Also included were Sydney Harbour and the Matterhorn.Northamptonshire, Nottingshire, Berkshire, Peakdistrict, Birmingham (where the new developments like Selfridge's were absent), Greater Manchester, Avon, Gloucestershire, and Lincolnshire.
Blogger's little Bot is telling me it suspects my blog might be Spam.
Until a human can have a look it's making me enter Word Verification every time I edit something or post (until Tuesday I s'pose).
So where are the tell-tale signs of Spam on my blog I'm wondering?
How can you tell?
-------------
Postscript:
Just received (Monday, day earlier than I thought)
Hello,Nothing as to why but a quick scan of other blogs suggest either images and links were the key thing alerting the algorithm (but I'll never really know, OR that someone 'alerted' them :{
Your blog has been reviewed, verified, and cleared for regular use so that it will no longer appear as potential spam. If you sign out of Blogger and sign back in again, you should be able to post as normal. Thanks for your patience, and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.
Sincerely,
The Blogger Team
tesco.com has made something of how accessible it is — and with good reason, it is the best UK Supermarket website.
It's competitors have quite rightly been criticised for their lack of effort (although, tesco.com's last redesign and how it happened caused negative changes to it's accessibility according to some experts).
But what is the point of creating an 'accessible' website if people can't buy anything? This is the case for up to ten million British people with basic bank accounts.
BBC Radio Four's MoneyBox reports [ Listen to this item (RealAudio) ] that several years after first alerting Tesco, they are still refusing to accept payments using Visa's Electron card.
Back in 2005, the program reported that due to the Halifax's decision to switch basic bank account customers to Electron, they could no longer use it with a host of retailers such as Boots, M&S, B&Q, Argos - and Tesco. (Sainsbury + Asda do take Electron).
The Halifax's response was that 'as only 20,000 Cardcash customers regularly shop online, it does not consider this to be a huge problem'.
The Government is encouraging, and in some cases forcing, people to open basic bank accounts.Said one daughter of her housebound mother, "it robs her of her independence".So we have people who are doing exactly what the Government wants:
Here's your chance to do something — contact Tesco and tell them to start accepting Electron (they could do this TODAY).
The Internet has a diameter of about 10,000 pookies. Here's a layout showing the major ISPs.
- Q&A With Ask.com's Gary Price
John, I'm with you on the fear that big organizations, however well intentioned, will ultimately abuse the trust placed in them. Since your clickstream, search history, credit record, phone calls and emails all traverse corporate - or government-controlled - networks, they're vulnerable.
But in the case of Google Desktop, this product sends no data to Google unless you specifically request it to. You can't accidentally send your hard-disk contents, or even an index of your PC, to Google.
From the Google Desktop Privacy FAQ:
1. Does Google Desktop share the contents of my computer with anyone?
No. Your Google Desktop index and copies of your files are currently stored only on your computer.
2. What does Google Desktop do with the information on my computer?
Google Desktop stores copies of the items it finds on your computer's hard drive ... Your Google Desktop index and copies are currently stored only on your computer ...
(Though that word "currently" makes it sound like it may not always be true!)
Hmmm..
Had to lose yet another widget..
Chimp-o-matic, which served up hot,delicious Bush-isms ...
.. only tooo .. sl.. oo.. ww.. l .. yyy . . .
and when the rest of your sidebar is a-awaiting on it, well I'm sorry hunny but bye ...
Absolutely fabulous widget.. as was World WebCams (weep) ...
Lesson: build a widget, better make sure you can cope when it gets taken up (or why bother really?).
Before everyone gets too carried away with Iran's propaganda coup
Just remember that they execute gay teenagers in public.
This is appalling.
Hacker faces US justice after extradition appeal fails
· Cyber-terrorism charges could lead to life in prison
· Judges express distaste for American handling of case
Duncan Campbell
Wednesday April 4, 2007
The Guardian
The British computer hacker who spectacularly cracked the Pentagon system and embarrassed the American defence establishment now faces extradition to the United States, where a prosecutor has said he would like to see him "fry".
<>
The judges said in their ruling that they were unhappy with the US handling of the case: "We make no secret of the fact that we view with a degree of distaste the way in which the American authorities are alleged to have approached the plea bargain negotiations."
