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The bankruptcy of energy company Enron has been more than a source of grief for its destitute ex-employees. It’s also been a source of unsolicited email marketing messages. Since at least October, just two months before the Houston-based company filed for bankruptcy protection, spam emails have been emanating from its network facilities. The marketing messages pitch everything from work-at-home schemes to porn-erasing software to footwear and credit cards, according to a report in Newsbytes. Many of the marketing messages have been sent through Enron’s old network by Virtumundo, an online marketing company that leases some of Enron’s network. Enron Broadband, which is in charge of the network, filed for bankruptcy along with its parent company on Dec. 2.
Comcast: We're mending our Big Brother ways
Cable company Comcast has announced that it will cease snooping on its subscribers. Effective immediately, Comcast will no longer follow the web surfing habits of the one million people who use its high-speed internet access service. Comcast’s announcement follows an Associated Press report that came out on Tuesday, which revealed that Comcast was logging subscribers’ visits to web sites, ostensibly to help it overhaul its system and determine how to make the network faster. The day after the report, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) sent the company a letter asking it to stop recording users’ surfing activities, asserting that it might be unlawful. Comcast says that the tracking was temporary, and that the records were not tagged with any labels that might have identified individual subscribers.
Hey Alanis, you have a radio station
Alanis Morissette’s angst-ridden style may have been supplanted on the radio by prepackaged, pneumatic Lolitas, but the Canadian singer-songwriter is taking back the airwaves online. Online radio service Radio Free Virgin has launched an all-Alanis, all-the-time online radio station called AlanisRadio. The channel will feature excerpts from interviews with the singer, plus tracks from her soon-to-be-released album, “Under Rug Swept,” in addition to past hits such as “Ironic,” “You Oughta Know” and “Head Over Feet.” The Alanis-centric channel isn’t the first such station that Virgin has established. It also has one dedicated to the band Garbage, which is called GarbageRadio.
‘X-Files’ fans can insert their names in credits
Fox’s long-running paranormal drama “The X-Files” has a loyal, web-savvy following. To reward that fan base, the show’s official web site is giving viewers the opportunity to affix their names to the credits. The site is holding a contest in which the show’s devotees, aka “x-philes,” can submit their screen names to appear in the show’s opening credits. The online handles of a chosen few “X-Files” lovers will appear in place of the fictitious list of “FBI Contacts, Witnesses and Contributors” that pops up during the opening credits. Forty-five people will be picked, and their names will be displayed in the credits of the series’ final episodes this spring. People can throw their names into the ring until March 6.
Stink over charitable use of idle computers
Computer users who donated idle computer time to cancer research have caused a ruckus after it was discovered that some machines had been switched over to finding a cure for anthrax. United Devices, the company that employs idle computers for extensive data processing, defends its action, saying it never intended to trick anyone. It maintains that the "terms and conditions" of the contract specifically stated that machines might not be used solely for cancer research. People who signed up for a newsletter about the Intel-United Device Cancer Research Project were told how to switch to cancer research if they didn't want their computers being used for other purposes. Concerned users can go to the United Devices web site to find out how to switch back. The program uses a downloaded screensaver to access idle computer capacity, and anyone who downloaded the screensaver from the Intel web site will still be crunching numbers for cancer research.
February 14, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
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