Spill the beans on the best and worst in IT in complete confidence to News editor Sandra Rossi and receive a mug exclusive to contributors to GBU.
The GBU inbox has been running hot this week, a sure sign the holiday period has ended. One cheeky reader even asked if GBU is a reverse acronym for Uncle Bill Gates.
Good
Police are getting serious about computer crime and want the private sector to play its part by actually reporting security breaches. GBU understands the NSW Police has made a serious investment in new computer crime equipment to step up investigations with formal announcements planned in coming weeks. The only remaining problem is cooperation from IT managers in large companies who have a propensity to see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.
Bad
Only one in 10 public submissions received by the US Justice Department (DoJ) in the Microsoft antitrust settlement have been of any real use in the case. DoJ received 30,000 public contributions ranging from pornography to comments from both pro and anti-Microsoft groups and only one tenth "contained a degree of detailed substance". Overall, the department said it received about 7500 comments from people in favour of the settlement reached by the US Federal Government and nine states, while 15,000 opposed it. Another 7000 comments were dismissed as opinion, like "I hate Microsoft".
Ugly
Despite the demise of Asia Online (www.asiaonline.net.au) its operators are not afraid to tell it like it is with the home page simply stating "Asia OFFline is officially flat-lined." It goes on to say that Asia Online services are being discontinued and the operator is in voluntary administration. Just to make sure this is absolutely clear to those who prefer a more groovy translation, the next headline reads: "Asia Online - Game Over Man."
* E-mail hot news tips to Sandra_Rossi@idg.com.au.