Internet, bovvered? 88 percent of kids say not

Saturday, October 30th, 2010

Prepare for a shock: the Internet is not a scary place full of paedophiles and pornographers and cyber-bullies and other kid worrying stuff. Well, OK, it does contain all of those things but the vast majority of children, if you actually take the time to ask them, will admit that on the whole they don’t find the Internet to be a dangerous or worrisome place.

According to a new report called ‘Risks and safety on the Internet‘ from the EU Kids Online project based at the London School of Economics and Political Science, only 12 percent of some 23,000 kids from across Europe who were questioned actually said that they had been ‘bothered or upset’ by their experiences online. While that is, speaking as both a father and grandfather, obviously 12 percent too many it is not the kind of overwhelming number you might expect given the often hysteric media coverage and jostling for popular position that goes on amongst politicians.

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Ticklish problem getting Smeg smugness

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

It was probably Benjamin Franklin who devised the first mail-order concept when he started to sell scientific books. If it wasn’t him then his must have been the first mail-order guarantee: “Those persons who live remote, by sending their orders and money to B. Franklin may depend on the same justice as if present.” So Ben, all Internet shoppers thank you.

In the UK our laws give us more rights when we shop over the Internet than we have in a high street store. In general, Internet shopping is a hassle-free and easy operation, with the likes of the Apple Store and the iTunes Store making it quicker than going to town. The range of products on offer is immense compared with the limited stock even consumer goods warehouses can stock.

With this in mind, after our five year old Zanussi oven broke yet again, it was time to get something less stressful. The problems we experienced had been basic design flaws after the plastic lamp holder melted and oven door warped twice. The final straw came when I got an electric shock replacing the light bulb and the inner glass window in the door dropped out while cleaning it. It had been assembled by gluing in place and the glue had failed.

We couldn’t care less where we got the replacement and price was secondary compared with availability. Our needs were simple: self-cleaning, stainless steel, plug into 13 amp socket. With the advice of the salesperson at an on-line site, we bought our next oven. Except when it was delivered it didn’t have self-cleaning linings.

Losing one’s marbles
Two delivery drivers tried to persuade my partner she didn’t know what she was talking about. They insisted the oven had catalytic liners and where was her husband? We keep our kitchen knives razor sharp and easy to hand. They were lucky to leave without becoming castrati after she enquired exactly what they knew about cooking other than the greasy spoon cafés they obviously frequented, and where were their wives?

The first oven was returned followed by three more, whose delivery was halted before they even left the warehouse. It became a real chore to find a replacement.

The idea of on-line shopping is brilliant as long as all the relevant information is available to shoppers. The store we chose used data supplied by manufacturers and which was lacking in detailed specifications. Access to data is a no-brainer. Customers expect to be able to find exactly what they want or will move to another store which is only a click or two away.

Didn’t we do well!
In its report The Connected Kingdom: How the Internet is Transforming the UK Economy, The Boston Consultative Group found that in 2009 Internet shopping had grown to £100 billion, the equivalent of over 7 percent of our Gross Domestic Product.

This share of the UK GDP is now larger than construction, transportation or the utilities industries. Better still, we are net exporters of goods over the Internet, exporting £2.80 for every £1 we import. The whole balance of the country has been turned 180 degrees as the bulk of this is generated by hundreds of small and medium enterprises in London and the South East. Heavy industry is being dwarfed by virtual companies running from back bedrooms who shall be creating over 10% of the UK’s wealth by 2015.

According to the report, the UK is a power-user of the ’Net with almost every household having an Internet connection (19 million of 26 million total). Even though 9 million of us have never gone on-line, mainly in the over 65 age group, we have become the top nation in business to business and business to consumer online sales.

Oven on back burner
As far as getting an over is concerned, it took ordering those three incorrect replacements plus the combined efforts of Jodie Tickle, an incredibly helpful customer service manager. She accepted my cheeky request for discount and with us both checking manufacturers’ websites and telephone support lines we found the oven I needed. Without Jodie’s assistance we would not have completed the purchase with her firm.

The new oven has arrived and very nice it is too. Almost exactly not the size to fit standard 600mm units, it took ingenuity and a couple of long screws to hold it in place. We ate roast chicken that night but served at 10.30pm after spending precious after-work time installing the new oven.

