April 2011 archive

LA Lakers offer perspective on capitalism’s fair weather fans

GQ magazine recently released its ranking of America’s worst sports fans.  While most fans made the list for being “bottle-throwers, couch-torchers, sexual harassers, projectile vomiters” or something equally despicable, the Los Angeles Lakers registered at number 15 simply for being fair weathered.  The magazine cited widespread abandonment in 1991 when Magic Johnson retired and a …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/04/lakersoffer-lesson-for-capitalisms-fair-weather-fans/

Spending That Pays for Itself

Occasionally one is faced with a moment of clarity; a choice that forces a display of where someone’s true priorities lie.  This occurs when two professed priorities are placed at odds against each other.  Congressional Republicans recently faced this dilemma.  What was foremost on their minds? Is it reducing the deficit, making the government run sensibly like a business, or shrinking …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/04/spending-that-pays-for-itself/

Why Google's +1 button and the narcissistic Internet is a bad idea

Recently, Google introduced a new feature called Google +1.  The announcement is clearly aimed at facebook’s ‘like’ button.  It will begin by adding a ‘+1’ button to each entry in a search result but soon it will be possible to have web sites add Google +1 buttons to go along with the facebook like buttons and …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/04/why-googles-plus-button-is-a-minus-2/

Why Google’s +1 button and the narcissistic Internet is a bad idea

Recently, Google introduced a new feature called Google +1.  The announcement is clearly aimed at facebook’s ‘like’ button.  It will begin by adding a ‘+1’ button to each entry in a search result but soon it will be possible to have web sites add Google +1 buttons to go along with the facebook like buttons and …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/04/why-googles-plus-button-is-a-minus/

The hardest-fought license terms may be the least likely to be in compliance.

Licensors whose assets are in particularly high demand may be able to negotiate unusually favorable contract terms.  Hiring a skilled lawyer to negotiate the terms of your license agreement will help ensure you get the best deal possible.  But those efforts may be wasted if there is no one confirming that those terms are followed.  …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/04/the-hardest-fought-license-terms-may-be-the-least-likely-to-be-in-compliance/

Get the benefit of the government’s experience when selecting vendors.

There are many often repeated tales of the federal government being taken advantage of by vendors, such as the Department of Defense’s $640 toilet seat and the National Park Service’s $797,400 outhouse.  Therefore, it’s a pretty good bet that if a vendor you are considering is on the federal government’s vendor blacklist, they might deserve …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/04/get-the-benefit-of-the-government%e2%80%99s-experience-when-selecting-vendors/

Huge Patent Damage Award Reversed

In an April 2011 ruling, a federal judge in Tyler, Texas, threw out a $625 million jury award against Apple.  In the October 2010 trial, a jury decided that Apple infringed three patents owned by Mirror Worlds.  The patents involve certain document display technologies used in Apple’s Time Machine, Spotlight and Cover Flow.  These features …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/04/huge-patent-damage-award-reversed/

How to Do a Neutral Google Search

What many people do not realize is that what they are seeing in Google search results may not be what others are seeing.  Some of that is self-evident.  Google results are different from one language to another and one country to another.  In searches for service and retail businesses they go further in geo-tagging your …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/04/how-to-do-a-neutral-google-search/

A Ponzi scheme to make Bernie Madoff blush

Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme shocked the nation.  Initial estimates of missing client money were around $65 billion. A court later declared actual client losses of $18 billion. Many characterized the scandal as the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.  Of schemes that have already collapsed, the characterization might be true, but to call it the largest …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/04/a-ponzi-scheme-to-make-bernie-madoff-blush-2/

Lizamoon and the Final Step in Securing Your Computer

Lizamoon is named after the web site that it was first noticed on. However once experts knew what to look for earlier infections have been found. However in less than four months there are now over one and a half million web sites that have been infected with the Lizamoon virus!

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/04/lizamoon-and-the-final-step-in-securing-your-computer/