The Big G announced completion of a new web indexing system this week that is said to provide 50-percent fresher results for searches than its predecessor.

Called 'Caffeine’, the system ensures that users can find links to relevant content – such as a news story, blog or forum post – much sooner after publication than was previously possible.

When users search Google, it is not live content being trawled, rather, it is the search giant’s index of the web which, like the list in the back of a book, helps users pinpoint the information they need. The company’s previous index had several layers, some of which were refreshed at a faster rate than others. With Caffeine, it analyses the web in small portions and updates the search index on a continuous basis, globally.

Google says Caffeine was built in response to not just the burgeoning volume of content, but to reflect the fact that the average web page is richer and more complex.

Certainly, Tech Copywriters has noticed the benefits of recent changes to the mechanics of Google’s search engine, and if you are reading this, then it is very likely that you just have too.

2010 FIFA World Cup menaces corporates

It seems that fears expressed by service providers and employers regarding the impact of the World Cup on corporate networks continue to grow.

Ipswitch Inc.’s 'World Cup Network Traffic Calculator' (see our recent post) has collected more than 1,000 responses related to average bandwidth use and the predicted increase during the 30 days of the tournament. Key findings include:

• During matches, bandwidth use is expected to hit almost 87 percent in participating nations
• In Europe, average use is expected to double to 78.7 percent during key match times
• In host nation South Africa, IT managers are bracing themselves for network bandwidth to be completely maxed out to 100 percent

Ipswitch warns that while service providers struggle to maintain adequate access for customers, organisations face multiple problems during these artificial demand peaks within the LAN, such as constrained WAN connectivity and heightened security risks created by users venturing to un-trusted and unknown sites in search of video content not available from official broadcast streams [surely not such an unusual activity?].

During the world cup, IT Managers are invited to contrast their actual findings with those predicted.

And goes increasingly digital…

The World Cup will be watched online by nearly a third of British football fans, more than in any other World Cup, according to a study by PC World.

The retailer questioned over 3,000 Brits in the run-up to the tournament following a surge in sales of its wireless networking and video streaming gadgets. The study found that:

• 30 percent of fans, which equates to over 14 million of those expected to watch the World Cup live, are planning to do so over the internet
• Nearly a quarter revealed they would be using laptops or desktop PCs
• One in ten expect to follow the action using a smartphone

In addition, viewing on the move is said to be behind a 30-percent surge in demand for Slingboxes at PC World over the last couple of weeks. The Slingbox allows users to stream live TV to a laptop or mobile phone anywhere in the world via a broadband internet or WiFi connection.

…And mobile

Indeed, mobile TV is touted to score big in Europe by Pyramid Research. The proliferation of smartphones and the increase in mobile internet bandwidth means that many Europeans may watch matches on their mobiles instead. More national representation, commuter-unfriendly kickoff times, and [surely mis-guided] optimism about the caliber of western European teams will drive adoption across the region, says the company.

“Events of this magnitude always present a sizable revenue opportunity for traditional pay-TV providers,” commented report author and senior analyst Stela Bokun. “The last World Cup, however, demonstrated that mobile operators that provide mobile video and mobile TV service also stand to benefit from such events.”

But whilst footie fans may be poised to cut the wires and go mobile, the market watcher warns that operators are poised to ‘pull the plug’ on unlimited mobile data tariffs.

Operators kicking ‘all-you-can-eat’ into touch

Pyramid Research argues that despite data accounting for the vast majority of traffic on mobile networks by 2014, it will still constitute only 37 percent of total revenue – illustrating the challenge operators are facing to monetise the rising appetite for bandwidth-rich applications.

Mobile Data Pricing Plans: How Operators Can Escape the ‘All You Can Eat’ Trap analyses the evolution of pricing for mobile data plans and the impact on subscriber adoption and usage levels.

“AT&T’s recent announcement that unlimited data plans will no longer be available for its new customers confirms Pyramid Research’s assessment that operators will move away from the unlimited pricing model since it is becoming unsustainable,” said report author Ewa Romaniuk Calkowska.

