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| Retro learning for A Level students |
| Taking away the computers of today and replacing with the 30 year old equivalent
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I was just perusing the BBC news website, in the technology section and came across an image that caught my eye, along with the headline “Blast from the past”. The image was of an extremely old computer, a 30 year old computer to be exact. I would always be drawn to this sort of article as it’s always interesting to go back in time and look at how computers have progressed. I remember the computers at primary school – to think how much they’ve changed in appearance and advanced and the things you can do etc is astounding.
So they caught my eye with the image and headline, I wanted to find out more and why this old friend was appearing on the pages of today’s BBC news page. It turns out that one A-Level teacher is using the old machines built by Acorn in 1981 (discontinued in 1994) to better teach his students how computers work and programming. It’s a much tougher way for them to learn as it offers a much more “unforgiving programming environment”, apparently the Visual Basic software they use for learning is way too easy on the students. As well as this, the old PCs are much slower and the students can see how things happen in real time.
In a brutal industry where the old is swiftly forgotten and replaced by the new, I think it is great that resources such as this that have long been put to bed can now be reused and not wasted. It’s also a great way for today’s youth to realise what computers came from. Early technology is a great way to help people realise quite what extraordinary capabilities we have today. By taking teaching back a few years in history is an interesting approach, striping back all the fancy advances and giving today’s students a good run for their money. I wanted to blog on this just because I thought it was a great initiative and how much more fun for the students to learn in this way, albeit harder, but giving them something they would ordinarily not be able to have a go on.
I’d love to try and work on the old computers I used at primary school, or at least play on them!
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| Biggest data loss fine to hit UK insurer! |
| Big blunder = big fine for multinational insurers
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The Financial Services Authority (FSA) have imposed a £2.3 million fine on UK insurer Zurich. This is the biggest data loss fine that any organisation has ever faced.
Zurich Insurance lost 46,000 customer records including some bank details when a tape back-up went missing. The tapes were lost in transit between two sites in South Africa, even more embarrassing to the multinational, Zurich UK did not hear about it until a year after the incident took place!
Amazingly the FSA actually knocked a third off the fine amount due to Zurich agreeing to pay at an early stage, the original amount was £3.25 million! The FSA have beaten their own record for the largest fine slapped on an organisation for data loss when it fined HSBC £2 million. Nationwide were also hit back in 2007 with a £998,000 fine.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) told Zurich they must be more vigilant and to use encryption when shifting tapes around in the future.
Whilst not wanting to tell financial heavy weights how to do it, here at enviz we are astounded that this sort of data loss is even a possibility for such well established multinationals where the very essence of their trade is dealing with super sensitive data.
A tape system? Really? We are very aware that many businesses use this system as do many of our clients and it works for them. But to us it’s practically archaic and a bit unreliable especially for the likes of Zurich Insurance. To think that it relies on human interaction, and therefore human error, is just not acceptable for many businesses today. Your data is at the very heart of your productivity and success, without it your business would suffer and potentially expose your client’s sensitive information to third parties.
enviz are proud to announce the launch of our new back up bolt-ons – Backup Lite and Backup Pro (for full details please see our Bolt-ons page). Both services are extremely robust and a fully secure solution to protecting your data against fire, theft and equipment failure. You won’t find this service anywhere else, it’s completely unique and built entirely in-house by our team of clever technicians.
Maybe someone should pass our number Zurich’s way!! We can promise them they wouldn’t face this kind of blunder again!
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| The App Goldrush! |
| App saturated. Are you addicted to Apps?
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The App market exploded on to the scene with the emergence of the smartphone, most notably Apple’s iPhone. Many entrepreneurs spotted an opportunity to make a few mill. and jumped on it, creating their own Apps to sell to the likes of iTunes.
Today there are over 250,000 apps and that is just for the iPhone alone, one would think the market is becoming saturated. It is true that the days of developers hitting the jackpot with one winning app are over, now the competition is much stiffer and developers are less likely to hit those high earning figures.
There is also more competition from other platforms such as Nokia’s Ovi, Google’s Android, BlackBerry etc to add to the downloads in excess of 4 billion from Apple’s iTunes alone.
Apps have changed the way we use mobile phones, your phone can now do pretty much anything you want it to on your little handset. I’m not a big App user, I use my iPhone for texting, calling and emailing and little else. But when it comes to Apps, I do have a Translator, Met Office, eBay and a Dictation service (for when I’m feeling super lazy), so you can see I’m not massively in to apps or the gaming side of them at least. Other people I know have pages and pages of Apps that keep them entertained for hours on end and I have to say some are really impressive.
I know apps can be so handy both in business and your day to day personal life but isn’t it all getting slightly excessive? Do we really need any more apps? I don’t know, you tell me?
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| HAPPY BIRTHDAY to enviz IT! |
| enviz is 6 today!
