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According to ZDNet, founder Michael Dell has returned to the CEO slot at his own company.

This was a surprise to me, as former CEO Kevin Rollins represented Dell on stage at a major Microsoft Vista launch event in New York City on Monday, as shown in this New York Times article.

Bloomberg News also discussed the event here.

Rollins is on the left in this picture from the event. He does look a bit unhappy, doesn’t he? Also in this picture, from left to right: Dean Maloney of Intel, Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, Hisatsugu Nonaka of Toshiba, Hector Ruiz of Advanced Micro Devices and Todd Bradley of Hewlett-Packard.

Brian Caufield of The Red Herring has an interesting article that poses an important question: has Dell run out of ideas?

Several students at Diablo Valley College (DVC) have been accused of selling grades. The accused students each had access to the college’s grade management system, and were offering other students better grades.

College officials say that the relevant procedures have been changed to prevent future problems.

Student workers at universities sometimes face potential conflicts of interest, especially if they gain access to registration, grade managemenht, and other information systems. In some cases, university managers welcome student employees because of their low pay scale.

When managers fail to considered the security and ethics issues that are involved, the university’s reputation can suffer.
According to an article in the Contra Costa Times, one DVC student feared that he would have to people that he didn’t pay for his grades.
 http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/email/news/16560143.htm

http://chronicle.com/news/index.php?id=1579

This article first appeared on my old blog at http://www.bloglines.com/blog/wsodeman?id=39

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060805/ap_on_re_us/lonely_nation

“People are increasingly busy,” said Margaret Gibbs, a psychologist at Fairleigh Dickinson University. “We’ve become a society where we expect things instantly, and don’t spend the time it takes to have real intimacy with another person.”

This lengthy news article examines a growing trend in the United States - the shrinking social circle of friends and family. Information technology, and its integration into products, services, and daily life, is seen as a contributing factor to this trend.

More Americans choose to live by themselves as a one-person household. Over 27 million households, or 25 percent of the country’s housing total, fall into this category. In 1950, only 10 percent of households were occupied by a single person.

Dante Hicks: “You hate people!”
Randal Graves: “But I love gatherings! Isn’t it ironic?”
Clerks, 1994

Young people rely on text messaging, cell phones, instant messaging, e-mail and Web sites as an alternative means of forging a broad network like-minded acquaintances. Facebook and MySpace are two popular examples, but both services have come under scrutiny.

The article also points out that users of these two services can link to other users as “friends”. This linkage does not mean that the user knows their online “friends well - or at all.

The textbook does not cover these online social networks well. At the time it was printed, such networks were an emerging business. Instant messaging (IM) was and remains a popular service, but social networks offer users an opportunity to post content and attract new acquaintances.

Chapter 13 offers some interesting points about ethics, society and information systems. Older people who are less familiar or comfortable with information technology find their isolation disturbing. A Boston area organization called Social Capital Inc. is building a volunteer network on the Internet, to “connect neighbors” and create communities.

The effective integration of online social networks into local communities may reduce crime, improve education, and strengthen the local economy, according to Harvard professor Robert Putnam. If these effects are replicable, Honolulu may be a good venue for building community-based online social networks. Honolulu is generally regarded as a “wired’ city, as a large percentage of residents use broadband Internet access. Social Capital’s business model may be appropriate and valuable in our state.

This article first appeared on my old blog at  http://www.bloglines.com/blog/wsodeman?id=38

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/internet/0,71387-0.html

“In Nigeria, we are always amazed that anyone could be so stupid as to respond to such an offer.” - Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

This article describes how a few Internet users have battled so-called “419” scammers.

These 419 scams are named after a Nigerian law that prohibits fraudulent financial transactions. While this is an old scam, it became associated with Nigeria in the early 1990s. Scammers mailed thousands of postal letters to addresses gleaned from paper membership directories. North America, Australia and Western Europe were frequent targets.

Typical 419 scams involve advance fee fraud, in which the scammer asks the recipient to receive or launder a large sum of money. The scammer often portrays themself as an innocent victim stranded in another country, and promises the recipient a percentage of the funds in return for assistance.

The 419 scam is a risky venture, but it only takes one or two paying victims to make this a profitable endeavor for a scammer. As the scam progresses, the scammer asks the victim to send money in advance, as a token of good faith. The scammer may send photographs, forged documents and other materials in an attempt to gain the vitim’s cooperation.

Most victims lose all of their money. An average victim loses around US$20,000, and estimates have placed losses at US$1.5 billion annually. (http://www.419eater.com/html/ethics.htm)

Victims find there is no easy way to pursue the matter across international borders. In rare instances, victims have travelled abroad to meet the scammer, sometimes with disastrous results.

As Internet use became more popular, scammers around the world shifted their efforts to e-mail. Internet e-mail, in its basic implementation, lacks systems to verify the identities of senders and recipients. An alarming number of Internet users assume that the “from:” address included in an e-mail message is authentic, despite the content of the message.

These 419 scams have become a significant source of “spam” or unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE). While most server-based filtering systems can detect 419 messages, scammers find new ways to get their e-mails delivered.

The people described in this article feign interest in a scammer’s proposition of quick wealth. The assumption is that the scammers will have less time to find new victims. Users sometimes post their correspondence with the scammers, including names, pictures and other information, in an attempt to shame the scammers and warn unsuspecting victims.

Does the good intent of the 419 “baiters” justify their activities? From the perspective of the scammers, the baiters are engaging in fraud. One might also question the cultural and moral implications of baiting.

See Chapter 13 for a good discussion of ethics in IT, and chapter 14 for an examination of global issues.

These web sites have additional information on advance fee fraud. Snopes.com is an excellent site that debunks urban legends and hoaxes. In the United States, the Secret Service maintains a page about these scams. The third link is a cache of the Secret Service site.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/nigeria.htm
http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.htm
 http://cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q=3869416205478&lang=en-US

The other three sites feature the work of baiters. If you are easily offended, please avoid these sites.

http://www.aa419.org
http://www.419eater.com
 http://www.419baiter.com

USA: Yahoo! News - Enron Traders Caught On Tape: “Four years after California’s disastrous experiment with energy deregulation, Enron energy traders can be heard on audiotapes obtained by CBS News gloating and praising each other as they helped bring on, and cash-in on, the Western power crisis.

‘He just f — -s California,’ says one Enron employee. ‘He steals money from California to the tune of about a million.’ ”