Everybody back on their heads

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Well here I am back from my holidays, here’s your stick of rock

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or

OK I’m at my desk, but my head isn’t. And what do you do first day back into the office? You bore all your colleges with tales of your holiday until they glaze or say “I’ve got work to do even if you haven’t” and they you have to get on with it. You have to because there isn’t much else to do. I guess in these networking days you can update your facebook (if the office network allows it) and browse sites relating to your holiday (that didn’t happen 20 years ago) but work is there, surrounding you and everyone else is getting on with it.

OK, enough blog, I’ve got to get on now – or should I make another coffee? No, I am at work I need to get something done…

Doggedly pursued

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

Anyone who has holidayed in France can tell you many of our continental cousins have an attitude to dog mess that is to leave it for erosion by natural forces. Every morning in the Minervois, in one village we know where the streets are just wide enough for Nicole to go canoodling in her Clio, there is a new volcano of poop. Every night one of my neighbours kicks their cat out to do a dump on my lawn, eat my goldfish and deplete the local frog population.

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The Times paywall – it’s profit that counts

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

The Times’ website has lost what appears to be a significant number of readers since its paywall went up.

Unique visitors fell from 2.8 million in May to 1.6 million in July, while average minutes per visitor went down from 7.6 to four, according to ComScore.

The latter figure may indicate some are heading to the Times Online landing page, getting told they need to pay to view the content properly and then heading elsewhere for their news fix.

However, intimation is not enough is it? There is a problem with the ComScore data in that it does not show how many paid for The Times’ content.

Of course, the inadequacy of the statistics, in terms of not revealing the monetary impact of the paywall, is not ComScore’s fault. What publishing houses really want to know is just how much money News International has lost or gained. Quite simply, before and after revenue comparisons are needed.

Profit, as is often the case, is the pivotal factor that will inform us as to the success of the project.

No doubt the bigwigs at News International towers will be looking at that data now, waiting for the right moment (whenever Murdoch deems it acceptable perhaps?) to release the figures.

Is News International scared to accept defeat? Or is it just taking its good time, before shocking many and revealing paywalls truly are the future for online journalism and therefore written news in general?

What is clear from the ComScore data, however, is that Times Online received less unique visitors last month than the Guardian, the Mirror, the Independent, the Telegraph, the Sun and the Mail Online.

And that can’t make for good reading for Murdoch.

Dislike Facebook? Sadly not

Monday, August 16th, 2010

As much as people would like to dislike posts, pages and groups on Facebook, it remains an impossibility.

Scammers being scammers, however, have picked up on this desire and promised a dislike button, Sophos has discovered.

Of course, it is something of a con and anyone who falls for the trick and tries to download the application will only have their Facebook status surreptitiously updated to promote the link and thus help spread the word for the charlatans behind this scheme.

Victims are also asked to carry out a survey before pointing people to a Firefox browser add-on for a Dislike button developed by FaceMod.

“As far as we can tell, FaceMod aren’t connected with the scam – their browser add-on is simply being used as bait,” Sophos’ Graham Cluley pointed out.

What is clear from the high number of people who have tried to get hold of the Dislike button is that it would be a popular option to have.

And as annoying as such scams may be, you have to smile at the irony in one of the promotional posts that reads thus: “I just got the Dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts lol!!”

Rarely have I actually laughed out loud when a lol is busted out, but this time I let out an audible expression of mirth, a chortle even.

Now if only a Dislike button did exist so I could dislike the post promoting the dislike service. And then like the fact that I disliked it.

Do designers dream of electric slugs

Sunday, August 15th, 2010

Her name is Valentina. She is young, beautiful and has just invited me for lunch. How can I tell her I have seen things she will never believe and all those moments will be lost like tears in the rain when I finally hang up my mouse? And that my stomach muscles are incredibly well developed and protrude over the top of my waistband. Perhaps it is best that we continue our relationship in a digital world? (more…)

Want more sex? Buy an iPhone!

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

Apparently, if you are an iPhone owner you are likely to have more sexual partners than an Android user, maybe even twice as much.

So suggests some data from OKCupid.com, which analysed info on almost 10,000 smartphone owners.

The stats were based on 30-year-olds and also found Blackberry owners were the second most frequent indulgers in intercourse ahead of Android users.

Hmm… time to make some far-fetched and sweeping generalisations about how you can gain an accurate insight into people’s sexual psyche by what phone they own. Huzzah!

Here we go: iPhones are pretty, ergo people who own them are more concerned about aesthetics and external pleasures, such as doing it. This is why they put it about a bit more.

BlackBerrys are straightforward, business-like and efficient. Therefore I have deduced users are more likely to just want to get things done – in this case sex. So while they may not be handing it out on the proverbial plate, they realise copulation is a necessity (luckily a rather enjoyable one) and so will dabble when they deem it acceptable.

Android, with its openness and happy little green logo, is clearly the most innocent of the three and the youngest. Unsullied and clean, it doesn’t want to get dirty – again like its users, who like to go by the maxim ‘it’s what is inside that counts’. Aww, how sweet!

