Joe John

What if Twitter limited all posts to only 14 characters? That's the premise behind Squeaker, yet another Twitter parody site launched by the same zany people who brought us Woofer, the Twitter knockoff that requires all posts to contain at least 1,400 characters. Even worse, what if every post had to be exactly 14 characters, no more and no less?

Squeaker poses the question "What RU doing?," which happens to be 14 characters long, and won't accept your post unless you type exactly 14 characters. At least haikus allow 17 syllables. Spaces count against you, or for you if you're a glass-half-full type. Just like Woofer, the Squeaker site automatically lifts profile pictures from Twitter if you type in a real Twitter username. As of Monday afternoon, more than 1,100 users had penned more than 2,800 squeaks. No password is required, though, so you can "squeak" as yourself, or just impersonate a friend or foe.

Popular entries include "squeak > tweet," "1sml step 4man," and "mmmmmm, donuts," the latter posted by a user nicknamed HomerJSimpson. While the Web site's makers dubbed Woofer a "macroblogging" site, they came up with the word "nanoblogging" to describe Squeaker. "We are in no way associated with Twitter. Woofer and Squeaker were both designed by a quirky little outfit called Join the Company, LLC. Both feature user interfaces quite similar to Twitter's, with Woofer using a dog as its logo and Squeaker a mouse. This is simply a parody," a little FAQ on the site says. "After building Woofer, we thought it would be even funnier to require an exact number of characters. Follow Jon Brodkin on Twitter. What can you accomplish in 14 characters? … u cn use abbrs … no room 4links … b creative." As Squeaker itself notes, "14=all u need!" Join the Company hints that more parody Web sites are on the way, and is even asking users for suggestions.

An Illinois judge this week dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Cook County Sheriff's Office charging Craigslist with facilitating prostitution. But the judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said that Craigslist can't be blamed. "Intermediaries are not culpable for 'aiding and abetting' their customers who misuse their services to commit unlawful acts," the judge wrote in his dismissal of the case. The sheriff's office announced that it filed the suit in March at a press conference describing the many stings officers have arranged after reading ads for prostitutes on the site, including some that found children and women trafficked in from other countries who were forced into prostitution.

Craigslist warns users against illegal activity, bans illegal activity in its terms of use and removes inappropriate content that it discovers. The Cook County Sheriff's Office has nearly three weeks to decide whether to appeal, said Steve Patterson, a spokesman for the department. If users ignore those rules, it isn't Craigslist's fault, the judge said. "While we accept as true the plaintiff's allegation that users routinely flout Craigslist's guidelines it is not because Craigslist has caused them to do so," the judge wrote. If it does, it will argue that the dismissal did not adequately consider the original complaint's charge that Craigslist poses a public nuisance, he said. Craigslist noted the ruling on its blog but did not otherwise comment. The court's ruling this week concluded that the Communications Decency Act, which protects online companies from liability over the way people use their services, essentially trumps the public nuisance claim, he said.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation praised the ruling. "Meritless cases brought by law enforcement officers, amounting to little more than publicity stunts with little to no chance of success, do little to address the officers' underlying concerns," Matt Zimmerman , a senior staff attorney with the EFF, wrote in a blog post. "Service provides are not liable because Congress correctly understood that the soap box should not be held responsible for the speech of others. Just as phone companies are not liable for harassing phone calls, or e-mail software providers for deceptive messages, online message boards like Craigslist are in most instances not liable for their users' posts."Following the initial filing of the suit, Craigslist removed its "erotic services" category, replacing it with one called "adult services." Each posting to the category is now manually reviewed before it is posted and costs $10.

Microsoft today confirmed that it will launch its free security software suite, which has been in development for almost a year, Tuesday morning. "Microsoft Security Essentials, their highly anticipated no-cost consumer security offering, will be released to the public tomorrow, September 29," a company spokeswoman said in an e-mail reply to questions. Earlier in the day, Network World 's John Fontana had been told by Bob Muglia, the president of Microsoft's sever and tools division, that the company would ship the free software Tuesday. The spokeswoman added that the program will be made available Tuesday morning, Pacific time, although she did not have a specific hour for the launch.

