July 13, 2006
13 entries filed this day
Click Fraud and the Problem of Authenticating People
Bruce Schneier · Founder and Chief Technical Officer, Counterpane · it security
Google's $6 billion-a-year advertising business is at risk because it can't be sure that anyone is looking at its ads. The problem is called click fraud, and it comes in two basic flavors. With network click fraud, you host Google AdSense advertisements on your own website. Google pays you every time someone clicks on its ad on your site. It's fraud if you sit at the computer and repeatedly click on the ad or -- better yet -- write a computer program that repeatedly clicks on the ad. That kind of fraud is easy for Google to spot, so the clever network click fraudsters simulate different IP addresses, or install Trojan horses on other people's computers to generate the fake clicks.
Filed at 7:22am
Mobi TV
Haydn Shaughnessy · Founder, TheContentStudio.com · companies / Knowledge Management / what's new
It’s a day when the mobile content world took a couple of important steps foward. First Mobi TV rasied $70 million in round C funding.“We have taken tremendous strides to develop this rapidly emerging market across three continents over the last few years,” said Phillip Alvelda, CEO, chairman and co-founder, MobiTV. “These rather substantial funds...
Filed at 7:23am
Web 2.0 viral networks – The Marketing blogging community (part 2)
Eric Kintz · VP Global Marketing Strategy & Excellence, HP · Platforms
My post on the Gladwellian viral network effect of the marketing blogging community triggered a number of very interesting reactions in the blogosphere, that I thought I would share. As new initiatives emerge, such as Mario's new corporate blog ranking that I was suggesting as a major next step to broadening the "epidemic", I think we are at on the onset of a significant marketing phenomenon. Let me know if you have other ideas or are taking action to spread the virus...... 1. Visualizing the tipping point - David David did a great job of representing my ideas in a graphic combining Malcom Gladwell's concept with the viral network notion. His visual as well as Mack's top 25 list were even picked up by the mainstream media in the Boston Globe . David also suggests connecting with the Forresters of this world who are key influencers in the real world and can carry the message. 2. Influencing the marketing profs - Toby Toby highlights the role of marketing profs like Alex Brown at the University of Delaware and Robert French at Auburn. "They are not only teaching the next generation of marketers about the importance of social media but how to do it right". 3. Introducing blogging to the real world one person at a time - Chris Chris commented on my Marketing Profs post : "It seems to me the first place to start would be to ask those offline folks "what don't you know?" and then introduce them to the online people who can help them fill in their knowledge gaps. That's something that the niche-nature of the blog world lends itself to nicely. Once you've done that you've started them down the path to leaving blog comments, sending emails and engaging in IM conversations with the online folks. It's only a short step from there to get them blogging on their own and contributing to the conversation". 4. Keep at it and they will come - Peter Peter also commented on my Marketing Profs post: "I think we keep on keeping on as other marketers gradually adopt the technology. Search ads used to be risky bets compared to online display advertising. Today, search and email are mainstream while rich media and behavioral targeting are getting there. I doubt avatars will ever make it, but in-game advertising will". He also raises an intriguing point on how to organize the community: "but what does a "healthy" marketing blogging community look like? If the other 99% of marketers were actively blogging, would it be a lively and engaging discussion, or a cacophony of "thought leaders and gurus"? And, as more voices emerge, how can we filter?" 5. The 3 step approach - Mario Mario developed a very elaborate theory, that I am reproducing in its entirety here:
Filed at 7:26am
Specialist Podcasts
Haydn Shaughnessy · Founder, TheContentStudio.com · channels and content / companies / Knowledge Management
This does what it says on the tin:Media Swamp is the podcasting portal where web professionals, interactive marketers and others looking for quality information and entertainment go to download shows targeted to their interests.The Media Swamp Podcast NetworkThere’s not a whole lot of podcacsting channels up there right now but surely that will change. Media...
Filed at 8:28am
The Scent of Hardware EULAs Backfiring
Jeff Nathan · Senior Security Engineer, Arbor Networks · hardware / legal / malware / reverse engineering / Security
In our shrill world of paranoia where vendors clench their general counsel’s arm tight enough to powder walnuts, it’s not surprising that End User Licensing Agreements (EULAs) continue to grow in absurdity. With the continued prevalence of free OS’, hardware vendors are undoubtedly under increased pressure to either disclose sufficient information for drivers to be...
Filed at 8:30am
Who's accountable?
Randy Littleson · CEO, Kinaxis · best practices / Enterprise Applications
I heard an executive at a brand owner speak recently about their business evolving toward an increasingly outsourced business model. They are now utilizing various component suppliers and contract manufacturers (EMS providers) to do the bulk of their manufacturing. When asked about accountability for delivery times and other key supply chain/manufacturing metrics, the person responded "that's the responsibility of our contract manufacturers. That's why we outsource, so we don't need to worry about that."
Filed at 11:29am
What do Marketing People Mean When They Say Brand?
Dave Hitz · Founder and Executive Vice President, Network Appliance · /thinkingoutloud/ / Networking
Lately I've been hanging out with marketing folks, and I'm learning their language. That's scary for an ex-engineer, because to engineers, "marketing speak" means "meaningless double-talk". But having spent more time with these folks, I'm realizing that they are often onto some subtle and interesting issues.
Filed at 1:31pm
How significant are we?
Dick Hardt · Founder & CEO, Sxip Networks · Security / time out
This picture of the smaller planets makes Earth look pretty important:… but then when you look at the other planets, you get a different perspective …… and then we just become little more then a dot …and then you realize, we only have a little sun …that becomes only a dot in the scale of...
Filed at 1:57pm
There are No Quick Calls in Software Support
John Andrews · President, Evans Data Corp · general
We’re finishing up our latest Vision Series research here at Evans Data. The Vision Series looks into the future of development through focus groups and individual interviews with developers and software architects. Among the interesting talking points gleaned from this most recent panel is insight into vendor support....
Filed at 2:47pm
A Minor Security Lesson from Mumbai Terrorist Bombings
Bruce Schneier · Founder and Chief Technical Officer, Counterpane · it security
Two quotes: Authorities had also severely limited the cellular network for fear it could be used to trigger more attacks. And:
Filed at 3:20pm
Spy Gadgets You Can Buy
Bruce Schneier · Founder and Chief Technical Officer, Counterpane · it security
Cheap : This is a collection of "spy equipment" we have found for sale around the internet. Everything here is completely real, is sold at online stores, and almost any item listed here costs less than $500, and often times can be bought for less than $200. What's interesting to me is less what is available commercially today, but what we can extrapolate is available to real spies.
Filed at 3:50pm
RDF's History
Kingsley Idehen · Founder & CEO, OpenLink Software · Software Development
We are getting very close to a Semantic Web watershed moment (IMHO). Thus, for the purpose of historic record, I would like to create a public bookmark to Tim Bray's 2003 post titled: RDF.net Challenge that also contains a nice section about the History of RDF .
Filed at 5:42pm
Object Relational Rediscovered?
Kingsley Idehen · Founder & CEO, OpenLink Software · Software Development
Microsoft's recent unveiling of the next generation of ADO.NET has pretty much crystalized a long running hunch that the era of standardized client/user level interfaces for "Object-Relational" technology is neigh. Finally, this application / problem domain is attracting the attention of industry behemoths such as Microsoft.
Filed at 9:59pm
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