TJX has been very quiet on their data spill. Will the cost force them to start talking – at least to the stock analysts?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070814094859203
(update) TJX profit plunges on costs from massive data breach
Tuesday, August 14 2007 @ 09:48 AM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches
TJX's second-quarter profit was cut by more than a half as the discount store owner recorded a $118 million charge due to costs from a massive breach of customer data.... About one-tenth of the charge from the data breach was to cover costs this past quarter. The rest is a reserve to cover future expenses from lawsuits, investigations, and other items.
Source - Associated Press
More detail from:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/14/business/NA-FIN-EARNS-US-TJX.php
... The second-quarter charge, which dwarfed the charge the company took in its past two quarters, includes $11 million for costs incurred during the latest quarter, and $107 million for a reserve to cover potential losses.
TJX's 8K is here: http://ir.10kwizard.com/contents.php?ipage=5110873&repo=tenk&source=487
It's not always computers...
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2007081419485630
Coast Guard loses 3,500 sensitive records
Tuesday, August 14 2007 @ 07:48 PM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches
Thousands of documents containing sensitive personal information about Coast Guardsmen and their families have gone missing in Washington, D.C.
The service is investigating the disappearance of roughly 3,500 documents that contain case synopses of service members’ involvement with the Coast Guard Special Needs Program and the Family Advocacy Program.
Family advocacy pertains to domestic violence issues, child abuse or neglect and sexual abuse.
Source - Navy Times
[From the article: The Coast Guard believes that the paper files disappeared when its Health and Safety and Work-Life Directorate moved from the main Headquarters building to a neighboring facility.
...But that does make it easier.
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070815004754737
Personal information stolen from Idaho Army National Guard
Wednesday, August 15 2007 @ 12:47 AM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches
A small computer drive containing Social Security numbers and other personal information about every Army National Guard soldier in Idaho has been stolen, a National Guard spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The device containing information on roughly 3,400 soldiers was stolen Monday night out of a soldier's car while she was traveling in the Treasure Valley on official duty, Lt. Col. Stephanie Dowling said. Officials hope the person who stole the drive _ along with other computer equipment and personal items _ doesn't know what he has.
Guard members were being notified by phone and mail.
Source - Times-News
If a bank fails, the Feds secure all the records until the assets are taken over by another bank. Apparently there is no parallel in the health care industry?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070815063000455
Boxes of patient records exposed
Wednesday, August 15 2007 @ 06:30 AM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches
Thousands of abandoned medical files -- including psychological records as recent as 2001 -- have been discovered by residents in a vacant building [Is it me, or aer editors no longer editing? Bob] near a bankrupt hospital on the Detroit-Hamtramck border.
It's a repeat of a problem that emerged late last year at the Greater Detroit Hospital on Carpenter near Jos. Campau. In a matter of months, the hospital was stripped by thieves of everything from copper piping to windows, exposing rows of abandoned patient files.
On Tuesday, a lawyer for the hospital's defunct owners, Quality Health Plan, had staffers remove the files from a nearby building after receiving calls from The Detroit News. .
Source - Detroit News
One justification is certain to be: This has been successfully tested in Great Britain – we're just keeping up...
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/15/0329231&from=rss
Manhattan 1984
Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 15, @04:10AM from the watching-you dept. Privacy Technology
Etherwalk writes "The New York Times is reporting on developments in the quest to charge driving fees for all vehicles headed below 86th Street in Manhattan. Notably absent from any part of the discussion is that a record is made of every car or truck that enters, together with the vehicle ownership information and the date and time of travel — either as part of EZ-Pass or in license-plate photos taken for subsequent billing."
There's a market for your personal data. Shouldn't you at least get a percentage?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070814201016417
Personal Cell Phone Numbers Are Only a Click Away
Tuesday, August 14 2007 @ 08:10 PM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Businesses & Privacy
Home phone numbers have been available to the public for a long time, so many Americans treasure the fact that their cell numbers can be kept private -- or so they think. Now, all it takes is a few bucks and Internet access to find tens of millions of personal cell phone numbers.
