How To Deal With Annoying Bloggers – Iranian Style
This terrible story of the death of Sattar Beheshti, a blogger from Iran, shows the regime in its true colours.
While The Big Cats Play The Rodents Strike
Whilst most people in the United States are preoccupied by an election, two British rodents and a few friends have struck.
ARM Holdings and Imagination Technologies are part of a consortium that has bought the rights to the majority of the patent portfolio of rival RISC chip business MIPS Technologies. It’s here on The Register.
This could be a very important deal for the British computer technology industry.
Do Advertisers Get Value?
I wanted to read a report on the Ipswich match at Birmingham on Saturday, so I typed “Birmingham Ipswich” into Google.
I got a few serious reports from papers as I expected, but I also got an advert trying to sell me a cheap flight from Birmingham to Ipswich.
I assume they meant Ipswich in Australia.
All very helpful.
3D Printing
I was shown some 3D Printing in the Department using this machine from MakerBot.
3D Printing
The surprising thing is the cost, as it’s only a couple of thousand bucks, not the tens of thousands I expected.
I can think of so many applications in all of the things I’ve done in the past.
Booking At The BFI
I’ve just booked a film tonight at the BFI.
Their web site annoyed me, as it insisted on having a password with at least one capital letter and a number. I find the shift unreliable because of my gammy hand, so it usually takes several goes to make certain I’ve got it right.
All password entry should have a checkbox to display what you’ve actually typed.
Two websites I use regularly are Zopa and Nationwide. Neither relies on case being needed and Zopa allows you to check a box to show what has been typed. I would assume that neither have security problems as otherwise it would be all over the Internet.
The only site I use which insists on at least one capital is Betfair. But I seldom use it these days, as I always forget and have difficulty logging on.
Whitehall Says Give Social Networks False Details
This article on the BBC, which says that a Whitehall official has said we should all give fake details and an MP disagrees, shows how little the supposedly great and good know about the Internet.
What I would recommend to others I do not know? But I do have a consistent philosophy across the various sites I access. One thing I do, is to use a special e-mail address for the Internet groups to which I belong. This means that I can trace any spam and know possibly where the leak is.
I also rarely give my mobile phone number to anyone.
The Olympics Come In £377 million Under Budget
This has just been announced and you can read about it here in the Independent.
Various commentators and politicians have said that this is all down to good project management.
Sadly, there is no credit given to those that started the project management software revolution in the 1970s. It is truly an unheralded mainly-British software development, of which I played a small part.
Eton’s Gangnam Style
Students at Eton College have created a viral hit based on Psy’s Gangnam Style. The Guardian says it’s a bit cringe-worthy in this piece, but surely it shows that the power of the Internet is there for us all to harness.
Will Theresa May Do The Right Thing Over Gary McKinnon?
Theresa May is due to announce today, if Gary McKinnon is to be extradited to the United States. The decision is laid out in detail in this article on the BBC.
She is also due to announce different procedures for extradition to the United States. As I said here over three years ago, it’s about time we normalised our extradition arrangements with the United States.
What puzzles me most about the McKinnon case, is that a man in his bedroom working alone was able to hack into the Pentagon’s computers. How many others have done this, but with more sinister objectives. I would argue that McKinnon has done the American military a service by showing that their computers were built by the Colander Corporation.
Sad to say, but there is an awful lot of the Monty Pythons about this case.
How Good Are The Companies You Deal with?
I found this on a financial forum, but it applies in so many fields. The guy is talking about where he invests his hard-earned money.
One criteria for me was to Google Maps the address of each company (a crazy idea maybe but try it). put the yellow man on and walk past the firm
Is it a big corporate office or is it above a pizza take away (as one is).
Whilst offices might not mean a lot (Equitable Life,Alba,Northern Rock,Icelandic banks etc)
it is one yardstickI aren’t giving my money to a firm that is not filthy rich.
I’ve tried it with a few people I deal with in various areas. In one case the results surprised me.
The Anonymous Widower 