Phish Repellant AND Blackberry Food

Like a skilled lover, Gmail keeps giving thoughtful gifts long after it has won your heart:

Google is currently testing a service designed to alert Gmail users to messages that appear to be phishing attacks. When the Gmail team becomes aware of such an attack, the details of these messages are used to automatically identify future suspected phishing attacks.

The result: when a Gmail user opens a suspected phishing message, Gmail displays a warning.

Gmail's phishing alerts operate automatically, much like spam filtering. Gmail's spam filters automatically divert messages that are suspected of being unwanted messages into 'Spam'. Similarly, Gmail's phishing alerts automatically display warnings with messages that are suspected of being phishing attacks so that users know to take care before providing any personal information.

You shouldn't have!

Slashdot has more on how/why this works.

As if that weren't enough, Gmail might now finally give me a reason to use my poor, dust-gathering Blackberry. [Via Dave Winer] I still won't confuse it with at Tablet PC though!

Know Your Tools

USA Today provides a Firefox bio. I'm addicted. Jerry Lawson too.

Stealth Post—Conferential

Don't tell my family I'm blogging, we're on vacation and I'll never hear the end of it (what did they think I toted the PowerBook here for, chess?) With hotel WiFi and a sleeping baby I scarcely have a choice, but will keep this short and sweet.

I got a note from Renee Blodgett that her blog is up and packed with great coverage from BloggerCon and PopTech. I hope Renee has met fellow flack Michael, if not, there's a virtual intro for ya. Lots of interesting items for the blawgosphere from links off Renee's page:

• NewsGator's Enterprise RSS blog, "All About RSS in the Enterprise." (No, the other Enterprise.)


• The upcoming BlogBusinessSummit in Seattle, January 24-25.

The blog for the latter links to BuzzMachine coverage of the AdTech blogging panel, "How To Play With Fire Without Getting Burned." Quoth Jeff: "At sessions such as this, the first question from nervous corporate types is, 'What do the lawyers say?'" Well, BlogBusinessSummit is taking proposals for speakers and "strong" panels. One or a few blawgers should get up there and tell them.

A Good Time To Visit Rick

I've been reminding myself to point to Rick Hasen's Election Law blawg so there you go, better late than never.

I'll be out of pocket until late next week, be sure to (mis)behave!

Pain-Free MCLE

I blogged Fiat Lucre's "Fair Use in the Digital Age" back in May, and now there's a downtown L.A. showing (Dec. 8) so I'm there. Here's my prior post and a review from Philadelphia Weekly.

Also had a great talk with Ernie Miller this morning (had to pause his show on Knock-Off Printer Cartridges first) about getting The Importance Of...The Law and IT approved for MCLE credit. Seems to me that one's a no-brainer.