Derek Owen’s Weblog
NEC news and other tech geekeryArchive for August, 2008
Just when you thought it was safe to leave the house…
I spotted a brilliantly quirky story in The Times yesterday, all about alien intruders on the International Space Station (ISS).
Luckily however the ‘monsters’ were just low-risk computer worms that had been transferred onto two of the astronauts’ laptops when back on Earth.
It’s quite telling, just how easy it is for computers to become infected with viruses even in the loneliest reaches of Space. It scares me to think just how hard it must be to keep a PC clean when it’s constantly interfacing with different bits of hardware and subject to thousands of downloaded files every month.
Apparently neither of the laptops has any interaction with the main controls in the Space Station so we don’t have to worry about the ISS crashing into Earth from 217 miles up just yet. Although, if NASA with its billions of funding can’t keep it’s computers clean, what chance do we stand? I had better go and renew my Symantec subscription….
On top of the “tent”
For the annual celebration of The O2, AEG invited all its founding partners to take a fantastic “once in a lifetime” experience in being winched up onto the top of the O2.
This was a fantastic opportunity to not only see the sights of London from the pinnacle of the O2, but to experience the breathtaking landmark from a very different perspective.
With most of our time spent underneath the “tent” it was a nice change to see how a formidable structure The O2 is, standing some 200ft high.
I’ve included some photos taken on the top below. If you look closely you can see the fear in our eyes!
Another week, another security leak
It’s happened again. Mere weeks, no, months after the first governmental data breach someone has only gone and lost a memory stick containing the details of thousands of criminals.
I’m not sure whether its part of a concerted move to lose data stored on every available memory format. So far we’ve had hard disk (laptops), CDs and now the memory stick. If they can manage to lose data via a floppy disk I’ll be seriously impressed.
Jacqui Smith has blamed PA Consulting, the private contractor hired by the government, for the loss. Wherever the fault lies I think it’s another important example of the care and expertise that needs to be applied when forming and working as part of a project across the private and public sectors.
The full story can be read here.
Top applications for the 3G iPhone
Silicon has just published an article reviewing the top ten applications for the new iPhone. It shows the immense range of possibilities available in future mobile handsets and offers a glimpse into the Next Generation World in which we’ll all be living in the months and years ahead. What an exciting proposition!
An avowed Twitter fan, my profile is here, the application which most appeals is the Twitterific client. It even looks great. It just underlines how important it is that I get one soon!
