September 2005 Archives

When I was living in Milan I shared the flat with other people. Some of them were pleasant, some were not. Pierre is a very cool guy.

The last few days have seen some interesting developments in the Irish hosting market.

Bleeding edge technologies and new techie toys are great, but they can also be a nightmare to support.

Adsense gives webmasters a great way to "monetise" (what a word!) their websites.

I've mentioned the debacle surrounding data retention a couple of times in the past few months.

I like listening to music, but I'd also like to be able to use my plantronics headset to "skype" friends, colleagues and clients. I seem to be cursed with PCs that always have all the audio outlets at the back.

You can cast your vote in the IIA Netvisionary Awards from today until November 10th. I've been nominated under the "Internet Enterpreneur" category :)

An interesting use for Google maps is mapstats from the developers of blog flux It's pretty cool, so I've added it to my sidebar. If you can't be bothered looking for it there here's a direct link EDIT: As I only added the stats code to this blog a few minutes ago the cities list is a bit short plus I've also spotted some "interesting" php errors on their site. I still maintain it's a cool use for Google maps though :)

Getting skype to work on Ubuntu shouldn't be an issue, however the most recent .deb available on the Skype site will not work with breezy.

Weekends are the best time of the week for me to "mess about" with sites.

Skype users can let their friends know that they have Skype installed. That is not a bad thing, except when people you hardly know start sending you inane "skype me" emails via the Skype website. I know it's not Skype's fault that people are abusing their system, but they really should consider putting in some form of warning eg. please do not abuse this service by sending messages to people you hardly even know

I'm not a big fan of the Golden Spider awards, but this year they really have been asking for criticism.

Irish technology journalists come under a certain degree of flak from bloggers, techies and the industry at times.

I have been lucky enough to see the Afro Celt Sound System in concert twice.

I would be the first to admit that I am an addict. I'm addicted to DVDs.

The list of nominees for the IIA Netvisionary awards has been announced by the IIA

I came under a bit of criticism when I raised my doubts about the Irish language some time ago.

As I mentioned last week we sponsored this year's IIA Internet Congress. The event was held on Monday in the regal surroundings of Clontarf Castle in Dublin.

As I've mentioned on previous occassions, the IEDR has been making significant changes to their methodology over the last year or so.

I've just upgraded the software running on IrishBlogs.info

Today's Sunday Business Post dedicates a couple of pages to "Internet Shopping".

Euro kill. Or to be more precise, the euro symbol if tapped into this blog can have a very "interesting" effect on some blog aggregators.

Domain scams are not new. I mentioned one of them not so long ago

I'm looking forward to the IIA Internet Congress on Monday. Working in the Irish internet industry can be fun, but you rarely get to put faces to names except at these kind of events.

I'm glad that I don't sell newspapers. The print media sector has been under a lot of pressure for the last few years and has been forced to constantly reinvent its marketing tricks to stay afloat.

One of our new staff has been dealing with credit control.

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting in the office at lunchtime when I received a delivery from a courier.

Justin mentions that SA 3.10 has been released

The position of CEO of the IIA has become vacant:

Creative Ireland is probably the most important site for designers in Ireland and it just got a facelift.

I've always found linux distribution names amusing.

Depending on what you are doing your domain can be central to your business. If someone starts messing about with the ownership and control of the domain it can cause headaches.

When the topic of the IEDR and IE domains comes up in the media it is often followed by peppered with references to costs or finance.

What is the most important bit of information you need to know about your business?

Amenábar does not make forgettable films.

Today marks the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Do you remember where you were four years ago when the news broke?

Milton Mueller points out that the Internet Governance Project has released a statement condemning the US government's intervention with regard to the new .xxx TLD.

Like most bloggers I have an aversion to comment spam.

Frisk have released new versions of F-prot for *nix systems. The updated version is free to existing users. I've been using F-prot on windows for the last year and have been delighted with the results and when you consider its low price tag it really is attractive (yes I am biased)

I came across an interesting feature of Google adsense via this post Section targetting allows you to:

suggest sections of your text and HTML content that you'd like us to emphasise or downplay when matching ads to your site's content

One of the issues facing many bloggers is the number of blog related ads that end up on their sites. Recent discussions over on digital point have offered some possible solutions, however if Google's own system is capable of ignoring certain sections of your pages then it may be possible to negate the blog specific elements that are causing issues. This site is primarily driven by the more dynamic element - this blog. Up until a couple of days ago the word "blog" appeared in a number of prominent places on all pages and I was seeing a high percentage of ads for blogging services on the main sections. I've since renamed some elements and reworded sections of the text without, hopefully, modifying the meaning. The end result, so far at least, has been a reduction in unwanted ads. Although I must admit the click through rate on this blog wouldn't give me enough income to buy lunch once a month :) I haven't tried out the "sections" element in adsense yet, but I may do so on a couple of forums that have issues with displaying relevant adverts. EDIT: I just reloaded the site after posting this entry and am seeing more blog-related ads than ever.. Back to the drawing board :(

I came across some rather amusing, although disturbing, marketing junk. RRP - recommended retail price

I wasn't able to order on cdwow using my laser due to my laser being "chip and pin" It seems they have finally fixed the problem, so I just ordered a copy of Sin City It was an impulse purchase and now that I can use my laser on there I can see myself making many more ... That may not be such a good thing.. though it sure beats wasting money in Xtravision

According to an article in today's Sunday Times the government maybe taking a hardline on spammers in the future. Although any such move should be welcomed do not take it at face value. Under the current legislation email and sms spam may be deemed illegal when data privacy legislation is breached. Although this may seem relatively straigtforward the reporting mechanisms and procedures are anything but simple. It is far too easy for government to make claims about levels of spam based on the number of abuse reports. By putting obstacles in the way of citizens wishing to report email and sms abuse the reality is distorted.

As has happened on previous occasions the spammers and phishers are seeing the aftermath of Katrina as a boon. The email below is an example of the kind of scam email currently "in the wild". You can click on the image to see a larget version: As you can see from the screenshot the email failed the SPF check and shows a return path to a Polish hosting company on the Gnax.net network. Mailscanner also identified the link to an IP address instead of a hostname (a common sign of fraud) which resides in Brazil. The screenshot below is of the fraudster's site where they request your credit card information for a "donation" (click to see an enlarged version): You'll notice that both the email and the site include a Verisign logo, however neither work.

I've mentioned phishing scams in the past. Some of them are very well crafted, whereas others are pretty amateurish. Today being the first Sunday of the month you can get Computers in Business with the Sunday Business Post. If you are involved in the Irish ICT industry you may find this publication to be worthy of reading. You may want to reassess that view if you read this month's editorial.

I mentioned pingoat some time ago, shortly after the initial launch. They've now added an XML-RPC server, so that you can ping them directly from within your blog. Nice :)