Security Essentials, which Microsoft offered to a limited number of beta testers last June, is the company's replacement for Windows Live OneCare, a for-a-fee security suite that was retired at the end of June 2009. Microsoft has pitched the software as a basic anti-virus, anti-spyware program that consumes less memory and disk space than commercial security suites, like those from vendors such as McAfee, Symantec and Trend Micro. According to one researcher today, those security vendors have little to fear from Microsoft's giveaway. "It won't be the application that puts Symantec or McAfee out of business," said Andrew Storms, the director of security operations at nCircle Network Security. "...Microsoft still has to prove itself in this arena. Those companies, however, unanimously dismissed Security Essentials - once codenamed "Morro" - as proof that Microsoft couldn't compete in the paying market. Take, for example, Windows Defender, which has been free. If Microsoft starts dipping into the market share of these partners, will it affect that intelligence sharing? It's not necessarily the best anti-spyware product available." Storms also wondered how Microsoft's re-entry into the consumer security space would affect the relationships it's built with antivirus vendors, including those that involve the sharing of threat intelligence. "We've come to learn that Symantec and others have shared their threats and risk information with Microsoft in an effort to better protect all consumers.

The free Security Essentials will be available for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 as a 4.7MB download from the Microsoft Web site.

More than 10,000 usernames and passwords for Windows Live Hotmail accounts were leaked online late last week, according to a report by Neowin.net , which claimed that they were posted by an anonymous user on pastebin.com last Thursday. Neowin reported that it had seen part of the list. "Neowin has seen part of the list posted and can confirm the accounts are genuine and most appear to be based in Europe," said the site. "The list details over 10,000 accounts starting from A through to B, suggesting there could be additional lists." Hotmail usernames and passwords are often used for more than logging into Microsoft 's online e-mail service, however. The post has since been taken down.

Many people log onto a wide range of Microsoft's online properties - including the trial version of the company's Web-based Office applications , the Connect beta test site and the Skydrive online storage service - with their Hotmail passwords. Accounts with domains of @hotmail.com, @msn.com and @live.com were included in the list. It was unknown how the usernames and passwords were obtained, but Neowin speculated that they were the result of either a hack of Hotmail or a massive phishing attack that had tricked users into divulging their log-on information. Microsoft representatives in the U.S. were not immediately able to confirm Neowin's account, or answer questions, including how the usernames and passwords were acquired. Last year, a Tennessee college student was accused of breaking into former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's Yahoo Mail account in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election.

The BBC , however, reported early Monday that Microsoft U.K. is aware of the report that account information had been available on the Web, and said it's "actively investigating the situation and will take appropriate steps as rapidly as possible." If Neowin's account is accurate, the Hotmail hack or phishing attack would be one of the largest suffered by a Web-based e-mail service. Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee at the time, lost control of her personal account when someone identified only as "rubico" reset her password after guessing answers to several security questions. Kernell's case is ongoing. David Kernell was charged with a single count of accessing a computer without authorization by a federal grand jury last October. Shortly after the Palin account hijack, Computerworld confirmed that the automated password-reset mechanisms used by Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Google 's Gmail could be abused by anyone who knew an account's username and could answer a single security question.

Brocade Communications Systems Inc. has hung a "for sale" sign on its door, according to a report today in the Wall Street Journal . Brocade declined to comment on the report. Brocade is said to be valued at about $3.2 billion. Hewlett-Packard Co. and Oracle Corp. have shown interest in buying Brocade, which make switches for routing data storage traffic, according to the report, which added that an agreement is not imminent. The company reported a loss of $21 million on sales of about $493.3 million in the its 2009 fiscal year's third quarter that ended Aug. 1. San Jose-based Brocade has about 2,800 employees.

If true, he added, the timing isn't surprising. Brocade late last year acquired Foundry Networks Inc. whose IP networking technology gives it a leg up in the server networking market, and puts it in a stronger competitive position rival Cisco Systems Inc. "The question is: 'do the server vendors want to increase the competitive pressure against Cisco because Cisco is now in the server business?'" said Brian Babineau, an analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group in Milford, Mass. "I think that's what makes Brocade more attractive, and you can consider Oracle in the server business as well because they plan to own Sun ." Babineau said he has heard rumors as recently as last week about Brocade putting itself on the block. Over the past seven or so years, switch maker Cisco has added a line of storage switches and routers that make it a heavy player in the storage business. Earlier this year, Cisco, EMC and others said they jointly developed a new storage blade server to be sold by Cisco. Just last month, it was reported that Cisco and EMC Corp. were in talks to create a technology services arm.

