Gawker: valleywag, cheaters

Just like everybody else, eBay loses to the Patriots

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:23:06 EDT

The New England Patriots have no tolerance for cheaters. To prove it, the team sued eBay-owned ticket reseller StubHub, demanding the names of 13,000 season-ticket holders who sold their seats above face value on the site. The Patriots argued that StubHub encourages fans to violate state law and team policies. A judge ruled in the team's favor yesterday. On the bright side, if eBay decides to write off its StubHub purchase, as it did with Skype, there's only $310 million to lose. (Photo by AP)

Blind Item: Microsoft's New Security Bitch

confonz — Fri, 04 May 2007 13:24:28 EDT

CONFONZ — Ah, yes. the age old topic of security at Microsoft. Two great tastes that just don't seem to have ever made it into the same sandwich. With old MS demanding attention for its reinvigorated security efforts in Vista, you'd think they're have hired the right people to lock that sucker down. But as it turns out, this little lady, who remains safely hidden beneath the veil of secrecy we call the Blind Item, is a sure fire loser with a cheating past and a complete lack of skills. According to the buzz around her credentials, the only reason this hidden lass became so well known at Symantec before MS poached her is because she had help crafting exploits from someone very close to her. Too bad she decided to cheat on him, because when MS asks her to perform, she'll have no one to do her work for her!

Wait, that's legal? This week's most heinous business ideas

Nick Douglas — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 20:48:58 EDT

Business 2.0 Magazine tells entrepreneurs to "sign up customers, then deliver." Which here means "Fake it, then take it" — their poster boy for this idea launches blogs full of rehashed info (okay, we all do that), then takes inquiring readers and refers them to real pros or gets a quick and dirty certification in the area of fake expertise. Sure, it's legal, until the malpractice lawsuits begin. [Business 2.0]
Wireless network infrastructure renter American Tower doesn't need stock option backdating when it can launder executive payments through subsidiary companies, then "disclose" the extra payments in the fine print rather than in the plain financial report. By the time shareholders know what hit them, they're afraid to complain, lest the stock drops. [Fortune]
The Pee&Poo plush doll and clothing shop. That's just vile. [Pee&Poo, safe for work]
And an idea from reader Kevin Marks: Combine Google solar power with Sun's datacenter-in-a-trailer and Edelman's Walmart Across America, and cross the country with a solar-powered datacenter in an RV parked in Walmart lots, serving video to the locals. Actually...actually that sounds so sensible that it'll never work.

Make stuff up and we could all win a monitor!

Nick Douglas — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 14:05:17 EDT

The organizers of the recent Future of Web Apps Summit (a chance for speakers to talk about the past of web apps) recently e-mailed to ask what I thought of the summit. Well I didn't go; neither did you, you have a day job. But the e-mail says I could "win a luscious 23 inch monitor!"

So let's score that puppy. I'm starting to remember the summit now...yes, there were shorn bears juggling chainsaws, and who could forget the climactic performance when Google's Larry and Sergey flew everyone out for milk and cookies?

What do you remember from the summit you weren't at? If you don't already have a comment account, pick a username and password and leave a damn good memory, and you could join the comment club.