Er, just one more thing…

Cheating not limited to MPs [or Maradona]

While MPs are promising more transparency and honesty in politics, it was revealed this week that one in ten IT professionals admits that either they or a colleague have cheated to get an IT audit passed.

In a survey of 242 IT professionals, mainly from organisations employing 1,000 to 5000+ employees, Tufin Technologies found that:

• 31 percent audit their firewalls just once a year
• 7 percent never audit their firewalls
• 36 percent admit their firewall rule bases are a mess, increasing susceptibility to hackers, network crashes and compliance violations

Perhaps some of the IT professionals surveyed may find solace in CheatConfession.com, a forum created to allow people involved in cheating to absolve themselves of guilt, get advice from peers, or share their cheating ways by anonymously posting their confessions in 800 words or less.

One wonders whether the site's moderators check the word-count of its users' posts.

UK businesses braced for disruption while IT professionals give 2010 FIFA World Cup the red card

Service providers and employers are bracing themselves for potential network disruption and severe pressure on Internet connectivity as consumers and staff stream video to keep tabs on the sporting action this summer.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the first to have each match streamed live, and also the first to offer high-definition coverage. With the majority of matches taking place during normal UK office hours, Ipswitch is warning that it could cost companies a significant amount of money.

“Users making use of video streaming services can put a considerable strain on companies' networks, resulting in bandwidth chokes and even outages, in addition to exposing them to security threats,” said Azmi Jafarey, CIO at Ipswitch.

To help businesses prepare, the company has developed a World Cup Network Traffic Calculator allowing IT managers to plot the likely impact on network resources. However, it is claimed that more than half of IT managers are more likely seeking to prevent staff from watching the tournament in the office.

A survey of 100 IT and networking professionals by Blue Coat Systems found that 54 percent want employees banned from watching World Cup matches at work. The survey also highlighted concerns that staff might be tempted to discuss the action with friends, family and colleagues via social networks.

“As a streamed football match consumes around 750MB of bandwidth – the equivalent of sending more than twelve editions of Tolstoy’s War & Peace – it’s important that IT and HR managers clearly communicate their corporate rules to employees,” said Nigel Hawthorn, VP EMEA Marketing at Blue Coat.

FIFA ready for deluge

Meanwhile, FIFA.com has announced its server farm in Slough is to house 75 super computers to support 70,000,000 page views per hour during the World Cup.

The world’s official football website expects to serve over 5.5 billion page views during the tournament, compared to the 4.2 billion recorded in 2006, and has also prepared two petabytes (2,000 gigabytes) of video streaming bandwidth [much to the delight of businesses no doubt].

FIFA said that particularly avid users are the millions of worldwide members of the free-to-join FIFA.com club, of which British fans represent the largest contingent in Europe.

Whether this contingent will be such avid users past the quarter finals remains to be seen.

Managing the rise in mobile data

Sony Ericsson believes that roaming mobile data usage is set to soar over the summer period due to social media use.

With many consumers opting for smartphones offering social networking functionality, the handset maker argues that the trend in mobile social networking is unlikely to stop as consumers head abroad [ash cloud permitting] for their summer breaks.

A ‘representative of Sony Ericsson’, said: “The advent of mobile social networking has heralded a revolution in how people consume and use the Internet. As such, we would expect that mobile data usage this summer will increase… However, consumers should be wary of the rates of these services, as it is likely that such usage could incur extra charges to their usual tariff.”

At the same time, Telcordia has urged CSPs (communications service providers) to ‘follow the traffic’ and re-evaluate their business models, pricing structure, and OSS (operating software systems) to capitalise on the growth in mobile data.

A survey of industry professionals across 75 countries by Telcordia found that CSPs intend to re-evaluate their billing solutions and re-adjust their business models to capitalise on the exploding rates of data traffic over the next year.

