Editor's Note: Technology's Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

It's not even close to March, yet madness seems to be everywhere. Software piracy could cost countries hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few years, according to a new study. Scammers have gotten so smooth that it's getting harder to tell the difference between legit E-mail and phishing attacks--nearly a quarter of people online in the United States have been targeted, a survey finds.

But here's the kicker: Only 42% of Americans know what phishing means. Hmmm. Perhaps they're the ones getting duped? Adding to the madness, BlackBerry users are trying to figure out how to feed their addiction if legal woes get the best of Research In Motion. And podcast is the Word Of The Year, editors of the New Oxford American Dictionarysay. Come on, it's great technology but hardly as interesting as the name for Merrill Lynch's X4ML tool: Service Oriented Legacy Architecture. That has pizzazz!

Also on the madness front, Oracle hasn't bought anyone in weeks; Salesforce.com released a handful of press releases instead of its usual dozen; Nick and Jessica really have called it quits; and free software seems less free as Red Hat and others certify and sell support for open-source stacks, one of several moves making the open-source movement smell a lot like commercial biz.

Hey, wait, there is some good news. The FBI says terrorists still lack the ability to launch crippling cyberattacks. That's good, since everyone is busy dealing with the Sober worm. There's much more madness I could write about, but I really need to take care of a few personal things--I've got E-mails from Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and PayPal telling me my account will be suspended if I don't take action immediately ... and I've gotten so many greeting cards "from a family member" that I need to open.

Stephanie Stahl
Editor-in-chief
[email protected]

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