LinkedIn and Spammed Out

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

Social networking can be good for business, and LinkedIn is a great example of that. It is, after all, a business-oriented social networking system. One of the advantages of this business focus has been that, for the longest time, LinkedIn has managed to pretty much operate under the radar of the scammers and spammers. Facebook remains priority scam and spam target number one, with Twitter a pretty close second it seems. Unfortunately, LinkedIn can now join the list courtesy of Zeus.

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Credo quia absurdum

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

To make your computer run faster you need to turn it on its side. In fact, Apple used to make a range of computers which could be run horizontally or vertically, the old Mac 11ci and 11cx’s. I’m sure mine ran faster when laid out flat with the monitor on top. It was certainly a lot easier to spill red wine into the floppy disk slot.

Time and space are not constants, only the speed of light is. Which means time can pass slower or faster depending on how high above the ground you are and how fast you are travelling. The higher you rise the less gravity has an effect on you.

By using incredibly accurate atomic clocks, with the accuracy of one second every 3.7 billion years, scientists at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology have even proved that time really does run more quickly the higher you are.

They positioned one clock a foot above a similar clock. Gravitational pull on the lower clock being stronger than the higher, time did run measurably slower. Hence computers running faster when they are laid out flat compared with when upright.

As someone who is waiting for lunchtime on a very quiet day at work, I didn’t need scientists at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology to tell me that sometimes time stretches. Each five minutes feels like an hour and when lunchtime arrives, time shrinks to become infinitesimal, every fifteen minute period feels like a second and one is back to work far too quickly.

I blame that Albert Einstein. And that geezer Schrödinger with his cat who said we can be both at work and at lunch at the same time. So now we dine at our desks.

Anti-Social Networking Sites

Monday, September 27th, 2010

So we now have a dating site especially for married people looking for an affair. I’m not providing a link, if you’re interested google. The founder defended it saying he’s not encouraging the breakdown of marriage. his site and ads won’t persuade a happily married man (or woman) to destroy their marriage he’s just making a profit from what was already going to happen.

Which just isn’t true. You make something easier, (apparently) safer and more readily available and it is more likely to happen. Tesco et al don’t pile those sweats and magazines by the checkout because we were going to buy them anyway, society doesn’t ban guns and drugs because they know it stops users and murders – it just makes it harder and in doing so saves a few people in the process.

Whatever is legal but morally dubious or just embarrassing is ideal net fodder. Porn, viagra, flogging your old tat and now finding an affair – all easily do-able but all the more easily do-able if you don’t have to make eye contact…

Who exploded the Stuxnet bomb in Iran?

Saturday, September 25th, 2010

So it looks like malware has got serious with the arrival of Stuxnet which, instead of targeting financial gain, appears to have been aimed directly at real-world, critical infrastructure. There are even those who believe that Stuxnet is less malware and more weapon, with the BBC reporting security experts suggesting that the worm was sponsored by a nation state and designed specifically to target Iran’s nuclear power plant. Indeed, since it first appeared in June Stuxnet would seem to have been most infectious within Iran than anywhere else. Research from Symantec shows close on 60 percent of all the Stuxnet infections have been located within Iran.

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The tech behind a real disaster recovery

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

It has been a pretty quiet affair at the opening year of IT 360. Previously Storage Expo, the show used to pack Olympia for a couple of days in September with storage experts hanging from the rafters and launching new products.

The debut of this all encompassing infrastructure event at the larger Earls Court venue has been less of a clamor and more a gentle saunter around ideas, possibilities and very, very few concrete offerings.

However, those who didn’t attend missed a truly intriguing and interesting keynote this morning, opening up the world of IT when it comes to helping a country recover from a disaster.

Martin Kristensson, from the IT Emergency Preparedness and Response branch at the UN, took to the stage to outline the tough process of getting a disaster stricken location back up and running again, whether its fate be caused by terrorism or a natural catastrophe.

The team start small, chartering flights from their base in Dubai and heading to the location to set up a basic base, sometimes just a tent, with small laptop sized satellite communications and two way radios to get the ball rolling.

Over the next few hours they attempt to set up basic voice and web mail connections, whilst ensuring they can track their staff in case they get into any danger.

The operation grows and grows, leading to in the field data centres, full blown communication hubs and even printing facilities for those who need the information to take away.

The task on all their minds though is to get the local infrastructure running again, ensuring local providers can offer both communications and basic electricity for all the people suffering from the event.

Kristensson showed pictures from Haiti, Pakistan and Indonesia, showing the terrible affects weather can bring.

Yet his overall speech was inspiring, showing how something that we may all take for granted, be it a decent internet connection or a mobile phone with signal, can really help save a community after it has faced such devastation.

It gave the room a sense of pride that working in this industry can make a real difference to people’s lives.

So next time you get wound up by slow email or unexpected downtime, keep in mind the things Kristensson and his team face. Perhaps it won’t seem so bad after all.

There’s No Place Like The Home Office

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

Working from home is one of those things that most people have longed for since time immemorial. Much like living on the moon, flying cars, household robots doing all the household or a catchy ringtone that won’t anyone every one else around you, working from home has always seemed so close, yet as unattainable as ever.

Thankfully, if your job involves sitting at a desk behind a computer wondering what you’re going to have for lunch, you can now do this at home thanks to the combined power of the internet and laptops.

Working from home can indeed be a liberating experience. Answering emails while scratching your unmentionables through your dressing gown is something everyone should try at least once, or possible twice, before they die. Without the constant interruption of phone calls and shrill, juvenile colleagues talking about the sodding X-Factor every five minutes, it is actually possible to get some work done. If you need a break, a repeat of Friends is bound to be on E4 or you can glance out of your window at the cute neighbour across the road hoovering their curtains.