A Web site named Intelius has created a clearinghouse of cell phone numbers that can be purchased online for $15 each. Its source -- every business and company you've ever provided with your personal information.
... Intelius already has 90 million cell phone numbers, and it's adding 70 million more in the coming days, along with the addresses that go with them.
Source - ABC
“We don't need no stinking contract!” Steal the market, I love it!
Community Wi-Fi comes to San Francisco
Company called Meraki will give away wireless routers in attempt to blanket the city with free Wi-Fi access.
By Marguerite Reardon Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: August 14, 2007, 9:00 PM PDT
While EarthLink and Google are still hammering out details of their citywide Wi-Fi contract with San Francisco officials, a company called Meraki plans on blanketing the city with free Wi-Fi using volunteers who will deploy and manage the equipment themselves.
Not everyone follows this news, but many gooks and bloggers see this as another part of an ongoing pattern of arrogance.
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/14/2027231&from=rss
RIAA Short on Funds? Fails to Pay Attorney Fees
Posted by Zonk on Tuesday August 14, @05:40PM from the must-be-because-of-all-those-lost-record-sales dept. The Courts Music The Almighty Buck
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Can it be that the RIAA, or the "Big 4" record companies it represents, are short on funds? It turns out that despite the Judge's order, entered a month ago, telling them to pay Debbie Foster $68,685.23 in attorneys fees, in Capitol v. Foster, they have failed to make payment. Ms. Foster has now had to ask the Court to enter Judgment, so that she can commence 'post judgment collection proceedings'. According to Ms. Foster's motion papers (pdf), her attorneys received no response to their email inquiry about payment. Perhaps the RIAA should ask their lawyers for a loan?"
Online niche: Slicing legal advice into easily digested bits...
http://www.killerstartups.com/eCommerce/tickettutor--Fight-Smarter/
TicketTutor.com - Fight Smarter
posted 8 Hours 20 Minutes ago by micaela | Visit http://www.tickettutor.com
Tickettutor.com is a revolutionary website which advises its users on how to evade paying fines for traffic violations. The brainchild of a group of ex-police officers and radar manufacturers, tickettutor.com allows its users to select the applicable citation from a menu, and then download a list of questions which they should ask in court for $19.99 per citation. The site is extremely user-friendly and easy to navigate. Testimonials are provided for proof of the site´s legitimacy, and users may contact the site´s administrator with any further questions. Even better, the site provides a ¨free sample¨ for the skeptical client.
Here's a legal niche that needs filling. (I'd be happy to consult...)
http://techdirt.com/articles/20070814/014310.shtml
So You Want To License Some Music For That YouTube Video...
from the you-want-to-do-what-now-with-the-whotube? dept
Ray Beckermann points us to an opinion piece by Shelly Palmer, who is President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Palmer's article is officially about why it's dumb for music publishers to join in the mad rush to sue Google/YouTube over not getting royalties for songs used in YouTube videos. However, he actually makes a point that goes well beyond the futility of suing, by showing how ridiculous the licensing process is today. Basically, there are numerous different rights that you need to secure, and each may require a different negotiation with a different party -- and almost no one makes it easy to figure out who you need to talk to about what. In other words, even if people did want to properly license the music playing in their background while making a home video of their toddler dancing, it's probably not even possible.
Oops!
http://techdirt.com/articles/20070814/124357.shtml
A Look At How Much VMware Left On The Table
from the ipo-madness dept
Back during the dot com bubble when startups with no track record were going public on a regular basis with huge first day pops in stock prices, it got many people thinking that such first day jumps were a good sign. In fact, some companies bragged about having the largest first day jump. We haven't seen much of that lately, but it may be coming back after VMware's public offering. VMware shares priced at the top of their range at $29/share, but opened this morning at a whopping $52/share. VMware, of course, was supposed to have been one of the potential hot IPOs in the class of 2004, but decided to accept a buyout offer from EMC instead. This turned out to be a great decision, as the company has grown a tremendous amount under EMC, and today's IPO is for a much more substantial VMware than we would have seen three years ago.
