Virus writer's appeal fails A web designer who infected thousands of computers with viruses fails in an attempt to get his prison term shortened.

[via BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

 

 

This makes me laugh, this "person" created three virus's, let them lose on the internet, caused hassle and grief to a lot of people, and now is asking for his prison sentence to be reduced - "because he didn't realise how much damage he would cause".

 

Tough!!!!!.

 

Someone who writes code for a virus definatly knows what sort of damage they can cause, there have been plenty that have gone before, and most people on the internet have suffered directly, or indirectly , from the various virus attacks of the last few years.

 

As far as I'm concerned, he knew exactly what he was doing, and should suffer the consequences, I, for one, do not feel that I should suffer because someone feels they have to write "a program" that cause mass distruption and damage to important data and systems.

Identity theft explodes in US Almost 4% of Americans had their identity stolen in the past year, research suggests, and the problem is getting worse.

[via BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

 

I have read stories like this before - where someone "uses" your name, your ID, for their own purposes. You might remeber the story earlier this year when the chap , on hoilday in South Africa, was arrested on behalf of the FBI, only for them to find out that the true criminal had been "parading" as this porr chap for several months.

 

The story above goes onto to say that 4% of Americians have suffered from some sort Identity Theft - that actaully equates to several MILLION people - thats a lot of people. And what was worse most of those people suffered at the hands of their friends and family, not a criminal. Thats even more frightening.

Net access comes as standard Two UK telephone firms are now obliged to provide net access at a minimum speed.

[via BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

 

This story is of great interest to me on several levels. Firstly because it involves one of my great interests, the Internet. And the other is that I work for one of the companies - BT. I wasn't actaully aware that there was an expected data limited, but according to the story it is only a recommeneded lower limit of 2.4KB - but my mobile GSM is quickier than that.

Even so - 28KB, when most people are now using 56KB modems, is still a very low level, but I suspect I know one of the reasons, but that is a technical matter within at least BT.

Mind you , for a long time, it was practise and policy that the ordinary telephone line was designed to be used as a voice service only, and the fact that you could use a dial up modem on that service, was just your "good luck". BT would only then guarantee data rates on services that were "designed" to carry them (ISDN/Highway and DSL Broadband), mind you I haven't got a clue what policy Kingston Comms carry for these situations.

I love this part of the statement though:

"Users who are not able to access the net via a dial-up account at this speed will be able to demand that their telephone provider do something about it. "

This has been the scene of some loud and vocal arguements - how does the customer prove that they airn't getting this minimum speed, and how does the average engineer prove that they are. I for one, and I know that this doesn't apply to everyone, have various bits of test equipment for testing data rates on DSL and ISDN lines, but nothing specifically for dial-up lines. The normal report in the these circumstances is along the lines "the phone sounds OK when you use it, but the computer connection to the internet was slow last night", an observational fault, but not very scientific. And as you can probibly guess, unless our people can pick up a detectable fault, this sort of thing is very complicated to sort out - "how do you chase a fault you cannot detect?"

 

Broadband Woes?

I'm back, did you miss me?

Just a little delay. Over the weekend my BTOpenworld connection seemed to slow up , almost to a stop - which is surprise seeing as it is supposed to be a 512KB DSL line.

Saturday morning was slow, but not that slow if you know what I mean. The more people that get onto Broadband, the slower it should get - this is because of what they call contention ratio's (basically the number of people sharing a major connection in the exchange) - so I just "wrote it off" as a busy morning.

When Laura had ago in the early evening, something was more apparently wrong - some of the website pages wouldn't come up, but again I discounted it because, according to the BTOW status page, there were some up and coming work on the various servers, so I thought that was that.

Sunday, being tournament day for Liam, I didn't really bother trying - which is unusual for me, you normally have to prise me off the computer with a crowbar.

The give away was Sunday night. With a tournament report ready to go, and a comment to make on the British Grand Prix, I thought here we go.

OH MY GOD - nothing. The User name and password would be accepted, and that was that. Nothing, Nada, ZIP.

So I went into "Engineer Mode", it's a good job that DSL is one of my work skills. Out came the works laptop and test modem. AT this point I was convinced the problem was me.

