Ankit Sud has posted a list of the stories behind some top IT companies and brands.

You can read how RedHat got its name from a Cornell University lacrosse cap. Learn how apples are Steve Jobs’ favourite fruit and how he “threatened to call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn’t suggest a better name by 5 o’clock”. Find out – or even remember – that Hotmail was once called “HoTMaiL”.

Ponder how things would be if Intel had ended up being called “‘Moore Noyce”.

Marvel that the whole post, packed with pop-up clicksor ads, is ripped off without attribution from a longer list on day2day activities.

What is it with some Indian bloggers ? A cultural thing for which I should show more respect or something else?apple, steve jobs, intel, hotmail, redhat, cornell, lacrosse, it companies, Internet, email

Steve Borsch posts a list of 907 Web 2.0 links and ponders what he considers a central problem of the web 2.0 phenomenon:

I can’t even get through a list of 907 links like this one…let alone decide upon who will survive and be worthy of my attention…. which of the collaboration sites can I either use or recommend to clients (e.g., Basecamp, Foldera, Joyent, Rallypoint, ProjectSpaces, StikiPad, et al) will still be with us a year or two from now?

Bouncing off that post, Working Pathways suggests that the lack of integration between Web 2.0 services and users’ computers is another weakness:

Some client-level integration with the customer’s machine increases productivity, usability, and usefulness. I’ve just signed up with Joyent and was disappointed to find out I couldn’t connect their calendar, email, address book, and files to my local versions.

The support costs are therefore cheaper for Web 2.0 companies, he argues, but this lack of integration leaves him exposed to server downtimes and the inability to get at his data without an Internet connection.

He uses Mail.app and NetNewsWire instead of the hosted versions for just this reason.web 2.0, Basecamp, Foldera, Joyent, Rallypoint, mail.app, apple mail, productivity, Internet, links

Over 50 organisations have written an open letter to AOL asking it to rethink plans to use Goodmail’s CertifiedEmail, which the letter describes as “a threat to the free and open Internet”.

The groups range across the social and political spectrum from the Electronic Frontier Foundation to the Gun Owners of America.

The letter suggests:

This system would create a two-tiered Internet in which affluent mass emailers could pay AOL a fee that amounts to an “email tax” for every email sent, in return for a guarantee that such messages would bypass spam filters and go directly to AOL members’ inboxes. Those who did not pay the “email tax” would increasingly be left behind with unreliable service. Your customers expect that your first obligation is to deliver all of their wanted mail, and this plan is a step away from that obligation.

If you feel strongly about this issue, you can sign the letter as an individual or as an organisation .AOL, email tax, email, goodmail, Internet, not apple mail

Google rewards web sites that produce original content by increasing their rankings. It doesn’t matter what nonsense you pump out. If Google thinks it’s new, up the list you go.

This has spawned an industry of “text pimps”, who rehash existing content just enough to make it “new”.

Wall Street Journal writer Lee Gomes goes undercover to take on one such writing assignment and spills the beans at WSJ Online.Google, original content, rankings, text pimps, Internet

The Washington Post has posted a long interview with a young “hacker” who runs a “botnet” or network of hijacked PCs.

He claims that his network, a small one, consists of 13,000 computers in 20 countries and earns him on average USD 6,800 a month from the advertising companies whose adware he installs.

He tells the Washington Post: “All those people in my botnet, right, if I don’t use them, they’re just gonna eventually get caught up in someone else’s net, so it might as well be mine.” Nice.

You can also read some interviews with the botnetter’s victims.

[Via Slashdot]Internet, botnet, bots, adware, hackers, security

AOL now charges companies and organizations money to ensure that their emails arrive in AOL members’ inboxes.

Previously AOL used a free IP-based “Enhanced White List”. Senders that observed best practice in their email habits could be (mostly) sure that their emails would reach AOL customers.

According to a report on ClickZNews , companies must now sign up for accreditation with Goodmail, an “email delivery assurance business” that charges “accredited companies a fraction of a cent per message sent”. Otherwise their emails may not arrive, or will arrive with hyperlinks and images disabled.

Slashdot reports that Yahoo is expected to follow suit.

Is this a bad thing? An investor in a rival delivery assurance company thinks so

And so it’s a sad day for email. The spammers have won. They have turned email delivery into a business that can be bought and sold for the highest price.

Or is it a win for customers in the end, as AOL Postmaster Charles Stiles says in the ClickZNews report?

Our focus and goal here is to provide a safer and more secure environment for our consumers, and restore some trust in the e-mail inbox.

UPDATE: According to the New York Times , the charge for using this new service ranges between .25 and 1 cent an email.

The article also suggests that

the move to create what is essentially a preferred class of e-mail is a major change in the economics of the Internet.

email, spam, delivery assurance, AOL, yahoo, whitelist, Internet, email in general

NetShred is a stand-alone app that protects your privacy on the Internet by shredding the browsing histories and caches of your browsers and email clients.

It supports all the main browsers and the following email clients – Mail.app 1 and 2, Eudora 5, Eudora 6, Mailsmith 2.x, Mozilla 1.x and Netscape 7.x.

After launching the app (a process that can be automated so that occurs at start-up) , its main screen presents you will an overview of its abilities:

Installed browsers are highlighted in green, active ones in red.

Caches and histories can only be securely shredded when the app is closed. You can either do this manually, or set NetShred X to perform the shredding automatically when you exit the app.

The Preference Pane provides further options:

Here you can set the degree of automation that you want, what you would like the app to shred, what degree of shredding you require and how many write-overs you would like.

A further tab allows you to specify which browsers and email clients NetShred should monitor and shred.

In this day and age people have more reason than ever to think about their online privacy. NetShred X takes care of that for you and is a good complement to ShredIt, a general purpose shredder from the same developer.

NetShred is shareware (USD 19.95). A fully featured demo is available from the developer’s web site.