Computer Weekly Editor's Blog

Computer Weekly was mentioned on the Today programme, BBC's flagship radio news programme this morning for Tony Collins's exclusive story about another potential scandal with the National Programme for IT. If you choose to click on the first link to the Today programme to listen again, you'll need to click on the 6-30-7am link to hear the interview, which was on about 6-50am.

Our story -Patient database open to access by non-qualified NHS staff - was published on Friday and was picked up over the weekend before being featured on the Today programme this morning.

It's also now featured on the BBC's website - GP warning over database access.

And if you want more insight into the story then it is worth visiting Tony Collin's blog - as he has really covered every inch of the NPfIT issue.

At last we have resolved our technical glitches and have been able to roll back the changes we made to the site last Wednesday.

If you haven't seen that post - Todays changes to ComputerWeekly.com - and are interested in what we have done then it is worth reading our explanation.

Mobile Computing
Originally uploaded by angermann

The iPhone isn't quite business ready. The Blackberry has been subject to e-mail outage. And users are still crying out for decent e-mail and social networking access on their cellphones. So, for now, could this be the best answer to your moofing woes?

Has government decided to get tough on bloggers in its midst? The disappearance of Civil Serf, a blog apparently written by a civil servant and claiming to expose the inner workings of a government department, has prompted speculation that the blog's revelations may have triggered the creation of a new policy for government employees on blogging, use of social networking sites, and other Web 2.0 usage issues, which is due to be released "in the near future", according to the BBC.

Balancing rights and responsibilities is never easy, so we await the government's guidelines for civil servants with interest. In the meantime, if you're wondering how to bridge the gap between requirements for IT security and employees' expectations of online privileges, check out the following articles and blog entries on ComputerWeekly.com.

It's only a month to go and to the day iIll be running the London Marathon 2008 raising money for the YMCA. At least three months of training is now behind me, but the day itself is looming large. Having endured one three hour run already, the prospect of adding another hour and maybe at least another hour, seems a frightening prospect.

I have added my fundraising widget to this blog and if you want to sponsor me then please do - it's a good cause and if I smash my target of £1200 and make £2000 then I will grow a moustache as well - but no rhino suit as getting round the 26.2 miles is going to be hard enough.

Alastair Darling
Originally uploaded by laspood

Philip Virgo's When It Meets politics blog post tells us what he is looking for from Darling's first budget to help the ICT sector - we'll let you know later whether any of his wishes have been met.

Got a few minutes to spare over Easter then take part in out Guess That Kit competiton.

To enter just go to the competition's homepage and guess what item of IT equipment is featured in the each of the images. The theme is 'Essential kit for business on the move', but we've warped and cropped them to give you a bit of a challenge, so it should be easy for all those moofers out there.

Good luck and enjoy the Easter Break.

These were the top five most read stories on ComputerWeekly last week.

1. Police build national database of mugshots to help CCTV policing

2. Hackers attempt to spread malware via Trend Micro website

3. NHS IT scheme spends £1.5bn less than expected

4. Siemens profits warning marks unsettled period for IT services

5. Half of schoolchildren use Facebook during lessons, study says

I know its only been a short week, but it still feels as though its time for a bit of light relief. So laugh along with me while you watch these three videos, all selected from from YouTube, for being funny (well at least I thought so)... if you want more content from the lighter side of IT then see our Downtime blog!

Well kicking off this week's top three is Bill Gates praising the Mac... While it's not fall off your chair funny, but I still like it for it's irony... and how young is Bill Gates here and how ginormous are his glasses...... ???

What was hot the site last week - well not suprisingly it was Heathrow and Terminal 5 dominated, what with the baggage-handling glitches for the grand opening on Thursday.

The top five most read stories on ComputerWeekly.com last week were

1. Baggage-handling system glitch mars Heathrows T5 opening

Additional links: BAA's terminal 5 baggage woes

2. IT workers being bullied, says union

3. Sainsbury eyes £440m saving after bringing IT back in-house

Blog link: The cost of priavacy: Biometrics at Heathrow Termnial 5

4. BAA suspends fingerprint biometrics security system at Heathrow Terminal 5

5. Guess that kit competition round one Business on the move