AMD: Opteron chipsets on high
by Brian TurnerAdvanced Micro Devices (AMD) continues to increase its market share of the server processor market, now accounting for over 20% of x86 server processors in Q1 of this year, according to Mercury Research. The company looks so inviting that IBM, who has normally only distributed AMD chipsets in higher end solutions, is now looking at [...]
Internet vulerable to serious attack
by Brian TurnerAs much as 85% of the internet could be wiped out by a simple combination of attacks – according to the latest research from Cornell University. The problem is due to the way that website addresses work, which relies on a small number of computers around the world – known as servers – to direct [...]
Pension funds see huge deficits
by Brian TurnerThe government’s Pensions Regulator has warned that Occupational Pension Schemes are failing – with deficits of up to £400 billion. The regulatory highlights poor controls and planning, especially in smaller pension schemes, and is seeking active intervention in as many as 300 of them. The news comes as yet another blow in the pensions crisis, [...]
April 26, 2006
The Tipping Point
by Brian TurnerThe Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell, is a great exploration about how little things can create big changes. It’s the entire focus of the book, and it makes for riveting reading at times. Having just read Freakonomics I was concerned that I’d opened another pop turkey – but the Tipping Point shows it’s superiority in [...]
Contextual ads for IPTV
by Brian TurnerThe grab for IPTV continues, as new start-up Dave.tv offers to not simply aggregate video content, but also serve contextual advertising with it. It’s no brash claim either, as the person driving Dave.tv is Rex Wong, who was formerly the director of Applied Semantics – the company Google bought for the technology to deliver Google [...]
April 21, 2006
Spam: Asia strong importer
by Brian TurnerAsia remains the strongest importer of spam emails to the internet, with China rapidly catching up to the USA as the leading nation of spammers. The information comes from security company Sophos, who released figures from a study showing where spam was sent from. Legislation within the USA has helped knock it down from being [...]
DVD format war: HD DVD launches
by Brian TurnerThe first salvo in the DVD format war has been officially fired, as HD DVD players officially go on sale in the US today. In a situation mimicking the VHS vs Betamax video format war on the 1980′s, there are two different formats in the next step of DVD technology. HD DVD and Blu-ray are [...]
April 18, 2006
Online marketing doubles in a year
by Brian TurnerOnline marketing spend almost doubled over the past year, according to Nielsen Netratings Adreelvance figures, published by MediaPost. The figures show just how seriously marketers in the United States are taking the internet as an advertising medium, purchasing over 185 billion ad impressions. E-mail was shown to be the biggest channel for advertising impressions, accounting [...]
April 13, 2006
Search engine user habits analysed
by Brian TurnerJupiter Research and iProspect analysed how people use search engines. While the results are not entirely surprising, it underlines how important it is for companies to be well represented at the top of search engine results for their key commercial interests. Key points of the study are: People expect to find what they’re looking for [...]
British hacker faces Guantanamo
by Brian TurnerConvinced that the US government was hiding secret information on UFOs, London man Gary McKinnon hacked his way through US military computer systems over 2001-2002. Now he faces extradition to the US, and possible internment at the infamous Guantanamo Bay concentration camp. Although US diplomats claim they have offered assurances in a letter that this [...]
UK economy shows increasing weakness
by Brian TurnerVarious economic indicators published this week warn that the economy shows increasing weakness. On Tuesday the British Retail Consortium (BRC) revealed that high street sales were down 1.4% on last year. Cold weather and the late Easter have been blamed for the fall. Then on Wednesday, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published figures that [...]
April 9, 2006
How to survive running a small business from home
by Brian TurnerWorking from home offers numerous benefits – not least the reduction in overheads in not having to rent out an office or other building (which themselves will be subject to business rates on top of rental costs). However, even working from home has its challenges, and there are trade-offs you need to be aware of. [...]
April 5, 2006
Dixons loses name to Currys
by Brian TurnerDSG International, which owns both Dixons and Currys, has decided that Dixons must now become Currys. Dixons will still exist – but only as an online retailer, with the high street Dixons stores becoming Currys retail outlets. At this point it’s worth underlining that online sales are booming, while high street sales remain weak. Not [...]
Leopard to run on Windows
by Brian TurnerApple have announced that the next update to their Operating System – OS X Leopard – should allow Apple machines to run Windows XP as well. Currently only in beta, the specific application that allows Apples to run Windows is called Boot Camp, and allows the user to choose between Apple OS X or Windows [...]