What had I altered on the computer?.

Had I downloaded some new software?

However it soon became apparent that it wasn't me. The laptop is setup to test, and that test was coming back with some worrying results. It was obvious that I would have to ring BTOW Technical Support, and I wasn't looking forward to it. BTOW have gained a bit of a reputation for not being the most "supportive" of support people. The shocker was - the nice lad who answered, Karl , listened quietly to what I had to say, asked a few questions, gave me the job reference, and that was that. Anyway I came home from work last night and everything is now "happy in the garden".

I have heard some right horror stories about BTOW, but I can only praise them. This is the first problem I have had in over 12mths of DSL service, and it was sorted within a few hours of reporting it.

Sorry

As I sit here, reading through the "Xanga Subscriptions" e-mail, I realized that I have been a little amiss the last few weeks. All my weblog friends out there have been putting their lives and experiences into cyber space for all to see, and what have I done - next to nothing.

I know I have put a couple of short "news items" on the net, but, compared to the time and effort that some of you have put in, it's a disgrace. I shall give myself a good beating later, and I'll try not to enjoy it to much -

Although I do like posting the news items, and the fact that the NewzCrawler has become firmly entrenched in my Internet experience, I suspect that it is "Summer" that's the main reason for my weblog laziness. Over the last few weeks we have had a visit from the brother in law, over for the weekend with his friend and family. Bako (the friend) has known Jim ( the brother-in-law) since Jim taught him at College. Bako and his family are from Nigeria, and he is a very clever, intuitive man. He brought over is wife, Rebbecca, and their lovely little daughter, Wexa (apology's if the spelling is incorrect) - an initially cautious, but then lively 18 mth old. She got on with Liam and Laura like a house on fire - even cried when she had to go. On the Sunday, we took them to see the sites of my home town - Lincoln. The Castle and the Cathedral

In the weekend between we have had the Park Tigers 5-a-side competition (previous reported - but can be reviewed on my "Opinionated Parent" site at Blogger.com ), and then we found out last night (Friday 18th - our Wedding Anniversary as it happens) that the team have managed to get into an additional tournament this coming Sunday - so that's another Weekend filled in.

I didn't have time last week for my usual "typing time" as I was at work (I have to work one Saturday in 4, so I don't suppose that's to bad - but it still takes some getting used to), although I did get a little Internet time, after work, and between the kids, during the week. that is why I like the weekends. I normally wake up early - usually around 6 a.m. , and as such, at least on a weekend morning, I get the computer to myself for at least 2 hours, if not a little longer.

I did, during the week, find another little program, similar in type to NewzCrawler, but definitely different in style and application. NewsMonster is, in effect, a plug-in for the Mozilla / Netscape browser (it does not work with IE as far as I can find out). To be honest, I'm really sure of it at the moment. The function is not as obvious as that of the stand alone NewzCrawler, but it does have some different sites to look at - so I shall have to give it some extra consideration. It is actually a shame - because it would appear that Netscapes' days may well be numbered (see previous posting).

Will let you know how Liam gets on tomorrow, and , if there's a good news story, you will hear my opinions about it, but I promise to try and make at least one "life style" entry a week.

End nears for Netscape browser Netscape owner AOL has laid off staff working on the browser and says it has stopped development.

[via BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

 

It begins to look like Microsoft have finally won. I noticed the "rumblings" of this story the other day, but it would appear the Netscape is sinking slowly into the mire.

In a way it doesn't surprise me. Internet Explorer is so dominant a browser, that everything else counts for little or nothing. But it is still a pity. Another nail in the coffin of internet competition.

But, luckily, things are not totally black. A lot of the technology has been transferred over to the Mozilla group ( have a look at Mozilla. org ) so you Netscape die hards still have somewhere to go.

To be honest I have just downloaded Mozilla version 1.4 - and it is pretty much the like of Netscape 6/7, although it does work nicely. I have, personally, taken a shine to the FireBird project from the same group of people. It is a neat and tidy little browser, with a very small footprint, size wise. the only thing is that it is under constant refinement, and as such, is probibly more suitable for a "fiddler" like myself.

