Category: Web 2.0
Five ways to protect yourself on Twitter and other social media
An American gentleman by the name of Israel Hyman had his house burgled while he was away on holiday. Nothing particularly new there. However, there’s a serious suspicion that the thief had all the information he/she needed through Mr Hyman’s own posts on Twitter.
He’d tweeted that he was “preparing to head out of town” and that he had “another ten hours of driving ahead”. Combined with links to Mr Hyman’s Flickr page containing photos of his computers, bicycle and flat screen TV, all of which were geo-tagged with their location at his home address, and suddenly you’ve got a pretty good picture for a would-be criminal.
Naturally, there’s a lot of scaring the bejesus out of people in the press on this one and, quite naturally, there’s probably a few of you out there wondering whether or not it’s a good idea to be posting all sorts of bits and pieces on Twitter and other social networks. In fact, you may not be sure that it’s safe to use social media at all.
Let me allay your fears first of all by saying, it is. In the great words of the Hitchhiker’s Guide, Don’t Panic. Twitter is safe, Facebook is safe but, perfectly understandibly, there’s a few uncertainties and teething problems because, relatively speaking, it’s all rather new. Even if you’re an early adopter, the game changes slightly when you’ve got the whole world using these things, including potential burglars.
So, here are a few bits of advice that’ll keep you feeling free and uncensored on Twitter and other social networks without ending up like Mr Hyman:
1) Protect your updates
If you haven’t seen, there is an option on Twitter that means you can protect your updates so that only people you allow can see your tweets. It’s indicated by a little padlock. Any time anyone clicks to follow you, you’ll be sent an e-mail asking if that’s ok by you. You can then take the time to check out their profile, look at their Tweets and generally have a good Google of them if you like before you decide whether or not they’re kosher.
It’s really a Twitter version of the Facebook rule of thumb that states “Don’t make friends with people you don’t know” or that warning of wisdom stitched onto our hearts from a very young age – don’t talk to strangers.
2) Watch your words
Don’t write on Twitter and Facebook the kinds of information you wouldn’t shout from the rooftops anyway, eg: bank details, phone numbers, car registration, home address. It’s all fairly indelible once it’s up there and it’s quite easy to piece it all together.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t worry too much about saying what a lovely time your having on holiday or how much you’re looking forward to going or in fact just about anything else at all. If you’ve got your updates protected then you’ve vetted everyone who’s following you in the first place and, if you haven’t, it’s still next to impossible to be get all the other pieces of the puzzle together so long as you have in mind the general expanse of your digital foot print.
So, if you really must put your home address on your profile, then don’t start saying when and for how long you’re going to be away from the the fort.
3) Don’t geo-tag everything
…or at least if you do, it might be worth removing the meta data when you upload your images to Facebook, Twitpic or Flickr. It’s probably worth taking a look at your phone or camera to see whether your pictures auto-tag. As it goes, most compacts and DSLRs don’t have in-built GPS anyway, so you’d probably know about it if there was geo-tagging going on. Most mobile phones these days will offer you the option, so make sure you take a look at the image files before you upload from your handsets.
Of course, for 95% of your photos, it’s not really a problem anyway but worth bearing in mind that everything you snap at home and upload will pinpoint exactly where you live. That may not be a big deal on its own but if you’re not going to protect your updates and if you are going to tweet about when and where you’re going and how long for, then make sure you’re not geo-tagging all your home snaps.
4) Keep your personal away from your business
The real thing that rumbled Mr Hyman, if indeed the burglar did use Twitter and Flickr to case the job, was the fact that he’s got over 2,000 followers and he’s got that many because he’s mixed his personal life and business life in one account.
Quite sensibly, Mr Hyman uses Twitter to promote his online video business but what he hasn’t done is split his personal and business interested into two separate user names. So, on the one hand he wants to be followed by as many people as possible as an advert for his professional services and, on the other, he’s telling them all the more intimate details of his personal life.
Not a good idea if you’re then going to combine that with tweeting about your whereabouts and tagging all your home snaps too.
5) Don’t click on every single link that comes through
Last of all is just an extension of what we should all have learnt by now with regards to safety online. It applies to Twitter as much as it does to Facebook and e-mails too. Just don’t go clicking on every single line of hyperlinked URL that comes your way. Make sure you know who it’s from is probably the best piece of advice here.
