IT PRO: Blogs: Davey Winder: 2007 September

Home

Davey Winder's Blog

Beware of middle-aged ladies from Norwich

Posted in Uncategorized on September 28, 2007 at 1:57 pm

FON is apparently the world’s largest Community of WiFi users, it is also the bearer of bad news for middle-aged women from Norwich. Within the results from a poll conducted by FON into non-work related activity in the workplace, was the startling statistic that it is ladies between the ages of 35 and 44 who live in Norwich that are most likely to be indulging in some retail therapy on company time. In fact Norwich can be revealed as being work-time shopping capital of Britain, with 40% of the city’s workers admitting to the act.

Some 20% of the workforce, if not shopping, are thinking about holidays and checking out likely destinations for when they can escape from the real world boundaries of the office, and 17% will be keeping an eye on the weather.

A surprisingly low 7% of men secretly looking at porn while at work, or rather admit to the act, with 4% searching for sex or love. Good luck chaps, only 2% of women are doing the same thing at the same time.

When it comes to age related time-wasting, 18% of the 25-34 year olds questioned admit to being hooked on social networks, and 16% of 16-24 year olds. What do they do there, on your time? 50% share gossip, 30% of which is about sex. 17% get bitchy about their mates, and 7% reveal embarrassing facts about work colleagues. If you live and work in either London or Manchester, pack it in as you are the biggest gossips of them all.

Not yet rated

Loading ...

Do not treat the Internet like a toilet

By Davey Winder in Editorial

Posted in Uncategorized on September 23, 2007 at 11:26 am

Permalink | Author Profile

According to a report in public sector news publication 24dash Neath Port Talbot Council in South Wales has sacked a member of staff and accepted the resignation of two others following an investigation into Internet usage at work. Nothing greatly surprising there, after all there have been plenty of media reports over the years of people being sacked for using work computers to access porn. But this was not about porn at all, this was about excessive Internet usage.

The local authority in question carried out an 18 month long investigation into the Internet habits of six workers who had been looking at travel and shopping sites during working hours. The head of strategic personnel, Graham Jones, said there had been reports of employees spending “significant periods of time” online for matters not related to their work. Although no details have been released as to exactly how long these staff members are meant to have spent surfing when they should have been working is unclear, although one assumes that if it were just a few hours it would have been dealt with by a verbal slapping. What is interesting here is that the council in question has an open door policy for Internet use, allowing staff to access all ‘non-offensive’ sites without question as long as it is in their own time.

Jones confirmed that all employees are asked to sign an Acceptable Usage Policy agreement to that effect.

What this case would seem to reiterate is the need for more than just a bit of paper, as I keep telling businesses large and small, over and over again. An AUP is not worth the paper it is written on unless it is backed up by staff education and understanding. There needs to be regular reminders of the AUP content, and staff need to be aware of why it is needed. What’s more, they also need to know that measures have been put in place to deal with anyone who falls foul of the AUP, and exactly what they are.

This case also highlights another problem, now that the Internet has become commoditised it is thought of in the same way as water and toilets at work. Staff do not expect to get in trouble if they drink a lot of water or need the loo a few times a day, they increasingly do not expect to get in trouble if they check up on Facebook or send off a few personal emails in work time either. It is all about balance, get it right and the workforce can have their Internet cake and eat it too. Getting it right is all about how that AUP is delivered…

Not yet rated

Loading ...

On the Internet nobody knows you are a dog, unless you dress up as Batman

By Davey Winder in Editorial

Posted in Uncategorized on September 19, 2007 at 4:52 pm

Permalink | Author Profile

There have been many an Internet maxim over the years. Amongst my favourites must be ‘the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it’ and ‘the email of the species is more deadly than the mail.’ One which has less impact in these days of an ever increasingly visual web experience is ‘on the Internet nobody knows you are a dog.’ It certainly does not ring true in the case of BatDog, and eleven year old mongrel who dresses up as BatMan and fights crime online from his Isle of Wight home.

BatDog has, I am reliably informed, become the most visited page on the photo blogging website Fotothing where you can follow his adventures as he fights four-legged foes such as BatFool and Dr X.

Perhaps we can amend that old saying to ‘on the Internet, nobody knows you are a BatDog’ though, in the light of the fact that this canine super-hero is a master of disguise. Most recently he can be seen adopting the guise of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

“BatDog is the classic story of a superhero,” said Fotothing spokesperson, Kevin Saidler. “Rescued from a humble background and raised by surrogate parents he defied the odds to become a hero and an inspiration to many!”

Judge for yourself

Not yet rated

Loading ...

Putting an end to mob rule

By Davey Winder in Editorial

Posted in Mobile Phones on September 15, 2007 at 11:33 am

Permalink | Author Profile

If you walk down any high street, sit on any train or watch the kids in the school playground there will be one uniting factor: the mobile phone. It seems that pretty much everywhere you go someone is using their mobile. My particular bug bear has to be the cinema, where some chav will think that turning the handset into silent mode is sufficient and then continue to annoy by producing a constant clicking throughout the movie as they tap text messages to their Burberry wearing mates.

New research suggests that it does not just feel like the UK is drowning in mobile phone technology, we actually are. First Direct has published a report looking at cellular consumption and which reveals that there are now more mobile phone handsets in use in the UK than there are adults in the population. Yes, you read that right.

