Guy Clapperton
Feed
BT says no to Net cut-offs
Guy Clapperton
Mar 10th 2010
Filed under: Technology, Creative industries
British Telecom chief exexutive Ian Livingstone has joined others in writing to the Financial Times in protest at proposals to cut people off the Internet if they infringe copyright.They should be fined instead, says the signatories. In this way you get a fund with which you can pay some owed copyrights rather than disenfranchised citizens.
Playstation 3 - tortoise to the Wii?
Guy Clapperton
Mar 10th 2010
Filed under: Technology
It's pretty much received wisdom in the games industry that the Wii is the best selling games console, with Playstation 3 an embarrassing trailer for Sony. This may change: analysts from US firm Strategic Analytics are saying it's going to have more staying power.They're missing a load of points in the Wii's favour, and assuming that there'll be no PS4 for a while, but their projections are impressive. PS3 sales will reach 127 million against a total of 103 million for Wii, they're saying, because it's going to be around a lot longer.
Expenses scandal - no MPs involved
Guy Clapperton
Mar 9th 2010
Filed under: Small Business
Here we go again with an expenses story but this time it's not in the public sector: according to new research from specialist payment card specialist fuelGenie, almost one in 30 staff are on the fiddle in small businesses.Financial service staff are the worst offenders with some 18.2% admitting to claiming falsely (and if 18.2% admit to it you can be certain there are more).
Weak security questions put data at risk
Guy Clapperton
Mar 9th 2010
Filed under: Banking , Technology
Every now and then in this column I mention how people pick insecure passwords for websites and work computers. There's now another wrinkle – insecure questions.When I log onto one of my accounts I get asked a few things. Name of first school, mother's maiden name...now, how many people would actually know those things about me? My mum's a nice woman, she has loads of friends, it could be hundreds.
Gadgets - more important than people!
Guy Clapperton
Mar 9th 2010
Filed under: Technology
How important are your gadgets to you? New research from the Geek Squad suggests that they might be getting more vital than is healthy to a lot of people, as seven out of 10 people would rather fix a gadget than see to a health problem or a relationship issue.Exclude relationship problems and it seems eight out of 10 people in the UK would rather go and do some DIY or work on a gadget somehow than go and see a doctor about something.
Vinyl sales up, CDs down
Guy Clapperton
Mar 9th 2010
Filed under: Technology, Creative industries
Somewhere among all the talk about CD sales shrinking (true) and downloads increasing (also true) and the hotly debated illegal download conundrum (controversial) we've missed a trick.Vinyl record sales are growing. According to the Official UK Charts Company they grew 5% last year with American sales growing even more, by a million. In an age when 30% of last year's £2.6bn music industry was due to downloads this is remarkable.
Your right to connect electronically
Guy Clapperton
Mar 8th 2010
Filed under: Technology
Do you think Internet access should be a fundamental human right? Half the world would agree with you strongly if you said "yes", with a further 29% agreeing somewhat.The nay-sayers are in the minority, then, with less than 10% of people feeling strongly that it shouldn't be counted as such. Bodies as widely recognised as the United Nations are pushing for universal access.
Small biz banks raided
Guy Clapperton
Mar 8th 2010
Filed under: Small Business, Banking , Technology
There's a new batch of computer malware out there and it's attacking banks of small businesses. It's exploiting the trend for social networking and underlines the need to keep all security software absolutely up to date.The US has reported more than $120m worth of losses in the third quarter of last year, according to a Financial Times report. ID fraud overall is costing the country $700m per quarter.
Is there Internet addiction?
Guy Clapperton
Mar 8th 2010
Filed under: Technology
An article in the Times today asks the question, is Internet addiction like any other addiction and should it be treated as such?Cards on the table – I'm not a doctor, never have been and never will be by now. But my answer is "no" – but some of the addictive behaviour could indicate an underlying problem.
YouTube threatened in UK
Guy Clapperton
Mar 5th 2010
Filed under: Technology, Creative industries
Amendments to the Digital Economy Bill currently working its way through Parliament might put services like YouTube under threat for its users' copyright breaches.The issue is that loads of people – no, loads – are putting copyright material they don't own onto the service and the copyright owners have had enough. The Government might end up taking the service down completely if it doesn't remove the offending material.
NY and the City clash: London falling
Economy doing worse than suspected?