If you know who sent it to you, 99% of the time they’ll be no issues at all, and on that 1% of the time when it’s some auto-sent piece malicious link, your friend from whom it came will probably have warned you already.
Generally, you can get away with ignoring one or two of these rules of thumb but if you do them all together, you’re open to running into problems. The overall message is just to be aware of the scope of all the info you put on line. There’s no need to worry about using Twitter, Facebook, Flickr or any other social media. They’re perfectly safe applications. Just be aware of how much of your life you put online.
At the end of the day, houses have been getting burgled for years and there’s only anecdotal evidence even in the case of Mr Hyman that social media was used at all in the invasion and theft of his property. On the plus side, if it was through Twitter, at least there’s a very traceable list of suspects.
YouTube launch XL for your TV
YouTube yesterday launched it’s new multi-platform version of its website, YouTubeXL, designed to bring YouTube content your big screen PC or TV.
The new site is basically an oversized redesign of the current website, minus; comments, adds and other common web-frippery. It’s meant to look and work like a native app, but actually it looks and feels like a Fisher-Price website.
The content is hard to move through and the colours of the site are quite jarring. High Quality and HD videos aren’t available on it either, which seems like a ridiculous omission for a service that’s aimed at large-screen computers and TVs.
The one good thing about XL is that it’ll work in anything that’s got a browser, so you’ll be able to use your PS3 and Wii to watch YouTube videos on your TV.
Not all of YouTube’s content will be available immediately on XL, but with Hulu launching it’s native app stateside this week YouTubeXL will need to pull its socks up if it wants to win the web-TV war.
Don’t get me wrong, YouTube is brilliant for just this reason, but I’m not sure XL knows what it is.
(Via Tech Crunch)
BT throttles users' download speeds under 'Fair Usage' policy
BT, the UK’s biggest ISP has been accused of throttling users download speeds between 5.30 and midnight.
People who sign up for BT’s option one, eight mbps service, may find the speed they actually get is one mbps or under, which might contravene trade descriptions legislation.
A fair usage policy secreted on BT’s website reads: “We do limit the speed of all video streaming to 896Kbps on our Option 1 product, during peak times only.”
ISPs use “traffic shaping” to provide a good overall experience for all of its users. But in practise, this policy just leads to slow and occasionally unusable connections for everyone.
BT said: “Where we manage bandwidth, we do so in order to optimise the experience for all customers, whatever they want to do online.
“We believe there is a real issue that content owners like the BBC need to address and we are currently in discussions with the BBC executive to ensure that our customers get the best possible experience in the future.”
The issue is that BT and other ISPs are refusing to invest in the replacement of antiquated telephone lines while hiding behind their “Fair Usage” policies, which are inherently ridiculous. If you pay for something called, “unlimited broadband”, then having your connection throttled based on some ridiculous and arbitrary ‘fair usage’ terms in simply preposterous.
We pay a premium for our broadband in this country and we get one of the poorest services in the western world, its high time consumer groups put some concerted pressure on our ISPs to invest in some serious physical infrastructure to get us the service we deserve.
Why not test your connection? Tell us your actual speed and bandwith, what speed you were promised, and who your ISP is we’ll tell you who the best and worst are.
Microsoft unveil motion sensing controller – Project Natal
Microsoft has unveiled its much rumoured motion controller at E3 along with 1080p video-streaming, facebook and twitter integration, and Premier League football as part of Microsoft’s deal with Sky.
“Project Natal” is not as many were expecting a hand-held controller but rather a motion sensing camera, like the Eye Toy, but hopefully substantially less crappy.
Steven Spielberg lumbered on stage to demo the new technology, with his avatar moving in real time as he controled the UI. Unlike the Eye Toy which wasn’t really developed with any great vigour, Microsoft seem to have gone to town with Natal and look to have created a very immersive and interactive experience.
Maybe too interactive, because in an Orwellian overstep, Microsoft have included face recognition technology which will allow you to use the meat, sinew and cartilage, on the front of your head to as your password to log in to your Live account.
