Online Issues
UK postcodes have some interesting characteristics: a full six character post code identifies an average of around 14 house holds, and postcodes are mainly hierarchical - W1W will always be contained ...
I had a call on my mobile earlier today from a lady claiming to be from Orange (my phone service provider) who told me that my contract was about to expire. She asked me for my password.
Alarm bell...
Google's recently released Web Accelerator apparently has some scary side-effects. It's been spotted pre-loading links in password-protected applications, which can amount to clicking on every "delete...
My final year project is due in two weeks, and I'm going to be running on silent for most of them. I have, however, upgraded to Tiger and playing with Spotlight has given me plenty to think about.
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Reading between the lines (which in this case isn't particularly hard), this and this (don't forget to view source) suggest that Google are soon to announce that they won't be calculating PageRank for...
I've been driving myself crazy with coursework over the past couple of weeks, and since it's always good to have something to take your mind off things I've also been spending a fair amount of time lu...
Munich, Germany (23 November 2004). The three most famous European authors of open-source software have issued an appeal against software patents on NoSoftwarePatents.com. Linus Torvalds (Linux), Mi...
Here's a nasty one: popular tech news site The Register was hit on Saturday by the Bofra exploit, a nasty worm which uses an iframe vulnerability in (you guessed it) Internet Explorer to install nasty...
If you've browsed Amazon's product reviews recently you may have noticed an interesting new feature: Badges, little icons displayed below certain people's names. This isn't a new idea by any means - m...
Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia was interviewed recently by the Slashdot community. One of the questions regarded protecting Wikis from spammers:
Sure, I think it's pretty simple to solve problems like th...
I've been thinking about per-site user stylesheets for a while now, but my colleague Adrian has gone one better: his All Music Guide Corrector extension for Firefox fixes their horrible JavaScript lin...
The single hottest topic in the online news industry at the moment is that of required registration. A number of large news sites (the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune) have mo...
Via Jeremy Zawodny,, Yahoo's Anti-Spam Resource Center have published an explanation of their proposed Domain Keys spam fighting technique. At first glance it looks very promising. There's no centrali...
The New York Times: Get out of my Namespace (via Diego Doval) - a well-researched look at the huge problems (and frivolous lawsuits) being generated by the global quest for ownership of unique names.
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I'm supporting Grey Tuesday....
So apparently there's an unpleasant worm going around AOL Instant Messenger at the moment. Only it's not a worm - it's a semi-legitimate piece of adware which asks you for permission to "modify the in...
Danny O'Brien has a fascinating post up about the nature of hacking and how to game entrenched political systems. It's all worth reading, but the part about how Fax Your MP was created as a deliberate...
This one could get very interesting. Microsoft have announced that an upcoming update to Internet Explorer will remove the ability to include usernames in URLs completely. This is in response to the g...
Over at Reflective Surface, Ronaldo M. Ferraz discusses the usability of an authentication system that locks down an account for a certain period of time after three failed login attempts. Ronaldo see...
Patent 6,671,714:
What is claimed is:
1. A method for assigning URL's and e-mail addresses to members of a group comprising the steps of:
assigning each member of said group a URL of the form...
From the New York Times:
Computer security researchers have been watching the evolution of remote-access rogue programs as they have become more common and have put more machines under the contro...
D. Keith Robinson writes about Using Dates For Featured Web Content. Keith's right, including a date with your content really is a no-brainer. I'll add an anecdote of my own. Several years ago I ran a...
I've suspected this for a long time, and now here's the empirical evidence: Popular Spam Protection Technique Doesn't Work. If you're relying on HTML entities to protect your email address from spam h...
Charles Miller, in Google, Microsoft and Tall Poppies.:
Bill Gates' original goal in forming Microsoft was famously to
have (emphasis mine) "A computer on every desk and in every home, running M...
Via Crypto-Gram, a great piece from Bruce Tognazzini about how tough security measures can actively reduce the security of a system:
My wife, the Doctor, was working over the summer at a local ho...
Kimbro Staken on DRM: The record companies can be proud that they've so thoroughly screwed things up that there really isn't even any point in paying for music now....
Moderation is a topic that goes hand in hand with online communities, but despite being a highly complex matter it is rarely given the coverage it deserves. That's all set to change now thanks to Tom ...
