http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk Technology news, views and reviews Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:04:23 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Every now and then, mainly when I am away from the office during some type of holiday, I like to make a generic blog post because of my distance from real news and my reluctance to turn to twitter when I'm looking after my little one. That's why I go ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/12/top-5-ways-to-drive-traffic-to-your-blog/ Image via CrunchBase, source unknown Finally launched, and labelled XXL Broadband, the fastest speeds available in the UK are once again with Virgin media. Be warned though, it's not cheap. For Virgin Media Phone customers (Size M) its an additional £35 a month, and for those only taking the Broadband be prepared ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/12/virgin-media-launch-50-meg-broadband/ Microsoft have released Windows Vista and 2008 Server Service Pack 2 Beta today, as one file services both operating systems. More info and a link to download can be found below Here’s your chance to take part in one of Microsoft’s traditions: The Customer Preview Program, where you can play an integral ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/12/microsoft-release-vista-sp2-beta/ Bopaboo is a new startup company which allows you to upload your MP3 files and, if you're American at least, excercise your right of first sale. This service allows you to set your own prices, but of course takes its own cut. How they prevent you from selling multiple copies of ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/12/bopaboo-lets-you-sell-your-mp3s-legally/ Hey, you've got a mobile phone right? And I see you use operator xyz! To top it all off, you live near here also - that's just great. I'd like £50 from you please. I hear that someone used a mobile phone, near here on operator xyz to download porn. I'm ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/12/davenport-lyons-extortio/ It seems as though I can't catch a break with my hosting. Years ago I used a small UK firm to host my sites, they were perfect for what I needed at the time but moved accross to oneandone.co.uk when my needs became a little more than they could handle. ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/12/when-hosting-turns-bad/ Although I've been venting my spleen recently at YouTube, it looks like they may have just implemented a change for the better. On those few videos which don't have bars down either side, and which used to have "watch in high quality" links, YouTube has changed the links to "watch Hi-Def". Now ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/12/a-little-up-after-all-the-downs-for-youtube/ Not content with making it's onsite video's fugly, by adding black bars to non widescreen uploads YouTube are at it again, this time adding a ludicrously useful (ummm?) search bar to the top of off-site embedded videos. Many are of the opinion this is Googles way of getting even more data ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/12/youtube-not-content-with-being-ugly-gets-uglier/ We thought that we should tell you , because Amazon don't seem to be, but Amazon UK has now launched the same MP3 service that our friends over the pond have been getting the benefits of for the last few months. Singles start at 59p, albums at £3 and there ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/12/psssst-amazon-uk-now-selling-mp3s/ The very impressive startup, animoto, has just launched a new Christmas themed link n their website which allows you to turn your animated picture slideshows into Christmassy animated picture slideshows. It does this by giving you a choice of backgrounds and intro / outro sequences. You still need to come ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/12/animoto-brings-holiday-cheer/ Raven Zachary over at radar.oreilly.com reports something of a milestone for Apple which I didn't even know they were close to hitting.  AppShopper and 148Apps, 2 services which track the App Store, have totted up over 10,000 individual apps for sale. Now the actual number currently up for sale is a little lower than ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/12/10000-iphone-apps-and-growing/ A new government database kicks off production in the next month or so. It will detail names and addresses, schools immediate adult contacts and more basic data for all children in the UK. That's 11 million children, and it's going to cost us, the taxpayer, £240 Million. Thats a total ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/12/dear-gordon-how-to-save-millions-of-my-money/ UK2.net has been on a capping spree again, apparently going over 5% usage at any point for any amount of time is really bad and results in your account being suspended. This wouldn't be a problem if they were running nearly modern servers, but the fact is we only had ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/site-hosting-changed-problems-yet/ Today as i was surfing the net, i stumbled across a website listing all the very latest in tech gear. Apparantly the "Epoc Emotiv" is the future of all gaming technology. By this time you may be wondering, what's so special about this? Two words. "Hands Free". The Epoc Emotiv is ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/next-generation-in-gaming-technogoly/ After only 6 months, the latest version of Fedora has been released to the masses, offering a plethora of updates and upgrades there's very little reason left to be stuck on an older version. Areas such as virtualization management, networking, boot time and security received the greatest updates. ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/fedora-10-goes-live-get-it-here/ YouTube has decided that for the vast majority of us black bars are the next big thing. Thats right, not only do we have to put up with poor "high quality" compared to most other online video providers, but they have decided to make those videos widescreen. For some this will ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/youtube-goes-widescreen/ ::Updated below:: Over the weekend some customers were reporting that their Sky + boxes were freezing and/or not letting them into the programme planner and therefore being unable to user the PVR to do and VR[ing?] leaving them simply p'd. It seems as though sky knows about the problem though, as ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/sky-plus-update-leaves-users-stuck/ [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="350" caption="Amazon Logo"][/caption] Finally, after a couple month of beta, Amazon have launched their version of a Content Deliver Network, or CDN. For those that don't know, a CDN is a series of "edge" servers which host a copy of a central file and delivers the version of the ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/amazon-cloudfront-cdn-for-the-rest-of-us/ Instead of fighting a losing battle, the Monty Python team have decided to not only compete with the thousands of fans that upload their videos, but to do so on their terms. Monty Python have launched their own youtube channel, which features high quality versions of all their shows and ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/monty-python-launch-own-youtube-channel/ Just a quick note to let you know that you only have around a day until the start of our next live video show, so get your questions, comments and opinions in now to studio@bluenoseddog.co.uk, wayne@bluenoseddog.co.uk or phone in one UK - 0203 239 9472 or NA - (914) 410-6799. ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/next-live-video-show/ So, do you love Tech? Do you feel as though you can communicate that love well? Why not prove it by freelancing at BlueNosedDog.co.uk. We're currently looking for blog authors and video contributers to join the team and we're willing to pay. Because these are two very distinct roles there are ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/take-part-get-paid/ As part of Mozilla Corporation ’s ongoing stability and security update process, Firefox 3.0.4 and Firefox 2.0.0.18 are now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux as free downloadsread more | digg story http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/firefox-20018-and-304-security-updates-now-available/ Today in the canteen, instead of worrying about the current state of the Automotive industry (which my company supplies), lunchroom debate was on a topic which seemed to draw me in. Should people be allowed to post anonymously on the internet? My initial reaction was yes, of course people should ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/being-anonymous-on-the-net-needs-to-go/ Microsoft have responded to complaints about XBox live bannings by unleashing Major Nelson and setting him off in his own blog. Complaints started trickling in from sites such as Xbox-Scene.com about people being unaboe to play their games online anymore because of the consoles being banned from the live service. Some ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/microsoft-ban-xbox-live-users/ Sky have decided to launch their Sky Player (Sky's answer to the all conquering BBC iPlayer) to non-Sky customers as well as those of us who already have the service. To keep everything fair though, non-Sky customers will need to pay a fee to watch programs, whether this will be subscription ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/sky-player-for-non-sky-customers/ Intel has launched an in-home medical gizmo that’ll not only monitor your vital signs and store all your medical details, but which can even get a doctor on the blower for you. The Intel Health Guide PHS6000 is an all-in-one health station which patients can use at home to, say, connect ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/intel-shows-off-digital-doctor/ Independent retailer Phones4U broke the law over mis-selling mobile phone contracts, a six-month investigation by the telecoms regulator Ofcom found. The retailer misled customers over network coverage, failed to swiftly provide refunds for faulty handsets and had unfair terms on chequeback schemes. Phones4U was the first retailer in the UK to face ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/phones4u-mis-sold-mobile-contracts/ Google has pushed out a fix to the G1 handset, which is running android, which fixes a particularly clumsy bug. The issue arises when anyone enters a system command into any open text field, as the device just randomly follows this command. If for instance you type an email or ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/google-fixes-worlds-dumbest-bug/ Iceland may still be experiencing apocalyptic-scale financial trouble, but EVE Online developer CCP continues to weather the storm. Eurogamer isreporting that in addition to developing the next expansion for EVE and another MMO called World of Darkness, the company is possibly working on an FPS based in the EVE universe. During a presentation on the future ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/ccp-possibly-developing-fps-version-of-eve-online/ Several active exploits targeting a vulnerability in Adobe Reader are now in the wild. Last week, Adobe released an update for Adobe Acrobat 8 and Adobe Reader 8 and a day later, a working exploit code for the util.printf() vulnerability was released. As expected, malware authors were quick to use the exploit for their own gain. Trend Micro Research Manager Ivan Macalintal was alerted ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/adobe-reader-vulnerability-being-exploited-actively/ You may have noticed, if not then you've probably never been here before, that we've undergone a massive site redesign. This happened for a number of reasons, the main ones being that we had a lot of feedback on the last design and how it wasn't easy to find what ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/hot-new-design/ U.S. President candidate John McCain plans to impeach president elect Barack Obama, at least according to the latest post-election spam spotted today. Here’s a screenshot of the sample email message: Figure 1. Politically-tinged spam email just keeps coming Our researchers have seen the following subject lines containing the same text as the above: Barack ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/obama-%e2%80%98impeachment%e2%80%99-spam/ It's not the news I was hoping for when I opened my mailbox, but thats's because half the subject line was missing. It is however still pretty good