The survey results suggest that CSPs worldwide will rely on network management to control data traffic growth, which is increasing at a much faster rate than revenues, and creating profitability and customer experience challenges.

“All-you-can-eat data plans are not a sustainable business model, and policy-based bandwidth management and real-time charging provide CSPs and their subscribers with the necessary flexibility to try new services while keeping costs in line,” commented Pat McCarthy, VP, Service Delivery Solutions at Telcordia.

Er, just one more thing…

Just in case businesses needed a further reminder of the impending tournament, a World Cup Football Challenge intranet application has been launched by software developer Odyssey Interactive.

The application aims to increase overall intranet usage by allowing users to predict the outcome of matches, receive points based upon the accuracy of their predictions, and compete with other staff and departments via a league table.

“Since a large proportion of employees will be following the World Cup this summer it makes sense to take advantage of this to promote your intranet, inject a bit of fun and boost staff morale,” said Nigel Danson, MD, Odyssey Interactive.

The question is whether employees will have time to visit their intranet given the anticipated levels of social networking and video streaming.

Chrysler has been hitting the tech headlines this week with the introduction of its ‘Uconnect’ service, under which all of the car maker’s 2009 vehicles will come with the option of Wi-Fi networking. The service will be powered via an in-car wireless router that connects to the 3G cellular network and uses an algorithm to prevent dropped connections while in motion.

 

Thankfully, the service is focused on providing rear-seat entertainment and wireless access while parked, but will that really stop drivers with Wi-Fi-enabled PDAs ‘wilfing’* when stuck in traffic (and cursing their traffic information system for not updating them in time)? Indeed, given the abject failure of new road safety laws implemented to stem the welling tide of drivers using their mobiles while driving, the availability of in-car Wi-Fi is likely to fill traffic cops with an unnerving sense of foreboding.

 

In addition, given the difficulties that hand-over between cell sites has posed historically, it will be interesting to see how well Uconnect’s Wi-Fi connectivity holds out when a car is travelling at high speeds, or through areas of patchy cellular coverage. One can already envisage the kids (or indeed ‘grown-ups’) groaning: “Are we nearly there yet” as the blue web-site loading indicator crawls slowly across the page…

 

Even more worryingly, the service has a 100-foot range, meaning that users don't have to be inside their vehicle to be able to connect to the service. This could give new meaning to the issues of ‘tail-gating’ and ‘piggy-backing’.

 

The service, powered by AutoNet Mobile, will cost US$29 per month and requires a dealer-installed US$449 mobile router. I would have thought a laptop loaded with a 3G USB dongle would be cheaper…

 

*’wilfing’ is the term ascribed to the habit of surfing the web without any real purpose.

 

Computer says no – or at least, wait a mo… 

 

According to an article in The Wall Street Journal (read full story) Google is learning that changing the cellphone industry is not easy. The portal giant has said that mobile phones featuring its Android software will not arrive until Q4 of this year. Handset manufacturers are believed to be struggling with the creation of custom user interfaces to meet carrier specifications, while carriers are having trouble customising Android so that it promotes their own Internet offerings.

 

Such news is not surprising and only serves to highlight the significant challenges the industry still faces in the creation of such a platform and, in particular, in ensuring that mobile applications interface with the specific features and functionalities of the mobile phone in a consistent manner (i.e. access to the browser, address book etc.).

 

Meanwhile, the Symbian software platform for mobile phones is set to be unified under the auspices of the Symbian Foundation – a non-profit organisation spearheaded by Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NTT DoCoMo. Together with AT&T, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone, the companies aim to unite Symbian OS, S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) to create one open mobile software platform. 

 

At the same time, Nokia announced plans to acquire the remaining shares of Symbian Limited that it does not already own and then contribute the Symbian and S60 software to the Foundation. Accordingly, Sony Ericsson and Motorola intend to contribute technology from UIQ, and DoCoMo has also indicated its willingness to contribute its MOAP(S) assets. From these contributions, the Foundation will provide a unified platform with a common UI framework, and a full platform will be available for all Foundation members under a royalty-free license. The Foundation is expected to start operating during the first half of 2009, subject to the closing of the acquisition of Symbian Ltd., by Nokia.

