PC World, flash memory sticks, and customer service
by brian_turnerMy mum has been badgering myself to get a memory stick. As I’ve got a friend’s wedding over the weekend, getting a good memory card for journeying seems like a good idea.
So I drove to PC World to check them out. After looking around I asked a sales rep where I could find memory [...]
October 27, 2004
Worldpay Customer Management System update
by brian_turnerTomorrow, Worldpay will released an enhanced CMS and Callback systems for merchant, which will allow access to more information and better management of it, as well as request action from WorldPay over specified orders.
Changes:
Transaction Confirmation Email – more Shopper details
When a shopper makes a purchase, the transaction confirmation email sent to you contains details about [...]
October 26, 2004
Suspicious card behaviour
by brian_turnerAnyone who has any small degree of control over their merchant gateway will know that there are two main areas through which fraud can be detected.
The first is incorrect card details – but a problem here is that the international banking system does not support the full billing address. And a number of circumstances can [...]
DDI Hosting
by brian_turnerDDI Hosting – the troubled hosting company I reported on in DDI Hosting again and How not to run a webhosting business has finally been bought out – by Steve Empie of Frontier Networks.
The deal was concluded 5pm EST, and sees the servers – which had been held as unpaid for by GNAX – transferred [...]
October 25, 2004
DDI hosting: again
by brian_turnerI reported before on the issue of DDI hosting, and used it as an illustration of miscommunication in action within a business enviroment.
The situation does not seem to have become any clearer, with multiple providers becoming caught up in the mess that was created. The topic is discussed in more detail on this thread at [...]
Dealing with ripped website designs
by brian_turnerI mentioned before about the issues of copyright regarding forum posts.
When it comes to website design, through, issues are usually a lot more straightforward.
In many instances, where there is a clear violation of copyright, then a polite e-mail to the site owner pointing out the problem goes a long way.
I’ve done this a couple [...]
Who owns forum posts?
by brian_turnerI had a matter to deal with this weekend, that involved posts from one forum being reprinted on another forum. The problem being, that the admin of forum1 did not at all give permission for the admin of forum2 to reprint the material – which the owner of forum1 was claiming copyright for. My problem [...]
Business 2 Business
by brian_turnerI had to leave the house and go see the solicitors. I’ve a wedding to go to next week, so I figured I’d stop off at a leather jacket shop just before the solicitor’s office itself.
I tried various jackets, the owner recommended one that I wouldn’t normally have tried, but which fitted perfectly and looked [...]
October 22, 2004
UK SEO trade association: SMA UK
by brian_turnerA trade association for UK SEO’s has been launched: The Search Marketing Association.
Currently it’s headed by Barry Lloyd, and supported by names such as Mike Grehan and Ammon Johns. I spoke with each of them at September’s SEO Roadshow in London, and the idea was already gaining momentum then, so it’s great to see it [...]
Ebay: from strength to strength
by brian_turnerThe BBC carries an interesting analysis of EBay, looking at the company growth, marketing strengths, and past weaknesses, and reveals a company that moves from strengthn to strength and posting profits that prove it.
A short history is covered:
1995 Set up in by Pierre Omidyar, although it is a myth that he did so because his [...]
PC Hijack for Phishing
by brian_turnerAccording to Ciphertrust, and as reported by the BBC reports, desktop PCs are being hijacked to allow phishing attacks to originate from Zombie PC’s.
It’s hardly a surprising move – use of trojans and spyware and other security exploits have real money behind them and are no longer the school yard for script kiddies. T
When phishing [...]
Yahoo! buys Stats e-mail
by brian_turnerLooks as if Yahoo! like the model that Google use with GMail – Yahoo! have now bought up a private company called Stata Labs, which uses software to provide relevant context-based ads in e-mails.
As reported at CNet:
Yahoo buys e-mail search company
Yahoo has quietly purchased e-mail software company Stata Labs, in what could be an investment [...]
Microsoft Istanbul
by brian_turnerMicrosoft continues to try and strengthen it’s product ranges in the commercial sector, by improving corporate instant messaging that synchornises with Outlook, not least the calendar and scheduling information.
Currently code-named “Istanbul”, it will only run if installed with LCS 2005, which allows the instant messaenging clients of Yahoo!, AOL, as well as Microsoft, to all [...]
Dirac: Open source media player
by brian_turnerThis month the BBC has been giving low-key demonstrations of an open-source video compression project that could see Windows Media Player seriously rivalled.
Named Dirac, the codec is still in the alpha stage and isn;t expected to be available as a beta until Autumn 2005. Founded three years ago by lead developer Dr Thomas Davies, Dirac [...]
Amazon posts profits, shares drop
by brian_turnerAmazon is the sort of company most online entrepenuers can only dream of building. It’s shown what good vision and hard work can bring to internet business, despite the hype of the dotcom boom bust years. As a long-term shares investment, it looks juicy.
As reported by CNet news:
Amazon posts profit, but outlook disappoints
Amazon.com on Thursday [...]
Firefox fans pay
by brian_turnerIn a remarkably aggressive move involving open source software, Spread Firefox is looking for donations to put a full-page ad in the New York times.
Firefox 1.0 is coming soon, let’s keep building momentum and fill the ad — the first-ever, full-page advertisement in a major daily newspaper created and paid for by the open source [...]
October 20, 2004
From desktop to network?
by brian_turnerJohn Battelle speculates on the future of Google’s desktop search, and considers the possibility of Google merging its Desktop Search with Orkut, to produce a network of “mircosites” running from Google HTTP servers.
It’s certainly not hard to imagine Google developing technology from Orkut and creating it’s own network that people would effectively build from their [...]
ICANN rules to change
by brian_turnerKieth Barrit of the International Trademark Association, reminds us in the INTA Bulletin that new ICANN rules are only weeks away.
The first issue is that domains that are registered with false or incomplete registration data, will not be allowed to be renewed during the redemption grace period (the 30-day period following deletion of a domain [...]
When Infoseek kicked out Google
by brian_turnerIn Search Memories, Mike Grehan relates a sessions at the summer’s SES in San Jose, when old hacks discussed the older days of search.
One by one, top staff at Infoseek, Excite, and Alta Vista, related on how they were approached by Larry Page and Sergey Brin with their PageRank algorithm – and one by one [...]
House market slow continues
by brian_turnerAs per earlier comments, the signs continue that the housing market here in the UK is slowing.
The Council for Mortgage Lenders reports that there were around 29,000 first time buyer loans, as compared to figures of 31,000 and 32,000 for the previous two months.
Remortage loans remain high at around ’80 billion in total.
Expect things [...]