From “shelf shuffles” to “end caps” and “eye candy,” supermarkets have slick ways of getting customers to stay longer and spend more.

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There was jubilation amongst current and future iPhone users when it was announced that techies had created hacks to get around some security features. One of the more popular hacks was one to help iPhone users be able to use wireless networks other than AT&T (the only “authorized” provider of iPhone service right now).

Well, Apple is saying that this hack can damage the iPhone. The “unlocking” programs run the risk of damaging the software in the phones, and making them permanently inoperable once new software updates from Apple are downloaded to the phone.

The hacks currently available to “unlock” the iPhone include “iUnlock” and “AnySIM.” Apple says that they’re not trying to purposely damage the phones that use these hacks, but that the software updates issued by Apple simply aren’t meant to work with them. Users of the hacks might be able to avoid future problems by not installing Apple’s updates to the phone. The disadvantage is that these users won’t have any of the new features that Apple might add to the iPhone.

The Nasdaq Stock Market is selling a nearly 20 percent stake to Borse Dubai and is taking control of the Nordic exchange operator OMX as part of a sweeping settlement of their battle for control of OMX. In a global stock market shakeup, Borse Dubai and a group from Qatar also moved to become the largest stakeholders in the London Stock Exchange.

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ScipioAfricanus then brings us to the story of SlimVirgin. SlimVirgin is an administrator for Wikipedia. Judd Bagley has been known to sock puppet on Wikipedia with many screen names, and the administrators have disallowed these things. (They even went so far as to ban Wikipedia editing from all IP addresses owned by Overstock.com.)

Naturally, Bagley isn’t too happy that SlimVirgin is involved in the quest to stop him from his Black Ops which include vandalism to Wikipedia articles.

So Bagley decides to send SlimVirgin some emails laced with spyware. What’s the point? Scipio explains:

Our pal ScipioAfricanus gives us more information on the Overstock.com “Black Ops” activity. Judd Bagley, Director of Communications at Overstock.com, has this nasty little habit related to spyware. He’s been caught embedding images in public message board posts… those special images (not visible if you just look at the face of the post itself) send back to Bagley the IP addresses of those who view his messages.

Now it’s one thing to look at IP addresses for sites you own. No harm there. It’s another thing to use secret spyware to grab the IP addresses of people using someone else’s site.

Scipio revealed that Bagley has a file on a computer he uses with the following directory structure:

I’ve been a bit remiss in my blogging about the train wreck that is called Overstock. com. The CEO, Patrick Byrne (known to many as “Wacky Patty”) and his Director of Communications, Judd Bagley regularly engage in questionable behavior in an attempt to shut up the critics of Overstock.

The crazy thing? Why don’t they just run the company? I mean, really. Overstock.com sucks. The company can’t turn a profit. Loss after loss after loss. You think they’d be concerned and actually try to do something right with the company??? Nope. Too busy chasing after Sith Lords because they shouldn’t be pointing out the problems with the company.

Well here’s the latest, and it’s good. I’ll break it up into 3 posts to give you a little time to digest it all…

The final manuscript was sent today, so Essentials of Corporate Fraud is officially done. I’ll have a small bit of work to do after the copy editors get their hands on it, but I don’t expect there to be much to do in that regard.

Overall the process of writing the book was fun. I wrote at a good pace and it stayed interesting because I jumped around from chapter to chapter as I was writing. One of the drawbacks of doing that was that I had a little bit of redundancy that I had to eliminate in my final edits to the manuscript. But it was not a big deal.

I’ll spend the next several months marketing the book in advance of its publishing date. It has been fun working up some of the verbiage for the “official” materials. I have started a new blog about my fraud writings in general: fraudauthor.wordpress.com. I’ll also be doing some other things to market the book….

We are already talking about my second book, which is very exciting. I’ll have about a month off, then we’ll seriously start planning the next one. I’ve already got some ideas and my editor likes what I’m talking about.

A month ago, I did a post on the new reality television show called Kid Nation. I was basically horrified as I learned that the children on this show were exploited by their parents, who signed lengthy contracts allowing their children to participate. The kids were given little supervision, and the parents agreed to not hold the show’s producers responsible if the children got sick or injured. The show may have violated labor and safety laws. Yikes.

I’m not horrified by what the children were doing. It’s an interesting idea to have a group of children try to build a community. I guess I just can’t get over the idea that their parents signed off on these contracts and shipped them off. Does that sound like responsible parenting? I don’t think so.

Oregon governor Ted Kulongoski got lots of attention earlier this week as he tried to show us how allegedly inadequate the Food Stamp program is. However, the USDA’s “food stamp budget” provides per-person per-week benefits to recipients with no other available resources that are 28%-70% higher than the $21 used in the article.

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Barry Manilow was supposed to be on The View today. He was scheduled to be interviewed by Elisabeth Hasselbeck. He refused to do it. Barry said he’d be on stage with any of the other co-hosts, just not Elisabeth. He said:

Unfortunately, the show was not willing to accommodate this simple request, so I bowed out. It’s really too bad because I’ve always been a big supporter of the show, but I cannot compromise my beliefs.

Manilow also said:

I think she’s dangerous and offensive. I will not be on the same stage as her.

Well I think Elisabeth is fantastic! Get a grip Barry!