 

Mobile industry must adapt to 2.0 web paradigm

 

Following on from my previous (pre-vacation) blog regarding the rise of mobile web 2.0, Juniper Research has released a second wave of findings from this report (click here for more details). The key forecast to be divulged is that the number of subscribers using mobile Internet services will rise from 577 million currently, to top 1.7bn by 2013, spurred by demand for collaborative applications known collectively as ‘web 2.0’, and greater 2.5/3G penetration. 

 

However, it is clear that established mobile players face increasing competition from web-based brands and will have to adapt their commercial strategies to accommodate greater collaboration with other members of the value chain, if future revenue growth in the mobile web 2.0 domain is to be achieved. Mobile network operators and handset manufacturers in particular, will need to relinquish some of their control over the value chain, but to what extent they open up their networks/devices to third-parties remains to be seen. 

 

My call for development of an open environment in which users are able to share, collaborate and exploit content/information without any one party controlling the value chain, is supported in part, by a new study (read full release) by Pioneer Consulting on ‘Multimedia Mobile Content Distribution’. This study estimates that as a result of users sharing content and bypassing the existing value chain, US$16.4 billion worth of revenue opportunity will be at risk by 2012 (which is more than a quarter of the total revenue opportunity for that year, it adds). 

 

Robert Hsieh, author of the report said that, “Mobile operators need to embrace peer to peer (P2P) methodologies within their own networks and focus on the advantages of using both assisted P2P and augmented P2P to mitigate the disruption”. Aditya Kaul, Senior Analyst, Emerging Wireless at Pioneer added: “P2P is generally treated with contempt by operators and has now become the ‘P’ word that should never be uttered. It is more of an attitude problem rather than an engineering one, and unless operators wake up to the reality of the situation, we cannot even begin to solve the problem”.

 

In the news 

 

Virgin Mobile USA to acquire Helio (read full story)

 

Virgin Mobile USA is to acquire Helio, the US mobile phone operation controlled by SK Telecom of South Korea, after each side decided to combine their struggling businesses to build scale in the fast-maturing market, reports the Financial Times. 

 

Bidding Yahoo Adieu (read full story)

 

An exodus of high-profile, innovative managers leaves a leadership vacuum, and troubling implications for Yahoo’s future according to Business Week.

 

On the wire

 

Does 2.0 + 2.0 = 3.0?

CellSpin Launches Palm OS Mobile Blogging Application for MySpace, Facebook, Google Blogger, Twitter, Pownce, eBay, Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, Live Journal, Live Space and more

 

CellSpin Soft, Inc. is adding support for Palm OS to its mobile blogging software. This software is claimed to be the first to provide a free, secure, intelligent, one-click simple GUI-based mobile application for capturing images, audio, video and text, and publishing them to one or many of a user's favourite blogging, social networking, photo sharing and auction sites simultaneously [I hope they get the hang of shortening their descriptions when blogging from a mobile device…]. In addition to Palm OS, CellSpin also supports the Symbian, Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0 and Blackberry operating systems, with others to follow. 

 

“…with CellSpin Palm OS application users can stay connected, blog and micro-blog on leading social networks with just one click,” said Bobby Gurvinder Singh, CEO and co-founder of CellSpin. “CellSpin is about combining Web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0 technologies and giving end-users a seamless and easy Internet 3.0 experience.” 

 

So have we really arrived at Internet 3.0 already? Not content with this, CTO and co-founder Marcos Klein added: “CellSpin has become the standard for blogging not only among the technorati, but increasingly among the ‘silver surfer’ set as well.”  

