Bizzy’s AM Coffee Biz-Econ-Life Links (032306)

Free Links:

• Proving That Credit Cards Are Marketed Aggressively, and That You Need a Shredder (HT RG Combs) — A guy tears a credit card app into pieces, tapes it together, fills out the app, changes some info …… and gets a card. Good, scary story.
• Hackers Get Windows XP (to work) on Apple Computers — Smart-aleck question: Why? Oh, and here’s a reason why not (besides the usual haha reasons).
• Maybe 7 Years Ago, This Rumor Would Have Put Janet Reno’s Knickers in a Knot — Now the story (”Report: Microsoft Working on iPod, PSP ‘Killer’”) is probably producing (quiet and discreet) yawns at Apple and Sony.
• This Is Why the Previous Item Isn’t Taken So Seriously Now — Microsoft, which first thought that it might have a comprehensive operating system to replace Windows (then codenamed Longhorn) in 2005, now says that Vista (the official name) won’t released until January 2007. Uh-huh.
• S.O.B. Alliance member Weapons of Mass Discussion reminded me that I need to note for the record that the there was a disgracefully light sentence in the case involving the illegal acquisition and use of Maryland US Senate candidate Michael Steele’s credit report (covered at BizzyBlog here and here back in September). The low woman on the totem pole will get no time behind bars, and ultimately no permanent criminal record. There is no tieback to Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Charles Schumer of New York (sure, the gal sentenced and the one who received no punishment were free-lancing). A total wristslap (with a feather). And, as expected, there is almost non-existent coverage by the WORMs (Worn-Out Reactionary Media, known to most as The Mainstream Media). Update: S.O.B. Alliance member Porkoplis has more, including the irony that Charles “no comment” Schumer “frets about personal data in public records” in a section called “The Losers,” and is pictured as “The Law” on personal privacy in an Information Week cover story.
• This Is Why the Overhead Compartments in Planes Are Jammed — “An estimated 30 million bags were temporarily lost by airlines in 2005, and 200,000 of those bags were never reunited with their owners, according to an industry report released Monday.”