McKinnon has admitted in many public statements to unauthorised access of computer systems in the United States including those mentioned in the United States indictment. He claims his motivation, drawn from a statement made before the Washington Press Club on May 9, 2001 by a group of high level ex-military and civilian sources known as "The Disclosure Project", was to find evidence of UFOs, antigravity technology, and the government suppression of "Free Energy", all of which he claims to have proven through his actions.[7]In his interview with the BBC he also claimed that "The Disclosure Project" says there is "extra-terrestrial and origin and [they've] captured spacecraft and reverse engineered it." He also claimed to have downloaded a low-resolution image of "something not man-made" and "cigar shaped" floating above the northern hemisphere. He said that unfortunately he did not manage to get a screenshot or recording of the image because he was "bedazzled" to see the image, could not remember the capture function in the software RemotelyAnywhere, and that he was "cut off" from his connection.[8]
Dorset Echo
Council condemned for offensive election notes
By Lynn MorrisCHARITIES have criticised a council for using offensive terms such as "lunatics" and "idiots" in election guidelines.
According to the notes for candidates issued by Bournemouth Borough Council "lunatics and idiots" were disqualified from standing as councillors along with "deaf and dumb persons".
<>
Cllr Ron Whittaker said: "People do often think that councillors are idiots but I have never seen it in print before".
<>
Following enquiries from the Daily Echo, the council has now amended the document.
The deputy returning officer Matthew Pitcher said that the terms were included in error because they are legal terms.
He said people defined in law as "lunatics and idiots" or "deaf and dumb" could still apply to be councillors.
BBC
Matt Pitcher, electoral services officer, said it was a mistake and
that the terms were taken directly from election law dating back to
1766.
"Of course such language is certainly not acceptable today," he added.
"The terminology used as part of our election pack to candidates was
unfortunately taken directly from a piece of election law which dates
from 1766 but is still current today.
Brand Attention
03-04-2007There is a severe lack of Mobile Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) among FTSE 100 companies, with many top firms having no branded content on their first page of search results, according to new research.
The study, conducted by SEO brand protection and mobile search firm Brand Attention, looked at keyword search results based on the average results from two key words closely tied to the company's online description, products and services.
Commenting on the findings, Howard Furr-Barton, managing director of Brand Attention, said:
The study revealed that nine in ten (90%) of FTSE 100 companies have homepages listed as the first search result when searching by company name online, compared with only 5% on Google Mobile Web."When inputting a company name into Google.co.uk, the research reveals 7% of FTSE 100 companies' homepages do not appear in the first page of search results. A startlingly high figure, but low in comparison to 93% on Google Mobile Web UK.”
"With 94% of online users failing to search beyond the first page of results (Forrester Research), this highlights a major visibility problem for the UK's leading companies," Furr-Barton added.
30.03.2007 13:09
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wants to have the key to sign the DNS root zone solidly in the hands of the US government.
This ultimate master key would then allow authorities to track DNS Security Extensions (DNSSec) all the way back to the servers that represent the name system’s root zone on the Internet. The “key-signing key” signs the zone key, which is held by VeriSign.
At the meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in Lisbon, Bernard Turcotte, president of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) drew everyone’s attention to this proposal as a representative of the national top-level domain registries (ccTLDs).
At the ICANN meeting, Turcotte said that the managers of country registries were concerned about this proposal.
When contacted by heise online, Turcotte said that the national registries had informed their governmental representatives about the DHS’s plans. A representative of the EU Commission said that the matter is being discussed with EU member states.
DNSSec is seen as a necessary measure to keep the growing number of manipulations on the net under control.
However, if you are effectively monitoring people's (not children's) web use anyway - isn't that the best policing? If you know your web use is recorded? One of the side-effects of buying censorware for a network is that web use in general drops off. This isn't necessarily a good thing.Computing Which? has the following top tips for protecting children online:
- Keep PCs in a shared living area — not a child's bedroom
- Supervise children's online activities
- Encourage children to discuss any unsavory content they've found
- Warn children about the potential dangers of chatrooms
- Use parental control software but don't over rely on it
- Change your parental control access password regularly
- To which I would add: Teach them what's an advert
Google announces free in-home wireless broadband service
"Dark porcelain" project offers self-installed plumbing-based Internet access
<>
The Toilet Internet Service Provider (TiSP) project is a self-installed, ad-supported online service that will be offered entirely free to any consumer with a WiFi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a local municipal sewage system.