 

Certainly 10.0 out of 10.0 for use of buzzwords…

 

Online Social Network Users Continue to Grow

11 million people in the UK visited social network sites in 2007 (read full release)

 

Facebook continues to trail MySpace in the US, but the online social networking site has overtaken its main rival in worldwide unique users. With almost 20 foreign-language versions of the site, starting with French, German and Spanish, Facebook has seen continuous growth throughout Europe. Now, with the new Chinese-language version, it is beginning its trajectory in Asia. 

 

Furthermore, according to new figures from research firm, eMarketer, an impressive 60.5 percent of the UK population, or 36.8 million people, went online at least once per month in 2007 and, of those, 30 percent (11 million people) visited social network sites at least once per month. 

 

Online social network ad spending in the UK and Western Europe is expected to reach UK£283 million in 2008, rising to UK£804 million pounds in 2012. 

 

Meanwhile, business-focused networking community LinkedIn has been valued at more than $1 billion, having received $53m in venture capital funding from Bain Capital Ventures and three existing investors in exchange for a 5% stake in the company. (read full story)

 

YouTube dominates UK’s online video market

27 Million People Watched More Than 3.5 Billion Videos Online in the U.K. in March 2008 (read full release)

 

Internet measurement company, comScore,’ says that 27.4 million UK Internet users viewed 3.5 billion videos online in March 2008, and that Google sites, driven by the popularity of YouTube.com (which accounted for 99 percent of all videos viewed on the property in March), attracted a 48-percent share of all online videos viewed in the UK. 

 

BBC Sites ranked second with a 1.2-percent share, followed by Fox Interactive Media (0.9 percent share), Microsoft Sites (0.7 percent share), Yahoo! Sites (0.6 percent share), and French video sharing site, Dailymotion.com (0.4 percent share). 

 

According to the comScore Video Metrix service, UK Internet users watched an average of 127.7 videos per viewer in March – the highest usage rate of any of the five countries its Video Metrix service covers (which also includes the US, Canada, France and Germany).

 

Is China Leaving the Internet's Back Door Open?

Chinese Networks Are Hosting Majority of the Internet’s Malware Sites, StopBadware.org Report Finds

 

The majority of the Internet’s malware-infected websites are located on Chinese networks according to the latest ‘Infected Sites Report’ from StopBadware.org. The university-based research initiative, which aims to protect users from dangerous software, also found that six of the ten network blocks that contain the largest number of badware [sic] sites, are located in China. 

 

“Sites that infect visiting PCs represent some of the worst of digital pollution," said Jonathan Zittrain, StopBadware.org co-director and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Digital pollution of course, might be just one concern for China given its infamous Shanghai smog. Ironically, the US, which is another country not recognised for a particularly green approach, was found to be a another major ‘digital polluter’, with US-based networks accounting for 21 percent of bad sites.

 

However, Maxim Weinstein, manager of StopBadware.org, was keen to point out that although the country and network data published within the report are a helpful step in understanding the distribution of malware, people should be careful about assigning blame. “Our goal in releasing this report is not to point fingers or to imply that network owners or governments are at fault for the malware on their networks, but rather to start a conversation. When different links in the Internet chain talk to each other and share information, it leads to solutions that in turn lead to a safer Internet for all of us.”

 

Delivering more for less

IT Managers Batten Down the Hatches for the Year Ahead (read full release)

 

IT managers predict they will be under even more pressure to deliver more for less next year, new research from CIO Connect revealed this week. In a survey carried out ahead of CIO Connect’s annual Team Connect conference for IT managers in London on July 1st, managers confirmed they will have to batten down the hatches in the coming 12-18 months, as board-level executives demand IT departments focus on driving more value from existing infrastructure. 

 

“The difficult economic backdrop looks to be casting a cloud over the forecasts of IT managers for the 18 months ahead. In these circumstances, it is certainly important for IS departments to be driving value from their existing applications infrastructure, but the pressure of tougher economic times can also provide the perfect environment for IT departments to create imaginative and innovative solutions to assist their businesses to gain a competitive edge,” commented CIO Connect chief executive, Nick Kirkland. 