Now it is time to invent Tickle Tartlets, to say thanks to Jodie.

Appointment – Can’t smell

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

I have two PC’s that I use more or less at the same time. I have a belkin box to switch the keyboard / mouse / display between the two however both PC’s have run 2 displays 1 each and 1 shared so it is not always obvious which PC my keyboard is connected to and quite often I find myself typing into the wrong machine. Obviously Delete is the dodgy key here but so far I have managed to undelete everything I have accidentally deleted!

You need to know this but then put it out of your mind when I tell you I had an outlook appointment pop up on saying “can’t smell”.

It took me a few moments wondering what on earth the appointment could be about until I remembered a few days ago my wife asked me check she had turned her hair straightners off before leaving the house & I replied by email saying “I can’t smell burning”. I must have typed this onto the wrong machine and it created an appointment for me.

Fortunately I wasn’t sharing my desktop in a training session at the time, what anyone else would have made of a “can’t smell” popping up…

Mobiles won’t see off wristwatches anytime soon

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

A new survey out today has claimed one in seven of us no longer wear a wristwatch thanks to the domination of mobile phones as our time telling device of choice.

True enough, I have never really been a wristwatch connoisseur, even though I am obsessed with time. However, the watch has never appeared to me as just an easy way of telling the time, it is more an accessory and – for the richer amongst us – a status symbol.

I still remember by father getting his first very expensive watch in his 40s. It was his one luxury that, after he had grafted for so many years, he felt he deserved. Something to prove all that software engineering was worth it, I suppose.

My mother on the other hand is an avid collector of watches. They don’t have to be pricey like my father’s – in fact every Christmas he buys her three for £10 off of the market – but she loves having them and there are millions clogging up her drawers in various states of battery consumption.

Both have smartphones too, my father copied me and bought a HTC Desire whereas my mother has a BlackBerry for work. However, I cannot see them giving up their own little watch obsessions and replacing it with their phones. There is so much more to a watch than time, just like there is so much more to mobiles nowadays than phone calls.

Anecdotal perhaps, but I can’t see watches going anywhere soon, as an accessory or for time-keeping.

Merry Bloody Christmas: the virtual high street is under attack

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

There are just 59 days left until Christmas Day 2010, Bah Humbug! I will admit to being something of a Scrooge-like personality at this time of year, but then if you had as many children and grandchildren as I do then the novelty of the season would have probably worn off of you as well.

Of course, now that we have embraced online shopping that means there are also 59 shopping days left until Christmas, so double Bah Humbug with knobs on.

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Twitter security disclosure shock for Adobe

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

The news that Adobe Shockwave Player has a zero-day vulnerability which could potentially allow an attacker control of your computer is neither shocking nor unexpected. Adobe security flaws are like buses: if you missed the last one just wait for a while and another one is sure to turn up. However, it’s the unexpected bit of this particular zero-day that is the real news here.

After all, zero-day suggests an unknown vulnerability so how could we have expected this one this week? The answer, my friend, was blowing on the Twitter wind.

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Prepare to meet your maker Mr Computer!!!

Thursday, October 21st, 2010

Ever get that burning urge to kick the living daylights out of your computer? Ever feel like you’ve had enough of your slow processor and clunky operating system and you just want to take a giant, slightly too heavy sledgehammer to the machine that you sit in front of everyday typing away like some maniacal robot?

Our reviews editor Alan Lu does. Below is what happened earlier today when his anger was let loose. If you are at all queasy, turn away now.

Computer fails...

Alan finds his answer...

The madness begins...

Bye bye Mr Computer

Many people feel like our Al when computers fail them. At least according to some research put out by PC Tools, which suggested more than 1.5 million Brits kick, punch or hit their PC when their computers come unstuck.

Some computer users have been pushed even further than poor Alan was – they took their smashed up PCs and then dropped the remains in a fish tank. Al just ate his now deceased machine, with some printer paper mash on the side and a wafer thin Mac for dessert.

While such people may need some form of medical help, we urge all manufacturers not to make shoddy equipment so we don’t have to go through what happened today ever again.

Of course, people should learn to ‘chillax’ a little, if you’ll forgive my youthful turn of phrase. Heed the words of chartered psychologist and anger management specialist Gill Bloxham: “Whilst acting out in frustration may relieve the initial feelings of anger, it rarely resolves the issue.” Never a truer word spoken.