I've added a new anti-comment-spam measure to this site. The majority of comment spam exists for one reason and one reason only to increase the Google PageRank of the site linked from the spam and spe...
Tom Gilder: Absolutely fucking nuts
Get ready for IE changes
Score Higher in Google Search Engine (and why Google is saving the web)
High performance XML-RPC
Juggling with packets: floating...
Here's something I've never seen before. The BBC's Neighbours messageboard currently has a note up saying "This messageboard is currently closed", with a link to the opening times: 9am until 10pm week...
Yesterday, the Half-Life 2 source code was leaked (all 100 MB of it). Today comes the news from Valve that the leaked version is indeed the real thing, and that the leak was almost certainly the resul...
I guess it really was too good to be true. The AdSense backlash has begun, with Eric Thauvin's dismissal from the scheme for "invalid clicks" prompting Russell Beattie to take a good look at the AdSen...
Some friends of the family have created a brilliant charitable solution to the problem of buying a gift for someone who already has everything. The Good Gifts Catalogue sells products such as a New le...
I don't usually get more than 5 or 6 spams a day, but today I've been hammered with an additional 7 emails with executable attachments claiming to be the "latest critical patch" from Microsoft. The em...
The most interesting thing to come out of this whole Eolas disaster could well turn out to be Ray Ozzie's description of how Lotus Notes was demonstrating many of the funamental abilities of today's b...
I'm fed up with comment spam. From now on, any comment I judge to be spam will be deleted, and the domains linked to from that comment will be blacklisted. Any future comments that contain links to th...
Paul Graham's essays on fighting spam are generally excellent; it was Paul who sparked the recent flurry of activity surrounding Bayesian statistical filters and inspired the creation of some of the b...
So, Mailinator (via Joel). It's a brilliant concept; whenever a site you don't trust insists on you giving them an email address you invent something-random@mailinator.com and give them that instead. ...
As seen on Blogzilla and Ordinary Life, BuyMusic are content to exist as a sharecropper. It looks like the restriction is due to their use of Windows Media as the format for their DRM protected files ...
Today's hot topic is the Winer Watcher, Mark Pilgrim's new tool that tracks and highlights edits made to Dave Winer's Scripting News. The blogosphere is pretty much evenly split on this: some people t...
So, I signed up for an AOL Instant Messenger account today. While it was relatively painless, I did get a chuckle out of the terms of use attached to the Instant Messenger installer:
2. Restricti...
The internet is shit. Food for thought, via Ben Hammersley....
Lawrence Lessig explains why the proposed Eldred Act does not go further in its aims to reclaim the public domain....
Evangelism is WAR is a fascinating account (actually, the first chapter of an upcoming book) of the principles behind Technical Evangelism at Microsoft and the methods they use to establish their plat...
What the *F* happened to the internet? is a rambling but entertaining description of how big business stole the 'net, and how it doesn't really matter (via Paul Hammond's links blog)....
Search Engine Watch (with a nice new design but horrible markup) have an extensive analysis of the recent "Big Brother" accusations that have been levelled at Google....
I thought the US was meant to be the land of the free....
Jeremy Allaire has posted notes on an interview with Sergey Brin of Google, conducted at the PC Forum conference. Some highlights:
When or will you go IPO?
I was really impressed with his answ...
It looks like there's a shakedown going on in technical book publishing land. Glasshaus are no more, and (so far unsubstantiated) rumours are flying round that Wrox are going bust / have gone bust as ...
Fredrik Lundh has started posting his book The Standard Python Library online, in response to O'Reilly's decision not to publish a second edition of the book. I'd never read it before, but having samp...
I'm finding myself slightly confused about the Google backlash washing around the blogosphere, which is summarised quite well by Gavin Sheridan. Most of the arguments against using Google unsurprising...
Aaron Swartz has been talking to Google about indexing Creative Commons licensed works:
From Google the news was mixed. He said he wouldn’t start indexing .0 URIs, which includes the URIs for a...
An interview with Cory Doctorow, via Leonard. Provides some great background insight in to the world described in Down and Out, along with Cory's thoughts on such topics as the recording industry and ...
Robert Graham's analysis of SQL Slammer cleared up quite a few things I had been wondering about the worm. It confirms that the majority of the infections were caused not by SQL Server (as reported wi...
