ARM shows UK still has its part to play

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

I am not known for my outspoken patriotism and reeling off lines like “proud to be British.”

However, when I saw the news this morning that UK chip manufacturer ARM had usurped Intel’s place at Microsoft’s side and was set to be the latest tablet component, I did beam a little with pride.

As a UK techie, I often stare across the pond at the innovation in Silicon Valley or dream of the broadband technology of Scandinavia or the Far East.

We may have been at the forefront of invention when it came to the likes of Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web but we have dropped out of the spotlight somewhat and, in my opinion, without just cause.

It doesn’t help that our Science and Research funding is being slashed to bits by the Government – regardless of what they claimed during the spending review (see the proof here) – and our top techies tend to leave for more prosperous shores.

But perhaps with the (admittedly rehashed) idea of the Silicon Roundabout at Old Street – Tony Blair was said to have spearheaded this years ago – and proof with companies like ARM taking centre stage at events like CES, we can return to a time where being British was seen across the globe as being at the height of the technology field, rather than just by us believers remaining in the UK.

Will the WikiLeaks movie ever be paused?

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

The storyline of WikiLeaks is no soap opera. It is more of a thriller. You would have to get a heavyweight like Martin Scorsese to direct and some of the Academy’s favourites to play the parts.

Lies and spies, sex and violence, even an international man of mystery have helped the site make headlines in the past two weeks. But, the biggest star in this saga – it would have to at least be made into a trilogy – has to have been the internet.

The WikiLeaks website is publishing the cables and the lucky newspapers, which were handed the communications, are using online news coverage to their advantage. Citizens are passing the information on through any number of social networks and debates are raging on forums worldwide.

It has shown how powerful the internet is when it comes to freedom of speech, both for those who agree with the leaks and those voicing their opinions against it.

But there is a more sinister side to the internet we must also be aware of.

It didn’t take long for hackers, who many believed to be Government sponsored, to start targeting the WikiLeaks site in an attempt to silence the whistleblowers. Then the domain name service which provided WikiLeaks with the .org withdrew its support, leaving Julian Assange and his gang looking for a new home.

On the other team, a group of clearly powerful hackers have started revenge attacks against companies doing their best to stop WikiLeaks getting the money to stay operational – such as PostFinance, MasterCard and PayPal.

So far Anonymous have claimed two scalps with the taking down of PostFinance’s and MasterCard’s websites through mass distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and are seeking more as rumours are abound PayPal will be the next victim.

These tech attacks may be thrilling to watch from the sidelines and the information leaked may be sensational but now things are taking a turn for the personal.

Assange is currently being held in custody, accused of sexual assault in Sweden last August. I, for one, am not going to claim I know he is innocent, or indeed that he is guilty, but one can’t help but feel sceptical that the accusations have only just surfaced about the man Sarah Palin is comparing to Osama Bin Laden and who is royally angering powerful governments across the globe.

His spokesperson, however, has told the world the fight will continue. Assange may well be the figurehead and founder of WikiLeaks but the ethos is much deeper than that and the global phenomenon is bigger than just one man.

We have debated about the case endlessly in the office but the one conclusion we all came to was stopping this would be as hard as stopping the internet altogether. Close the site, it will pop up elsewhere. Silence the journalists and the citizens will keep spilling the beans. Try and cut off funds and expect your website to be shut down.

The files will keep moving, the site will continue to be mirrored and the hack attacks will keep leaping back and forth across the networks. Modern governments cannot hide behind modern technology.

No longer are we debating who the biggest super power is but conceding the super power is the World Wide Web.

Right or wrong, maybe Governments will just have to start being open and, in turn, bring this movie to its dénouement. But perhaps that is just as unlikely as stopping the internet too…

Twitter funds the joke trial appeal

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

So, here we are again, but this time we are hoping for the right result.

Paul Chambers, the man prosecuted for tweeting with “menace” when he said he would blow an airport “sky high” if it didn’t reopen in time for his flight, has decided to appeal against his conviction for a second time.

On Twitter today Chambers said: “Yes, probably to the detriment of my mental wellbeing, I am appealing the decision as best I can.”

But at least he can go into this appeal with the knowledge even more people are behind him.

Following his first appeal, the Twitterverse went mad in support for Chambers, with thousands of tweeters posting word for word the tweet which got him in trouble, adding the hashtag #iamspartacus in a vote of solidarity.

The campaign was splashed all over the mainstream media and got attention from well liked and intelligent comedians such as Stephen Fry, Graham Lineham and David Mitchell.

Fry might already have offered to pay the bills on behalf of Chambers, but it is not stopping there. A fund, which was set up after the conviction was first passed, has been brought back to life today and tweeters the world over are donating to help Chambers get justice.

They have already managed to get £400 in 40 minutes. If the momentum keeps up, the goal of £10,000 will be reached quite quickly.

Let’s hope with this huge support online, and three top lawyers versed in media and human rights law, Chambers can finally get this ludicrous conviction struck from the record and get back to his life, his lady and his daily tweets.

To donate to the Twitter Joke Trial Fund click here.

The farce of the Twitter joke trial comes to the wrong conclusion

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

This afternoon, Paul Chambers lost his appeal against a £1,000 fine and a criminal conviction for threatening to blow up an airport on Twitter.

