Computer Weekly Editor's Blog

Yesterday's post mentioned that ComputerWeekly was running a few April Fool's stories to celebrate - well you clearly liked them as they all were well read. One reader swallowed the Government rental databse to turn spare rooms into lets story as they mailed in asking for more information.

The others, incase you didn't spot them were: RFID scheme scrapped in favour of implants for infants

and: Golden oldies save corporate's time

Do you love solving maths problems? Well if you do, then take part in our weekly maths brain teaser from the Puzzler.

This week is the 15th anniversary of the first ever spam email - the bane of our lives.

So this humorous weekly video round-up is dedicated to SPAM.

I just been pointed to this graph about the growth in the number of websites online and how we got from one back in December 1990 to 100,000 in 1996 to the 162 million there is now.

It is an interesting graph even if most of us are already well aware that the internet has become a mighty busy place.

One irreverant thought that I had as I looked at this graph was how many powerpoint presentations on "how you make yourself heard online" that I'll see this graph appear in, in the coming months?

The most read article on ComputerWeekly last week was Ofcom's assessment of Facebook.

Ofcom measures Facebook phenomenon

Next was Tony Collins's story on a new PC deal that would save the public sector billion of pounds - PC deal could save public sector billions

Troubles at Heathrow's T5 continued to attract plenty of interest and Rebecca Thomson's story that IT experts were tackling the baggage handling systems problems was the third most poular on the site - IT experts tackle baggage system problems at Heathrows Terminal 5

As a publishing business, I guess the debate over the BBC's iPlayer (which in a quick straw poll in our office is a highly rated service) and who should pay for it is a particularly interesting one. The figures are a testament to its success.

Project 366 2008 - April 10, 2008 - NO VIDEOS ON FLICKR!!!!
Originally uploaded by turtlemom4bacon

Thanks for all your comments. I can understand people getting anxious about their license fee and how the BBC chooses to use it, but I agree mostly with Andrew and Ian. Technology will continue to develop regardless of whether its the BBC or another broadcaster that supplies the market as the demand for online video is huge.

The infrastructure therefore must be able to support this development and not stifle it. I expect the ISPs will alter their business models to reflect consumers' appetite for video online.

This week's round-up focuses on online video.... well of course it does its a video round-up, doh! But I mean the platforms for different types of online video that was in headlines this week, such as the BBC iPlayer.

The most popular streamed programme since the iPlayer launched was the first episode in the new series of "The Apprentice".

See this clip of Nicholas being fired in the first episode below

I'm not 100% sure that the chip you are given when you register for the London Marathon is an RFID chip, but once attached to your shoe the chip ensures that each runner's race time is recorded.

It marks the point from when you cross the start line to the finish line and ensures accuracy of time recording and that everyone who finishes can get an official time.

ComputerWeekly.com's brave web editor, James Garner, crossed the marathon finish line with a time of 4 hours, 6 minutes this Sunday. Not surprisingly, he's taken time off to recover today. But thanks to the miracles of modern technology, we can not only verify his finish time (useful for independently auditing that office sweepstake) but we can even see how his pace varied throughout the run. It's all thanks to the trainer chip tracking technology that the Flora London Marathon team used this year to track runners' times.

Congratulations, James! We hope you recover soon so that we see you back in the office some time this week! See below for a couple of images.

What were the stories that got your heart beating that little bit faster last week on ComputerWeekly last week.

The most read was Shell's lessons on outsourcing

1. Shell offers lessons on outsourcing contracts

We have just released a new video about combating spam in the workplace and I'm really proud of the way we've put it together... It's a departure from our talking heads' videos and is a bit more creative and therefore, I hope, more compelling viewing.

Let us know what you think.

The funniest video I've seen this week with an IT connection has to be this song about the woeful experience at Heathrow's Terminal Five.

We've been keeping a close eye on all the lastest sdevelopments at Terminal Five and if you want to catch up then see Heathrow Terminal five - the latest news.

Tomorrow sees the start of Infosec 2008. I'm going to be at the show for most of the next two days and will hopefully post a couple of times from the event.

Computer Weekly will be of course be reporting on Europe's biggest security event and any breaking news from the show.

We'll also be conducting some video interviews of some key speakers, such as Bruce Schneier and Microsoft's Ed Gibson as well as giving you a flavour of the event if your not there by getting some vox pops. If you want to see what's in store or find out more about the event then catch our show preview pages.

And I mean hot as in sweaty, but it's also very busy.

So far we have interviewed Vinny Gullotto and Ed Gibson from Microsoft and Ray Stanton from BT and we have plenty more video interviews lined up for this afternoon. The PRs are relentless and once they see your badge they are pushing their clients at you!

So far what have we learned - well there has been a twelve-fold increase in the number of large UK companies finding unauthorised outsiders on their internal networks.

And talking to a couple of experts cyber crime is getting ever more sophisticated and organised and threats remain large and significant.

Nothing new there and of course everyone would say that here - it's a conference built on IT security compromises threatening businesses and individuals' livelihoods.

Anyway most go... more later

Day one and we have busy rushing around a very warm Olympia filming interviews. Overall for us it has been a good day, but hard work! In between the video work there isn't much chance to catch up with any big announcements.

I posted earlier about the fact that a Government survey found that more outsiders are being found on the inside of company's networks and beyond the firewall.

Employees as always remain a high risk and lost and stolen kit remains a key reason for security breaches, particularly as more of us use laptops and take confidential data home on our hard drives and then leave their bag in the luggage compartment of the train, as I very nearly did this morning!

Today we are going off site shortly to speak to Clive Room of Portcullis to get his view of the show so far and what is everyone talking about in the pub (that's where his stand is!!).

I'm also hoping we can interview Detective Superintendent Charlie McMurdie of the E-Crime Unit. David Lacey will be interviewing Bruce Schneier later and we'll be covering the CREST announcement on the launch of the Security Testing Association, involving end users Lloyds TSB, Aviva and the NHS.

Action packed stuff.

One aside.

I love the irony that I'm posting this from the press office on an unsecured wireless network... at Europe's biggest security conference!

One thing I've noticed over the past few days is the huge growth in video interviews. Almost every publication is doing them, us included, and some vendors are doing live TV shows as well, such as McAfee below, to get the punters onto their stands.

I've just been to a session that discussed the future of the e-Crime Unit, which the police are looking to set up to tackle online crime. It's been a bit of a "will it" "won't it" story so far, but progress is being made.

Detective Superintendent Charlie McMurdie, who is heading up the e-Crime project, said today that it hasn't actually got its funding from the government yet, the Home Office is considering the business cases as we speak, but she was fairly bullish that it would.

She expects to know more in a few weeks time, but can't be 100% sure it will get the green light.

Let's hope that's a case of "don't count your chickens before they're hatched" as internet crime is growing at such an alarming rate that the £5.3m the police are asking for seems a drop in the ocean to the size of the problem.

This week we take a look at twitter.... my fellow CW blogger Ian White has been analysing social media stuff this week and has posted on twitter and has set up his own twitter stream.

Anyway while Ian is busy experimenting with twitter, some have had enough of it already. See this video from Rocketboom.com .......