Well maybe they didn’t kiss. That might not be appropriate. But they might have, we just do not know because GoDaddy settled on condition of non-disclosure. Too bad, because they make such a big deal about how much an ad costs. Why not tell us what a non-advertisement costs too?

In a follow-up to my earlier thoughts about using and embracing the web if you are in the music industry, I wanted to share this article I came across that features Magnatunes, a company that permits you to listen to their mp3 music so you can decide whether to buy a cd quality cut of it. They also allow you to use their music in non-commercial settings like student projects, or in commercial settings pre-production without cost. You only buy a commercial license if you decide to use it at the time of production.

I think companies like this who embrace the model of the web will overtake the uptight crowd in the industry who villify their own customers. Who knows, if Magnatunes does well, maybe Google (see number 6) will buy them too. After all, neither one is evil.

Speaking of using sources to obtain confidential information (see post on protection of blog sources), Compuware is after IBM in a Detroit Federal Courtroom this week. Compuware insists that IBM unfairly competed by obtaining confidential information from Compuware employees and then using it to craft a less expensive version of Compuware’s mainframe software. IBM counters that it was necessary to offer lower cost software as customers were citing operating costs as a cause for dropping use of IBM mainframes. Let’s all sit back and see how this one plays out.

The web is abuzz currently with stories about bloggers’ desire to protect sources. That idea is being confused with a person (be they a blogger or not) to speak freely and share their opinions about what is going on in the world around them. The First Amendment gives Americans the right to speak without fear of reprisal. However, that right is not without limitation.

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SCO, the company that anyone involved with Open Source software loves to hate, has failed to file it’s 10K form for the year ending Oct 31st 2004, the Nasdaq has issued them with a statement showing the intent to de-list the company from the Nasdaq SmallCap Market. SCO has issued a statement that they intend to request a hearing to delay the de-listing. SCO had this to say with regards to why they didn’t file their 10k.

The Company has been unable to file its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2004 because it continues to examine certain matters related to the issuance of shares of the Company’s common stock pursuant to its equity compensation plans. The Company is working to resolve these matters as soon as possible and expects to file its Form 10-K upon completion of its analysis.

Speculation is running wild on Groklaw. Most participants seem agreed that the problem with the 10K is that SCO’s parent company Canopy is suing Ralph Yarro and others for handing themselves control and money far in excess of what their positions deserved or had any right to expect. Ralph Yarro is still chairman of the board at SCO, so payments in either direction will be under close scrutiny.

SCO have been embroiled in a legal battle with IBM, Novell, Redhat, AutoZone and Damlier/Chrysler (SCO initiated the attack on all except Redhat.) over companies like IBM giving code away to Linux. (among other things.) The cases have been ongoing for over a year now and SCO were recently blasted by Judge Kimball for getting this far into a case, without showing a shred of credible evidence, particularly in light of statements to mainstream media claiming they had loads of evidence.

Phishing, (The act of making a illegitimate site look official, and then spamming people with fake links in SPAM in an attempt to steal customers personal details) has taken a turn for the worse. Since many of our visitors are web designers in e-commerce related fields, this warrants a mention here.

Laptop Bits Ltd, a company in the UK, were surprised recently to discover an almost picture perfect replica of their website operating under a different domain name. The goal obviously being to lure people into paying for equipment that will never be delivered. The only real give away it seems, is the fact that the dodgy site only accepted money transfer, and not credit cards. For online purchases, nothing is better then Credit cards (except possibly systems like Paypal). You can reverse a credit card charge, but once you do a money transfer, the money is gone. Making an exact copy of a site is surprisingly easy, you can actually copy the real site in its entirety, and then change just those parts you want to change. And with the number of free shopping carts available on the net that use templating systems, you can even re-create the entire e-commerce process of the site.

The advice? Well the first thing would be to only deal with companies you know about online. The second is to never make any unprotected payments, if you cannot reverse a payment, then you shouldn’t have made it. Also, obviously you should never follow links in e-mail and always type the address in manually.
TheReg has the full story here.

Yesterday we noticed the WordPress site had 1.5 available (a jump from version 1.2.2 in effect). Today we received our official notice of the release in an email from Matt Mullenwig. It touts the following as the short list of advances:

Here’s the Cliff Notes version:

* Easier template system
* Gorgeous new default template
* Great comment management
* Refined administration
* Faster, more secure, smaller, cuter, et cetera 😉
* Still free as a bird

The complete rundown of improvements is on the WordPress Site.

We are big fans of WordPress here at HTMLfixit.com, but the frequency of updates makes keeping the plethora of sites we have using WordPress a bit of a task on a regular basis. The update process is usually painless, but because we have to do it on several dozen sites … well, it takes some time.