According to First Direct there are some 71 million handsets in the UK, and just 45 million adults. Interestingly there are only 70 million SIM cards so a million of us either swap out between different handsets, one has to assume in the name of fashion, or there is a new chav craze brewing for mobiles as jewellery just like that old Beastie Boys VW badge thing of old. Actually, it is even more bizarre than that, because the report also suggests that 9 percent of us have more than four different active mobile phone numbers.

The suggestion is that people are increasingly opting for a phone for work, a phone for home, a phone for friends and a phone for email. How absurd is that? Wasn’t the dawn of the smartphone meant to reduce handset clutter, not increase it? So what went wrong?

Guilty admission time here. I have two mobiles, with different numbers. One is a hefty smartphone (T-Mobile MDA Vario II) which is primarily my business handset - used to keep track of my email on the move, and via the web browser and excellent keyboard blogging as well. This number is on my business cards, this handset does not get answered when I decide my work is done for the day. My other is a rather old Motorola V3 Razr, one of the original black ones, which is ‘just a phone’ for friends and family. It remains on all the time, always gets picked up and does not leave a vaguely sexual bulge in my trousers when I pocket it.

There was a time when this would not have been necessary, and that time was only a matter of a year or two back. But something has happened since then, somehow people seem to think it is OK to ring my mobile at any time of the day or not with some work related matter. “Hello Davey, sorry for calling at 9pm on a Sunday but I didn’t have any luck in reaching you on Friday at 2pm” That is just not acceptable, nor is the notion that no matter where I am I will drop everything and deal with whatever the person on the other end of the line, no doubt sitting in an office, wants me to. Mobiles phones have slowly ruined my life, and I am fighting back.

I have always been somewhat phonophobic anyway, which is why I took to email so effectively nearly 20 years ago. My office phone remains on screen, if people leave a message I tend to pick up if necessary or email them back if not. My mobile work phone is the same, I screen actively screen it and rarely pick up if the call comes through as an unknown caller (I do fall victim to my own curiosity sometimes, and on other occasions pick up as I am expecting a call from someone else) and withheld for some reason. In fact my business mobile phone could has become a small computer, I use it primarily as a web enabled device. I access my email, I check my blogs, I do my research. On the phone side of things, I text a lot as well. But I rarely talk on the thing.

When it comes to my personal handset it is the other way around, I talk a lot, text a bit but never use the Internet functionality. So perhaps there is a need for everyone to carry two mobiles after all, either that or one mobile phone and one mobile Internet device instead. Seeing as my business contract is about to expire, that’s exactly what I am going to do. So now to look for a decent mobile device with texting, web and email but no phone - all in a pocket-sized package.
Does such a beast exist?

Not yet rated

Loading ...

Facebook is the new Pokemon

By Davey Winder in Editorial

Posted in Facebook on September 11, 2007 at 1:13 pm

Permalink | Author Profile

How many Facebook friends have you got in your collection? Less than 100? Pah! You are a lightweight my friend. Talking of which, do you want to be my Facebook friend as I am collecting them at the moment. Ever since Pokemon become pass

Not yet rated

Loading ...

No SharePoint fix any time soon

By Davey Winder in Editorial

Posted in SharePoint, Microsoft on September 9, 2007 at 11:59 am

Permalink | Author Profile

You would think that a flaw in something like the SharePoint software that is important enough to be rated, well, important, by Microsoft would be high on the list of priorities to fix. You would have thought that this privilege flaw, that might give a would be attacker access to resources they should not be able to see would be rolled out in the September updates. You could expect users of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 on Windows Server 2003 and Office SharePoint server 2007 to be a little miffed if Microsoft was to decline to roll out said fix in September, when it had been slated for release then. And I will put money on said users being not at all happy at Microsoft for declining to comment if the patch will be available in October, or November, or ever for that matter.

Sure, we all know that Microsoft has something of a problem in getting fixes out in a timely manner, usually blaming quality control issues. Sure , we all know that there are millions of lines of code to work through, and that any fix has to be tested to ensure it maintains compatibility with other applications.

But we also all know that another month delayed means there is another month for the bad guys to exploit the vulnerability and make life difficult for all of us. It is not as if this is a newly discovered flaw after all, it was disclosed to the public way back in May.
Perhaps we can just be grateful that, as far as the security vendors I have spoken to at least, there have been no known exploits as a result. Known is the key word there, as the whole security exploit sector is one lived in dark corners and spoken about in whispers.

Roll on Tuesday October 9th, and hopefully Microsoft will roll out the SharePoint patch at long last.

Not yet rated

Loading ...

Nanotechnology machine gun printer showcased

By Davey Winder in Editorial

Posted in Printers on September 5, 2007 at 11:24 am

Permalink | Author Profile

High-speed nanotechnology printing that promises to revolutionise the print industry in the same way that the Vickers machine gun did for rifle weaponry was showcased at the Gorillas of Tomorrow technology innovation event in Cambridge today. Promising to combine the

Not yet rated

Loading ...

Death of the printed newspaper

By Davey Winder in Editorial

Posted in Uncategorized on September 4, 2007 at 12:00 pm

Permalink | Author Profile

According to the Newspaper Association of America spending on newspaper print advertising is in decline while the online ad revenue for web based news sites continues to rise. If this trend is being repeated globally, does this spell the death of the printed newspaper?

Well it has been predicted many times before, but so far the institution that is the print newspaper has managed to not only survive but go from strength to strength. That could all change as the industry sugar daddy, advertising revenue, switches from paper to web. The NAA reports a 19.3% year-on-year increase this quarter for online ads, up to

Not yet rated

Loading ...