 

One would hope that IT departments already strive to create imaginative and innovative solutions and, despite the impending doom predicted by many as the ‘credit crunch’ continues to bite, surely the ‘more for less’ mantra has been espoused since the early ‘80s?

 

Mastering Millennials

Porter Novelli Offers Insight Into a Generation That's Reinventing the Workplace (read full report)

 

To help employers around the globe navigate the sometimes treacherous inter-generational waters, global communications agency Porter Novelli has issued a white paper about Millennials that aims to address five key questions: 

 

• How different are Millennials?
• What happens to confidentiality in an age of radical transparency?
• If being entertained is the norm, what happens to work?
• What does the world of work and business mean to Millennials?
• What stories are Millennials telling to make sense of themselves and their generation? 

 

In examining these challenges and others, the report also features tips on managing Millennials from 24 senior managers at Porter Novelli. 

 

Born in the 1980s, Millennials are beginning to enter the workforce and are said to be making a profound impact with their wholly different perspective on, approach to, and expectations of a professional experience. “If you want to understand Millennials, you need to allow your mind to freewheel,” noted Porter Novelli CEO, Gary Stockman.

 

“They do not strive for the things we Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers have accepted as gospel. That everyone wants to get ahead at work. That work is the means to a rewarding life. That privacy is something to be held dear. It can be very hard, but understanding Millennials requires parking these preconceptions – and many more – at the door."

 

'Nuff said…

Having just completed a comprehensive, 250-page report for Juniper Research on the ‘amorphous’ topic that is Mobile Web 2.0, it would be fitting to claim that this blog was written on my mobile – maybe next time! But as was evident when writing this report, a fundamental shift in Internet usage patterns is shaping Mobile Web development, driving subscriber adoption and forcing structural changes within the industry. That we were able to forecast with some confidence that the global market for Mobile Web 2.0 will be worth $22.4bn in 2013, up from $5.5bn currently, gives some indication of how fast the Internet is evolving. Just how this translates in revenue by type (i.e. service, data and advertising) and by application (i.e. social networking/UGC, search and Instant Messaging), is contained in this multifaceted report on what is seen as the next stage in Mobile Web development. More details of the report are available here.

Given that it is not a standard or technology, there are many different interpretations of what denotes a ‘2.0’ application – both in the fixed and mobile domain. So, as well as providing recommendations for members across the value chain, perhaps the greatest challenge was in addressing the amorphous nature of Mobile Web 2.0. The waters are further muddied by the simple fact that fixed-Internet applications cannot be replicated directly on the mobile phone – and quite possibly, never will be. Certainly, I would argue that this makes the W3C’s ‘one web’ vision pretty ambitious, and what struck me most from my research is the fact that mobile users are purposeful rather than casual surfers.

Not that this should be considered a negative aspect. Since the phone is carried with us most of the time and contains a huge amount of personal data, it is a logical extension for the social network and a host of other collaborative Web 2.0 applications being mobilised – creating new opportunities for players across the board, not just those within the mobile industry.

You’ve [not] been framed

In respect of all the debate surrounding Mobile Web 2.0, I anticipated a little more ‘response’ (certainly from some of my old colleagues on the circuit) concerning my choice of feature sets within the framework, or indeed, the applications I eventually settled on – namely social networking & User Generated Content (UGC), mobile search and mobile IM (Instant Messaging), further enhanced and contextualised via Location Based Services (LBS).

With Mobile Web, it certainly is the links that will dictate the strength of the chain, which is why I have attempted to define the nature of the individual links and the opportunities they provide within a Mobile Web 2.0 framework.

It will be interesting to see how this framework evolves as more focus is given to the changing nature of the Web and user behaviour/communications patterns. At the core of this evolution is the user as a creator and consumer of content (i.e. the prosumer), and the ‘social web’ – which describes a wide variety of social computing tools (such as this blog for example) enabling users to develop detailed Web identities, create online communities and communicate with like-minded individuals…

In the news

Vodafone gets social

Vodafone Announces the Acquisition of ZYB (read full release)

Vodafone has agreed to acquire ZYB, a privately-owned company based in Denmark that operates a social networking and online management tool enabling mobile phone users to back-up and share their handsets’ contact and calendar information online. The acquisition will be made for a cash consideration of €31.5 million.