It looks like Scott got burned by a PHP MeetUp arranged at an out of business restaurant that then failed to materialise at all. From his comments it seems like he's not the only person to hit problem...
Dave Winer asks why Joel Spolsky gets much more traffic when slashdotted than UserLand's hosted sites tend to. Joel explains (it's all down to network effects) and mpt kicks in a few ideas as well. ...
Via Inluminent, a short Q&Awith Rusty of K5 discussing the site's innovative new text-ads-with-comments format.
"It definitely is better understood by some advertisers than others. The idea b...
Scott is horrified by the fact that some American political organisations are co-ordinating massive "letter to the editor" campaigns using email lists and websites. It's certainly a worrying trend, bu...
It looks like Adequacy.org has come to an end. For those unfamiliar with the site, it was a truly unique evolution of the common internet troll. Adequacy specialised in posting stories that were delib...
Larry Lessig has a new campaign: a "copyright tax" that kicks in 50 years in to a copyright term, demanding copyright owners to pay a nominal fee ($1 - $50) to maintain control of their copyright. Unu...
It sounds like Paul Graham's Spam Conference was a huge success, with attendance rocketing to 560 from the original estimate of 50 - 60. Scott Johnson sings its praise and promises a full write up lat...
A top notch rant from Leonard Lin:
Often times, I like to think of these little thought experiments. Imagine the inventor of the wheel, or of stone cutting implements getting and enforcing a patent...
Aquarion points out a truly moronic "browser upgrade" notice. I especially like Anything larger than 800 x 600 is too large, and the pages do not diosplay [sic] properly....
Name your sections carefully (via Adrian) discusses how news (and other) sites could end up adversely affecting their content through badly chosen URL schemes....
Eric Meyer: "Considered Harmful" Essays Considered Harmful. That's a shame, because I was planning on writing one for target="_blank". I guess I'll have to find another way of expressing my forthcomin...
How to write like a wanker is so true it almost hurts....
It's great to see the Creative Commons getting an overwhelmingly positive reception - as Lessig says on his blog, 'Tis the season to be giving, and this will be a great gift to the Commons. If you hav...
The contents of this weblog is licensed under a
Creative Commons License.
...
Adrian Holovaty has revealed his previously hinted at secret project. Trodo.com is kind of an online bartering site. You give away stuff you no longer have a use for to earn credits, which you can th...
Lawrence Lessig:
Jason Schultz has done more amazing work calculating any "chaos" that would come from striking the 1976 Act. Using the Internet Movie Database, he confirmed the Copyright Office's ...
Via Scott, an article with some great tips on remembering your passwords. It includes the following vitally important tip:
You may trust the provider you're signing up with, but are you confident n...
Why Computer Books Suck. The principle argument seems to be that most authors get burned by their first experience and avoid writing further books, leading to the bulk of computer books being written ...
In Apple and the Pirate Everyman, Tom Coates discusses Apple's attitude to copy protection and open standards. Choice quote:
The reasons for all this, of course, are that - for good or ill - at t...
Stuart points out that the W3C are seeking public approval for their recently published last-call draft of their patent policy. The email address is www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org. Show them your sup...
This story on the BBC describing how Microsoft lost £112 million on the Xbox has been getting a lot of attention later. Here's a depressing thought: With 40 billion dollars in the bank they could sus...
What's So Bad About Microsoft? - a nice reference point for all us dissidents :)...
Mark Pilgrim has posted another of his signature in depth explanations, this time concerning the recent worries over blog comment spam. He points out that all of the proposed solutions are Club soluti...
Roll on the micropayment revolution! Cashets are designed specifically for the small purchases - $1 (or less) - that you ordinarily can't make on the Internet because sellers have a minimum. The small...
Bob Cringely: The Case Against Professionalism:
Here is a scene that happens at some point in almost every young company. The founder/CEO/technical visionary meets with his board and finds him or h...
Craig Saila:
In the "Wouldn't it Be Great" category: Vin Crosbie, in a posting to online-news, says he’s been hearing rumours that next month MasterCard and Visa will start handling small (micro?) ...
Co-Inventor of XML Says Office 11 is "A Huge Step Forward for Microsoft" (via Slashdot). The comments are full of speculation over why Microsoft would open up their file format in this way having gain...
Dan Gillmor: Microsoft Piggy Bank Tops $40 Billion:
What is Microsoft going to do with this money? They can't spend it fast enough internally, and the top shareholders, who control the company, ref...
