Version Tracking... Off



Turn off Microsoft Word's Version Tracking feature. If there's one lesson you can take away from SCO's embarrassing disclosure that Bank of America (BofA) was the original target of lawsuits, it's simply "turn off version tracking". If you'll remember, SCO had threatened to sue over 1,500 large enterprises for their use of Linux.



...A feature in the word-processing software tracks changes to documents, who made those changes, and when they were made. These notations typically are invisible to someone reading a Word document. But as some lawyers, businesspeople and politicians have learned the hard way, Word can also display so-called metadata in the document--including the original version and all subsequent changes. This information is available by viewing the document under "original showing markup" or "final showing markup.



...Examples of the changes made to the Word document that later became SCO's lawsuit against DaimlerChrysler include the following: • On Feb. 18 at 11:10 a.m. "Bank of America, a National Banking Association" was removed as a defendant and "DaimlerChrysler Corp." was inserted. • Three minutes later, this comment was removed: "Are there any special jurisdiction or venue requirements for a NA bank?" • At the end of the lawsuit, "February" was listed as the filing date, although no exact date was given. SCO previously had said that it expected to file a lawsuit against a Linux user by mid-February...



Document shows SCO prepped lawsuit against BofA



A search engine for tech investors?



Bright idea from CHI: use a Google-style ranking system using patent citations -- not hyperlinks -- to determine who's coming up with the most cited ideas. Then invest in those companies.



Two years back... I asked CHI to share its top 10 tech-stock picks with... readers... its picks have returned an average of 59.2%, while the Nasdaq 100 and [S&P 500] indexes returned 4.2% and 6.1%, respectively. Each year since 2000, when CHI began issuing monthly buy recommendations to institutional investors (subscription price: $15,000 a year), it has killed the market averages. In 2003, as the average tech-stock mutual fund returned 55.9%, CHI's picks returned 162%.



HOW DO THEY DO IT? CHI uses a strictly quantitative method based on evaluating the strength of public companies' patent portfolios. Based in Haddon Heights, N.J., the firm got its start in 1968 reviewing patents for the National Science Foundation. It still consults for corporate clients, but its investment-research method, on which it has its own patent, is gaining renown. Here's how it works: Every month, CHI looks over the patents of 477 innovators, from mighty General Electric to the likes of genomics outfit Lynx Therapeutics. It checks not just how many patents each company holds but what it refers to as "citation impact" -- how often they are cited in later patent applications...



A search engine for tech prospectors



Carolina's First News!



Did someone forget to password-protect the admin account for Carolina 14's ("Carolina's First News!") school closing system? My favorite one features PWNT Enterprises. And props to Mr. T for the link.



Carolina 14 News: Closings