Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Wednesday 24 October 2007, 3:16 PM
Widget wedgie
It's all too easy to mock some of the brand names and terminology in this industry, so - feeling lazy - I thought I'd do just that.
And today's silliest conference name (still not as bad as MoCollywood though) is... Widgety Goodness! Billed as "Europe's first widget conference" (thank heavens I haven't missed any), some fairly serious players like Google will be there. It's being held in Brighton on December 6th, if you're interested.
Over the press release for more details (no comment from me on this due to Fish-Barrel syndrome):
Commenting on the conference, Widgety Goodness organiser and founder of Snipperoo Ivan Pope said: “Widgetization and fragmentation raise issues that go to the heart of brand control, but offers an incredibly powerful tool to those who can work with rather than against the process."
Nuff said. Although, if like me you are trying to remember where the term comes from, Wiktionary has the answer:
Blend of "window" and "gadget", coined by George S. Kaufman in his play Beggar on Horseback (1924).
Also, as Wiktionary appears to helpfully point out, the word rhymes with "idjit".
Tuesday 23 October 2007, 1:05 PM
EU to introduce own 'Green Card' scheme
Well, "Blue Card" in this case. According to Auntie, the EU has realised it needs 20m skilled immigrants in the next 2 decades, and this is its way of ensuring that happens.
The biggest shortfall in skilled workers? Engineering and IT, of course. Whether you see the scheme as a good thing or a bad thing, expect to see a lot of ruckus surrounding it. The UK may yet opt out (few other European countries can), several governments are hostile and, of course, it will lead to accusations of brain drains and the like.
But since engineering and IT are the alleged focus for this scheme, what do you think of the idea? Will it be a help or - as Google has complained in the US context - a hindrance?
PS - While we're on the subject of the BBC, check out what are possibly the most hilarious illustrative images they've used to date here...
Thursday 18 October 2007, 2:49 PM
Major breach at Fasthosts
Fasthosts - which, as the name suggests, does hosting, but also business ADSL - has suffered a major hack attack at its Gloucester HQ. The cops have been called in, but the company is now urging its customers to change their passwords just in case.
Over to the victim:
As the breach could relate to Fasthosts customer data, in line with our established practice of protecting the interests and privacy of our customers, Fasthosts has subsequently reviewed and updated its security and worked with external security experts to ensure that all data held by Fasthosts is secure.
As a precautionary measure, Fasthosts has asked its customers to update their passwords. This includes their control panel, email, FTP, and database passwords, all of which can be changed via the customer control panel. Fasthosts has now implemented customer password encryption to further protect customer data.
Fasthosts has established procedures for dealing with any issues that could impact its customers, including promptly notifying all relevant authorities. A system-wide external security audit has removed the vulnerability that led to the recent network intrusion and enhanced the overall security appropriately. Fasthosts considers that its practices and procedures are up to date, and represent good practice in continually protecting the security of its customer data, and the company remains fully confident in its ability to do so.
Fasthosts apologises for any concern or inconvenience caused to its customers as a result of the security review.
As well it should!
Tuesday 16 October 2007, 12:48 PM
Symbian: Mobile Linux threat 'shrinking'
Still at the Symbian Smartphone Show...
Earlier this year a Symbian exec told ZDNet.co.uk that mobile Linux was "fragmentation city" and therefore not much of a threat. So, does Nigel Clifford, Symbian's CEO, still think this is true?
"We see Linux in the devices we compete for shrinking quarter by quarter," he said to astonished murmurs at a press conference a moment ago. "I agree there is fragmentation. We do offer that quality assured one stop shop for people to take a battle-hardened OS..." (etc etc).
He's right about the fragmentation, to some extent, but companies like ARM - which does a lot of work with Symbian too - are doing their damnedest to prove him wrong...
Tuesday 16 October 2007, 11:30 AM
Symbian Smartphone Show updates
S60 will be the first mobile platform to support Flash Lite 3. According to Nokia's Lee Williams, this will enable rich video applications on the smartphone like watching your baby (?), so that's probably a good thing.
Symbian CEO Nigel Clifford was on earlier too. So how does he feel about Motorola picking up half of UIQ, the platform Symbian sold to Sony Ericsson earlier this year? "Very pleased," apparently - despite the fact that UIQ is clearly in the process of beefing up to take on, er, Symbian - "I wish them joy in the next stage of their journey".
Bless.
Previous
