Google Downsizes; Circuit City Folds; CyberCrime on the Upswing

[ahhaa]

Anybody got any good news today?

Google killing Jaiku, Dodgeball, Notebook, other projects
In a series of separate posts on various official Google blogs Wednesday evening, the company announced that it is terminating, stopping development on, or restricting access to six products that clearly haven't been adding much to the Google brand or bottom line lately.
Obviously related: Google lays off 100 recruiters.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10143245-2.html


Circuit City liquidation sale to start today
The liquidation sale starts today at Circuit City, the largest retailer to be upended by the widening financial crisis, yet another hit to a local economy pounded by the bankruptcies of two department stores -- Mervyns and Gottschalks. The company announced Friday it would close its 567 stores in the U.S., including one in Santa Cruz County, after attempts to sell the business failed. The nation's second-biggest consumer electronics retailer has more than 30,000 employees.
http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_11478029


Three million hit by Windows worm
A worm that spreads through low security networks, memory sticks, and PCs without the latest security updates is posing a growing threat to users. The malicious program, known as Conficker, Downadup, or Kido was first discovered in October 2008. Although Microsoft released a patch, it has gone on to infect 3.5m machines. Experts warn this figure could be far higher and say users should have up-to-date anti-virus software and install Microsoft's MS08-067 patch.
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INFECTED IPs WORLDWIDE
China 38,277
Brazil 34,814
Russia 24,526
India 16,497
Ukraine 14,767
Italy 13,115
Argentina 11,675
Korea 11,117
Romania 8,861
United States 3,958
United Kingdom 1,789
Source: F-Secure

Right now, we're seeing hundreds of thousands of unique IP addresses connecting to the domains we've registered," F-Secure's Toni Kovunen said in a statement.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7832652.stm

Crime to boom as downturn blooms Easy money
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Layoffs of many people familiar with net technology may tempt more into crime, he said, simply because their chances of being caught are slim. Equally, he said, the punishments for those that are caught are not harsh. Those that did turn to hi-tech crime would find, he said, an underground service economy that will sell them all the bits they need to get started as a net criminal.
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Some security firms fear that making people redundant could also trigger a wave of crime as aggrieved workers strike back at their employers. Those unwilling to become spammers or phishers, said Mr Clump, might well be a tempted into low-grade fraud - especially if they have lost their job or are struggling to make ends meet. "In times like these people take desperate measures," he said. Dan Hubbard, chief technology officer at Websense, said the grim times could tempt people to make choices they would not make in better times.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7797946.stm

[Supreme2k]

On the plus side for Google, they'll need plenty of Sherpas, since they've pretty much photo-mapped all the driveable areas and are now down (or up) to the mountains and "no man's lands".

[wtsinnc]

Regarding Circuit City;

Good riddance !

In my locality, every CC store represented a PITA to shop at unless you were about twenty years old and were looking to buy video games or a new cell phone.

They died due to a total lack of commitment to customer service and the failure to stock desired items and to sell at a competitive price.
After about the eleventh time I went to a Circuit City store only to find it impossible to get waited on, I eliminated them from any further consideration as a shopping destination.

As I stated previously, good riddance !