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An exciting day on the farm at enviz HQ – enviz IT has turned the ripe old age of 6! Our MD is very proud and can’t quite believe how the years have flown by from the early days with a couple of clients to the team we have today servicing lots of clients from all sorts of industries.
enviz has blossomed in to a fruitful IT support company earning compliments from people everywhere it goes.
There are many great things on the horizon here at enviz are lots of exciting things getting ready to be launched, so we can only hope that we are here still in another 6 years.
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| Console games to move online |
| Your favourite consol games on the net and a fraction of their retail price!
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In a market dominated by expensive console games, new online services are allowing gamers to play the big titles without paying big bucks. When players no longer need to own the latest console game to enjoy playing it, is it game over for the games console?
Starting at the end of this year, people will be able to play high end games over their internet connections and will no longer need to pay in excess of £200 for the ideal gaming experience. The average cost of a game today is nearly £40 and consoles are upwards of £150. This new turn of events comes after a long line of offline products going online, saving time and money.
To take advantage of these new services you will need a connection speed of 4MB and an Internet browser.
Early concerns I would be having if I was the online service provider is that the UK average internet speed is as low as 1.8mb which is a far cry from the minimum requirement (4MB). Is this the opportunity of time that the game console manufactures need to franticly develop new ways to keep the hardware console as the primary device for playing games?
The Concept
Online gaming already exists for more simple games like Playfish and World of Warcraft. But this new concept promises high-end action to low-end laptops.
Gaikai CEO David Perry explains the appeal of online gaming to developers, "If you look at a game like Farmville on Facebook, it has over 80 million players. It shows what can be done when you open the doors wide. "You make it incredibly accessible, you allow friends to share and we can do that with any game now. We could put any game online like Facebook, just as easily as Farmville."
But for now, Gaikai's offering is somewhat more basic. Go to a site like Amazon or IGN and if your connection is fast enough, you simply get an invitation to instantly play the game, regardless of what device you are using.
In the coming weeks, those who sign up in the US, UK, and France will test a trial version, with the service going public later this year. Initially, just the first few levels of a game will be offered - a kind of try before you buy.
Digital future
Gaikai's main competitor, OnLive, seems to be one step ahead. This is a multiplayer, cross-platform, streaming service offering complete titles.
OnLive's vice-president, John Spinale says online gaming means never having a physical disc that can get lost or scratched.
"I see this as absolutely the way of the future - not just with OnLive but digital distribution overall. People do not really want to buy hardware. They want to have access to software and they want to play the games."
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| Techno Bling! |
| Got a bank balance the size of P. Diddy's? Then we have the mobile phone for you!
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Nearly everyone you speak to has a mobile phone these days, and it's from all ends of the spectrum; from increasingly young kids to the elderly.
Let’s face it, they are here to stay and why not? They can provide a lifeline for when you break down in the middle of nowhere. They can be used to keep a safe eye on your kids and let them know tea's ready. You can even check your emails, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Bebo, LinkedIn, Flickr, you name it from pretty much anywhere in the world. And with the advent of 'Apps' you can waste, ahem, spend, precious time playing with your phone.
Whilst many people are happy to make do with any old phone, simply being happy with the odd phone call or text message, some see the mobile phone as a fashion accessory - even a status symbol. Some people adore their BlackBerrys, others swear by their iPhones - you can even get them gold plated now - but if you want to be 'the daddy' of phone owners you need to fork out big bucks. Bucks on a major scale. How does 1 million dollars sound?
True, you'd have to be P. Diddy to be able to pull it off but the 'Las Vegas Jackpot' phone from exotic phone builder 'Gresso' costs just that.
The features of the phone itself are pretty standard but what warrants the hefty price tag is what it's made from; Pure Gold. Oh, and not to mention it's finished with Rare Black Diamonds, Diamond-cut Sapphire Crystals and is inlayed with 200year old African Blackwood.
What's that I hear you say? You've got the odd million spare so you'll take one? Great! Well you best be quick as those nutters at Gresso are only making three. That's right, so for all you 'bling-magnets' and 'pimp-daddies', unless you want to miss out on perhaps the most extravagant phone ever made then I'd act fast.
For all those like the rest of us 'regular' folk perhaps you could opt for its little brother, the same Gold and Blackwood design only without all those Diamonds and Sapphires. It's a steal for only $20,000.
Perhaps I'll stick to my two cups and string.
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| A warning to Smartphone users |
| As a Smartphone user, you have to be fully aware of their potential security dangers.
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Chris Wysopal, co-founder and technology head at security firm Veracode (the company that helped the BBC with this report) said “smartphones are now at the point the PC was in 1999”. And back then malicious spyware was nothing but mere nuisance, today however they are a big deal and a way for criminals to obtain information about you that they can make serious money out of. This means that you have to apply the same principals to your phone as you would your PC, access apps with care, etc.
