Elly Williams’ Weblog

So, there’s something that I’ve noticed about Twitter:-

To all those people who wonder if the constant stream of other-people’s-consciousness is distracting, the answer is – not really, until it goes away.

I’ve become used to the notifier in the bottom corner of my screen popping up from time to time, but increasingly TwitterIM is down and I find I have to go and manually check if everyone is still around.

Anyone else find this?

“The YouTube business model is still unclear” stated the Channel 4 News’ expert.

No shit, Sherlock!

While reading the Interview with Andy Clarke over at accessify.com, I came across this quote which got me thinking:-

Like the Millenium Bug before it, accessibility has become a new opportunity for people to exploit fears of legal action and it is a practice which I abhore.

In October 2004, Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA 1995) came into force requiring businesses to “take reasonable steps to tackle physical features that act as a barrier to disabled people who want to access their services.” Now, this should be a great thing for disabled access. It should mean more ramps, better signage, wider walkways, and so on. What appears to have happened tho is that any shop, cafe, restaurant etc with a stepped entrance has a sign outside requesting that “Anyone requiring assistance to enter the property please attract the attention of a member of staff”. Hardly a great improvement.

Now, I understand that building things takes time (especially in public places) and I’m hoping that the situation in the ‘physical world’ will improve – but the ‘online world’ changes much faster and I’m worried that all that the increased ‘fear of legal action’ (however much of an abhorrent practice it may be, it’s out there) is going to produce is similar stopgaps (‘text only’ options anyone) when the people who need the changes really deserve something better.

“More than 10% of net users are going online with the Firefox browser, show figures from analysis firm One Stat.

The global average of 11.5% is the highest percentage of users that the open source browser has ever reached.

The research also reveals that Americans are the biggest fans of Firefox with 14.1% using it. In the UK 4.9% use it to get around online.

It is thought that continuing news stories about security problems in Internet Explorer are helping to fuel the move away from Microsoft’s program.

In recent months, browsers, toolbars and the technology around them have become the new front line in the war between the web’s biggest companies – Microsoft, Google and Yahoo – to grab and keep hold of users.”

BBC NEWS | Technology | Firefox fanbase reaches new high

It’s been a bit quiet here recently (apart from the spammers). This is because in the midst of leaving my job, moving 300miles north, buying a flat and adopting a dog, I have been pretty much entirely without internet since the end of June. It may be a while before I’m properly connected up again, but I just thought I should say that I’m ok, and that Newcastle is treating me very well.

Anyway…

This article on the unfathomability of various web-terms, by the british public(via Simon) got me thinking back to a conversation I had with a colleague about six months ago. He asked “What’s the difference between a chatroom and a blog?”. I can’t remember exactly what I said, but I’m fairly sure I gave a thoroughly unsatisfactory answer.

Let’s try the question another way.. In terms that you would use to a taxi driver, landlord or hairdresser…

A chatroom is a to a blog, what a [---] is to a [---]

debate is to a lecture?

conference call is to a letter?

free-for-all is to a committee?

This email puts me in mind of one of those puzzleboxes where you have to shuffle all the pieces around in order to see what the picture is. I’m not entirely sure what’s happened – even changing the browser & font sizes didn’t fix this… not that I was particularly interested in what they had to say.

Zoom Layout Microformat + Javascript + Greasemonkey = “I know Kung-Fu”…. or rather, I wish I did.

A campaign urging parents to become aware of their children’s music downloading habits has been launched.

[A] leaflet – Young People, Music and the Internet: A Guide for Parents about P2P, file-sharing and downloading – will be published in 19 countries and eight languages.

“We believe most parents have no idea how file-sharing works,” said Stephen Carrick-Davies, CEO of Childnet.

The campaign has been welcomed by the UK music industry.

“We are committed to working with parents to make them aware of the dangers of illegal downloading,” said Peter Jamieson, chairman of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

While I agree that “Parents need to get up to speed with what their children are doing online.” I’m somewhat dissappointed that the main target of such a campaign is filesharing. And the same goes for the entire BBC article. There are any number of activities which your children could be engaging in (and this isn’t limited to the ‘net) which are far more dangerous than swapping music – and neither the campaign, or the BBC coverage, seem to be acknowledging that.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Music | Parents urged to check downloads
Childnet International| Working to ?help make the Internet a great and safe place for children?.

Microsoft is putting a key web technology at the heart of its most popular programs.

By late 2006 all the files created by users of its Office suite of software will be formatted with web-centred XML specifications.

The decision marks a big change to Microsoft’s existing proprietary file formats that can be hard to work with.

Microsoft said the changes should make it much easier for companies to do more business via the web.