And remember kids, a computer is for life, not just for Christmas.

Saying that, this blog is taking an awful long time to load… ALAN! FETCH MR HAMMER. IT’S BASHING TIME.

$13 million for Sex? How sad…

Thursday, October 21st, 2010

I think we will universally agree, dear readers, that paying for sex is nothing to be proud of. However, shelling out $13 million (£8.2 million) is something else entirely.

Today saw the domain name “sex.com” auctioned off to a Caribbean company called Clover Holdings after the original owners, Escom LLC, went bankrupt and had to sell up.

This has made it one of the most expensive domain names in history and its coloured past of fraudster owners and legal battles will go down in history.

But really? $13 million? That is a shed load of cash I could think of doing better things whilst just using a similar name.

It is really quite sad that with all the plethora of things to discover on the internet – from learning about the big bang to watching a classic Humphrey Bogart film and all the facts and fiction in between – the best way to make money online is still to use sex.

I will not even speculate on how the site will be targeted and leave that to your vivid imaginations.

However, if you don’t mind, I will just dream of having $13 million and buying fluffykittens.co.uk for £6.

The Spending Review, coalition cuts and IT part 2

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

The coalition government has now laid out what it will cut and by how much in its Comprehensive Spending Review.

Plans to broaden access to next generation broadband networks have survived the Treasury’s cuts. However, £300 million of the £530 million projected cost to widen broadband access to include rural areas will come from the BBC despite the corporation facing a funding cuts due to the license fee freeze. Despite past Beeb involvement in national IT projects (remember the BBC Micro?), the BBC is still an odd match with the broadband programme, especially as the BBC is expected to reduce its online content at the same time.

The future of the Home Access programme supplying free computers and broadband to disadvantaged families remains stubbornly unclear. Becta, the government agency that originally ran the programme, was abolished back in May and this decision has not been reversed. Whether the programme is set to continue, who will run it and whether it can still be effective is not certain.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. Although short on details, HM Revenue and Customs will apparently use better technology to crack down on tax evasion. Despite the brutal cuts faced by much of the Ministry of Defence, a new national cyber security programme will receive £500 million of funding to protect the nation against a projected increase in cyber attacks from both rogue groups, terrorist cells and rival nations. Both of these areas could be opportunities for specialist technology companies to tender for government business.

The Spending Review, coalition cuts and IT

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

At the time of writing, the full details of what public spending will be cut as part of the coalition government’s Comprehensive Spending Review had yet to be revealed. We’ll be providing coverage on our live blog as it unfolds though.

However, Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude has already indicated that he wants to introduce stricter controls on government IT projects in an effort to reduce the likelihood of schedule overruns, ballooning budgets and barely functional end products that have dogged previous government IT projects. The potential of stricter IT outsourcing/tendering rules have an obviously significant impact on businesses that depend on public sector contracts.

Another area where Maude thinks the government can achieve savings is delivering more public services online. There are few details about Maude’s proposed ‘online first model’, such as which services could be delivered this way, but we already have our doubts about how fair this will be.

Although there’s never a shortage of cut-price laptops available at PCWorld, the growing income disparity between rich and poor means that the level of computer ownership and broadband usage amongst low-income households is both relatively and substantively low, especially in rural areas. If this trend continues, moving more frontline services online combined with cuts in frontline staff could disadvantage the poor.

Although the previous Labour government’s Home Access scheme for providing free computers and broadband access to low-income families is technically still in place, anecdotal evidence from our readers suggests actually applying for this scheme is a bureaucratic maze. It also wouldn’t surprise us if Home Access becomes a victim of coalition cuts.

The coalition will likely brandish its commitment to increasing broadband penetration amongst the poor by pointing to its delegation of broadband rollouts to the BBC. Although the details of what role the BBC will play exactly is currently unknown, we doubt how effective Auntie Beeb will be given that its budget has effectively been cut due to the six-year licensee fee freeze.

We’d also be wary of tendering for government business related to any new broadband/computers-for-the-masses initiative given the capricious  nature of Westminster politics. Evesham Technology, once one of the largest British PC manufacturers, collapsed in 2007 due, in part, to the Labour government’s sudden withdrawal of the Home Computer Initiative.