I first read about the Internet Bookmobile last week on Aaron Swartz' Weblog. Lessons from the Internet Bookmobile is a new article on the O'Reilly Network by Richard Koman, who spent the week preceed...
Information for Sale: My Experience With Google Answers is a fascinating insight in to the world of Google Answers:
The most money still goes to the researcher who answers the most high-paying qu...
Lots of news on Eldred vs Ashcroft today. The best account I've seen so far of proceedings in the courtroom is this one by Kwindla Hultman Kramer, who has a press pass and was thus allowed to take not...
On Wednesday, Laurence Lessig will take on the Supreme Court in Eldred v. Ashcroft. He will probably lose, but I sure hope he doesn't. Last night I watched Lessig's <free culture> keynote presen...
A year ago, Mark Pilgrim's manager told him to stop blogging. He refused, and was fired a week later. Today Mark celebrates. ...
Tony Bowden comments on Boo Hoo:
At the point of Boo's collapse, we'd built BlackStar to a turnover of $1m per month, with a total operating spend (excluding marketing) of less than $2m in the two ...
The Register: Want to know how RIAA.org was hacked? They had an un-password-protected admin panel listed in their robots.txt file. Muppets....
The Guerrilla News Network: S-11 Redux: (Channel) Surfing the Apocalypse.
So, in the face of our media's shameless propaganda campaign, we have taken it upon ourselves to intuit what the intentions...
HSBC (you have to look pretty hard for this one, they've hidden it under "Trade Marks and Copyright"):
In particular no one may use a part of the Site or any Local Site on any other website, or lin...
I've had an idea for a new way of hiding email addresses from spam harvesters - shield the address behind a form that must be submitted via POST. Site visitors can now click a button on my Contact pag...
IMS/ISC out of the ICANN Running, apparently because their proposal didn't include enough block diagrams. ICANNWatch have some great conspiracy theories as to the real reason....
Coming soon: Opera 7:
Over one year ago Opera's engineers started working on two separate development branches. One of them later became the successful Opera 6, released in December 2001. The latter ...
I watched Laurence Lessig's OSCON keynote the other day (an 8.4MB Flash file courtesy of Leonard Lin). A transcript of the session is also available. It was an excellent presentation and really opened...
Paul Graham: A Plan for Spam. Paul suggests using content based filters that learn from users specifically marking messages as spam or legitimate mail. The system then picks emails apart looking for c...
I wonder if these muppets have heard of eggdrop (created 1993). Something tells me prior art for this one won't be too hard to find....
Madhu Menon: Avoiding personal conflict on mailing lists....
My friend Tim recently received a spam from a company called TrafficBBS, who specialise in bulk submissions to 50,000 search engines and 120,000+ BBS (web based bulletin boards). A quick look at their...
Congratulations Stuart on getting slashdotted. How's the server holding out?...
The Register: approximately 25 per cent of readers access our site using non-Microsoft browsers (mentioned in passing in an article on Alexa). Now for some pure speculation. I can't imagine that this ...
This is ludicrous. NAF have ordered the transfer of the domain name canadian.biz to Molson beer, who hold a trademark on the word "Canadian" (a brand of beer):I find that the registration by the Respo...
I've been reading up on Muse.Net, and I like what I see. Muse.Net is a loosely-coupled, XML Web service derived Internet digital media supply chain. What that means in English is a system to let you l...
Janis Ian: The Internet Debacle - An Alternative View (via Scripting News). This is an excellent, well researched piece on the problems facing the American music industry by an artist with over 20 alb...
It seems there's more to the Danish deep linking story than first meets the eye. This comment on Slashdot clarifies some important details:
[...] Second, the Danish Newspaper Publisher's Associa...
More deep linking stupidity (via Scripting News). A judge in Denmark has ruled in favour of a newspaper who took a search engine to court over "deep linking", despite the search engine's spider follow...
Rasmus Lerdorf (the creator of PHP) has a blog. His latest entry discusses Palladium, and asks if it will actually help build up the alternative market of non wintel users....
Via Boing Boing: Seth Schoen's notes on Palladium after a meeting with Microsoft. Cory Doctorow points out that Seth is probably the most knowledgeable tech person to have been briefed on Palladium by...