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Asavin Wattanajantra's Blog

IT PRO RSS feed finally back!

By Asavin Wattanajantra in Editorial

Posted in Google Reader, feed, RSS on August 21, 2008 at 4:11 pm

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Finally we’re back running on all cylinders. Now you can add us to whatever RSS feed reader you use so you can keep up to date with our IT news stories.

All you need to do is click on the orange button you’ll find on every page - but the link is here  http://www.itpro.co.uk/feeds

It has all the info on how to use RSS as well as feeds to all of the areas we cover.

So what are you waiting for? Go add us!

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Don’t hate the PR - they are only doing their jobs

By Asavin Wattanajantra in Editorial

Posted in tech, journalism, PR on at 1:49 pm

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One thing I’ve noticed here in my time in IT PRO is the attitude of old school tech journalists (actually not just tech - this is in other areas) to PR. There is definitely a lack of respect there, and in some cases pure hatred!

I find this quite strange, especially in tech. It seems to me that in tech, maybe more so than in any other areas, PR is vital. In fact sometimes they overlap. I’ve known this ever since I’ve started writing, and I am always as nice as I can be to them, even if they are flogging me a dead press release - but maybe that’s just in my personality - I’m nice to people.

But I’ve heard some journalists treat PR’s like a plague, curse them for stupidity, yell at them down the phone - I feel bad when this happens. Simply, these guys are only doing their job. Tech companies are not known for their news sense yet they’ll feed PR people horrid press releases journalists are not going to be interested in to pitch.

I know this - but I’m usually as friendly as can be (though there have been examples where I haven’t - though this is usually when its the end of the day or I’m hungover and a someone’s trying to really do a pressure pitch on me).

I don’t get the attitude because in the end - PR is part of the journalist lifeblood. These are the guys who will help you out when you want that interview, when you need something quickly done. These are the guys who’ll help you out with the free jollies (press trips), free drinks, free devices to play with - doesn’t really pay to be nasty or annoying - word spreads around.

I was thinking - maybe it is because most PR’s I’ve talked to are usually attractive, outgoing young ladies while tech journalists are often … not. Maybe there’s a fear of them or something.

BTW this is not pitch for me to get a PR job or something. I’m very happy being a journalist in the role I’m in and can’t really imagine doing a lot of the jobs PR’s do, especially at the beginning of their careers.

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The Malware Olympics - USA beat China!

By Asavin Wattanajantra in Editorial

Posted in malware, Olympics, Security on August 18, 2008 at 2:31 pm

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As the medals are awarded in Beijing it looks like China are dominating all before them with a massive medal haul beating the USA into first place, with the UK doing astonishingly well this year.

However when it comes to the real competition - The Malware Olympics - it seems that the USA are beating allcomers with a massive amount of PC’s infected compared to the number two in Japan. It looks quite bad for the UK, who only get to a lowly ninth in the table.

Here’s the medal table courtesy of Trend Micro.

PC’s infected

1 USA                                 66,756,766

2 Japan                              10,654,594

3 Taiwan                            6,734,286

4 China                               3,711,602

5 Australia                         1,856,557

6 Spain                               1,548,261

7 France                             1,434,987

8 Netherlands                   466,071

9 United Kingdom            451,652

10 Turkey                         437, 849

I  am sure you’ll join me in a massive cheer for all the participants and it is sure to say that this a proud moment and great source for national pride.

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The UK crime map - How paranoid are we at IT PRO?

By Asavin Wattanajantra in Editorial

Posted in paranoia, map, crime, Google on August 15, 2008 at 3:42 pm

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We’ve been looking at the UK crime map -  and we at IT PRO are of different opinions about how useful the map is.

I’m a bit blase about the whole thing. In the end is not going to make much difference to my life. Apparently I’m in a average crime area - fair enough -  but the place which I thought would be criminal infested - the local council flats - have the same level of crime.

Considering recently I remember a mum getting killed in her own flat and a knifing occuring on the street (big signs up and everything) - this seems a bit silly to me. And kinda pointless.

Apparently the West End has more crime than the rest of London - erm, you’d kind of expect that. Again kinda pointless and stuff you could look up without the need for Google Maps if you really wanted to know.

Nicole thinks that it is a good way of sharing info with the public but again you can see it anyway without the tech. And thinks that we’re dumb***** for the letting the government make us think it is.

Chris is pretty obsessed with it and is very worried about being in a high crime area, though I think the difference between high and average is about 4 crimes. He thinks we should inform the Daily Mail about the crime in his area.

If you want the real useful stuff about murders and knifings and stuff - you need to look online but it is available, though unfortunately it hasn’t gone through any Google mappage.

Just a random post on a Friday afternoon and gives you a real insight about how the brains in IT PRO work (!)

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