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Google Wants Your Brain 22 April 2002 Edition
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Million $ Ideas
At last, the contents of Aardvark's "million-dollar ideas" notebook are revealed for all to see!
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How smart are you?

If you're really good at answering questions there are now two ways you can earn money.

You could enter "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" -- or you could become a Google Researcher.

Yes, the search engine giant is trialing new service it calls Google Answers, and it's looking for people to come up with paid answers to questions posed by other websurfers.

However, given the number of "expurts" out there, I wonder if they might not get totally overwhelmed by the burden of vetting all those highly qualified "web desinaz" and "Internet konsultantz" that are now out of work in the wake of the dot-com crash.

The Great Web Fraud (part 2)
I'm sorry I didn't get time on Friday to publish all the excellent feedback that was received in response to my comments on the transparent caching web proxies now being used by many ISPs.

One point that came to light in the correspondence received might well explain why Telecom/XTRA still refuses to differentiate between local and international traffic for users of its JetStream DSL service.

Think about it for a moment -- if XTRA charged international prices for content that was actually served up from its local proxy cache, wouldn't they be in breach of the Fair Trading act?

Need Cutting-Edge Copy?
As NZ's longest-running online commentator, I'm looking for extra syndication opportunities for this daily publication -- or I'm happy to write casual or regular material specifically to order for print or Net-based publications. If you're interested, drop me a line

As it is, you have to wonder whether there's some extreme profiteering going on here. When a regularly accessed page is cached, the cost of delivering it to a local user is virtually nil (especially when you own the copper, the PSTN and just about every other part of the connection from a user's PC to the caching server concerned). Charging 20 cents per megabyte for that locally served-up data is nothing short of highway robbery!

It's also no wonder they're throttling P2P traffic for JetStart users -- after all, you can't easily cache that stuff so it must really hurt that they can't play the same cheap tricks as is done with some web content.

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ING's Day In Court
Regular readers will recall that last year an Australian company by the name of the Internet Name Group copped a lot of flack in this column when they were stupid enough to try and dupe local businesses into thinking that their domain names were in jeopardy.

You'll probably also remember that after I exposed their little scam, they threatened to haul my arse through the courts.

Naturally I told them what they could do with their legal threats -- but it seems that now they're the ones facing court action. According to this story (NewsBytes), their unscrupulous tactics have come to the attention of the ACCC.

What is it about the domain name registration business that seems to attract so many ex used-car salesmen? Even Verisign in the USA has had their butt kicked for trying to dupe businesses, and a good 30% of the spam I get is from shonky fools trying to flog me a dot-biz name.

Have Your Say
As always, your comments are welcomed. Please remember to select "For Publication" if you want them included on this site.

Have your say.

IMPORTANT NOTE
Due to other higher-priority calls on my time and resources over the coming days, the publication of this column may be a little erratic.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible however.

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The Day's Top News
Open in New Window = open in new window
New Zealand

Open in New Window Officials head to UK to assess e-voting
Election officials from Auckland and Christchurch head to the UK next month to check progress on electronic voting, which may arrive in New Zealand as soon as 2005...
IDG

Open in New Window Linux working well for Kachingo
The Kachingo consumer rewards scheme may be having trouble convincing some winners to claim their prizes, but Linux, the operating system Kachingo runs on, is working well...
IDG

Other

Open in New Window Name Your Own Price on PayPal
Merchants using PayPal are at risk to Web-savvy customers (crooks?) who can tinker with the coding and change the prices of items for sale through the Web...
Wired

Open in New Window Klez virus passes confidential info
The latest variant of the Klez worm sometimes chooses to hitch a ride on sensitive documents, resulting in victims' confidential information spreading with the malicious program, Russian antivirus firm Kaspersky Labs said Friday...
CNet

Open in New Window Search Engines Drop Rail Sabotage Links
AltaVista and Google have agreed to delete links to instructions on how to sabotage rail systems after Germany's national railway, Deutsche Bahn, complained to the search engines...
NewsBytes

Open in New Window Google gives some advice...for a price
In yet another test of new services, Google is quietly wading into the expert-advice market, a lackluster business that proved too taxing for some former Net highfliers...
CNet

Open in New Window Extremadura Measures: Linux
Following the lead of poorer countries worldwide, Spain's Extremadura region adopts Linux as the official operating system of public schools and offices...
Wired

Australia

Open in New Window Optus' ADSL plan: it's official
OPTUS has confirmed it intends to launch a residential ADSL service if negotiations with Telstra are successful...
Australian IT

Open in New Window ACCC green lights Telstra on data speeds
The Competition watchdog has said Telstra is under no obligation to guarantee data connection speeds, despite receiving AU$50 million of taxpayer money to provide minimum Internet service levels...
ZDNet

Other

Open in New Window Gov't mulls Microsoft, others for ID system
The U.S government is considering using online ID systems from Microsoft, Entrust, RSA, and VeriSign among others to track the identity of visitors to a dozen new federal Web sites launching later this year, a federal official said Friday...
CNet

Open in New Window Brit music indies want copy-protected CDs
A trade body for UK independent record labels has begun an investigation into putting copy protection technology onto music CDs...
The Register

Open in New Window MasterCard to stop third-party transactions
A new rule by MasterCard could crimp online commerce by stopping merchants from accepting credit card payments through third parties, such as the popular PayPal...
USA Today

Open in New Window Yahoo! Yodeler Sues for Royalties
Yahoo!'s signature "yodel" -- which closes out each of the Web portal's TV ads -- has come under fire from a country singer seeking $5 million in damages for copyright infringement...
InternetNews

Open in New Window Will Price Cuts Make Xbox a Winner?
Microsoft has announced it is reducing the price of its Xbox game console in Europe and Australia, just five weeks after the product's initial launch in both regions. Starting April 26th, the cost of a new Xbox in Great Britain will drop to about US$289 from $434...
NewsFactor


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