Police warn gangs tap call centre info
by Brian TurnerIf you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thank you for visiting!
Police in Glasgow have warned that 1 in 10 financial services call centres based in the city have been infiltrated by organised criminal gangs.
According to Strathclyde Police, the criminals either set up members as office staff, or else […]
Google to reorganise PPC accounts
by Brian Turner
Rumours are circulating that Google are about to announce a major shake up of their Google AdWrods management structure.
Not only will this lead to a dedicated accounts manager for each account, but this manager will also push for inclusion on new audio and visual contextual advertising projects.
Google Adwords is already an extraordinarily popular PPC program, […]
October 26, 2006
Firefox 2 releases privacy storm
by Brian Turner
The much anticipated Firefox 2.0 was launched by the Mozilla Foundation yesterday - and immediately generated a storm of protests over privacy issues.
Key to privacy concerns is that Mozilla have set up their long-awaited phishing protection feature on Firefox 2.0 - but to use it properly, you have to send Google a record of every […]
October 23, 2006
W3C opens secure web initiative
by Brian Turner
The W3C has announced plans to try and make the web more secure for surfers.
The aim is to try and develop a shared set of trust standards via its Web Security Context Working Group, that can help web users have a better idea of the security context of webpages they visit.
It comes after warnings throughout […]
October 18, 2006
IPTV video clips faces EU regulation
by Brian Turner
An EU directive currently in circulation threatens to force broadcasting regulations on the internet.
The Television Without Frontiers directive threatens to force any website hosting video content - whether streaming IPTV, or simply hosting video clips - to broadcasting regulations.
This would mean anyone uploading a simple video clip of themselves, local club, or any other […]
October 17, 2006
Microsoft opens Vista for security
by Brian Turner
Microsoft has suddenly announced that it’s new Windows Vista operating system will be open to third-party security software - such as McAfee and Norton - to help protect users against malware threats.
This comes as a surprise as previously Microsoft had insisted that Microsoft alone would have root access to Vista, essentially locking out security vendors.
This […]
Orange suffers broadband failure
by Brian Turner
Telecoms operator Orange says that a major outage on its network has left a number of its broadband customers unable to connect to the internet.
The problem apparently affects those originally on the Wanado service, which had been purchased by Orange.
Orange has over 2 million broadband subscribers, but won’t say how many have been affected. The […]
October 16, 2006
Google assures Christmas not cancelled
by Brian Turner
Google has confirmed that it has no plans to apply a major change to how it ranks websites in its search results before this Christmas.
This comes after the past two years have seen major changes implemented before the Christmas shopping season.
In both previous instances, online retailers - especially small businesses often labelled “mom & pop” […]
Help for small business continues as Platinax celebrates 2 years online
by Brian Turner
Platinax is a free business resource and mentoring service that celebrates 2 years helping SME’s this month.
Based in the Highlands of Scotland, Platinax is run by a volunteer staff of company directors from across the UK.
The key aim of Platinax is to help other SME’s work better with the internet and increase profitability.
This is […]
October 12, 2006
British Telecom attempts to fight spam
by Brian Turner
ISP British Telecom has launched an automated email spam filtering system it hopes will help clean up it’s network.
This is especially as a number of BT’s servers have been blacklisted for email spamming, leading to other large ISP’s, such as Comcast, to block emails from BT reaching Comcast customers.
The new so-called “spam buster” system, implemented […]
Oil prices sink to new low
by Brian Turner
Oil prices have continued to fall, with prices today reaching their lowest for 2006.
The drop in oil prices has been gradual over the past few months, and uncertainty about production cuts by OPEC - coupled with a lowered projection of oil demand for 2007 - has led to trader ease about oil prices.
This is after […]
October 11, 2006
Top toys for Christmas
by Brian Turner
The Toy Retailers Association (TRA) has announced it’s list of the top toys for Christmas.
The list is compiled from predictations from its members as to which will be the best-selling toys.
The TRA notes that fantasy elements are predicted to be strong in this years Christmas sales, and lists the key toys to watch as:
Baby born […]
AOL UK bought by Carphone Warehouse
by Brian Turner
Carephone Warehouse has won the auction for AOL UK.
The company paid £370 million, which includes 2.1 million customers, 1.5 million of them on broadband.
The agreement keeps the existing AOL UK management structure in place.
It also allows AOL (USA) to manage advertising on AOL UK, and additionally allows for revenue sharing of advertising on Carphone Warehouse’s […]
October 10, 2006
Business Banking services
by Brian TurnerWhen it comes to running a business, a supportive banking organisation behind you is pretty essential.
You need to ensure your finances run smoothly and that there are no issues with processes transactions, paying debts, and paying in profits.
This article deals with personal experiences of various business banking services:
HSBC
HSBC service generally
Royal Bank of Scotland
Barclays
CBI criticises governments £150 billion spend
by Brian Turner
The CBI has attacked the way the government assigns contracts.
It says the current system of tendering £150 billion is fundamentally flawed, by leaving key decision-making processes in the hands of civil services with insufficient skills or experience.
The outome is that often civil servants are unclear what they want to buy at the outset, resulting in […]
Google buys YouTube
by Brian TurnerSPECIAL REPORT
Google has bought the video-sharing community YouTube for $1.6 billion in stock.
Almost simultaneously, Google and YouTube announced strategic content and advertising partnerships with TV network CBS and major media labels Sony BMG and Universal.
This represents one of the most important internet acquisitions in recent years.
The future of the internet is IPTV - online video […]
October 6, 2006
Swear words in program code revealed
by Brian Turner
A study using Google Code Search has shown how many times programmers insert expletives into the code of key open source software platforms.
A search was conducted in Python, Perl, PHP, C++, C and C# for common expletives. These are not in the code itself, but instead in comments made around the code for reference purposes.
The […]
October 3, 2006
How to combat spam on vbulletin forums
by Brian TurnerForum spam - the problem
NOTE: This article was originally written for Security Watch: How to Fight Forum Spamming
Forum spam isn’t simply a problem for forum admins - it’s a rapidly expanding industry for spammers, and scammers.
Forum spamming can be done by human users - often cheap labour from developing countries - but more worrying has […]
October 2, 2006
Minimum wage increases as age discrimination threat looms
by Brian Turner
On Sunday the minimum wage was increased - while at the same time legislation came into force making it illegal to discriminate against workers according to age.
This sets up a serious problem because the minimum wage discriminates by age group - bringing it potentially into conflict with age discrimination legislation.
At present the minimum wage is […]
New gas pipeline offers secured gas energy stocks for UK
by Brian Turner
Recent hikes in gas prices have been a real concern for UK businesses, as part of a general rise in energy costs over the past year.
One of the key problems with UK gas supplies has been lack of supply to the UK from the European continent, with other EU countries holding back general supplies for […]