But Natal isn’t just for gaming: As Microsoft start to push the Xbox 360 as the home entertainment mega-hub, you’ll be able to use Natal to flick through your films and songs and use voice recognition to issue commands.
The demo came complete with a very Wii-esque trailer of a family enjoyed the delights of Natal’s motion capture, although all the voices had been dubbed so grimly that the whole thing takes on this sort of uncanny and unnerving ambiance, like they’re trapped. It’s weird – watch it. It’s a far cry from the light-hearted japes of the Rednapp clan.
Microsoft look to have created an amazing and deeply immersive piece of kit here, but they still can’t make adverts. Not for toffees.
Watch this till the end – it’s a good advert and then in the last 10 seconds the way the light on the Natal unit switches off is so creepy!
Has no one at Microsoft seen Space Odyssey 2001? It couldn’t be more menacingly Hal-esque.
Google and BBC to join forces for international iPlayer
The BBC are in talks with Google to launch an international edition of the BBC iPlayer, supported by Google owned YouTube.
The sticking point seems to be the need to aquire international rights for the content shown on UK iPlayer.
Separate negotiations are also in progress between the BBC’s commerical arm, BBC Worldwide and YouTube with a view to the BBC’s archive content, for which international rights have already been acquired, available on YouTube.
It is currently possible to watch some BBC content on YouTube but only in short format; trailers and clips as opposed to entire shows and episodes.
A BBC spokesperson said: “There are a significant number of obstacles to extending this commercially to other countries, including international rights clearance. These obstacles present significant difficulties and for this reason there are no firm plans for a specific international BBC iPlayer, but audiences can watch BBC content outside the UK through numerous BBC Worldwide content deals with online partners such as iTunes.”
(Via Telegraph)
Bing goes Live, not Live Search
Microsoft’s first serious attempt at a Google-beater went live on Friday for US users and is now available in beta form for UK searchers.
The big friendly search page is very “Web 2.0”, its all big simple fonts and whitewash villas, no actually, there’s a picture of whitewashed villas, which will make you want to search for whitewashed villas, but don’t get distracted, you’ve got searching to do.
Bing is a new-breed of search engine, it want to give you answers, all by itself. The UK version is, as yet, without the much hyped “Local” search option, which Microsoft have been hyping in the run-up to the launch. A team of 60 web-bods are working full-time to bring Bing’s Local option to UK users as soon as possible.
The search results look dismally like Live Search’s but, unlike Live Search the side bar with related searches works smoothly and offers an array of pertinent links to potentially related subjects, which is nice.
So say you search; Nikon D300, you get; Nikon D300 review, Nikon D300 sales, Nikon D300 to buy, in your related searches, all of which is very helpful.
The image search is better than Google’s, it offers filters which allow you to hone your search precisely.
The video and shopping searches also equally hold their own. But in terms of Search, because after all Bing is primarily a search engine, Bing still falls short of Google’s unerring and uncanny knack of finding just what you’re looking for.
But beating Google is maybe setting Microsoft’s sites a bit high. Live Search had about 8.5% of the global search market, behind Yahoo on 18% and Google on 69%. So leapfrogging Yahoo might be the first step for Microsoft, but right now, will I be deserting Google for Bing? No.
Scientology banned from editing Wikipedia
Scientologists have been blocked from using Wikipedia because they used the popular online encyclopaedia to “push their own agenda”.
Wikipedia’s supreme court has banned all contributions from all IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates.
The site’s Arbitration Committee voted 10 to 0 (with one abstention) in favour of the move, which takes effect immediately.
I went to the Church of Scientology bookshop on Tottenham Court Road for a response and though the representatives there said they were aware of the story they were not willing to comment and asked me to leave. I asked if they wanted to try and convert me, to which they replied that I was, “too far gone”. Which is comforting to know.
Evidence was submitted showing multiple editors had been “openly editing (Scientology-related articles) from Church of Scientology equipment and apparently coordinating their activities.” Stories regarding the editing of Scientology articles from Scientology IPs had been doing the rounds for a while, and some site admins are concerned this is “damaging Wikipedia’s reputation for neutrality”.
This all comes on the back of the start of a court case that could see the dissolving of the French church of scientology.