Working from home effectively does require some preparation though. For example, if there are some crucial files on your work PC, then you have to ensure you have a copy either on a USB flash drive or on an online storage service – preferably both, considering how fallible technology is. If you need access to programs not installed on your laptop and access to email, ensure the VPN on your home laptop is properly configured and that your office webmail system works with your chosen browser and operating system (which, unbelievably, isn’t always guaranteed).

Even if you’ve overcome those technical hurdles, there is still one barrier to working from home effectively: yourself. Without the interruptions of phone calls, the occasional fire drill and that dolt of a colleague who likes playing repetitive techno YouTube videos on his work PC at full volume, the only excuse for not getting your work done is your own incompetence and child-like attention span.

It turns out that the average home is a smoldering cauldron of distractions. A quick catchup with the world of the Teletubbies quickly turns into a marathon Trisha-Doctors-Home and Away binge. Flirting with the cute neighbour next door suddenly becomes a full-on snog behind the rubbish bins. Heaven forbid a Jehovah’s Witness should turn up on your doorstep while you’re attempting to make that really tricky Nigella recipe for lunch. You might as well write off the whole afternoon as you engage in an ill-advised theological discussion over a dulce de leche ganache cake.

Clearly working from home isn’t for everyone. The sweet breeze of the office air conditioner has never felt so sweet.

Work for me Earls Court!

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

Unlike some of my lucky colleagues – OK, Tom is the exception as he is at an airport – I am not working from a comfy sofa with Jeremy Kyle on the TV and an endless supply of snacks from the fridge.

On this Work Wise Week, I am working remotely from the 360 IT conference at Earls Court.

The show is filled to the rafters with important IT vendors, top experts and a plethora of public and private sector executives ready to rant when it comes to infrastructure, so I shouldn’t really complain. However, I don’t think it is quite ready for the world of remote working.

There are lists and lists of reasons employers can come up with for being against remote working and many I would bat aside.

Over lunch, I talked to ESET about the security aspects of home working and they agreed it was an issue but one the industry was looking to address with an array of products.

Then there is making sure your employees are actually working, not just watching the aforementioned TV. Trust me, working remotely is hard work. Running around a trade show, lugging a laptop around and trying to find somewhere to sit and work is not an easy task.

No, the issue I have and often have at such conferences where I work remotely is finding reliable WIFi.

From what I can work out, there are about three different WiFi choices at Earls Court today yet there wasn’t one working in the keynote theatre, a pain when you are trying to work as you go.

The one on the show floor may have worked but it was far too noisy to work down there and the one in the press room, whilst working most of the time, gave lots of people bother meaning they had to swap it to a fourth WiFi connection late in the day.

Overall, I have managed, but I may have gone slightly grey under these layers of hair dye.

I do like my reliable connections at home and work. Don’t get me wrong though, I am more than sure with the number of providers and the range of wireless technologies coming into force, in the future it won’t always be as difficult to maintain a stable connection.

Until that day comes though, I better go and buy some more hair dye…

Is remote working an infallible concept?

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

With Work Wise week underway here in the UK, many are extolling the virtues of smarter travel and more flexible working.

Now, remote working evidently has its benefits for the business – greater flexibility leading to happier employees and productivity boosts being two notable ones.  For the environment too there are plenty of pros – less power consumption in offices and fewer cars on the road meaning less toxic emissions to burn holes in our atmosphere.

At first sight it seems like remote working is an infallible concept. Are there any downsides at all to businesses offering this kind of flexibility?

Well, of course, it depends on the company. Too often we lump all industries under that one umbrella term of ‘businesses’ and claim something is beneficial for them, disregarding the different needs of different industries.

For example, would remote working be applicable to customer service employees? And what about telesales – can that be done while on the move? Every firm needs to consider how much they need people in the office before offering remote working – it is simple common sense.

Allowing employees to work while on the go also brings with it extra problems for management, particularly when dealing with a large team. Who do you offer remote working to and when? How do you prevent discrimination between employees and keep everyone happy? These are serious questions and if they go unanswered could damage employee morale. No one needs that.

Then there is a security issue. We’ve all heard of workers on the move losing devices containing sensitive data. Do you let workers use their own laptop, thereby placing corporate data at greater risk? Do you give them a corporate notebook with adequate safeguards? And what devices do you allow employees to take away from the office? Of course, similar key questions now apply to smartphones as well.

Solutions are emerging to help answer such questions, such as functions that allow workers to separate usage on their devices between work and personal operation. This is seen in the new BlackBerry 6 OS, with the Dual Persona feature. Exploring avenues such as this can help firms save money and stay safe.

These considerations need to be taken into account before organisations dive into remote working and its indisputable benefits. And here I will generalise with that umbrella term: all businesses need to answer all conceivable questions surrounding any project before implementing. Planning is essential, especially in precarious times such as these.

Doubting Thomas

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

How many times do you get an email with an staggering picture and just as you’re gasping with amazement a voice in your head says “photoshop”?

I have occasionally emailed back with links to myth sites pointing out the errors but being right is not the same as being popular.

Snopes is my “go to” mythbusting site so after an email today I was pleased to find

This confirmation

The Great Twitter Popup Porn Attack

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

Earlier today, users of Twitter found themselves faced with something a bit racier than the usual serving of ‘having a bad day’ and ‘the dog ate my homework’ type messages so often posted on the micro-blogging system. Thanks to the widespread exploitation of a cross-site scripting (XSS) flaw, users logging into twitter.com instead found themselves confronted by hardcore porn popups amongst other things.

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