However, since there are plenty of folks who probably weren't around during the last bubble to learn this lesson, it's important to remind everyone why first day stock pops like VMware's are not a good thing, and certainly not something worth bragging about. The difference in price is actually an indication of how much money VMware left on the table. Yes, the company raised nearly a billion dollars by selling shares at $29, but it missed out on the money it could have taken if the shares had been priced closer to the $52 the market has clearly valued its shares at. In other words, it sold all those shares at about 55% of what the market valued the company at. Not such a great thing to brag about now. Of course, there are some advantages to having the first day pop. It does act as a PR mechanism, and it certainly does bode well for VMware if they want to sell more shares to raise more money. However, right now, it certainly looks like the company left approximately $750 million on the table that was snapped up by those trading the stock, rather than the company itself.
We love our customers – Sony style
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=27634
EIF: Home abusers can be turned off and banned, warns Sony
Matt Martin 13:39 (BST) 14/08/2007
Home boss discusses bannings and branding for mature users
Peter Edward, director of the Home platform for Sony, has told an audience at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival that users who consistently abuse the upcoming Home service face having their machines banned and disabled from being used online.
In an admittedly radical but possible step, Edward noted that a serious abuser would "have to move house and buy a new PS3 before they could get online again."
A couple of years ago, Google was buying up “dark fiber” cheap, because supply far exceeded demand.
Report: Cable companies facing big bandwidth crunch
By Eric Bangeman | Published: August 14, 2007 - 11:22PM CT
If you're starting to become frustrated with the download speed of your cable ISP or the relatively low number of HD channels available, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Your local cable provider will soon be faced with a serious bandwidth crunch, according to a new report released by ABI Research. The problem comes from more demanding applications, including high-definition video, video on demand, online gaming, and higher-bandwidth Internet applications. The result? Big problems—like fewer HD channels and sputtering download speeds—if the industry doesn't respond to the challenges in front of it.
The nice thing about this type of request is that it gets answered! Several good ideas (and some pointed comments) here...
http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/13/194259&from=rss
Backing Up Laptops In a Small Business?
Posted by kdawson on Monday August 13, @06:24PM from the against-disaster-the-gods-themselves dept. Data Storage IT
Bithmus writes "I have been tasked with finding a way for our company to handle our laptop backups. We currently have nightly backups of our servers, but no backups of laptops. In our business we develop, implement, and sell another company's software; I guess that makes us a Valued Added Reseller. During development our consultants will create copies of a customer's database on MSDE on their laptops. If a hard drive crashes, all of the work done on that laptop is lost. There are other files that need to be saved, but the databases are really the important items. Ideally these databases would be stored on the SQL servers and the other files stored on the file server, but this is not happening. What do Slashdot readers do to protect data on laptops or computers outside of a local network?"
[Ths looks particularly interesting...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
Have no fear. SuperDuper v2.1.4 is here!
SuperDuper is the wildly acclaimed program that makes recovery painless, because it makes creating a fully bootable backup painless. Its incredibly clear, friendly interface is understandable, easy to use, and SuperDuper's built-in scheduler makes it trivial to back up automatically. And it runs beautifully on both Intel and Power PC Macs!
For my web site class...
http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/blazzam--Flash-Games-For-All/
Blazzam.com - Flash Games For All
posted 3 Hours ago by Siri | Visit http://www.blazzam.com
Blazzam is a game/entertainment site which also partakes in this tremendously popular social concept going around the internet. Thus, not only can you download games, wallpapers and catchy ringtones, you can also get down and friendly with your fellow Blazzam members. Games are grouped by type; you’ll find action games, puzzles, sports games, adventure games, and games for everyone. All games are flash based so they’re pretty quick to load and if you’ve got a Java enabled cell you can play them on the go. Members cans communicate via the forums; they can rank downloads and upload their own content. As with many other sites there are no usage fees; also the site is available in Spanish and English.
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