In case you are unfamiliar with the story (where have you been?) Chambers was arrested back in January after tweeting: “Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!”

This was considered by the courts to contain “menace” and ergo gave reason for prosecution.

He was first convicted in the summer, but went to court again today in an attempt to get the conviction, and hefty fine, dropped. He failed.

The reason Chambers had written such a tweet was because he was desperate to meet up with his online lady friend, who he regularly conversed with over Twitter, and was due to fly out to Belfast for the rendezvous.

Now, seriously, read that tweet again. Does this sound like the words of a crazed mad man plotting to take on the British institution through an act of terror, or does it sound like a lad who wants to meet his girlfriend and went a bit far on his current affairs based joke?

And how many evil terrorist plots are foiled because the guy or gal couldn’t resist the urge to tell everyone what they were going to do over a social network? By all means mister bomberman, feel free to give us seven days warning and we can hunt you down like a maniacal Challenge Anneka!

For these, admittedly stupid, 140 characters, Chambers has lost his job, has a conviction hanging over his head possibly stopping him getting another, and is seriously out of pocket.

I am not defending the tweet, it was a silly thing to do and the consequence that someone might have taken it seriously should have crossed his mind. But I regularly chat to Paul over Twitter myself, mostly on a Saturday night tearing apart the X Factor rather than discussing our issues with the British constitution and how it must be brought to an end. This is no menace to society, just your usual 27 year old chap thinking he was funnier than he was.

It seems the money won’t be a problem at least. A few minutes ago Stephen Fry tweeted Chambers and told him he would cover however much the fine came to. But really, it is more about the conviction that will stick with him.

I hope he at least takes some consolation from the huge amount of support he has gained on Twitter, both from the celebrities and from the general, rational, public.

Sorry it didn’t work out Paul, but when does common sense ever prevail nowadays?

The Queen is amused by social networking

Monday, November 8th, 2010

If you haven’t seen the news today that our very own Queen has taken up Facebook then where have you been? I could only assume hiding in a darkened room and putting your fingers in your ears.

Yes, to the Daily Mail’s dismay, the Queen has joined the modern age and put her own page up on Facebook.

Ok, this is not really the case. The Royal PR team has created a page on Zuckerberg’s site to show the day to day activities of our monarch and to give everyone an opportunity to feel closer to her and the rest of the Windsors.

Don’t get too excited, those royalists amongst you. You can only ‘like’ the page, not actually get the Queen on your friends list, and it is no exclusive club – in just one day almost 82,000 people have become ‘fans.’

I am afraid though, the cynical anti-monarchy Jennifer is going to come out here. Firstly, I dislike that the Queen can pretend to be so close to her ‘loyal subjects’ by putting up a page in her name whilst being unlikely to even touch the damn thing, let alone update it.

Secondly, with the rife of public sector cuts – which the Queen’s Jubilee party has escaped by the way – why the hell is worthwhile spending money on staff whose sole job is to keep up a false relationship between Queen and country in a slightly more hip and modern way than the speech at Christmas lunchtime?

Ok, I will get off my high horse but Facebook, for me, is for interactions with friends, people I actually know rather than random strangers or organisations I’ve never heard of. Sorry Liz, but you won’t be getting me ‘liking’ your page anytime soon, just getting mildly irritated with those who think it is necessary to register an interest in you.

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.

$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 Social Network? I wouldn’t hang out with any of you.

Monday, October 18th, 2010

I couldn’t resist it this weekend. There had been so much hype, so many links to trailers and so much internet debate around it, I had to go and see The Social Network – the film telling the story behind Facebook.

I will start by saying it wasn’t half as bad as I thought it would be. The acting was pretty good – even, if not especially, Justin Timberlake – with rather engaging dialogue and enough ‘sexing up’ of a nerd’s life at university to keep the attention.

I just don’t understand why anyone who featured in the film allowed it to be made.

Not one character in there had my sympathy. The Winklevoss twins were just too stupid (and rich) to care about, Sean Parker may have been the Napster genius but was just the worst kind of Californian cliché imaginable and Dustin Moskovitz was nothing but a silent walkover.

I almost felt sorry for Eduardo Saverin but seriously, he should have had the guts to stand up to his colleague in the first place, as well as put more time and effort in to Facebook, not just cash.

But Mark Zuckerberg? He was just your standard geeky guy at school who improved on someone else’s good idea and squashed any chance of real friendships in the meantime by missing what was important in life.

All the people mentioned above are now very rich men. The twins got a $65 million payoff, Saverin got a lot of cash – although the sum is still yet to be disclosed – and Zuckerberg’s company value is into the billions.

But for their sakes I hope money does buy happiness because it sure as hell won’t be getting them any decent friends. I wouldn’t trust one of them to feed my cat for the weekend, let alone know my deepest secrets, as all that was on these boys minds – and they are still boys – was money, fame or getting the girl at any expense.

Yes, they were in their early twenties but even with some of the ludicrous examples of men I hung out with at university, I have never witnessed such a cold bunch.

Maybe it is just Harvard, maybe it is just the US. Ok, or maybe, just maybe, its just a movie. Judge for yourself…

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.

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…