Gnome Tipping

So my wife was confronted this morning in a Starbucks by a group of people proclaiming they were going to go Gnome Tipping later tonight (it’s St. Patrick’s Day, March 17). She announced that she had a gnome and immediately they were interested in our address, but she also confessed that the gnome already has a large stick up its posterior to prevent it from tipping anyway – primarily from the weather, not rowdy hooligans sneaking up to our front porch. Our gnome, Neddy:

She was surprised, I was surprised – I’d never heard of this thing before – so I did a little research but couldn’t find anything on the subject easily on the Internet on Gnome Tipping. I wonder if it’s only a St. Patty’s thing or if this clandestine thing has been going on for centuries and nobody’s talking? Is there a secret clan of gnome tippers out there?

All I have to say is go outside pronto and put your Gnome on a stick to keep it from tipping over – protect your gnome from neighborhood embarassment, appearing asleep at the watch! And keep your eyes pealed for those scandelous gnome tippers….!

R
www.micklerandassociates.com

New Worm – Kelvir.A

W32.Kelvir.A – first time I’ve ever seen an IM worm – bypassing traditional means of propagation, leveraging instant messaging tools to display a hyperlinked URL that, if clicked, will bring the user to a page where a trojan is waiting to be mounted (a variant of w32.spybot.worm). It can also be a hyperlink to download a *.pif file (a shortcut) to the user’s desktop. The message dispalyed to the end user is variable:

• omg this is funny! [hyperlink]
• [hyperlink] lol! You have to see this! You’ll love it!

As if email was bad enough – now we have a new delivery channel we have to watch out for: instant messaging engines.

R
www.micklerandassociates.com
(C) 2005. All rights reserved.

Microsoft’s PlayForSure (R) – Blessings by Branding?

Microsoft recently announced their PlayforSure (R) initiative designed to ensure compatibility between third party mp3 devices and Microsoft’s Media Player product – a native Windows (R) accessory. The branding works by displaying the PlayforSure logos on hardware and software packaging and is designed – probably a similar concept to Intel’s Inside (R) – to build consider confidence in devices that have proven to interoperate well with Windows. The logos:

Microsoft’s interest in this area is interesting because instead of directly competing against the genius of Apple’s interoperability between iMac, iPod, and iTunes (Apple controls well over 65% of online music distribution through iTunes), Microsoft is attempting to reinforce consumer confidence in Windows and build a significant partner base that supports Windows solutions; over 50 OEM’s and seven online services now display the brand.

Microsoft’s Blessing by Branding strategy will seek to build greater confidence in Windows as an interoperable platform for exchanging music and video between partners. The initiative will build strength in a coallition of products and services that will erode Apple’s marketshare in multiple arenas (hardware, software, Internet services) through offering greater consumer choice. It’s interesting that Microsoft isn’t announcing a Windows-based alternative to iTunes – maybe that’ll come later – but instead seems focused on offering an anti-iPod strategy that slowly transitions consumer preference to variable platforms and service providers….

Now, doesn’t this sound like history-revisited? IBM and Microsoft license their technology to competitors to clone the PC and thus obtain more marketshare from an Apple who was strategically convinced to become a monolithic licensor of their technology? Microsoft appears to have learned well from the past… Apple? It’s not like they’ve anything to worry about _today_ – but are they becoming a white, ivory tower in a plain surrounded by ogres displaying the PlayforSure(R) logo on their shields?

Russell Mickler, CISSP MCSE
www.micklerandassociates.com
(c) 2005. All Rights Reserved.