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.
A Classic Phish
I received this today, purportedly from Vodafone.
Dear Customer,
You have a pending security update on your Vodafone account to protect you against online theft.
Kindly visit http://www.vodafone.co.uk/new_security/update/account.html
Regards
The Vodafone Team
It’s been well setup, but it does exactly what you think. It points to a fake site and probably steals all of your details.
It actually points to a site called eadecom.net which is registered by Jose Canyellas Vila, who gave details of.
josep@senyal.com
LLuis Companys, 1 8-2 Lleida 25003
It wouldn’t make any difference to me, as I’ve never had any account with Vodafone.
Nice one, Jose. All it meant that was your details are now with the guys with heavy boots and even heavier truncheons. You better get the toilet paper ready. You’re going to need lots of it.
I’m not the first person to find Jose. He’s mentioned on PhishTank.
The Self-Filling Bath
I am refitting my bathroom in the next few weeks, as the current bath is one of Gerry’s El Cheapo specials, which is actually dangerous to get in and out of. It also has taps that work on a hot-one way, cold the other basis. There’s a video here.
I’m fitting a whirlpool bath and whilst talking to the saleslady, I thought it would be nice to have an self-filling option. I was told she’d never seen one. On the other hand you can get taps that set the temperature.
I searched the Internet and haven’t found a system.
I wonder why not! It’s a dream for a farmer, a builder or someone who works outside in the cold, wet and filth. Imagine you’re just coming to the end of a hard working day and are walking home or just about to get in your vehicle to drive there. You bring up an app on your smart phone or send a text from your Nokia 6310i to tell the bath to get itself ready in fifteen minutes say. It then fills itself to your required level and temperature, a couple of minutes before you get home.
The logic for the self filling bath is overwhelming. Even in my situation here, I would love to be able to set it off and then perhaps finish a post on my blog or a bit of cooking, whilst it was filling. After all,most of us just hang around in the bathroom, whilst waiting for the water to get to the required level and temperature.
It’s not that the technology is at all difficult. In my view, you wouldn’t actually measure the depth of water directly, but probably by weighing the bath with a simple load cell.
It’s just straightforward automation, that’s been around for years.
What I can’t understand, is why it is not commonplace? But then there are other simple pieces of automation that aren’t either.
The Anonymous Widower 