Collaboration Technology 2.0

Nasty viewing habits

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Viacom (Paramount to most of us) has beaten Google / YouTube into submission and forced them into handing over logs of every hit to every YouTube video ever.

This obviously has some deep implications on the privacy of Web 2.0 applications and could if extended have a detrimental impact on the SaaS market as a whole. Unless potential customers believe that they can trust service providers to keep both content and usage confidential (so long as it is legal) then the whole industry could fall at the first hurdle.

This is going to take a while to play out but it may be highly significant as a sign of mounting issues ahead.

Viacom may only be interested if you are watching illegal (or it that unlawful?) clips of Star Trek but if we are not careful we will not 'boldly go' any further!

I asked, Erik answered

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:00:00 +0000

Well done Erik for pointing me to Mailinator.

As I blogged on the need for a sacrificial mail service and obviously I did way to little research to find a suitable offering, the power of the web came to my rescue.

I am going to try out this email cut-out service over the next week or so an report back on its usefulness.

Web time has passed me by : Google Reader - I am sorry

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:00:00 +0000

Google Reader was fully released in October of last year and I did nothing about it. More fool me. I have started using it for the last month and it really does the ad-hoc aggregation of RSS feeds in the most user friendly and socially aware way I have come across.

If you have a number of feeds (blogs or other sources) that you want to track and are not using Google Reader you are missing out. A great piece of 'Googlenology'

Your nicked!

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:00:00 +0000

CSI:Email is the digital equivalent of the smoking gun, and in the states you get more than simply a rap on the knuckles for using it inadvisingly.

Former IBM employee Atul Malhotra passed on documents he received in his old role to colleagues at new employer HP.

HP being the fine upstanding company that it is, told the Feds and now Atul has had his collar felt. Looks like he will be spending time filling toner cartridges in some Fed pen in the not too distant future.

Make the sacrifice - the kindest deletion of them all

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:30:00 +0000

Talking to my colleague Gareth yesterday, we pondered over the volume of digital chaff that we were receiving at present due to our current activities. Gareth (as ever the practical one) bemoaned the fact we had not set up 'sacrificial email accounts'. So I went and looked up sacrifice.com hoping that it would not be too pornographic and that I would not be arrested by some over enthusiastic rozzer as I did my research. Amazing all I got was 'The site is being redeveloped please revisit in early 2004.'

It struck me that a pop3 only service that would simply allow you to create an account for (say) 3 months and come what may it would be deleted at that point would be a useful service. This would be a digitial 'poste restante' for the 21s century.

I took a quick scoot around the net and could not find anything that meets my requirements so it looks like Gmail will have to do

Next time you need to set up a temporary subscription, recruit or apply for a job or have any shortish term project that you do not wish to be overwhelmed with spam, give it a go.

for the uninitiated

rozzer = policeman (used on TV in the first episode of the latest series of Top Gear, not seen it in use for a while, very 50's_

How confidential is email

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:00:23 +0000

An IT guy has been busted for insider trading after gaining info while snooping on an exec's email; see Financial Times web site. Insider trading is illegal but how confidential are emails.

Many organisations state in their policies that emails are not confidential. However, most people make the mistake of believing they are. Simple rule - if it's important encrypt it.

Stranded Turtles and wishful thinking

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:50:26 +0000

According to IBM Lotus blogger "The Turtle" all we need to move fully into the wonderful post-apocolypse post-Microsoft world is an alliance of

Google: with the reach
IBM: with the technology
Apple: with the marketing nounce

All this is true but like all wishful thinking won't come true because:

Google: thinks it has all the tech it needs
IBM: is an a federal business and thus finds it almost impossible to work in a unified manner
Apple: promotes a sort of 'we're upper class' and looks down on the rest of the world

For those of you who wonder what it is like to be upper class check this out

New job, runny nose, no show - its tough being an Apprentice

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:30:19 +0000

The UK version of The Apprentice finished just a few weeks ago and today was supposed to be the first day of work for the winner, Lee McQueen. But unfortunately he's had to throw a 'sicky'.

I can only wonder what the reaction of Sir Alan 'your fired' Sugar' would have been on hearing the news! More here

Nothing to steal

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:21:16 +0000

Ian wrote that if you leave the door open someone will come in a steal stuff. In the 'old days' when people left the key in the door, they did it as there was - nothing to steal!

I brought a picture the other day at a house clearance. On the back were all the (deceased) persons passwords to numerous on-line accounts

I write as I've just tried to pay the London Congestion charge on-line and couldn't remember my pin - so the authorities get to steal from me in the shape of a fine.

McAfee 'proves' if you act stupid get spam - durh

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:24:43 +0000

McAfee has run an experiment where a number of subjects using pristine laptops spent a month surfing the web unprotected (except for anti-virus).

By the end of the month EMEA had garnered over 56,000 spam emails. Here is the UK the volume of Nigerian phishing attacks was the most prevalent.

Moral to all of this - smart surfing is safe surfing

Looking for work, It is not all bad news

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:45:14 +0000

Computer Weekly is reporting that 'IT contractors in financial services upbeat despite downturn' according to the article:

"Organisations have been much more restrained in their hiring post-dotcom boom and crash, and have offshored a lot of their skills base since then, so the UK contractor resources they currently have are leaner and less susceptible to cost cutting."

He said there is often robust demand for contractors during challenging economic conditions as organisations put off hiring permanent IT staff.

It is good to know that for every cloud there is a silver lining, what will be more interesting over the next few months will be which projects survive the corparate 'chop' and which ones will be emerge as a response to the financial situation.

Are you the real Ed Brill?

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Uber IBM Blogger, Ed Brill, has been impersonated (imwebonated?) on his widely read, highly active blog. Many blogs go through strict editorial controls before comments are allowed through, most however inform the blog author of the post and then let he/she check them out.

It does not take much thought to see the potential consequences on security / stock market / personal standing that such a fake blog post could have.

The web is like every other part of society, if you feel compelled to leave your front door open then do not be surprised if eventually somebody comes into your web house and steals something valuable.

Little joys, life can be beautiful

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:30:46 +0000

I am in the middle of transferring my ADSL circuit from a small, high quality (but expensive) provider to O2. As an existing O2 customer they are offering really top flight deals.

I can honesty say that from my initial contact with them, through the SMS provisioning tracking service to the Customer Service bod that corrected my foul-up with the hardware delivery date - I have been extremely impressed by the quality of interaction.

Yes I know I am not provisioned yet and it all might go to hell in a hand basket, but a least O2 have some 'customer credit' in the bank.

Last week I tried to help a friend who uses Virgin Media and the contrast could not be more stunning, merry-go-round IVR system, foreign support centres and an appalling attitude to customer service.

She is now moving away from Virgin.

LIfe is beautiful, this is but a small example - and its a clear blue sky today - wonderful

The consequences of freedom

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:10:31 +0000

Has the Web/Net created a greater sense of unease in us all? Virus infection, spam attacks and identity theft are the consequences of the lack of security of the internetworked computer. We're now so brainwashed to the risk that something could happen every time you connect to the net that safety is now an invaluable promise for the consumer. Is the trend with locked down devices like the iPhone (a product born of fashion and fear) one that will see a future of fewer applications that aren't centrally controlled and authorised by the big vendors?

It must be a thin news day

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:09:51 +0000

The BBC is running the Bill Gates is leaving Microsoft story AGAIN.

C'mon guys there is so much more going on!