Will The Next World War Be Fought On The Internet?
If you think it won’t, just read this article on the BBC’s web site.
The Chinese will increase their hacking over the next few years and many of us will get compromised, no matter how careful we are. And let’s face it many of us don’t even have basic virus protection.
I can think of scenarios that might happen to say a fully-compromised banking network, that will make the problems of the banking industry of the last few years, seem like a children’s tea-party.
Apples Down The Drain
I don’t like devices that have a low battery life. It’s one of the reasons, I stick to my Nokia 6310i, although I’m not using it at the moment, as it needs to go to the menders, due to a touch of plastic fatigue.
But I’m quite happy with the battery life of my Samsung Tab, that I take a lot of places.
So I was rather confirmed in my prejudices against Apple products, when I read this article by the respected Rory Cellan-Jones on the BBC’s web site. This is the first two paragraphs.
Is there a problem with the latest update to Apple’s mobile operating system, and is it threatening to cause wider damage to mobile and corporate networks? I’m not entirely sure – because Apple itself is being typically uncooperative with anyone inquiring about it.
iPhone users, corporate IT departments and at least one mobile network are reporting problems following the iOS 6.1 update released late last month. It has apparently caused batteries on some iPhones to drain rapidly by repeatedly contacting the mobile network.
But as usual, Apple are being economical with the truth. So nothing changes!
Have Carluccio’s Cracked Wi-Fi?
In Manchester yesterday, I had a breakfast-cum-lunch in Carluccio’s in Manchester Piccadilly station.
It was the first of their caffes, where I found that wi-fi had been installed. As it was a station that supposedly had Network Rail’s wi-fi, I gave it a go and found that I could collect to Carluccio’s network.
And very good it was too! It was also pretty hassle-free, in that there was no login or registration process. Which is as it should be!
I hope that they don’t find their hot-spot gets used as a free download for masses of data, but there is nothing worse than going into a pub or restaurant and finding that getting a Wi-fi connection is a complete hassle.
But then, all I ever want to do is check e-mails, read a few web pages or use the machine locally. I don’t listen to music, play games or watch videos or live action on a small device.
Not The Best Automated Text!
When I booked my ticket on Virgin Trains yesterday, I got them to text me the details.
It was a two stage process, which as they had my mobile phone number seemed a bit pointless, unless they were harvesting it to make sure, they’d got the right one to send me marketing spam.
But on the phone I use, it was useless as you can’t read the stupid eight digit reference number from the message and type it into the machine at the same time, as it’s not the first line of the message, which is where it should be. You’re of course half-way through typing it in and the display of the phone switches itself off too.
It would be so much better, if you could say which reference number you wanted, when you booked. That way, you wouldn’t need to write it down. But I suppose they wouldn’t get your mobile phone number.
In the end, I did send the phone a message of my own from my computer with the reference number. But this new phone, unlike my superb Nokia 6310i, only shows messages in the Inbox, by who sent them and not by the first line, if it doesn’t recognise the number.
Such is Nokia’s ten years of product improvement!
I suppose I could write the number down, but I haven’t for years, as I could always handle it with the Nokia 6310i!
To be fair to Virgin Trains, they’re probably no better or worse than all the other companies.
The Star That Is ARM
I am linking to this article, which has the full speech of ARM’s CEO’s statement giving the Q4 2012 Financial Results. It is a full nine pages long, so it won’t be an easy read. This statement from the first page is very telling.
So let’s start off with the highlights for Q4. Well, Q4 was a fantastic finish to 2012. We saw our continued momentum in licensing and sold 36 licenses in the last quarter. That’s another year of over 100 licenses in the full year.
As someone, who used to put his own intellectual property on someone else’s hardware designs, this number of licences is a significant number, as obviously, the more licences the company signs, the more money it will earn.
I don’t know anything about the technicalities of what ARM does, but judging by the company’s success, it must be pretty damn good. But to me, just as it was for Metier Management Systems with Artemis, when we owned the company, the managers have got the marketing and revenue model right.
In fact, I might argue, that getting that right is more important than getting the product to a hundred percent of your design aims. As obviously, if you are generating lots of money, it is easier to close that last gap in your designs.
So often, I’ve seen wonderful ideas fail, because their revenue model wasn’t designed well enough and doesn’t feed itself back strong enough into product development.
There is another thing that ARM and Metier had in common. ARM is and Metier was considered a almost a crusade or political movement by those that started the companies and those that worked there. The companies that I’ve dealt with or know of, that have had that zeal are hard to come by. My short list would include Apple, Dyson, Rolls-Royce and Zopa. Although, there are one or two architectural or construction companies, that in a few years time, might join them. And don’t underestimate other companies in all sorts of high-tech fields, using an ARM-style of cash-flow model, based on a group of individuals having a unique idea and the determination to see it through.
I can also think of several companies that had everything and then blew it! You could say we did that with Metier by selling out and a lot of other high-tech companies have done the same. And then there’s some that have just lost their way like IBM and Automony.
Repeated Spam
When I cleaned out the spam in my blog, a few minutes ago, one of the most common bits of spam, I found was on this post about US sailors being drunk.
It was for various lawyers in Texas, who were offering their services for offences like drunk driving. As the chance, I’d get done for drunk driving in Texas, as much less than hell freezing over, someone is wasting their time and money.
On Line Loan Applications
Someone just tried to put a link to an on-line payday loan company in this post on my blog. As you can see the post is about wind power, so why would someone interested in wind power and Ireland, click away from the page to some dubious on-line loan provider?
I deleted the comment, as I always do with those that aren’t constructive to the blog.
But it got me thinking!
So I typed.
online loan application
Into Google to see what turned up.
The first page had about twenty links, of which only half were for legitimate sources in my view. The rest were in my view the on-line providers, that I find dubious.
I’ve also looked at my spam and note, there are quite a few payday loan companies trying to advertise using my site, but they have been stopped by the spam filter in WordPress.
A Million Items Short Of A Full Search
A new search engine called Million Short has arrived on the Internet.
You search, just as you would with Google or your preferred search engine, but it cuts out a required number of results, like a million or a thousand, from the most used web sites.
Click here to try the search.
It might tell you something useful, but on the other hand it’s fun!
Fraudsters Are Targeting Wonga Customers
I have never used Wonga and I never will, but I received this e-mail supposedly from them this morning.
Customer Satisfaction Survey 2013
At Wonga.com, we sincerely value your opinions.
As part of our continuous improvement process, we’re conducting a survey to benchmark the opinions of our customers.We will use the resulting information to better serve the needs of our customers.
We kindly ask you to take part in our quick and easy 3 questions customer survey. In return, we won’t charge you ANY INTEREST on your next loan application!
Here is how you proceed:
• Download your personal survey attached to this email.
• Select the desired answers on your survey.
• Log in to your Wonga.com account to validate your survey.
We thank you in advance for your time and effort in making Wonga the best payday lender in the United Kingdom.Sincerely,
Wonga.com Customer Service
Message ID:
I wasn’t sure if it was phishing spam or something from the company, which has used one of my e-mail addresses.
So I did what you should always do with this type of message and used Google to search for “Wonga 2013 2013 customer satisfaction survey”
I found this page. So it’s a phish and of course fraudulent!
In some ways it’s rather ironic, that a rather dodgy company in my view, is being used as a hook by criminals to get mugs for their frauds.
What No Zopa!
Or any other peer-to-peer lending site for that matter, are mentioned in the best fifty web sites to save money in The Times.
After all, both lenders and borrowers get a better deal here.
Or perhaps, I’m reading the figures upside down.
The Anonymous Widower 