“Using a web portal as a link between the PC and the mobile device, ZYB provides an interactive way for people to nurture, contact and develop their relationships with their most important friends and colleagues and builds links with those contacts’ wider networks. This is Web 2.0 in action,” said Pieter Knook, Internet Services Director for Vodafone Group.

Flashing lights & the 11^th hour

Flashing lights waste £10m and 50,000 tonnes CO₂ every year (read full release)

IT equipment is wasting UK companies £10m a year and releasing 50,000 tonnes of unnecessary CO2 into the atmosphere, just on flashing lights, according to recent research conducted by infrastructure specialist, LS Simple.  

The company argues that “legion upon legion of IT equipment, such as switches and routers, routinely and pointlessly flash LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) in UK data centres. With 21,000,000 LEDs flashing in data centres alone, cash and energy are being wasted, and additionally, the wasted energy could ultimately pose a threat to continuing data centre operations, and even business survival.” 

Yikes! Paul Eo (regional manager Europe of LS Simple) claims that “this is the very small tip of a fast melting iceberg…” and that with Intelligent Power Management deployed, Data Centre operations can often save 30% of their consumed power. The release acknowledges that there is little evidence available to measure precisely the cost of running LEDs in a data centre, but LS Simple does give details of the basis of its calculations, providing a sobering thought for all those mindful of their carbon footprint. 

Funny, I always thought that LEDs had a purpose – rapid fault detection perhaps, which could cost £millions in downtime, lost info, costly maintenance callouts etc. … how do these factors equate to minimising carbon footprints? True, if you don’t know what the flashing LED is all about, then maybe LS Simple has a point but, just maybe, it means something to someone and the designer didn’t just add a touch of glitter!

Recommended:

Hello can you hear me? Atlantic telescope (or should that be ‘Telectroscope’) pix: silicon.com 

  

Source: silicon.com 

Allo allo allo – social Web? ‘Old dogs and new tricks: why the content industries are the real pirates’: TelecomTV

 

Source: TelecomTV 

AOL online ad Ripp off? ‘AOL execs in the dock for inflating ad numbers’: TelecomTV

On the wire

Probably the best job in the world…

The Structure Group voted second best place to work in the UK (read full release)

Hot on the heels of Indie at the Cannes Film Festival (probably the fourth best Indiana Jones movie ever made…), comes the star-studded ‘Great Places to Work’ annual award ceremony held in xxx [yes, they forgot to say where it was being held, which is why you must have missed it] and the news that “The Structure Group, the leading specialist consultancy operating in the energy, utilities and financial services sectors… is officially both the second best place to work in the UK, beaten to the top only by Google, and the tenth best SME to work for across Europe.”

According to Jim Hayward, Senior Director at The Structure Group with responsibility for people [sic]: “This is a fantastic result for us… To be beaten only by Google is a huge achievement, especially for a consultancy firm like ours.  We have an intangible product, limited brand recognition outside our specialist fields, and we spend a relatively small amount on marketing…”

Plankety plank

First B2B Processes More Than Two Million Complex Transactions Using MySQL Enterprise (read full release)

Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced that First B2B Ltd, a provider of business-to-business electronic trading, is now processing more than 2 million complex transactions a year with Sun’s MySQL database software.

According to the release: “With MySQL as the ‘central plank’ of its business, First B2B is able to support the trading transactions of more than 400 companies throughout the UK…” Hmm. Perhaps any of the following might have been a better [blank] for ‘central plank’: 

• ‘foundation’?
• ‘platform’?
• ‘core driver’?

 Answers on a postcard please [no cheque book and pen for the winner I’m afraid]…