From births, deaths and marriages, the internet has turned into one big game of Chinese Whispers. Even major news websites are reporting misinformation. In July last year the BBC, CNN and the Daily Mail all reported a hoax ‘study’ that claimed that Internet Explorer users have lower IQ’s than Mozilla, Chrome Frame, Safari etc users. The study turned out to be completely fabricated but that hadn’t stopped media outlets basing whole articles and asumptions around the ‘findings’. And who could forget in 2009 when news outlets were incorrectly reporting that Jeff Goldblum had died on set in New Zealand based on a spoof website that generates fake celebrity death announcements. And more recently news reports revolved around singer Jon Bon Jovi’s death and the birth of Beyonce’s baby which also turned out to be untrue. The internet is proving to be the quickest rumour mill method and with the help of media outlets backing these false reports you might find yourself more and more discerning and cynical when reading articles.
The Internet Rumour Mill
Posted in Internet Tagged BBC, CNN, hoax, Internet Explorer, misinformation, rumour, study Leave a comment
YouTube’s Creator Playbook
If you are looking to optimise the appeal of your YouTube video and maximise it’s visibility then you might want to take a look at YouTube’s Creator Playbook. The 70 page guide has all sorts of tips, everything from how to keep audiences watching to how to improve your results ranking. The guide also features handy checklists and icons which relate how long each task should take, it’s impact and when they should be undertaken. http://www.youtube.com/creators/playbook.html
Google Removes Citations
After other search engines in the USA complained that Google uses their ‘Place page’ to push their results below Google’s own, Google removed it’s Places Page citations in July. Whilst the move may seem detrimental to those with a marketing focus who review their citations regularly, users can still gain an overall picture by looking at aggregators and keyword results. It also gives the little guys more of a chance for results and reduces the relevance of reviews made by the actual business owners or their friends.
Google+ vs. Facebook
With the release of Google+ at the end of June, more and more members of Facebook are attracted to the switch. Over the last few years Facebook has undergone many changes, most of which are touted to be for greater user friendliness but have thus far just proven to be annoying. Just when you think you know where everything is on Facebook a change comes along and all your favourite features have moved or disappeared entirely. Facebook are also in control of what you see and without going through all your user settings and creating groups, you are rarely in control of who out of your friends appears as ‘online’ or which of their stories you view on the News Feed. There have also been reports that these ongoing changes have been skewed towards gaining personal data for marketing purposes. Google+ has promised respect for data privacy and delivered great interactivity with media gadgets. Whilst it is doubtful that Google+ will ever overtake Facebook, the signs are good that at least the tech giants are giving us options.
Geeky Gift Ideas
With Christmas running up to us most people are trying to be inspired with gift ideas to accomodate varying tastes. If you have a geek in your life or even someone you know who is into the weird and wonderful, there are some great websites offering everything from beanie bags or gloves that warm up through the power of USB (from Geekstuff4U.com) to my personal favourite the Han Solo in Carbonite ice tray (from ThinkGeek.com).
Keeping Your Mobile Device Secure
With more and more people connecting to the internet via mobile devices there is a very real data security threat. By 2014 mobile internet should overtake desktop internet usage. There are a few simple ways to protect your security such as encrypting the data, enabling auto-lock, ensuring that any security software is up to date, checking that the default settings match your security standards, changing passwords regularly (to strong ones) and being careful whilst using Bluetooth as it’s not secure. There are even remote data destruction tools available and with regular data backups your data should be recoverable.
Posted in Mobile Devices Tagged Bluetooth, data, default settings, passwords, protect, secure, security Leave a comment
OS X Lion
As of last month Apple has sold over 6 million copies of it’s Mac OS X Lion. New features included a more responsive gesture system with ‘MultiTouch’ including two-finger scroll and three-finger drag, full screen apps which utilises all of the display, ‘Mission Control’ which allows visibility of everything open on your MAC, ‘Launchpad’ – a one stop destination for app access and a very handy ’Resume’ function which reopens an app right where you closed it. With 1 millions sales in just the first day of release, Apple is proving again that it is still at the forefront of technical innovation and user-friendliness.
Posted in Apple Tagged Launchpad, Mac, Mission Control, MultiTouch, OS X Lion, Resume Leave a comment
IPv6
We have known for some time now that the internet does have a limit in that we’re running out of unique IP addresses. This issue has been compounded by the fact that many companies reserve IP addresses for internal networks etc. In 1998 IPv6 was launched to tackle this problem. The new IP format included more numbers and even letters. The only trouble with this newer format is that it doesn’t talk to the old IP addresses. All hope is not lost though as engineers have been working on translating mechanisms at a cost to themselves. Whilst the rollout has been slow, a greater sense of urgency is being felt as one by one the 4.3 billion IP addresses are being taken up as everyone wants to connect to the internet.
Cookie Law
Halfway through this year the EU passed laws requiring user’s consent for websites to use cookies. The move came as more and more privacy groups became concerned about the way in which information on browsing sessions were stored. Whilst cookies can be helpful (with things like autofill) and even help run the internet the EU has decided that the decision for this information to be stored should be up to the user. The most logical way that websites and companies are rolling out these changes is through browsers such as Mozilla and even Google. The changes have not been immediate as the websites were given one year to comply but sites such as the Cookie Collective http://www.cookielaw.org/ are helping provide a wealth of information on th0e law and cookies.
PC Basics
Many of us neglect our home PC’s let alone our work ones. Here are four basic rules to keep in mind, for peace of mind.
Backup Your Data
Utilise an external drive that will fit all your data and copy it across on a regular basis. Make sure that this drive is kept at a different location to the original PC for worst case scenarios.
Security
Even if you are the only user of your PC make sure to secure your data with a password. If your PC is ever lost, stolen or compromised this will prevent all your personal data getting into the wrong hands. Also consider where your PC is situated. Is it visible from your street? Can it be secured better with a physical lock?
Maintenance
Performing simple maintenance tasks can save you needing to replace your PC sooner rather than later. Clean out the dust in the tower at least once a month with a vacuum cleaner or can of air, paying particular attention to fans which get clogged.
Software
Make sure that your software is regularly updated, especially security and antivirus updates. Run an anti-virus scan regularly, if not automatically scheduled.