'AOL Journals' To Bring Blogs To Millions "The "blogosphere" may never be the same after America Online releases free blog-publishing software to its 34 million members this summer." (patrickv)

[via Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes]

 

Bloggers take on politicians Bloggers are going to parliament to encourage more MPs to share their interest and passions on the web.

[via BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

 

 

I have two bits from the Newz crawler collection of useless facts and worldwide trivia this evening - I'm I getting cyncial or what?.

 

Apologies that they are a day or two late, life got in the way I'm afraid.

 

I'll deal with the second first if I may!. I think this is very good move, as, a passionate Blogger myself , the more people that know about one of my fav hobbies, the better. And I'm also in favour of letting the "Highier Up's" know what us "proles" get up to in our spare time. They'll learn what a bunch of nice people us bloggers' are.  We are witty, clever, insightful. We tell things as they are, as we see them.

 

The whole world is out there, and that world is portrayed in a million blogs.

 

Now the First report. I have to admit, I didn't know that AOL did not run any propritary form of blog themselves, they seem to take control of everything else (my opinion - I tried AOL a while ago and found it too "controlled", too closeting for my tastes). But could you imagine what would happen if there are 34 MILLION new bloggers in one go. Where would you look first?

Got to Laugh!

Spam or Spam?

Just a short post - but this did really make me smile. Click on the link for the full story, but it had to happen sooner or later, a Computer Spam company takes on a Meat Manufacturer.

Please see for yourself.

News | Web - User Magazine | Companies row over Spam

Fresh insults sour German-Italian ties Silvio Berlusconi restates his regret over his "Nazi" remarks, but a new row erupts over insults against German tourists.

[via BBC News | Front Page | UK Edition]

 

 

What do the Italians think they are doing?

 

Don't get me wrong, as in any "Family" there will be arguements, disagreements - but this really takes the biscuit.

 

Because of European history the British disliked the French, and the French the British. Then everyone took a dislike to the Germans (for somewhat obvious reasons), but, to me at least, the Italians have always sat, somewhat on the periphery of modern European History. But, all of a sudden, they have decided to take a swipe at the Germans, and using the worst of German History to do that.

 

First off there was Berlusconi's comment to the German MEP, saying that he would be the ideal Nazi Camp Guard in a film, and now one of his underlings is having a crack at German tourists (see the story link attached).

 

Now I know that people have long memories, and that most of the memories are "not of the best quality" shall we say, but , at the minute, these people are supposed to be building a common consencous, a United Europe.  They are supposed to be building an "confederation" of countries for the common good (Not that I agree with a Federal Europe - but thats another story), but all they do is trade insults like bully's in a play ground - not a good confidence builder.

 

The more I hear of Mr Berlusconi and his co-horts, the more I worry. He certainly is larger than life, he certainly plays to the audience, he plays for effect. But he does seem to be a little "Del Boy" - a little like the dodgy Market Trader, and then to pick s fight with the germans - the mans crackers. And he is also the EU President for the next 6mths - he is the figurehead for Europe - and the figurehead is a CLOWN.

 

Even more frightening is that, according the news at least, Mr Berlusconi is "personal" friends with Mr Blair, Prime Minister Blair - gives me the shivers just thinking about it.

 

Just as an aside - this is the first "Blog this" story from the Newz Crawler program I mentioned a few posts back, although I have used the "blog this" facility off the Google toolbar. Although I like these functions, I can see that I am going to have to be carefull not to over-do the use of this, I could bore people to death with what I think of some issues, maybe - just maybe, I might even do that. 

BBC NEWS | Politics | Palns for '£40 ID Cards'

BBC NEWS | Politics | Plans for '£40 ID cards'

I know this is probibly a UK thing ( In know in many other parts of the world ID cards are a part of every day life) but here in the UK it is still something of an issue to some people.

I, for one, don't have a problem with ID cards as-is, but I think, if they (Big Brother - Government type "they" ?)want us to have the card, why should WE pay for the privilege?

It is also an opportunity to try one of the functions (The "Blog This" Function) off my beta Google Toolbar ( the one I talked about in an earlier entry) but this is the first thing I've felt is worth a comment to the "wider populace" so to speak. Its a pity that I will have to "cut and paste" to some of my other logs but it will be interesting to see of it does work, now that Google and Bloggerare one and the same.