*closes eyes, crosses fingers and cries ‘please let them not screw this up’*

And then I remember that it’s Microsoft who have “supported XML in Office since 2000 within the HTML formats in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.” That is, their own version of HTML that only bears a passing resemblance to anything the rest of the web is doing.

“Microsoft is basing its file formats on the XML 1.0 specification.” Is that going to be in the same way that O Brother Where Art Thou was based on The Odyssy…..

BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft adopts web file styles (hang on … xml is about structure not style..)

Concerns about identity theft are beginning to put people off shopping and banking online.

In a survey commissioned by software firm Intervoice, 17% of people said they had stopped banking online while 13% had abandoned web shopping.

Concerns about how secure identity is online have risen following high-profile phishing attacks.

The term [phishing] refers to the practise of creating look-alike websites, often of banks and other financial institutions, and duping people into visiting them and giving out personal information such as pin numbers and passwords.

Fifty seven percent saw ID cards as the best way to protect themselves against identity theft.

Stealing identities is often a piecemeal affair, as thieves garner small bits of information bit by bit and gradually create a persona.

There’s a couple of things in the results of this survey that worry me…

Concerns about how secure identity is online have risen following high-profile phishing attacks.

The real life equivalent of this is stating that “Bogus Doorstop traders gaining access to your home and stealing all your valuables is causing people to lock their front doors when they go out”. The problem with phishing is that it’s a confidence trick rather than a security breach…While it’s great that people are becoming aware of phishing, it worries me how little understanding of it there appears to be of the actual problem.

Fifty seven percent saw ID cards as the best way to protect themselves against identity theft.

Let me get this straight… having a card on you, at all times, which contains large amounts of personal data, about you, which can be read by anyone with the correct equipment, is the best way to protect your identity…? Oh, and all that data is also stored centrally, and you have no idea who has access to it. The logic of the British Public is staggering!!

By the way, anyone else think that 57% stat is going to end up being used by the government as an approval rating…

BBC NEWS | Technology | Public worried by online ID theft

The final Star Wars film has been leaked on to an internet file-sharing network just hours after the movie opened in cinemas.

A “work print copy” of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith with a time code, rather than the finished version, appeared online on Thursday.

A tracker site showed more than 16,000 people were downloading the film.

Hands up anyone who’s suprised? Anyone….? No….?

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Film | Revenge of the Sith leaked online

While stumbling around the BBC News, Technology Section I came across this piece from about 6 months ago. Someone has created an email client and browser for toddlers.

The idea is to protect them from sex and drugs spam and other unsavoury aspects of the internet, while at the same time give them access to the web’s more useful and entertaining sides.

OK, so that’s all very nice but I’m wondering, If children are being taught to use a mouse, before they use a pen, taught to use a virtual paintbrush, before they learn to use a real one, how long will it be before computer literacy tests are usurped by ‘paper literacy’ tests….?

Point Topic, a company who “provide focused information on broadband communications services”has combined a mass of data and new market models to show for the first time how many business and residential broadband users there are in each constituency in England and Wales. And then they made this map

So that’ll be London, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, the M4 and the M1 then.

References

• BBC NEWS | Technology | Broadband reveals digital divide
• Point Topic Guide to the Election
• Google Map of the UK

I keep getting phishing emails pretending to be from banks I don’t have accounts with…. am I meant to be fooled or am I eventually going to get one which would apply to me if it was real?

I used to like The Register. They used to be smart and witty and treated their audience like they were smart and witty too. But there have been a a couple of things recently that apart from displaying unusual amounts of bandwagondry seem to be written by people showing very little in the way of clue.

The frighteningly titled “Blog star ‘fesses up to payola spam scam” piece which attacked Matt Mullenweg and Jonas Luster, for example. I think their responses to the piece were much calmer than mine would have been in that situation, so hats off to them.

… horrible piece on the Register that not only got things wrong, but tried to mix my day job in with it in what I can only imagine is an attempt to cause me trouble there.Matt Mullenweg

Dear visitors from the Reg. I?d have a few choice words to say to Andrew Orlowski, but unfortunately he won?t talk to me, and hasn?t tried to before he posted his factually more than questionable piece. ?His partner in the spam caper was in denial today, and pleaded exhaustion.? he writes. Which goes to show a lot about Mr. Orlowski?s style of journalism, and his credibility in general.Jonas Luster

And all this only two weeks after they accused bloggers of Invading SXSW Music Fest – like this was the first year SXSWi had happened – or that there was the remotest possibility that it wouldn’t happen again! Personally I find the idea that “one blogger is plenty to describe the idea of an online journal” as ludicrous as suggesting that one musician is sufficient to describe the idea of music. I doubt that any of Mozart, Meatloaf, Eminem and Mariah Carey would give even remotely similar answers.