I happen to own an Android device but, unlike people who are happy to talk about their sexual habits willy-nilly, I will not disclose the number of notches I have racked up on my non-existent bed post. If any.

DISCLAIMER: I do not believe in any of the above. Anyone offended can just go and buy a Nokia.

TalkTalk: Taking the tax?

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

TalkTalk has revealed this week it will be raising the price of its line rental. Not a massive shock, I am sure you will agree, but it is not the rise in itself that is causing controversy; it is the amount.

The ISP looked at its options in the current market and decided just over 50p should see it through. Does this amount ring any bells with you? That’s right, it is the same amount the Government was set to tax landline users to pay for the nationwide rollout of broadband infrastructure.

TalkTalk was a hugely outspoken critic on this tax, with its chief executive (CEO), Charles Dunstone, claiming the seemingly miniscule amount would hit low income households hard and force up to 100,000 of them to get rid of their broadband.

So Mr Dunstone, it is not ok for the Government to out price low income families but it is OK for your company to do it?

Look, I was never against the broadband tax in the first place. Let’s face it, the vast majority of people who have landlines would have broadband anyway and for those who didn’t, it would be great for them to get the broadband to their areas in the long run – sorry, channelling Martha Lane Fox there somewhat.

However, I did have a lot of respect for TalkTalk actually coming out against it so strongly, unafraid to tell the Government of the day what it thought of its plans and to campaign, rally and fight against the imposition of a new tax in tough economic times.

Yet, today TalkTalk have thrown those convictions out the window with a “one rule for us, one rule for them” attitude, which I find both alarming and disappointing.

A spokesperson from the company told me today it was different because it was a levy on a service rather than a tax on everyone.

This may be true, but at least the tax on everybody was in the interests of the nation as a whole, to bring everyone’s internet connections up to scratch and let people take advantage of all the benefits, rather than just lining the pockets of ISP shareholders.

TalkTalk had many people on side with its campaign. It put a lot of time, effort and, undoubtedly, money into getting its point across. But I, for one, will not be listening so hard next time and Dunstone might want to keep in mind I won’t be the only one.

BBC makes spy app… and an obvious point

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

A BBC tech correspondent has created an app for smartphones designed to show how easy it is for people to steal data from end users.

His simple noughts and crosses game has the potential (it obviously wasn’t widely released) to spy on the user and take information, such as contacts, text messages and the phone’s location.

The BBC’s experiment is useful to some extent but mobile security has been an issue for some time and the rise of the amateur hacker has been a reality for the past couple of years.

The fact of the matter is hackers will always go to where there is money – it is that simple. So if smartphone uptake spikes and vulnerabilites are there to be exploited, have a wild guess at where more attacks are likely to happen.

And here’s another rather obvious truth nugget for you: people like making money. So amateur hackers are bound to increase in number – just look at some of the soi-disant ‘masterminds’ behind the Mariposa botnet who had fairly basic skills.

Now, while the Beeb’s clever little experiment may have made it clear mobile security is becoming increasingly pertinent, people also need to be made aware of how to protect their devices.

Symantec, one of the biggest info sec companies around, this year introduced a whole range of mobile-based products. This was enough to convince me the mobile threat was pretty darn serious and think about upping the defence of my own device.

Of course, explaining how simple it is to gain other people’s information may also unwittingly convince easily corruptible people to give up their day job and become a hacker. Let’s face it, there’s plenty of money in it.

And yes, I recognise the whiff of irony in this blog’s penultimate paragraph.

Cyber wars – out in the open

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Will a day come when all our wars are fought solely in the virtual world? Unlikely, but there is no doubt countries are enhancing their capabilities to hack into other nations’ infrastructures.

Now, India is drawing together a group of software professionals to form part of its cyber army. Espionage is at the centre of the Indian government’s plans, according to an Economic Times report.

Those who become part of the country’s cyber squadrons will be protected by law, according to the proposal, and will spy on other nations’ systems to either attack or preempt breaches emanating from other countries.

I wouldn’t be too shocked by this specific case though. It is more than likely governments across the world have been building up cyber armies of their own for years, just a little more clandestinely than India perhaps.

Indeed, a Sophos report from earlier this month indicated political attacks are rising and people are apparently not overly fussed if their own countries hack others.

What is interesting here is the lack of surreptitious behaviour from the Indian authorities. This is surely unprecedented and could be one of the first signifiers pointing to an era of cyber warfare where countries are more honest about attacking others in the non-corporeal world.

So much of what has come before has been unclear and underhand (see Google vs. China). Now the Indian Government has been recorded in the press, seemingly conducting fairly inclusive meetings about stepping up its cyber war efforts. It seems like a bold move to make and perhaps a game changer.

Will countries one day be clearer about cyber attacks and their intentions? Now that is a more likely prediction.

Two Sides

Sunday, August 8th, 2010

The only reason my new employers use e-mail to send highly confidential documents, instead of faxing them, is because the facsimile machine had broken. No-one could get the new one to work. When my employment with them started a year ago they were happy to send 50 pages of reports by fax. They thought it was safer and more secure because ‘The Internet’ was open to anyone to read what you sent. (more…)