Brocade has also been making moves to attract new sales channels by signing reseller agreements with EMC rivals IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co. and quasi-competitor Dell Inc. Dell's acquisition of storage vendor EqualLogic two years ago likely placed a strain on its reseller relationship with EMC. Babineau said Hewlett-Packard may be the most appropriate suitor for Brocade because it has an established networking and a storage portfolio of products, and because Cisco is increasingly competitive with HP . "It's very logical. Dell has increased its presence in business-class data storage systems over the past few years, originally through reseller deals with EMC and recently with its own line of data storage products that are moving from entry-level to midrange. If you look at the timing, it's almost like a perfect storm for Brocade," Babineau said. "Exiting a Foundry integration process, potential uptick in IT spending starting shortly, and big IT companies wanting to compete against Cisco with Brocade being one of the only viable candidates in that market." "This is not about storage, but about networking," he added. Another source, who asked not to be named, said that HP executive Dave Donatelli , who had headed EMC's storage unit until earlier this year, could help HP position Brocade's storage offerings against those of his former firm. "I just think Donatelli has some real institutional knowledge after selling a good portion of Brocade's products when he was with EMC," the source said.

A new agreement between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the U.S. Department of Commerce that creates international oversight of the nonprofit operator of the Internet's domain name system may not provide enough accountability, some critics said. ICANN and the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) announced the new agreement on the day an 11-year series of agreements expired. The agreement, announced Wednesday, seemed to enjoy widespread support, but some critics questioned how new review teams overseeing ICANN would be independent and whether the new agreement represented average Internet users.

Under those agreements, the U.S. government provided primary oversight of ICANN. One of the main changes in the new agreement, called an Affirmation of Commitments, is the creation of new review panels, which would check ICANN's compliance with the agreement every three years. They're likely to produce the politics that already exist within ICANN." ICANN has a long history of disagreement among stakeholder groups and calls by other nations for the U.S. to give up its oversight role. Volunteers would serve on those review teams, as would independent experts and representatives of the ICANN board of directors and the DOC. The problem is that ICANN's chairman or CEO and the chairman of ICANN's Governmental Affairs Committee (GAC), selected by all the nations involved with ICANN, would have the final say on the makeup of those review teams, said Brenden Kuerbis, operations director the Internet Governance Project, a group of academics focusing on Internet governance issues. "The review panels are not external to ICANN," Kuerbis said Thursday at an ICANN forum hosted by the Congressional Internet Caucus. "They're selected by the very people responsible for what ICANN does. ICANN's major problem isn't a lack of oversight, it's a lack of clearly defined rules for the organization and standards to measure performance, Kuerbis added. "If these rules don't exist - and they still don't - the review panels ... can just become another layer of politics and second-guessing, superimposed on what is already a messy and pretty diffuse process," he said. There will be public comment on membership of the review teams, and ICANN's board and CEO don't control GAC, he said. "It's going to be extremely hard [for ICANN] to game the process," he said.

However, ICANN Vice President Paul Levins disagreed that the review teams will be made up of ICANN allies. Another criticism of the new agreement is that it was negotiated between ICANN and DOC in secret, even as the agreement calls on ICANN to be accountable and transparent to the public and to use a bottom-up decision-making process. "Whatever deliberation occurred prior to the approval of this 'affirmation of commitments' was entirely secret - except for those favorite friends ICANN chose to invite into the smoke-filled room, or to whom the deliberations or decisions were leaked," Edward Hasbrouck, a travel blogger and ICANN critic wrote on ICANNwatch.org, an ICANN watchdog site. "In fact, the completely secret, nontransparent and unaccountable way in which these 'commitments' were adopted is clear and compelling evidence of ICANN's continuing 'lack' of any actual commitment to these principles, or indeed to any transparency or accountability; its continuing commitment to lie - as loudly and as prominently as it can - about its lack of accountability and transparency; and the continuing need for 'real' transparency and accountability," the blog post continued. It's clear that ICANN received input from outside groups, and the agreement addressed major concerns about U.S. control over ICANN, said Steve DelBianco, executive director of NetChoice, an e-commerce trade group and frequent ICANN critic. But other ICANN watchers offered support for the new agreement. The new agreement gives the U.S. government a continued role in ICANN oversight, but it spreads out the oversight to other governments and the private sector, he said. "ICANN's independence day will be known as Sept. 30, 2009," DelBianco said. "[The agreement] is very clever in the way it balances some of those forces that were speaking out." GAC, which has complained of not having enough oversight of ICANN, will now have more control, he said. "The way we relieved the pressure [on ICANN] was to give governments more say," he said.

Other supporters of the new agreement included registrar Go Daddy, the Software and Information Industry Association, and U.S. Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "This agreement is a perfect example of how a public-private partnership can work to the advantage of all stakeholders," Waxman said in a statement. "It will help insure that the Internet remains stable and secure for the people around the world who use it for work, study, entertainment, or to stay in touch with family and friends."