http://www.favvas.com George Favvas on the intersection of entrepreneurship, finance, and web 2.0 Wed, 09 Apr 2008 02:04:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In February, I blogged about how Canadian P2P lender IOU Central had suspended activity while they sorted out regulatory concerns. (They're still not back up.) Now, it looks like it may be Lending Club's turn in the US. According to a notice posted on their site, they have stopped allowing their ... http://www.favvas.com/2008/04/08/lending-club-puts-the-breaks-on-social-lending/ According to this Bloomberg report, HSBC, Europe's biggest bank, mailed a disk containing personal information from one city to another. But it didn't make it there. And the data on it was not encrypted. The disk, sent unregistered to Swiss Reinsurance Co., contained password-protected details including customers' names, life-insurance cover levels, ... http://www.favvas.com/2008/04/07/lost-in-the-mail-hsbc-loses-disk-with-personal-data-on-370000-insurance-customers/ About a month ago I had coffee with a friend, a systems administrator who pitched me on his plan to provide managed web services for clients. Where was he going to host everything? He had a relationship with a local data center. Who in their right mind would invest in ... http://www.favvas.com/2008/03/31/why-i-think-google-will-offer-free-hosting/ Montreal animation writer and blogger Emru Townsend has been diagnosed with leukemia and needs a bone marrow donor. Emru needs your help. Finding out if you're a match requires just a cheek swab or simple blood test, and you are not under any obligation to follow through later. Emru's chances of finding ... http://www.favvas.com/2008/03/29/help-emru-townsend-find-a-bone-marrow-donor/ The first TwittYul was last night. Sylvain Carle, who organized it, says that TwittYul was just like Twitter, with people popping in and out of unstructured conversations. Here's the list of people who were there: @mikelbyl @georgefavvas @adamsimms @zelnox @afrognthevalley @dmireault @coolaid @mcdoyon @millette @fbrunel @nikolai35 @30sleeps @johnbaku @emjcox @aranr @cb @inevernu @sammyqc If you're not on the list aboce, or if you're in Montreal but were not able to ... http://www.favvas.com/2008/03/28/first-twittyul-meetup-of-montreal-twitterers/ Microsoft this morning announced that it has acquired the technology and patents of Credentica, a Montreal-based provider of identity management solutions. The team, led by Stefan Brands, will join Microsoft's Identity and Access Group. (More blog coverage from Microsofties Kim Cameron and Adam Shostack, and on Stefan Brands' own blog) Brands is ... http://www.favvas.com/2008/03/06/microsoft-acquires-technology-and-team-from-montreal-based-credentica/ Over the past five or so years, the Internet has radically changed the way most industries (from content, to music, to travel) function. Central to this wave of change is a shift of power from large institutions to consumers. The financial industry is one of the last bastions where old-school ... http://www.favvas.com/2008/02/29/regulators-force-canadian-p2p-lender-iou-central-to-suspend-activity/ I love my bank credit union, I really do. Today they launched a new security initiative to improve security and combat phishing, by requiring all users to create a personal message and select an image from their library. You enter your username and password in two steps now, and if you ... http://www.favvas.com/2008/01/21/desjardins-enhances-security-dont-use-long-passwords/ January's a busy month for Montreal techno-geeks. Here are some of the events going on: January 8: Montreal Tech Entrepreneur Breakfast January 8: MySQL Montreal meetup by Morgan Tocker of MySQL (7pm at our offices) January 9: Yulblog, a casual get-together of Montreal bloggers (6pm 8pm at La Quincaillerie on Mont-Royal) January 15: Montreal ... http://www.favvas.com/2008/01/08/montreal-tech-events-for-january/ Reflex CRM is now officially Reflexity, Inc. More on the name change in this blog post on the Reflexity web site.: After a few years we drifted away from our original starting point as a company (read we followed our clients’ needs and the money) plus we didn’t have anything to ... http://www.favvas.com/2008/01/04/reflex-crm-is-now-reflexity-inc/