Recently in Technology Category

What Barclays is doing is just bound to piss people off:

Barclays Capital is forcing its IT contractors to choose between a 10 per cent pay cut or a quick exit from the company.

The decision, presumably an alternative to cutting jobs as the bank negotiates the current financial crisis, has sparked outrage amongst contract staff, who have to signal their "acceptance" of the wage cut this month.

I've gone through this with some of the companies for which I've done training over the years. Still, it's different to pull this stunt to code monkeys slaving in cubicles all day. Better to cut the number of jobs and keep wages the same.

Barclays will suffer in the long run on this, because most large companies aren't smart enough to return rates to their higher levels when there is an ecoonomic upturn. People will remember this and will bail for other jobs as soon as they can. What Barclays will be left with are those unmotivated to find something better, and that's going to hurt their overall productivity in the long run.

...but it's good that this appears to be an internal correction rather than an indication of tech recession:

Storage vendor EMC Corp today reported a 14 per cent first quarter profit drop and blamed acquisition-related expenses for the fall. The Massachusetts-based firm said it coughed a $79.2m non-cash charge for in-process research and development that came from company buy-outs during the quarter.

One of the first things to go when budgets get slashed are big-iron purchases and training. Hopefully HDS will stay strong.

El Reg has it wrong, smut is still the worry:

A survey of 300 security pros by security firm Webroot found that workers frequently visit travel, webmail, and social networking websites while attempts to surf smut or gambling sites are less common. Users are effectively policing themselves, the survey revealed.

Travel, webmail, and social networking websites are more a threat to productivity than smut, but smut will get the workplace in much deeper shite. If an employee is tweeting all day or playing on LiveJournal, it's not likely that what's on their screen would be considered as creating a hostile work environment for a colleague. Watching porn, however, opens up that harassment door in a huge way. The fear is not about productivity as much as litigation.

Frankly, I can live without voice communication for 6-7 hours across the Atlantic. What I'd want is e-mail/toobz access:

That Air France in-flight calling trial is now well underway, and it looks like there's still some kinks left to iron out. The New York Times hitched a ride on a recent flight featuring tests of the system, and found that things weren't quite working up to snuff: voice quality was said to be like "talking to a small robot," only six passengers could get a signal at a time, Blackberry email didn't work, and calls placed from the ground to cell phones in the air went straight to voicemail. That's a pretty long list for a system that's been talked about for a couple years now -- let's hope OnAir manages to clear up some of these glitches before angry passengers revolt over not only having to listen to other people's conversations, but also their screaming over bad connections.

I will say this, though, we're past the notion that cell phones will take down the plane. That was always a stupid thing.

As I mentioned a while back, I was sorely tempted to buy a MacBook Air. The desire to have a twist-screen for use on planes won out, but wow, it's a very neat computer. Here's the summary from El Reg:

The Air is a 'love it or loathe it' machine, but don't let the naysayers put you off if it offers the form factor you prefer. Of course it's not going to be the laptop to suit everyone - you can buy cheaper or more capable Macs and PCs - so it's not a must have for the price-conscious buyer or the power-hungry. It's pricey, but with the exception of the tiny, basic Eee, the Air's no more expensive than other slim'n'light laptops.

I agree with the reviewer that the non-removable battery isn't a deal-breaker, and even the minimal port count is something I could survive. I could see using an Air as a work-in-coffee-shops system, but I still like working in Ubuntu as my primary OS.

Otherwise they'd know that flash drives are a wicked security risk:

Tut, tut, says SanDisk. Because end-user respondents also said that data they were most likely to copy onto a memory stick includes customer records (25 per cent), financial information (17 per cent), business plans (15 per cent), employee records (13 per cent), marketing plans (13 per cent), intellectual property (six per cent) and source code (six per cent).

(We'll suppose the remaining 11 per cent consists of goatse and humorous photos of cats, which to be fair can be equally nefarious when in the wrong hands.)

This security lapse might be okay if the survey didn't indicate approximately one in ten end-users reported finding a flash drive in a public place. When asked to pick the three most likely actions they would take if they found a memory stick in public, 55 per cent said they would view the data.

Of course people will check out what's on a memory stick, they're hoping it's amateur porn.

The one good thing about most corporate data is that the average person doesn't care much about spreadsheets and access databases. I'd be more likely to wipe off the stick and use it for myself.

I'd probably hang on to the amateur porn, though.

...after all, the home of Starbucks and grunge rock has much to answer for. But not this time:

The alleged supplier of some of the net's most hated malware titles has been sued by Washington state's attorney general. Ron Cooke, the owner of Scottsdale, Arizona-based Messenger Solutions, stands accused of violating Washington's Computer Spyware Act and Consumer Protection Act for marketing programs that went under names including WinAntiVirus Pro 2007, System Doctor, WinAntiSpyware and Messenger Blocker.

Now, can we get the Louisiana legislature to pass a similar law?

My 120GB Passport drive is just fine, but this one is tempting:

An external hard drive with a "soft-touch finish" that's "easy to grip, comfortable to hold and fashionable to carry", anyone? That's what Western Digital is now offering, in the form of its WD Passport Elite. The drive will be available in two capacities: 250GB and 320GB. They have a mini USB port for data and power, but you'll need to buy a double-headed cable separately if your computer's USB port doesn't provide enough juice.

I still have about 15GB free on the 120, and could get more if I cleaned it up. I don't need this, but it's awfully cool. I should set a goal and hold out for the half-TB version that will no doubt come out at some point.

It may come back to haunt you like it has Hizzoner of Detroit:

The mayor of Detroit has been charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office, stemming from a sex scandal six years ago. Kwame Kilpatrick, 37, who says he will fight the charges, could face up to 15 years in jail if convicted. He was charged after sexually explicit text messages surfaced that appeared to contradict his sworn denials of an affair with a top aide in 2002.

As soon as your stuff enters the "telco cloud," it's no longer yours. Never forget that.

This is usually an extremely geeky subject, but this article from El Reg is more plain-english than most:

Zombie machines infected with Trojan horse malware can be used to relay spam or launch denial of service attacks. Compromised machines can be also be pointed to websites from which additional items of malware can be downloaded. The practice is normally used to update Trojan code, but it also creates a means for cybercrooks to make a "nice little earner". The income that can be earned grows with the numbers of installs, and varies based on the geographical location of an installation. For example, installing spyware on 1,000 machines in Australia earns $100 but only $50 in the US, and a measly $3 in Asia. A sample price list obtained by net security services firm sheds fresh light on the phenomenon.

The scope of botnets is growing. It's why i make Kev use Linux on the home system.