news almost literally. "Virgin Media finally releases 50Mb/s..." said the email, Modem pictures it should have finished with. As can be seen, the ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/virgin-media-release-50mbs-modem-pics/ Don't mistype "wordpress.org" because you could end up downloading compromised code. Some hackers have set up www.wordpresz.org. The code sends cookie contents to a hacked program hosted on wordpresz.org and could expose passwords and other identifying information. http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/fake-wordpress-site-leaves-backdoor-wide-open/ Tomorrow or possibly Monday, we will be taking delivery of the first of (hopefully) many items which we will be reviewing for you. Tomorrow, it's the turn of the new LG Renoir. Now why do we need your help? Well, we'd like to know what you'd like to see from the ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/big-day-for-us-tomorrow-and-we-need-your-help/ Like a couple of kids forced to stand facing the wall after fighting in the schoolyard, teacher has finally ushered Sky and Virgin Media back into the room following an 18-month dispute over fees. Last year Sky demanded nearly £50m per year for the rights to transmit Sky One, Sky News ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/sky-and-virgin-kiss-and-make-up/ Juice is an intelligent discovery engine that integrates seamlessly with your browser. Highlight and move a chunk of text, and Juice directly delivers a set of rich, relevant content to you. Forget about 8 million search results for a single keyword. Find content fast and easily without disrupting your browsing experience. Now ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/juice-a-sexy-little-search-sidebar-for-firefox/ Microsoft claim Windows 7 works pretty well on modest hardware so we thought we'd put that to the test. The hardware consists: HP Compaq nx6125 512 MB RAM 1.8 GHz AMD Turion 64 Windows 7 32 bit http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/11/windows-7-boot-time-on-a-modest-laptop/ I'm prone to bouts of idiocy. I think everyone is, it's all part of being human. Sometimes though these bouts of idiocy actually get me thinking and when that happens the whole world needs to watch out. I've started a little experiment, which is pretty small scale at the moment but ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/10/head-in-the-cloud/ People sure do love xkcd. I saw the latest comic last night, thinking it was amusing, but I've never been this deluged with submissions from people saying that we absolutely need to post it here. Either way, it does make the universal point about why you shouldn't buy anything that includes DRM. ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/10/xkcd-speaks-truth-to-drm-youre-a-criminal-either-way/ Although a little late in announcing, had to wait for permission to name the winner, Steve from Carolina was the winner of last months XBox live giveaway and has confirmed the code to have worked! Hopefully we'll have something even bigger to give away next month, so keep looking for more ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/10/septembers-giveaway-winner/ Remember those tacky laminated menus with photos of the food in dodgy roadside caffs? Well, one chic London restaurant has taken the idea to a whole new level by kitting out its restaurant with digital projectors that beam interactive menus onto the tables, as well of photos of what the ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/10/london-restaurant-dishes-up-projected-menus-touch-sensitive-tables/ One of the most significant announcements to come out of Nintendo's otherwise abysmal E3 press conference (and even this was announced before the conference) was the Wii MotionPlus. With this adapter, which attaches to the bottom end of the Wiimote, the controller will be capable of a 1:1 response to the user's ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/10/motionplus-too-expensive-for-initial-launch-too-confusing-for-current-market/ Now, I know I already blogged about these guys a couple of days ago, and I don't want to look like I'm advertising for them too much, but I've just got off skype with the owner of the site because he wanted to thank me for the users I've already ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/10/evolution-in-an-already-interesting-service/ Although hideously resource intensive, the lack of Flash and Java on the iPhone and iPod touch has caused apple a few problems. Not least the pulling of an ad over here in the UK for saying that you got the full internet, when without the support of the above this ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/10/flash-for-iphone-apparently-its-on-the-way/ With super fast broadband to the home, and even faster on the way many are proclaiming us to be on the verge of DVD doom, where movies are streamed over the net rather than owned and music Cd's are to be a thing of the past. I, however, call ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/09/how-long-before-we-see-the-death-of-dvd/ Video: Avatars in the new Xbox experience http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/09/major-nelson-demos-the-nxe-avatar/ I'm often asked what the best way to start blogging is, well providing that you have an idea and a passion for writing (although the latter isn't hugely important) you'll next need a host. There are 2 ways to host a blog. If you think you're going to receive a lot ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/09/best-way-to-start-blogging/ Just a quick post to say that I wont be posting a huge deal for a week or so because of the launch of a small project I've been working on for a little while. I'll throw some more details out soon enough, but for now I'll just let you ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/09/posting-slightly-less-big-project-in-the-works/ Whilst generally bored today, I decided to change some advertising around and whilst looking at whether or not the new placements worked with the design of the site I noticed an interesting post on the widgetbox feed from one of my newest favourite blogs, FAS Talk. In his post Techies just don't ... http://www.bluenoseddog.co.uk/2008/09/techies-may-not-get-business-but-business-doesnt-always-get-tech/