Tom Cruise is not believed to have been involved in any editing but probably would if he had a chance.
(Via The Register)
Microsoft Bing not bad, no really
Google’s new Search will go live worldwide on the 3rd of June. Named after the popular sitcom character Chandler (it’s not really), Bing is Microsoft’s first real pop at a Google beater.
And first impressions are…not bad, which for Microsoft is a massive victory.
It’s being praised for its comprehensive and user-friendly travel and shopping searches, although general searches and Microsoft’s big hope, local search have left something to be desired.
Although the UI seems clean and simple some of the better features have been secreted under drop-downs and tabs.
Bing will get a “soft launch” in the UK in BETA form, before a 60 strong team go to work making it’s results more UK relevant.
Ashley Higfield, a key player behind the success of the iPlayer, and now Microsoft’s UK Consumer Vice President, said: “There is a huge opportunity in the search market.”
“Given that it’s dominated by one player, and given that research shows a high level of dissatisfaction among a high level of the user base. We know that only around a quarter of people get what they are looking for on the first search.”
Bing is being by some more as an “information portal” than a straight-up search engine. It provides options and answers as opposed to referrals.
But it looks to be a good start – some tweaking and Microsoft might well be onto something.
7 million illegal downloaders cost economy "tens of billions" – yeah okay
Seven-million people in the UK use illegal downloads – apparently costing the economy tens of billions of pound according to government advisors.
Researcher found that 1.3 million people use one file sharing site per weekday, which compared to the size of the population hardly seems like an epidemic.
The Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property (SABIP) warned it may be hard to change attitudes – although some say it’s not attitudes that need to change but the industry who still charge a disproportionate amount for digital copies.0000
The government says work must be done internationally to tackle the problem.
Intellectual Property Minister, (a whole minister – is that really necessary?) David Lammy said the report put into context the impact illegal downloads had on copyright industries and the UK economy as a whole.
“This is not an issue confined by national boundaries and I am sure that other [EU] member states and their copyright industries will find this report of use in the development of policy,” added Mr Lammy.
An alliance (or “greedy-hoard”) of nine UK bodies representing the creative industries joined trades unions to call on the government to force internet service providers to cut off persistent illegal file-sharers. And everyone knows, if there is one sector you don’t want to piss off it’s the creative industries – imagine a strike, no Doctors, no Eastenders, no Holby, no One Show, imagine the chaos. Imagine the silence. Bliss.
ISPs have gallantly shirked any responsibility reiterating that it isn’t their job to police the internet.
What this all goes to show is that the government and people doing the government’s research still fundamentally don’t understand downloading.
They aren’t costing the economy tens of billions of pounds, that is nothing but propaganda and scaremongering. Using the flagging economy as a weapon to turn the screw on kids who’s downloaded the latest version of Photoshop CS4 so they can put the head of the kid that bullies them at school on a camel seems frankly, a bit much.
What these researchers are suggesting is that downloaders would buy movie, song or program they’ve torrented, P2Pd or USBd, and thats just not the case. They’d do without.
And maybe the government have realized now isn’t exactly the best time for MPs to be sounding off about freeloading: Because filling in a claims form and taking public money to clean your moat is, undeniably, far more devious, than downloading Space Cowboys.
Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland and Tommy Lee Jones – in space! Amazing.
(Via BBC)
Google Waves hello with its the social media aggregator to end all others
Google is introducing some frighteningly integrated web software that I can best describe as a kind of live, collaborative Facebook page. Google Wave will bring together all of your social media apps and all your media itself together in a place where it can be accessed by as many people as you like at one time. It can be added to, commented on and edited in more ways than I can get my tiny little mind around at 5pm in the afternoon the day after the Champions League final.
In a phone interview with Google software engineering manager, Lars Rasmussen, Tech Radar got the full low down on precisely what Wave can do but, suffice to say, it looks like a lot of fun.
Wave’s being shown off at Google’s I/O in San Franciso. It is, of course, all open source so that people can write extensions for it much like Firefox, it works in a browser, embedded in sites and the big G is also releasing an API for it.
They’ll be more on it including a video demo as soon as it goes official in America and doubtless we’ll all be addicted to it about three days after it’s ours to use. The mind blowing continues.
