DigitalOutbox Episode 26
In this episode the team discuss Pirates of Westminster.
Playback
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Shownotes
1:36 – News Corp and Bing
– De-index from google
– Paid (assumption) to index exclusively with Bing
– Rumoured by a few prominent technologists last week but now reported in FT
– However, the Financial Times has learnt that Microsoft has also approached other big online publishers to persuade them to remove their sites from Google’s search engine.
– Minus point – Fragmentation of search, exclusive indexing – stinks
– Plus point – competition for Google
– Microsoft is not afraid to buy search market share, which is what it’s doing with the Yahoo search deal and even its Cashback program. But with these latest talks, it is literally trying to buy the news, or at least exclusive access to the news.
4:40 – Pub fined for copyright infringement
– Client of The CLoud
– A pub owner has been fined £8,000 because someone unlawfully downloaded copyrighted material over their open Wi-Fi hotspot, according to the managing director of hotspot provider The Cloud.
– fine had been levied in a civil case, brought about by a rights holder, “sometime this summer”
– If you were a business why would you sign up to something like the cloud – would put the fear into any business
8:00 – Lawyers target thousands of illegal filesharers
– ACS:Law will send out 15,000 letters in the new year
– Offer chance to settle out of court for a few hundred pounds
– “A lot are accused of downloading pornography,” Jaclyn Clarabut of Which? told BBC News. “People find it distressing or embarrassing and pay up.”
9:53 – Virgin Trialling CView
– Virgin Media will trial deep packet inspection technology to measure the level of illegal filesharing on its network, but plans not to tell the customers whose traffic will be examined
– The system, CView, will be provided by Detica, a BAE subsidiary
– The system will look at traffic and identify the peer-to-peer packets. In a step beyond how ISPs currently monitor their networks, it will then peer inside those packets and try to determine what is licensed and what is unlicensed, based on data provided by the record industry.
– In the pitch document, Detica said that as well as aggregate data, CView could be used to categorise filesharers and apply technical measures against them, or target them to be sold legal alternatives. Virgin Media’s spokesman said it has no plans to use such features.
– Interesting story following on from similar ones we’ve done – my only issue is that it involves BAE which is a bit of a conflict for me. Paranoid. Me?
14:12 – Google Image results hit the headlines
– Racist, highly offensive doctored image of Michelle Obama appeard at no.1 of image results
– Was temporarily removed when the host was found to have malware but them re-instated when it moved to a “clean” host.
– Problem exasperated with blogs linking their indignation.
– Google posted advert above the result explaining why it’s not their place to sensor results.
– Image since been removed from original website and no longer at top of results.
– Google shows related search: michelle obama ape – how is that related to me searching for michelle obama
18:26 – New Apple Worm
– Serious this time
– specifically targeting people in the Netherlands who are using their iPhones for internet banking with Dutch online bank ING
– worm changes the root password from the default of “alpine” that Apple set in the factory firmware, making it more difficult for users to secure their devices
– recommended method to remove this malware from your iPhone is to restore the Apple factory firmware using iTunes.
– This worm, like the others, only attacks jailbroken iPhone and iPod Touch devices.
20:18 – iMac Woes
– Cracked screens or DOA’s
– Not good, quite widespread looking at the forums
– Urban myth…alway avoid 1st gen Apple models
23:18 – iPhones coming to Tesco
– Price war, or at least some price cuts?
– Jointly owned by O2 and Tesco (Tesco Mobile that is)
26:09 – iPlayer App Coming to iPhone
– The BBC has posted a monthly press pack which includes iPlayer imagery for what appears to be a future version of the iPlayer for iPhone.
– In the image it’s clear that there is a downloads option and what appears to be a live stream option. The iPhone in the image is connected to a Wi-Fi network indicating that the Wi-Fi restriction for the current iPlayer website could still be in place.
– No comment from the BBC
– Would be their first iPhone app
27:59 – Tivo back in the UK
– Tivo to return to UK on Virgin Media’s new HD box
– TiVo is set to develop a converged television and broadband interactive interface – which will be the tech that powers Virgin Media’s next gen, high-def set-top boxes.
– Very exciting – their software is often regarded as ‘the best’.
– At the same time Tivo is dying in america – 8% of active DVR’s in America – same level as 2004, ouch!
30:34 – iPlayer on the 360
– According to sources close to the BBC’s Future Media and Technology department, a deal between the two parties has still been unable to be reached because Microsoft’s strategy of charging for all content on its Xbox Live platform is incompatible with the BBC’s public service remit
– Microsoft only wants to offer its users access to platforms it can charge for as this is the model it is pursuing.
– The BBC cannot charge the British public for access to the iPlayer as it is already included in the licence fee
– Barmy
– When do I pay for Facebook or twitter?
Picks
Ian
Handbrake
– DVD ripping utitlity and also acts as a video convertor
– Free
– Now 64 bit for Leopard and Snow Leopard (only 10% perf improvement)
– Over 1000 updates in latest version
– Improvements especially around h.264 encoding
Hans Rosling
– Makes statistics interesting
– Gapminder – over 200 indicators of global development mapped over time – fascinating
– Can make your own – Google bought the tech behind gapminer and you can use the Google Gadget called Motion Chart. It allows everyone to make a Gapminder-like bubble graph that you can publish on your web-page or blog.
Chris
Browsershots
– THE mother of all cross browser page checks.
– Type in a URL and select from tonnes of browser/operating system combinations across Linux, Mac and PC. (I counted 82 combinations available)
– Sit back and wait for the cue to run through and deliver back the screen grabs.
– Not interactive but as an overall comprehensive check, it can’t be beaten.
Down For Everyone or Just For Me?
– Another “Does exactly what it says on the tin.”
– Type in the URL and check whether the site you’re trying to view is down for everyone or just with you!