Backbiter

Well, well, well. Who'd have believed that the effects of the first Backbiter column would be felt both so soon and so close to home? Not Backbiter, that's certain.

Foolish it may be to bite the hand that feeds, but when the said metacarpus has been recently rendered erstwhile, it's surely ripe for the snapping? So it is that I revel in the departure of PCW's editor.

Apparently finding himself unable to cope with the furore caused by the malevolent mud-slinging he was so keen to commission and publish, Dylan Armbrust, the Canadian sweetheart, has left the building.

Or has he? Being well connected in topics of high-profile happenings in the IT publishing industry, word has reached my fag-burn-studded, leatherette pew of a new bum in the editor's chair of Computeractive, sister publication to PCW.

The hindquarters in question belong to one Mr D Armbrust of North America; a man for whom, it must be said, I have always had the utmost respect.

For want of a smoother segue, similar reverence isn't held by Backbiter for originators of spam in all its forms. Which brings Evesham Technology sharply into focus.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) recently hauled the firm over processor pins for using unsolicited emails to peddle its wares. In fact, 22 complainants to the ASA cited five separate instances of email high-tech harassment from Evesham.

The ASA ruled that, although the company believed it had bought a list of opted-in email addresses, it had reportedly not checked the bona fides of the individuals' opt-ins. Evesham, it seems, inadvertently became a spammer. Oh dear.

Aggrieved recipients of the company's unsolicited email circulars apparently included some of PCW's readers and, horror of horrors, some of PCW's own already spam-ridden staff. Perhaps the only saving grace is that the products on offer actually exist, unlike some of the more exotic devices we've seen offered.

This wasn't the only example of unwelcome activities by a well-known UK computer vendor to be brought to Backbiter's attention.

Around about the time you read this, rival PC supplier Time will be handing over £200,000 to a company called I-desk Solutions. Naturally, this isn't an act of new year benevolence on the part of Time, but a requirement of a ruling by the Royal Courts of Justice.

The large cash sum is an interim payment in respect of costs incurred by I-desk Solutions in bringing to court the case, which relates to Time's passing off of a PC-in-a-bench design pioneered by the plaintiff.

Time dubbed its clone of the I-desk design the 'Ice-desk', perhaps in the hope that the original's inventor would be cool. Instead, I-desk's reception proved frosty, and Time is now facing the prospect of a huge damages payout.

On a warmer note, are you one of the lucky millions to have received an iPod as a pressie? The delightful digital music player designed by Brit Jonathan Ive is the gift at the moment. That's no secret, not least because Apple has been busy toasting its own success.

However, Backbiter has received an iPod-related report to which Apple is less keen to raise a glass. Go to www.ipodsdirtysecret.com and enjoy (or endure) the short film about the less-than-delightful battery life afflicting some iPod owners.

Then wonder why Apple deigns to operate a battery replacement programme in America but not, so far, in Europe.

From a small, proprietary hardware device my attention is drawn to a sprawling software creation of diverse parentage - Linux. A geek scorned is not a pretty sight, so imagine the image generated by the many hundreds of Linux users currently facing the threat of legal action by leading Unix/Linux 'solution provider' SCO.

This is the upshot of the latest development in SCO's ongoing spat with the Linux community. The essence of SCO's complaint is that Linux contains code copied from its Unix code base, on which it claims various copyrights, but the plot thickens.

Backbiter has learned that Novell has joined the fray, claiming that in fact it, and not SCO, owns the rights to the disputed code. Then there's Linus Torvalds - the inventor of Linux - who says that he, not SCO, nor Novell, wrote the contentious code.

The open source community might malign all things proprietary (which in context, means all things Microsoft) but Backbiter cannot resist pointing out that the ownership of Windows will never be in doubt.

Finally, it's trebles all around at mobile phone network operator 3. The company has just announced the completion of its 5,000th radio base station for the provision of 3G services, which Backbiter calculates as one mast for each 3 subscriber.

If you have any moans, groans or scurrilous gossip that you think might interest Backbiter, you can email him at backbiter@pcw.co.uk.

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