The BBC reported and ran a number of tests on apps as this is one of the easiest ways for these dangerous malware to get on to your phone. They also have methods of getting you to call expensive 0870 numbers and taking all of the money that the call cost.
Mobile devices are prime prey for these criminals – they hold the most personal data about each user and who do you know that doesn’t have a phone? Lots of personal data belonging to a lot of people.... “Cha-ching!!”
As well as this, calls cost money and that money has to go somewhere, right? What better opportunity for them to rob you of your cash than that – a piece of cake!
Had you even thought about this? Because to be honest, I hadn’t. Well I had thought about the security when using the internet on my phone, but the extent of the smartphone’s true vulnerability, I was quite unaware.
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| Ever feel like you’re being watched? |
| Shopping online - is there a mind reader behind the ads that appear on the sites you visit or is someone following you online?
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Wired has reported on how top UK retailers have adopted a retargeting technology whereby they are able to see where you have been clicking and then placing ads on websites that are created with your previous surfing activity in mind. For example, if you have been online looking at a particular pair of shoes, you may well find that similar shoes will be advertised on any other website you visit that contains advert space.
It’s not a new thing, this retargeting technology. Targeted advertising like this has taken place over the years but not so accurately as it is happening now. A number of ads would be drawn up and the most relevant would be shown on sites that you visit regularly. Now the technology works on a real time basis, so the ads are potentially different each time.
Personally, I don’t need any more encouraging to spend my money, especially if I have had the will power or good sense to exit a retail website in the knowledge that I really can’t afford the items. I worry that this just encourages people to spend spend spend and in an economy where people are struggling as it is, is that wise to inevitably increase debt? I might be over reacting and I guess I’m just speaking from personal lack of will power and love of shopping. Also I do appreciate that these retailers have to make their money – but do you not think this is taking it a little too far? Being sold to is literally inescapable.
Or, like the Wired article argues – is it not better that we get harassed by adverts of some interest to us personally rather than just any old products and services being shoved in our faces?
Do you think it is an infringement upon your personal space and surfing activity? The whole “big brother” debate. Surveillance. Of course I realise that the nature of this type of “watching” is less sinister and purely for the purpose of enticing you to spend money with said retailer, but still the principles are the same. You are being followed, where you are visiting and what you are looking at is all being recorded. What’s more, that information is being used to target you further! It freaks me out somewhat.
If you would like to read this article in full please visit, http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-08/12/retargeting-ads-criteo
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| Facebook bug spills name and pic for all 500 million users. |
| Another security breach of the world most used social networking site.
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A bug in Facebook's login system allows attackers to match unknown email addresses with users' first and last names, even when they've configured their accounts to make that information private.
The information leak can be exploited by social-engineering scammers, phishers, or anyone who has ever been curious about the person behind an anonymous email message. If the address belongs to any one of the 500 million active users on Facebook, the social-networking site will return the full name and picture associated with the account.
With over 500 million users and what we can only assume is a very lucrative advertising platform they would invest in technology that would protect there user's more.
to read more click the link below
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| BBC loses up to £240,000 of IT equipment |
| “The portability of laptops and phones means that in any large organisation there is an inevitable risk of theft”
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The BBC reported today that the time between April 2008 and March 2010 they have lost IT equipment worth up to £240,000! How could they even let this happen? You would have thought that with such an established and world famous company, they would have been slightly more doctrinaire with regards to the monitoring the whereabouts of the equipment they provide to their staff. If you ask me, this all seems rather careless and unprofessional.
We all know that anyone can suffer the consequences of theft or loss and it often takes a severe case of either before a business will put in proper failsafe methods with which to protect themselves from such events.
Obviously added to the financial loss of a company’s assets, is the risk of confidential data finding itself in to the wrong hands and being leaked. It was this point that shocked me most when I read that the MoD suffers a far higher loss of equipment, making the BBC’s loss look like small fry. How can they let this happen? I can’t see how there isn’t more secure procedures in place to ensure that this stops happening. Over the same time period (roughly 2 years) the Ministry of Defence has reported a loss of IT related assets amounting to £620,193!
Unfortunately for enviz the topic of theft is all too close to the bone. This has only made our processes and procedures tighten to ensure that we are fully defended against such behaviour. enviz are proud and content in the knowledge that we are protected and have plans in place to see us through any form of disaster. We have also set up these precautions and procedures so that our customers can take full advantage of such tight security with innovative technology such as our tagging system which keeps an up to date inventory of your IT assets.
It is undeniably something that needs to be at the forefront of every business owners mind, unless you have the luxury to be able to afford a few thousand pounds to go down the drain!
The BBC article goes in to more detail about what items have gone missing and at what sort of costs. If you would like to read this article in full please visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10910170.
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