Scotter Footy Tournament

Sorry about the delay but better late than never.

The Date : Sunday 29th June 2003

The Place : Scotter Village Hall Field

Man of the tournament - Callum

The weather was absolutely gorgeous, bright and warm. The various pitches had been split up into the various age groups, the u12's being on the corner No.7 Pitch. With five other teams in the same group, the day promised to a hard one. Firstly, with each team in the league playing each other, the points adding up to two semi finals (Position 1 against 3, 2 against 4 and the 5th and 6th places playing off for a plate final). With a squad of eight to choose from, Chris "rotated" the team so everyone got a chance to play - with the goal being defended by both our Liam and Dwain (who also did a good job in some of the matches in both defence and attack, and the attack/defense being taken "to the enemy" so to speak, by,not only Dwain, but Danny, Ben, Jacob, Callum, Stevie and the rest As these were 5 a side games, and they had a few to go through, each game was set at two halves of five minutes a piece

Game1 : Tigers 0 - 1 Messingham

This was a bad start to the day. It was the seemingly usual slow build up that the Tigers seem to do. Although they played OK, but Messingham just played better.

Game2: Tigers 0 - 0 Scotter Jnrs

The half hour rest seemed to get the tigers awake. This time they played better, a lot better. The match was pretty even all the way through, with few chances on either side

Game3: Tigers 0 - 0 Scotter Colts

The Colts, the eventual winners of the U12's tournament, played a little to aggressive for my liking. The game was hard , on both side, with the Tigers wanting to win because of previous history. Although the match, in the end was a pretty even affair, I think the ref lost this one a bit towards the end, with some nasty challenges (and nasty comments ) being let through without comment.

Game4: Tigers 0 - 2 Scawby Jets

To be honest, I missed this match (I had to go and pick Cathy and Laura from Table Tennis) but you could tell this was a bit of a blow - long faces and lowered heads, which was a pity, they had done so well so farThe half hour rest seemed to get the tigers awake. This time they played better, a lot better. The match was pretty even all the way through, with few chances on either side

Game5: Tigers 2 - 0 App Frod

This brought a few smiles back to a few faces. What a performance. Now we waited for the final couple of games in the league to go through, who had what points?. Who would play who? The Result? The Fifth v Sixth Place Plate play off was Scotter Jnrs v App Frod The First Semi Final was Scotter Colts v Messingham with final Semi being Tigers against Scawby Jets There was a delay of over an hour, so that people could get a little lunch, and give the teams that had just played a few moments to catch their collective breaths.We then watched the other matches with baited breath, for the most part eating icecream in the sun shine, waiting for our match to come round. I have to apologise but I didn't notice who won the Plate play off - too nervous

Game6: The Semi-Final Tigers 0 - 0 Scawby Jets Tigers lost 2 - 4 on penalties

Scotter Colts won the first Semi-Final, so we went into the game knowing who our opponents would be if we won this game. Liam in goal, with Ben , Danny Callum and Jacob up front. The whistle blew and away they went. End to end, and head to head. There were a couple of attempts on goal from both side, but by the end of the game ( 7 minutes a half in this game) it was still a stalemate, 0 - 0. The rules of this competition state that there is no extra time - just penalties, with ever one on the pitch taking a turn, including the goalie. At this point I couldn't stand it - I have never been so nervous. Now, to the other parents out there, please accept my apologies about what I'm going to do now, but I am biased, and after all it is my log. Liam was the Tigers goalie for this match(where did Chris get that shirt? - ), and again a saved a penalty clean, and nearly (and we all know nearly don't count) saved two more. But you should have seen his face when it was his turn to take the penalty. Don't get me wrong, his shooting skills have improved in leaps and bounds that last few months, but penalties? Anyway up he steps. Sizes up what he was going to do and kicked it. Not quite to Alan Shearer's standard - but at least it went the right way, into the back of the net. Me? I went mad, again!. What are parents for but to jump up and down went your kids do something special. The lads lost on penalties, and there were a few tears from some. But to me, I couldn't have been more proud of all of them. They are all getting better game by game. It was a semi final this time. Next time - the Final?