<>
Home installation is a simple matter of GFlushing™ the fiber-optic cable down to the nearest TiSP Access Node, then plugging the other end into the network port of your Google-provided TiSP wireless router.
<>
Interested consumers, contractually obligated partners and deeply skeptical and quietly competitive backbiters can learn more about TiSP at http://www.google.com/tisp/install.html.
| Trickle | The #2 | Royal Flush | |
Download speed (max) | 8 Mbps | 16 Mbps | 32 Mbps |
Upload speed (max) | 2 Mbps | 4 Mbps | 8 Mbps |
Price | Free | $9.95/mo. | $24.95/mo. |
| Actual speeds will vary, depending on network traffic and sewer line conditions. Users with low-flow toilets may simultaneously experience a saving-the-environment glow and slower-data-speed blues. | |||
Not Found
The requested URL was not found on this server. There are so many reasons that this might have happened we can scarcely bring ourselves to type them all out. You might have typed the URL incorrectly, for instance. Or (less likely but certainly plausible) we might have coded the URL incorrectly. Or (far less plausible, but theoretically possible, depending on which ill-defined Grand Unifying Theory of physics one subscribes to), some random fluctuation in the space-time continuum might have produced a shatteringly brief but nonetheless real electromagnetic discombobulation which caused this error page to appear. Or (and truth be told, this is by far the most likely scenario) you might have reached a page that we meant to create but didn't get around to it, since this year's April Fool's joke got hacked together at the last minute, more or less the same way this one did. And this one. And this one, and this one, and this one...
The New York Times has published an excellent review of Google's move into the offline ad market. What's the strategy?
Google is building a TV ad sales team, have radio and print in beta, and their recent purchases for video game advertising, YouTube and other buys show they are building a company that really wants to be an all-encompassing media company. The NYT is one of the major media brands using them.
The most profitable area is thought to be likely to be TV, especially with trials of demographically targeted cable ads to individuals.
The area they're having the most trouble is Radio. There they are:
suspicious that its technology-based approach will turn their business into a commodity and take away the relationships with advertisers that stations have spent years building.Which is an interesting reflection of other comment about how the Google brand is morphing into Big Brother, with comment pieces quoting Sun Tzu as an anti-Google strategy source. There are thousands of 'Victim of own sucess?' stories.
Hitwise's Heather Hopkins has been looking at
How does the profile of offline readers of newspapers compare with online readers?
Her points seem to reflect some of the recent changes in UK tabloid newspaper websites:
There are opportunities for Print Media websites to diversify their online audience by targeting lower income groups, groups with younger children and those in the Group Rural IsolationBut I was most interested to spot:
Groups that are less likely to pick up The Sun from the newsstand are more likely to visit the websiteThis is slightly less true of the Mail, as well.
"This also has something to do with people not wanting to be seen on the Tube with The Sun, but being happy to enjoy the content."Ah. Class-consciousness is alive and well.
Hari Kunzru writes about the harsh realities of internet censorship in an essay for PEN, published in the Guardian.
He starts by placing us in the [Libertarian] context in which much of the superstructure of the Web has been perceived.
"The net treats censorship as damage and routes around it." John Gilmore.Then brings us back to the material reality.
It's used by people sitting in real offices with real doors that can be broken down by all-too-real police.Kunzru documents how information access is controlled by large companies and how this plays out.
Even in markets with no overt state censorship, the threat of legal action may be enough to take controversial information offline, a tactic frequently employed by corporations against critics or whistle-blowers.
We appear to be moving towards a world with a privatised knowledge infrastructure.
Anyone watching the growth of Censorware would have to agree.
A spokesman for Wyevale Garden Centres, which has 106 UK branches, said: "At first, it was just a trickle of inquiries, but now stores are virtually being besieged each weekend."
"We have had men buying dozens of the plants and, at one store in Croydon, there were men old enough to know better fighting over the last remaining trays."
The latest gardening craze was triggered by a discovery by a 55-year-old furniture restorer, Michael Ford, on his allotment.
He was always experimenting with drinks made from different plants and one day he tried an infusion from his winter-flowering heather.
He said: "The effect was almost immediate. I had to stay in my potting shed for an hour or so before I could decently walk down the street."
The views expressed here are my own. You may disagree. Post a comment. Views may or may not represent those of my employer.
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Original writing on this blog is made available for reuse under a Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons license. Just tell me you're doing it as that's the right thing to do :]
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