Watch out for tsunami relief email scams

The millions of dollars donated by individuals to relief efforts in Southeast Asia have brought criminals and scammers out of the woodwork, US government agencies and private anti-fraud groups warned last week, Internetworld.com reported. Internetworld quotes Jim Lanford, the co-editor of ScamBusters.org in an online alert, saying, “Within hours of the earthquake and tsunami, scams […]

The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #2: January 10, 2005

Show notes for January 10, 2005. Welcome to our second weekly podcast, a 49:54-minute conversation recorded live via Skype from Concord, California, USA, and Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Download the file here (MP3, 22.9MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For this, you’ll need ipodder, software that lets […]

Oracle plans big cuts

Following completion of its PeopleSoft acquisition, Oracle is in the process of a mass layoff of staff that’s expected to cut thousands of jobs, Infoworld reports. And it’s not just PeopleSoft employees who will go – reports such as Infoworld’s talk only of ‘cuts’ and ‘layoffs’ without specifying which company. Some financial analysts are expecting […]

Smart apple

From a BBC News report today by BBC North America business correspondent Stephen Evans on what is it about Apple and its products that inspires such near-religious devotion from users: Clearly, [Apple] is getting a lot right. Its devotees (disciples?) swear by their products as being effective and easy to use. It’s just that there’s […]

Doing the iPod shuffle

iPodlounge: Apple’s retail store in San Francisco sold 20,000 iPod shuffle units in its first four hours of availability this week, depleting its entire inventory. […] While some individuals purchased four, six, and nine of the 512MB, $99 units, the day’s record was apparently set by someone who purchased 24 at once. iPod shuffles are […]

The business goal is the only goal

eWeek: After last year’s buyout of Scala Business Solutions, ERP and supply-chain vendor Epicor Software Corp. is now giving serious thought to more acquisitions, especially in vertical markets, said Epicor president and CEO George Klaus. Completed during the first half of 2004, Epicor’s purchase of Scala has turned out to be "a very, very good […]

The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #3: January 17, 2005

Show notes for January 17, 2005. Welcome to our third weekly podcast, a 54:28-minute conversation recorded live via Skype from Concord, California, USA, and Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Download the file here (MP3, 24.9MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For this, you’ll need ipodder, software that lets […]

Long wait for iPod Shuffle

Reuters via eWeek: Just one week after launching the tiny iPod Shuffle, a lightweight and much cheaper model of [Apple’s] market-leading digital music player, customers face a wait of two to four weeks before their order is shipped, according to the company’s website on Tuesday. […] There is a two- to three-week wait for the […]