Links for Sept 25, 2009

Microsoft's Ballmer apologises for poor Windows Mobile execution

Steve Ballmer speaks at his annual VC summit. Attendees leak his mea culpa via Twitter, reporting that he said Microsoft has revamped the WinMo7 team with new blood.

• http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=8170
• http://gizmodo.com/5367358/ballmer-says-they-screwed-up-with-windows-mobile-wishes-they-had-already-launched-wm7

Links for Sept 24,2009

Microsoft's Looking Glass approaches launch

Allows marketers to aggregate and monitor social media. Private beta in October.

• http://community.microsoftadvertising.com/blogs/analytics/archive/2009/09/23/microsoft-lookingglass-helps-businesses-catch-the-social-media-wave-at-advertising-week-2009.aspx
• http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=139199

Finally, BlackBerry has software for MacOS

MacOS users will soon be able to sync their BlackBerrys without using Windows.

• http://blogs.blackberry.com/2009/09/blackberry-desktop-software-a-closer-look-at-the-mac-os-version.html
• http://tech.yahoo.com/news/zd/244358

More Gmail Outages

Significant issues today for users of Gmail and Google Apps. Centered around users' Contacts. Initial reports said it was for just some users, but it appears most or all were affected.

• http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE58L6JA20090924
• http://googlewatch.eweek.com/content/google_apps/gmail_down_not_for_me_for_how_many_i_want_answers.html

Links for Sept 23, 2009

Google Wave in IE, via Chrome Frame

If you want to use the new Google Wave in Internet Exporer, you'll have to install the Google Chrome Frame addon first. This ingenious plugin replaces the entire rendering area of the browser with code plucked from Google's Chrome browser.

• http://googlewavedev.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-wave-in-internet-explorer.html
• http://googlewatch.eweek.com/content/google_chrome/google_picasa_35_adds_name_tags_from_picasa_web_albums.html

Google Sidewiki

Sidewiki is a universal commenting system for the Web. A new component of the Google Toolbar. Watch out: Digg, Stumbeupon, Reddit, et al.

• http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/help-and-learn-from-others-as-you.html
• http://paidcontent.org/article/419-googles-latest-ambition-a-universal-commenting-system-for-the-web/

Skype for SIP to Integrate with Industry-Standard VoIP Kit

Skype currently uses a proprietary voice-over-IP protocol. Integrating with the standard Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) should make it more attractive to businesses.

• http://gigaom.com/2009/09/22/how-skype-plans-to-dominate-business-telephony/
• http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=24767

DateCheck Launched at DEMOfall09

DateCheck is an iPhone app that allows consumers perform background checks on prospective suitors. Its launch has prompted some comment as to privacy implications.

• http://blogs.ft.com/techblog/2009/09/11766/
• http://blogs.computerworld.com/14792/the_weirdest_iphone_dating_app_or_the_most_useful

Links for Sept 22, 2009

Gelato Comes Out of Stealth at DEMOfall09

Gelato is "stream dating" -- online dating for the Facebook generation. To help users decide if they have things in common, it integrates with your lifestreams from Facebook, last.fm, Twitter, Hulu, Netflix, Flickr, etc.

• http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10358126-52.html
• http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/09/22/demofall09-gelato-is-online-dating-meets-social-search/
• http://onlinedatingpost.com/archives/2009/09/gelato-demo-launch-marries-social-stream-with-dating/

Foursquare Has Plans to Make Money; Raises Anonymity Concerns

Foursquare is a location-based social network. Allows people with similar tastes to meet up. Allows local business owners to build relationships with repeat customers.

• http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/21/foursquare-hasnt-started-playing-the-monetization-game-just-yet/
• http://blogs.sfweekly.com/shookdown/2009/09/there_goes_the_neighborhood_ho.php

Google's Gmail now Supports ActiveSync Push for iPhone and Windows Mobile

Also works for Google Apps email. It previously only supported ActiveSync for contacts and calendars: users had to use IMAP for email.

• http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-sync-now-with-push-gmail-support.html
• http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/09/push-mail-for-iphone-and-windows-mobile.html
• http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2009/09/22/googlesync-brings-push-gmail-iphone/

FAQ: Suffering Backscatter

Dear Richi, I have about 20-30 returned emails from some entity/person who is somehow using my domain to send out bulk email. How is that even possible?

Sadly, it's trivial for a spammer to forge your address. It's not your Web host's fault.

Some badly configured email servers auto-reply to spam. That's what you're seeing.

If you want to complain to anyone, complain to the people running the servers who are auto-replying to you. Here's a template complaint I've used before...

Hello. You are sending spam to me by bouncing spam to an unrelated person. I did not send the spam to your server: spammers forge the message sender. Hence, your reply goes to an innocent third party.

Perhaps you sent an unsolicited bounce because your mail server is incorrectly configured. Please don't do that. You should *reject* during the SMTP conversation, not *bounce* after accepting the spam message. It is not necessary for your MTA to send a non-delivery DSN -- you should reject at the point of SMTP RCPT with a 553 error or equivalent.

Or perhaps you're auto-replying to spam. Presumably you filter spam before delivering inbound email. In which case, this reply shows that spam is getting through those filters.

It's bad practice to accept a message for a non-existent user. If you accept and then bounce, you're sending spam. For more information, please see http://www.spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/329.html

If this was an isolated error, there's no need to be concerned that you will be blacklisted as a spam source. It usually takes several complaints to illustrate a pattern of email abuse.

However, I urge you to correctly configure your mail servers.

More info at an old post of mine: I Got 25,000 Spam Messages in Two Days!