Sees 20 Million U.S. Customers, Reuters, 28 Dec 2004
“Europe's biggest telephone carrier, Deutsche Telekom, aims to reach 20 million mobile phone customers in the United States next year and is mulling a new brand for business clients, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. Quoting Chief Executive Kai-Uwe Ricke, the Financial Times Deutschland reported that Telekom's U.S. mobile operator T-Mobile USA was also seeking partnerships with cable companies to offer bundled fixed-line and mobile services.�
PLDT says mobile phone business growth to ease in 2005, AFP, 28 Dec 2004
“Dominant telecoms operator Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) said it expects the growth of the domestic mobile phone business to ease in 2005 as the subscriber base tops 40 percent of the population…"I think we would see a slowdown in net subscriber take-up next year compared to this year. The penetration rate this year is already 40 percent," Pangilinan told reporters.�
Dutch agency whams spammers with huge fines, AFP, 28 Dec 2004
“The Dutch communications regulatory authority OPTA issued fines totaling 87,500 euros (119,000 dollars) against individuals and companies that sent undesired email messages, or spam. It was the first such case in the Netherlands.�
AOL Reports Drop in Spam Messages, eWeek, 27 Dec 2004
“The total number of e-mail messages destined for America Online Inc. members averaged 1.6 billion in November a day, down from 2.1 billion daily a year earlier, the company said Monday. The drop was almost entirely in spam, AOL said. AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham attributed the drop largely to spammers moving on after realizing that many of their messages won't get through AOL's anti-spam filters or that they might get sued for trying.�
U.S. leads the dirty dozen spammers, Cnet News.com, 24 Dec 2004
“Researchers at security software company Sophos found that 42 percent of all spam sent this year came from the United States, based on a scan by its researchers of a global network of honey pots--computers designed to attract spam e-mails and viruses. Sophos said this is evidence that America's antispam legislation simply isn't working.�
Spam punishment doesn't fit the crime, The Register, 27 Dec 2004
“I hate spam as much as the next person, but recent decisions by courts in Iowa and Virginia demonstrate how fear of technology (and justifiable annoyance) can force the legal system to impose fines and sentences that are grossly disproportionate to the harm caused by spammers. This is not to defend or justify spammers, whose actions are at best deceptive, almost always annoying, generally illegal and frequently criminal. But when people who send email are punished more harshly than those who commit war crimes in Rwanda, and are fined more than companies that destroy the environment, it's time to revisit our strategy.�
China Launches Next-Generation Internet, News Factor Network, 27 Dec 2004
“China is rolling out the first network based on Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) technology, a major component of the next-generation Internet. Dubbed CERNET2 (China Education and Research Network), the new backbone network connects 25 universities in 20 cities. Officials claim top transmission speeds of 2.5 to 10 gigabits per second, with a trial connecting schools in Beijing and Tianjin reaching 40 gigabits per second. Coverage is expected to expand to 100 universities in the near future.�
CAN-SPAM law seen as ineffective, ComputerWorld, 27 Dec 2004
“A year after the U.S. Congress passed the first federal antispam law, observers see no evidence that it has cut the amount of unwanted commercial e-mail arriving in people's in-boxes. Most vendors of antispam products have charted an increase in the amount of spam since the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, or CAN-SPAM, went into effect on Jan. 1.�
Will Google stay as hot as its lava lamps?, Cnet News.com, 27 Dec 2004
“For a few years now, search engine darling Google has worn the tiara as the tech world's "it" company. But as it matures from cool-kid start-up to publicly traded veteran, can Google maintain its status as "the" place people in the technology world to work?�
Google worm targets AOL, Yahoo, Cnet News.com, 27 Dec 2004
“The Santy problem originally flared up a week ago as bulletin board Web sites found their pages erased and defaced by the worm's own text. The worm spread by targeting pages that used vulnerable versions of the PHP Bulletin Board (phpBB) software, and used Google to locate those pages. After Google took measures to prevent the worm from executing Google searches for the faulty bulletin board software, Santy variants are making the rounds using AOL and Yahoo search, according to security firms, and are still targeting Google as well.�
At AOL, a Drop in Spam, ClickZ Network, 27 Dec 2004
“AOL has seen a sharp decline in the amount of spam received and reported by members, the Time Warner unit said today…Several factors complicate numbers such as those AOL reported today. The company has no easy way to gauge how many users delete unwanted e-mail, rather than report it as spam. Also, since the company measures considerable month-to-month variations in spam volume, identifying overall trends can be tricky. Despite those factors, AOL stands by the figures, attributing what it describes as a decisive spam decline to its symbiotic relationship with members.�
