A coalition of 17 aid agencies - inlcuding Christian Aid, Oxfam, Greenpeace, and the WorldWide Fund for Nature - today released a report called “Up in Smoke”, which claims that all the supposed “Millenium Targets” - which aimed to halve global poverty by 2015 - cannot be met due to ongoing climate change impoverishing the world’s poor further. Global warming, caused by excessive release for carbon dioxide, is clearly fingered in the report

Aid agencies’ warning on climate

If that wasn’t bad enough, Transparency International - an anti-corruption body - reports that oil production is a prime basis for corruption, especially in developing countries.

Oil wealth ‘can cause corruption’

So I guess that means that oil is officially bad for our species - bad for our health, bad for the world, and ultimately corrupting.

Link: Corrupt world sinking

From the BBC:
Google ’saved’ Australian hostage

An Australian journalist kidnapped in Iraq was freed after his captors checked the popular internet search engine Google to confirm his identity.

John Martinkus was seized in Baghdad on Saturday, the first Australian held hostage in Iraq since the US-led invasion.

But his captors agreed to release him after they were convinced he was not working for the CIA or a US contractor.

Link: Google saves hostage

And Yahoo! search now has a new look:

http://search.yahoo.com/

Familiar, no? :)

Link: Yahoo! search has new look

Someone made a silly blunder at Google - in the recent released Google Desktop software, someone left the default settings for cahcing secure pages and their information.

Easy access to banking details anyone?

Apparently, Google has corrected the issue immediately.

Link: Google Desktop: security warning

Personally, I think that meta-search is the way forward.

Ask has great clustering technology, but often this can be seen as useless in the commercial environment, as commercial competitors certainly do not link to one another as freely as free reference resources do.

And although Google has great indexing technology, and generally returns “good” results, the general feeling in the webmaster community seems to be that the results could be better - if only Google would stop fiddling with the algorithm.

Combine both with Yahoo! and MSN and you have a consensus of opinion - just as pages are rated on being “approved” by other sites via links, so are results “approved” by running them via different search enignes that master different elements of search.

There are a number of meta-search engines out there, but many do not seem to be catching the user imagination - a predilection for “sponsored results” on top of organic results kills a search engine’s usefulness, in my opinion.

So what does the Jux2 meta-search engine have that the others don’t?

USer control - you can select which of the other search engines you would like to get results from, and even order them to your preference.

Meta-search is looking much more promising.

Link: Jux2 meta search

The British Phonographic Industry has recently won a court case, allowing them to demand the identities of 28 users from Internet Service Providers (ISPs), claiming massive file-sharing going on:
Music firms win ‘pirates’ ruling

However, according to the BPI:

“They are uploading music on a massive scale, effectively stealing the livelihoods of thousands of artists and the people who invest in them.”

Well, if this is stealing from the manufactured crap these companies have been churning out in high volumes for years, then let’s hope those “livelihoods” and “people who invest” continue to suffer until such point as they decide to put a little integrity into popular music.

Link: BPI sues people

Google desktop application released

The net giant has released a preliminary version of a desktop program that will search computer hard drives, as well as the web.

I think I should really have named this entry: Google release Spyware. Because that’s what they’re doing.

They haven’t released this application in some magnaminous show of comraderie with the internet community - the single purpose of this application from Google’s point of view is to effectively spy on millions of computer users, and track their habits as intimately as possible.

Of course, Google’s main interest isn’t tracking individuals - it’s simply about gathering huge swathes of marketing data from users applying their software.

Essentially, it’s sugar-coated spyware.

However, Google are - currently - a well-respected company. So no doubt people will rush sheep-like to provide free large-scale marketing information to a billion-dollar corporation.

Meanwhile, the same people - having legitimately installed spyware on their machines via free downloads and freeware - will no doubt be reaching for Adware and Spybot, to try and protect their privacy from those less reputable companies - you know, those ones who use spyware to track users…

Link: Google Desktop

Here’s how the BBC reported it:

WH Smith plunges into the red

Struggling retailer WH Smith has plunged into the red, making one of the worst losses in its 212-year history.

The company reported an annual pre-tax loss of ��135m ($242m), as it was hit by exceptional charges of ��200m linked to unsold stock and restructuring costs.

Sales at its 673 UK stores fell by 2%, with the company hit by falling book and music sales.

A retail analyst interviewed on the BBC claimed that the problem was WHSmith not trying to sell enough - ie, that they should force prospective customers to walk right across the shop, funneled by aisles, to tempt them to buy more.

In my opinion that’s missing the point - the cornerstone of marketing is that you target your client’s needs. And in many instances, WH Smith simply does not do that a a retail outlet.

Anyone who’s ever visited a WH Smiths knows what the problem is with the music and books - the ranges for both are too small, and what is there is over-priced.

In simple terms - there’s no reason to shop at WHSmith for books or music. Products are put up aimlessly.

What’s worse, in my opinion, is that WHSmith has made little effort marketing itself as an online provider - if you are a business and have the money to force a big presence on the largest marketplace on earth, then you need to do it.

Just my 2 cents.

Link: WHSmith report losses

Popular blogger and Yahoo! engineer, Jeremy Zawodny, announced last night that he is moving departments - and will be working on the Yahoo! search team again.

While Jeremy makes a point of trying to open, it’ll be interesting to see how informal Jeremy can keep his discussion of search tech. And whether he likes it or not, there will certainly be pressure for some kind of “limited marketing” of Yahoo! search via his blog.

However, that comes with the territory - so possibly the most interesting aspect of Jeremy’s promotion is that webmasters would have an accessible figure from a major search company.

Whether that actually develops into anything useful and constructive in the long-term remains to be seen.

Jeremy has also contributed to the official Yahoo! blog, such as his recent coverage of the Web 2.0 conference.

Link: Jeremy Zawodny at Yahoo! Search

AOL have been quietly developing their own standalone browser, while the internet is otherwise distracted by speculation on a Google Browser, Internet Explorer security problems, and various front-of-shop revamps to AOL and Yahoo.

So what does the AOL browser do and offer?

Well, according to Eweek’s article AOL Readies Standalone Browser, he software will be completely standalone from the usual AOL software package that subscribers of their ISP service must install - which means that most PC users should be able to use the new AOL browser without needing prior software installations.

AOL browser features

Apparently, the new browser won’t use the tabbing feature that many Firefox users love (but I never use - open me a window anytime). However, an interesting new feature is the ability to generate page thumbnails while the mouse arrow hovers over either the “forward” and “back” buttons.

Also list:

The AOL Browser will also provide several tools dubbed “Power Browsing.” These new features let viewers zoom in and out on a page, force a Web page to display in high-contrast for the vision-impaired, and highlight or list links on a page.

Apparently, because of the recent win over Microsoft over Netscape competition issues (AOL bought out Netscape and effectively reaped the case benefits), AOL has the royalty-free rights to use Internet Explorer technology for 6 years.

However, the question that begs is how mindful will AOL be of security? Internet Explorer has become an effective laughing stock for it’s security failures, and as reported earlier today, details on new critical security flaws in IE and other Microsoft products were released today.

Link: AOL new browser

I can really relate to this - making two dumb mistakes in succession, after years of no mistakes.

From Reuters: Autopilot Sinks Absent-Minded Skipper:

A Finnish commuter ferry captain has been suspended after crashing into a pier because he forgot to turn off the autopilot — for the second time in three days.
The captain was given a second chance to prove his seamanship after an accident on Tuesday when two passengers and one crew member were injured after the Suomenlinna II hit the pier at its destination, an island just outside downtown Helsinki.

“He has been on this route for more than 10 years and we discussed carefully that he would be more sharp in the future. He did not manage it,” Jorma Salopelto, head of Suomenlinnan Liikenne which runs the ferry, told Reuters.

Having on Thursday once again forgotten that the autopilot was engaged, the hapless skipper was unable to stop the boat from running ashore, completely demolishing the pier but without causing any personal injuries.

The ferry company said he had not been drinking on either occasion. It is not clear if or when he will return to his job.

Link: Don’t forget: Switch off autopilot!

So what makes a successful innovative business? According to Steve Jobs it’s:

saying no to 1,000 things” so as to concentrate on the “really important” creations

You can find an interesting interview with Steve Jobs at businessweek, which includes some telling Q & A on the more difficult years in Apple’s history:

You need a very product-oriented culture, even in a technology company. Lots of companies have tons of great engineers and smart people. But ultimately, there needs to be some gravitational force that pulls it all together. Otherwise, you can get great pieces of technology all floating around the universe. But it doesn’t add up to much. That’s what was missing at Apple for a while. There were bits and pieces of interesting things floating around, but not that gravitational pull.

Link: Steve Jobs interview

Today Microsoft unveiled no less than 10 security advisories covering 22 new flaws that the company has detected in its own products - including some rated as “critical”.

Not surprisingly, Internet Explorer continues to reveal itself as an easy tool for hackers, and the general question begs to be asked as to why - only weeks after the much trumpeted, and troublesome, SP2 update - has Microsoft waited until after the release to discover that it’s all part of a continuing botched job.

I promise you all, my next business PC will *not* be running Microsoft Windows on it.

Here’s how CNet described the issue in it’s article Microsoft warns of a score of security flaws:

The advisories, and patches published with the bulletins, range from an “important” flaw affecting only Microsoft Windows NT Server to a collection of eight security holes, including three rated “critical,” that leave Internet Explorer open to attack. Microsoft’s highest severity rating for software flaws is its “critical” ranking, while “important” is considered slightly less severe.

One flaw, in Microsoft Excel, even affects Apple Computer’s Mac OS X.

On the subject of Internet Explorer, it was interesting coming across this comment from eweek:

Microsoft has faced increased criticism for not incorporating any new features into Internet Explorer since releasing Version 6 in fall 2001. Microsoft does not plan on releasing any changes to Internet Explorer until the release of Windows Longhorn, not due out for several more years.

Link: Microsoft Security Update

I don’t have a pension. Should I be worried?

Question is - should I really care to invest in a pension, when there are other savings schemes out there, that might offer greater reliability and profitability?

After all, those investing in pensions lost out to the stock market falls in 2000 - but those who saw the clear warning signs and put the money into property, would be absolutely laughing now.

What does a pension offer that other saving schemes cannot rival? Is putting away money that cannot be touched or controlled, for decades, really a sound investment?

Once upon a time pensions were worth taking out, because the government ensured that there wa value in them, with a 25% contribution to private pensions.

Now it’s hard to see pension schemes as anything other than one among many alternatives.

And as the BBC reports here, the entire pensions situation is pretty confused:

While the government says the pensions gap is caused by a mix of undersaving and early retirement, the Tories have blamed Chancellor Gordon Brown’s removal of pensions tax breaks in his first budget.

Shadow Pensions Secretary David Willetts said the leaks confirmed that people were not saving enough.

“Gordon Brown’s first action was his ��5bn annual tax on pension funds and the Government has consistently underestimated the amount we are setting aside,” Mr Willetts told the Sunday Times.

Until two years ago official figures showed ��86bn a year was being put into private pensions by firms and employees.

The newspaper says the true figure is now believed to be ��40bn.

Discuss the issue here: Do you have a pension?

Link: Pension bubble burst

The whole issue of file-swapping reaches a peak as the RIAA and others take the issue of file-swapping to the supreme court.

Hollywood studios and record companies on Friday asked the United States Supreme Court to overturn a controversial series of recent court decisions that have kept file-swapping software legal.

The decisions have been among the biggest setbacks for the entertainment industry in the past several years, as they have tried to quell the rampant exchange of copyrighted materials over peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa and Morpheus.

In a joint petition to the Supreme Court, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said that letting the lower court rulings stand would badly undermine the value of copyrighted work.

This should certainly be interesting - but having seen how ruthlessly the record companies have behaved over the past couple years, it’s hard to be sympathetic to them.

Let’s not forget how the RIAA companies leased commercial tracks to mp3.com - otherwise a haven for small artists. However, the music giants then each took turns to sue mp3.com - for using the wrong sort of storage system for their tracks.

Once the share price for mp3.com had flattened, Vivendi Universal bought the company out, then spent the next year effectively forcing out the smaller independent musicians - such as myself - to turn mp3.com into a temporary showground for their own signed material - before then closing the place down entirely.

The RIAA has become to the music industry what McCarthyism was to US politics in the 1950’s.

Link: Media vs the people

Secunia has apparently issued a warning that older Microsoft Office software contains a buffer overrun flaw, that could allow Word ‘97 and other Office produts, to be used for Denial of Service (DOS) attacks on user machines:

Flaw found in older Office versions:

A security company warned Thursday that a flaw in Microsoft Office could allow a denial-of-service attack to be executed on systems running somewhat older versions of the popular productivity suite.

Secunia issued an advisory saying a buffer overrun flaw has been found in Office 2000, and potentially also in Office XP, that could allow hackers to take over a user’s system. The company rated the flaw as “highly critical.”

The security firm said that vulnerability is caused by an error in the way Microsoft Word manages input when parsing document files. It said the flaw could be exploited through a specially-crafted document and recommends that, until a fix is found, users only open trusted Word documents.

Link: Microsoft Office: security vulnerability

Google SMS

News buzzing around the internet about the new Google Short Message Service (SMS).

Apparently in development, it allows a search of local business listings, comparison of online products, and looks up dictionary definitions, among other things.

You can also find out more information here on the Search Engine Watch blog.

Google Mobile? It’s coming.

Google word clustering

Also in the news from the Search Engine Marketing Conference in Raliegh, is a demonstration by Peter Norvig of new word clustering technologies, as demonstrated by Andy Beal here

That is definitely a development to keep an eye on.

Link: Google SMS and Clustering

So, the Google PageRank has finally updated, after well over 100 days with no PR update.

Having seen no real changes on my own sites, though, the process has distinctly lacking in any action.

Was it ever really worth watching in the first place?

Link: PageRank Update: was it worth it?

So I received an e-mail about a fraudlent lottery scam, from a Netscape address.

I figured I’d be a good boy scout and report the issue to Netscape’s abuse department.

Ho ho. You’d think something as simple as that would be easy?

I typed in “Netscape.com” - and ended up being redirected around 5 different sites/subdomains, before finally ending up on a feedback form.

Only it didn’t work.

Not in Mozilla Firefox - and not in IE 6.

Some people think that Netscape was killed off by Microsoft. Maybe Netscape simply killed itself off, by blocking all reasonable forms of consumer feedback about it’s products and services?

Link: Netscape: abuse

Leukemia is one of those cancers we’ve all no doubt heard of, and are also probably familiar with the idea that bone marrow transplants can help combat the disease.

However, for a good chance of success, there needs to be a good tissue match - and as a friend has recently discovered, issues of ethnicity play a major role in success.

For example, the website Findthetime.org has been built to help raise awareness of a distinct lack of Asian donors on the British bone marrow register.

In fact, as the site reveals, there’s a very serious lack of general tissue donations for a variety of ethnic backgrounds.

For example, Timeforlife quotes from the following information:

Breakdown of volunteers on The Anthony Nolan Register by ethnic background:

at end September 2003

* Northern European 269,861
* Oriental 621
* Jewish 7,422
* Eastern European 282
* Asian 6,725
* Middle Eastern 149
* African-Caribbean 7,670
* Hispanic 87
* Mediterranean 2,905
* Other 5,697
* African 1,694
* Origin Unknown 40,668

Breakdown of male / female volunteers on the Register:

approx 60% female and 40% male. There is an urgent need for male donors.
Success rate of bone marrow transplants:- between 40 - 60% (this figure is increasing all the time and it is particularly good in children.

If you would like to help give blood, donote bone marrow, or other tissue samples, then please consider contacting the following agencies, regardless of your ethnic background:

National Blood Service
The Anthony Nolan Trust

Link: Bone Marrow transplants: lack of Asian donors