Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Tuesday 15 May 2007, 1:45 PM
My reply to the Scientologists
So, anyone see the BBC's Panorama documentary on Scientology last night? Fascinating stuff. Really, watch it. Even if you don't have much interest in the Scientologists, it's a revealing insight into what can make a reporter crack.
Don’t know what I'm on about? Then you haven't seen this YouTube clip of John Sweeney, the reporter in question, yelling his brains out at a Scientology acolyte called Tommy Davis. The Scientologists stuck it on the web as a pre-emptive strike before the Panorama piece aired, and it was certainly effective in a decontextualised kind of way – the viewer had no idea why Sweeney lost it like that. Then came the Panorama piece itself ("Scientology and Me") and it became all too apparent why he cracked. Not a moment of journalistic triumph, but certainly understandable.
Why am I bringing this up here? Today I (personally) received a DVD from "Freedom Television" in the ZDNet UK post, entitled "Panorama Exposed". I haven't watched it, but the sender's address – Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead – is all too telltale. It's L Ron Hubbard's old, er, manor. And still Scientology Central (the manor, I mean, not East Grinstead). I can pretty much guess the nature of the DVD's contents.
Thousands of these DVDs have clearly been sent out to journalists of all persuasions. After all, there isn't an immediate association to be made between my speciality subject – wireless communications – and Scientology. I would assume that it is a complete coincidence that I have, in the past, worked with John Sweeney and have an immense amount of respect for him.
His outburst was indeed a mistake which in most circumstances would be career suicide, but I think in this case he can be forgiven. Read what he has to say here on the Scientologists spying on him and his family, even at his wedding. If I had been in his position, I would probably have started yelling a lot earlier. He's a brave man, and I believe that the Scientologists' reaction to his expose speaks volumes.
UPDATE: By the way, if for some reason the show becomes unavailable through the Panorama link I posted above, it can be watched, in three parts, here, here and here. Enjoy.
Tuesday 15 May 2007, 12:49 PM
Cisco IOS FTP Server warning
One from last week here, but Cisco is warning users of its IOS FTP Server feature about "multiple vulnerabilities", which could lead to denial-of-service attacks and other such nasties.
What to do about it? The short answer is: disable the FTP Server feature, at least for now. For more info, check out Cisco's page on the subject.
Thursday 10 May 2007, 12:34 PM
Orange's attempt at fighting call cards
News just in from France Telecom's local subsidiary: it's introducing a "simple and low cost" way to call abroad. Is it lowering its international call rates? No! Don't be silly. It's putting out the Call Abroad pay-as-you-go SIM, which offers "the cheapest rates currently available for international calls". Only 8p a minute to my native South Africa? Huzzah.
Hang on - there is a cheaper alternative already. It's called VoIP, that new-fangled technology which Orange is doing its damnedest to discourage on its phones. But let's play along with Orange for now and pretend internet telephony doesn't exist.
The real enemy here, of course, is international call cards, which naughtily steal away Orange's revenue by offering low-cost calls via an 0207 number or somesuch. "Orange research shows that people currently find making international calls confusing due to misleading price structures and the lack of transparency around calling cards," warns Orange, but how is it making things simpler for the customer by offering a separate SIM for making international calls? A quick call to the Orange press office, asking whether it might not be more user-friendly to, y'know, just lower the standard international calling rates, elicited this response:
"We could do that, but the rates wouldn’t be as good as they are. The only way we know is to make a separate SIM at the moment, because we couldn’t physically put it onto our standard pay-as-you-go tariff from launch."
Not physically possible? Eh? But wait: "It might be in the future that we just offer one SIM for our standard UK calls and new [international] rates".
Nope, me neither.
Anyway, who's the target market for these new wonder-SIMs? According to Pippa Dunn, Orange's pay-as-you-go manager, it's visitors to the country and the "approximately 5.5 million ethnic British nationals living in the UK". There are only 5.5m people of British ancestry living in the UK? Out of 60m inhabitants? Blimey. Perhaps that's not quite what she meant...
UPDATE: Just been rung by the Orange press office to point out that 5.5m is the number of people from "ethnic minorities" who are "looking for an affordable and convenient way to phone home" (according to their research), not the number of such people who are living in the UK. Which still misses my point (see above), but there you go - happy to set the record straight.
Thursday 10 May 2007, 10:34 AM
Galileo, Galileo
The EU's answer to GPS seems to be floundering a little due to those pesky and perennial factors of funding and infighting. The EU doesn't seem terribly confident that things will get sorted out in time, and the system will certainly be years late anyway.
The EC will put forward a proposal on how to rescue Europe's pride next Wednesday, but is it becoming too late? As we reported earlier this year, phone manufacturers wanting some kind of sat-nav functionality in their devices have been dragging their heels a bit in the hope that Galileo would become a practicable alternative to GPS in the near future. It now looks like this won't happen, so GPS it is then.
Oh well, let's see what the eurocrats come up with before passing further judgement...
Tuesday 8 May 2007, 12:55 PM
Is it a mouse, or is it a mouse?
In a grotesque collision of the hitherto (with good reason, some might say) unconnected realms of IT and taxidermy, someone has come up with a, erm, mouse-mouse.
So obvious, when you think about it. Why on earth had no-one done this before? It's even the perfect companion to your Compubeaver.
Many thanks to vnunet.com for alerting us to these exciting new trends in desktop design. If I could put forward a couple of suggestions for further stuffed peripherals: how about a roadkill-based flatbed scanner, or owl webcam (with integrated Wi-Fi, of course)?
Scalpels at the ready!
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