The government is reportedly considering a centralised database of all phone calls and e-mails to improve security and allow public authorities to investigate more easily.
It’s occurred to me that aside from the obvious privacy implications, surely the government would have access to a vast majority of internal political party communications. This is very dangerous territory.
I would normally use the term “phishing”, but there’s no impersonation involved here.
The website mycoolfriends.info asks you to “Login” with your MSN details so they can inform you about “this 100% real and upcomming [sic] service”. For the love of God, don’t. Funnily enough, reading a bit more will give the full details.
We may temporarily access your MSN account to do a combination of the following:
- Send Instant Messages to your friends promoting this site.
- Introduce new entertaining sites to your friends via Instant Messages.
In other words, we’ll take your username and password, login to your MSN when you’re not signed-in, and then proceed to spam your contacts with ringtone “offers” (quotation marks because they are the usual subscription services that charge stupid amounts for a crumby ringtone you could get by putting an MP3 on your phone).
Whatever you do people, never ever enter your password onto a site that isn’t meant to have it and without reading the full terms and conditions. This is a cruel tactic by a bunch of morons who are hijacking MSN accounts to try and make money. Don’t help them.
I just saw the following advert on Facebook
One problem: never, ever, ever use music on a website. Videos, fine. Films, of course. Websites, no. When someone watches a video, they watch that video only and don’t concentrate on anything else. The same goes for a film. When I visit a website, I’m likely to have six different ones open at once. I don’t want them all singing to me.
MacBooks have RAM installed as a “user-replaceable part” i.e. you can replace it yourself without voiding your warranty. This might be why you’d want to
Some time ago Apple announced the MacBook Air - a ridiculously lightweight and thin MacBook. Although it lacks a lot of features (internal CD drive etc) it can be upgraded to have a solid state HDD (which is fast and near-silent, not to mention very reliable) and relies on wireless to do almost anything.
What’s more impressive is how it fits this all, plus a full size backlit keyboard and LED screen into the thinnest notebook so far.
Apparently uptake has been high, which surprises me. The MacBook Air is a feat of engineering, but the lack of a CD drive and limit of just one USB port limit its practical use, especially at a cost of at least £1199.
As far as I’m concerned, the MacBook Air is the Bugatti Veyron of notebooks. Incredible engineering and ahead of its time, but perhaps beyond what the current market can handle. The sales will probably prove me wrong, but at least I can say this.
If this is the future of notebook technology, it looks promising.
For those who have been following the Lolcat craze (for the uninitiated, essentially pictures of cats with badly spelt captions), I just logged on to Flickr and was presented with this:
Genius.
RCRD LBL could probably be described as the result of the artist rebellion against record labels. You can download free music from them legitimately from various artists, including well known ones such as Moby and Fink.
Moby posted on his Facebook page, along with a link to RCRD LBL:
I love the fact that as the old/traditional infrastructure of the music business is breaking down it’s being replaced by new and more compelling institutions like RCRD LBL. The vice-grip hegemony of the corporate labels and corporate radio stations is loosening every day, which can only be seen as a good thing for music and listeners.
Too many times this has been said, but I’ll say it anyway: maybe this is the start of something.
Neat for fans of Oblique Strategies, the little deck of cards that give little quotes and food for thought, there’s a nifty thing you can do on a Mac. Visit the page where you can draw a card in Safari. Choose to clip the page into the Dashboard, and hey presto - an oblique strategies widget that changes each time you go to the Dashboard. Nifty, eh?
[From Oblique Strategies]
I know that people like me are always on about backing-up your files, mostly because hard drives do fail, even if you think it will never happen to you. For example, a few months ago my laptop hard drive failed completely despite me treating it very well.
But there’s another point. Apple advertised their backup system “Time Machine” as being “in case you accidentally delete something”. I have to confess to rubbishing this principle slightly. I have accidentally deleted a folder once, but that was with a broken mouse on an Acorn computer, before the recycle bin or trash was invented. With the recycle bin, you get a second chance.
Actually, it’s handy for something you created years ago, and deleted thinking you’ll never need it again.
I just recovered a detailed summary of some work experience I did a few years ago, which means I don’t have to search the dustier corners of my memory when writing my CV. This was kept on an old backup from not just before I switched to a Mac, but from before I did a system recovery on my laptop thinking I’d saved everything.
Moral of the story: Backups are fantastic.
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | U2 manager ‘wants end to piracy’
In particular, this manager is keen to see the ISP’s pay money to the artists.
If you were a magazine advertising stolen cars, handling the money for stolen cars and seeing to the delivery of stolen cars, the police would soon be at your door
Is it me, or is this completely the wrong analogy? Surely the correct analogy is a council which provide and build roads, or someone who builds a garage. The fact that roads and garages are used by stolen cars doesn’t mean you should sue or even prosecute the people responsible for the roads and garages.
Paul McGuinness has at least partly blamed the record companies. He blames them for the wrong thing, but at least he blames them. Further, he’s actually standing up for the artists, although he might want to start with the contracts that the artists get with the record labels in the first place.
Any thoughts on whether he’s got it right?
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