usa visa: InfoWorld: Apple sics the dogs on rumor sites

======================================================================== ROBERT X. CRINGELY http://www.infoworld.com ======================================================================== Monday, February 28, 2005

APPLE SICS THE DOGS ON RUMOR SITES

By Robert X. Cringely(R)

Posted February 25, 2005 3:00 PM Pacific Time

Well, I feel stupid. All week, people have been talking about The Gates, and the entire time I thought they meant Bill. I assumed that in an effort to appear hip, he'd adopted a mono-name, like Madonna or The Donald. Turns out The Gates is an art installation in New York's Central Park by a guy named Crisco, or something like that. My bad.

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Apple Bites Back: Due to an apparent contempt for Web sites that get buyers overly excited about its products, Apple is pursuing legal action against AppleInsider and O'Grady's PowerPage for leaking details about "Asteroid," a product for musicians that could represent as much as 0.00001 percent of future Apple revenue. (I'm just guessing.) There's no truth to the rumor, however, that the sites will retaliate by releasing secret tapes in which Steve Jobs confesses to smoking clove cigarettes and jonesing for Pop Rocks.

Paris Is Burning: The phone numbers of Paris Hilton's friends have been flying around the Net, thanks to a hacker who broke into her T-Mobile account. Personally, I am astounded. Paris Hilton has friends?

For God's Sake, Think of the Children: Reader Jonathon S. thoughtfully pointed me to Microsoft's new guide to IM lingo ("leetspeak"), which starts out as a guide for "klew"-deprived parents but quickly segues into how to determine whether "your teenager is involved in the theft of intellectual property, particularly licensed software." That's Redmond for you -- always putting the kids first. One of the tips it offers is, "Mistakes are often uncorrected." Around here, that's known as The Microsoft Way.

Cut the Cards: Cringester Jason E. reports that Hallmark.com sent a classy e-pology to customers after having its e-card servers go down so many times on Valentine's Day. Response was so positive, the company may be inspired to release an entire line of computer greetings like this one: "On this very special day / I hope we didn't spoil it / When our e-mail server went astray / And fell into the toilet."

Send your hot tips or Apple trade secrets to cringe@infoworld.com. I'll probably get sued, too, but you might get a new bag out of it.

Send tips to cringe@infoworld.com.

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