October 20, 2004

Corrupt world sinking

by brian_turner

A coalition of 17 aid agencies – inlcuding Christian Aid, Oxfam, Greenpeace, and the WorldWide Fund for Nature – today released a report called “Up in Smoke”, which claims that all the supposed “Millenium Targets” – which aimed to halve global poverty by 2015 – cannot be met due to ongoing climate change impoverishing the [...]



October 19, 2004

Google saves hostage

by brian_turner

From the BBC:
Google ’saved’ Australian hostage
An Australian journalist kidnapped in Iraq was freed after his captors checked the popular internet search engine Google to confirm his identity.
John Martinkus was seized in Baghdad on Saturday, the first Australian held hostage in Iraq since the US-led invasion.
But his captors agreed to release him after they were convinced [...]



October 18, 2004

Yahoo! search has new look

by brian_turner

And Yahoo! search now has a new look:
http://search.yahoo.com/
Familiar, no? :)



Google Desktop: security warning

by brian_turner

Someone made a silly blunder at Google – in the recent released Google Desktop software, someone left the default settings for cahcing secure pages and their information.
Easy access to banking details anyone?
Apparently, Google has corrected the issue immediately.



Jux2 meta search

by brian_turner

Personally, I think that meta-search is the way forward.
Ask has great clustering technology, but often this can be seen as useless in the commercial environment, as commercial competitors certainly do not link to one another as freely as free reference resources do.
And although Google has great indexing technology, and generally returns “good” results, the general [...]



October 14, 2004

BPI sues people

by brian_turner

The British Phonographic Industry has recently won a court case, allowing them to demand the identities of 28 users from Internet Service Providers (ISPs), claiming massive file-sharing going on:
Music firms win ‘pirates’ ruling
However, according to the BPI:

“They are uploading music on a massive scale, effectively stealing the livelihoods of thousands of artists and the people [...]



Google Desktop

by brian_turner

Google desktop application released

The net giant has released a preliminary version of a desktop program that will search computer hard drives, as well as the web.

I think I should really have named this entry: Google release Spyware. Because that’s what they’re doing.
They haven’t released this application in some magnaminous show of comraderie with the internet [...]



WHSmith report losses

by brian_turner

Here’s how the BBC reported it:
WH Smith plunges into the red

Struggling retailer WH Smith has plunged into the red, making one of the worst losses in its 212-year history.
The company reported an annual pre-tax loss of ’135m ($242m), as it was hit by exceptional charges of ’200m linked to unsold stock and restructuring costs.
Sales at [...]



October 13, 2004

Jeremy Zawodny at Yahoo! Search

by brian_turner

Popular blogger and Yahoo! engineer, Jeremy Zawodny, announced last night that he is moving departments – and will be working on the Yahoo! search team again.
While Jeremy makes a point of trying to open, it’ll be interesting to see how informal Jeremy can keep his discussion of search tech. And whether he likes it or [...]



October 12, 2004

AOL new browser

by brian_turner

AOL have been quietly developing their own standalone browser, while the internet is otherwise distracted by speculation on a Google Browser, Internet Explorer security problems, and various front-of-shop revamps to AOL and Yahoo.
So what does the AOL browser do and offer?
Well, according to Eweek’s article AOL Readies Standalone Browser, he software will be completely standalone [...]



Don’t forget: Switch off autopilot!

by brian_turner

I can really relate to this – making two dumb mistakes in succession, after years of no mistakes.
From Reuters: Autopilot Sinks Absent-Minded Skipper:

A Finnish commuter ferry captain has been suspended after crashing into a pier because he forgot to turn off the autopilot — for the second time in three days.
The captain was given a [...]



Steve Jobs interview

by brian_turner

So what makes a successful innovative business? According to Steve Jobs it’s:

saying no to 1,000 things” so as to concentrate on the “really important” creations

You can find an interesting interview with Steve Jobs at businessweek, which includes some telling Q & A on the more difficult years in Apple’s history:

You need a very product-oriented culture, [...]



Microsoft Security Update

by brian_turner

Today Microsoft unveiled no less than 10 security advisories covering 22 new flaws that the company has detected in its own products – including some rated as “critical”.
Not surprisingly, Internet Explorer continues to reveal itself as an easy tool for hackers, and the general question begs to be asked as to why – only weeks [...]



October 11, 2004

Pension bubble burst

by brian_turner

I don’t have a pension. Should I be worried?
Question is – should I really care to invest in a pension, when there are other savings schemes out there, that might offer greater reliability and profitability?
After all, those investing in pensions lost out to the stock market falls in 2000 – but those who saw [...]



October 9, 2004

Online ordering: Does yours work?

by Brian Turner

Problems ordering online
This may seem like a stupid question – but if you have ever set up an online processing system, then have you ever actually tested it to see if it actually works?
You have? Good. But under what conditions?
The problem is that a lot of companies are fine and dandy setting up a system [...]



Media vs the people

by brian_turner

The whole issue of file-swapping reaches a peak as the RIAA and others take the issue of file-swapping to the supreme court.

Hollywood studios and record companies on Friday asked the United States Supreme Court to overturn a controversial series of recent court decisions that have kept file-swapping software legal.
The decisions have been among the biggest [...]



October 8, 2004

Microsoft Office: security vulnerability

by brian_turner

Secunia has apparently issued a warning that older Microsoft Office software contains a buffer overrun flaw, that could allow Word ‘97 and other Office produts, to be used for Denial of Service (DOS) attacks on user machines:
Flaw found in older Office versions:

A security company warned Thursday that a flaw in Microsoft Office could allow a [...]



Google SMS and Clustering

by brian_turner

Google SMS
News buzzing around the internet about the new Google Short Message Service (SMS).
Apparently in development, it allows a search of local business listings, comparison of online products, and looks up dictionary definitions, among other things.
You can also find out more information here on the Search Engine Watch blog.
Google Mobile? It’s coming.
Google word clustering
Also in [...]



October 7, 2004

PageRank Update: was it worth it?

by brian_turner

So, the Google PageRank has finally updated, after well over 100 days with no PR update.
Having seen no real changes on my own sites, though, the process has distinctly lacking in any action.
Was it ever really worth watching in the first place?



October 6, 2004

Netscape: abuse

by brian_turner

So I received an e-mail about a fraudlent lottery scam, from a Netscape address.
I figured I’d be a good boy scout and report the issue to Netscape’s abuse department.
Ho ho. You’d think something as simple as that would be easy?
I typed in “Netscape.com” – and ended up being redirected around 5 different sites/subdomains, before [...]



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