This you gotta see

Posted on by

I’ve always thought that the people who work in BBC Online are the most creative folks outside of Google. Now, right on cue, comes further proof — BBC Backstage

backstage.bbc.co.uk is the BBC’s new developer network, providing content feeds for anyone to build with. Alternatively, share your ideas on new ways to use BBC content. This is your BBC. We want to help you play.

It’s amazing, simply amazing, to think of a leading content owner and creator being willing to do this. Thanks to Ben for alerting me.

Microsoft goes for Sony’s jugular

Posted on by

Nice USA Today report on Redmond’s latest attempt at a pre-emptive strike. Excerpt:

To muscle Xbox into contention, Microsoft has absorbed about $2 billion in losses the past four years. Now the software giant is making a bold move to jump ahead of Sony by initiating the next cycle of gaming consoles.
On Thursday night, actor Elijah Wood of Lord of the Rings fame will host a celebrity-packed MTV special at which Wood is expected to unveil the all-new Xbox. Widely expected to be called the Xbox 360, it should hit store shelves in time for Christmas.
But much more than dominance of the game-console business is at stake. Whoever sells the most consoles in this cycle could also lock up prime access to the burgeoning digital entertainment market.
Microsoft has been on a three-year mission to ingrain Windows Media Center PCs as the nerve center for digital entertainment. And it is maneuvering the new Xbox to be a linchpin in helping consumers manage music and movie files stored on a PC in the den.
Meanwhile, Sony, in partnership with IBM and Toshiba, is developing something called the Cell processor — expected to be an all-purpose “brain” for video games and consumer electronic devices, much as Intel’s Pentium processor is for PCs.

Er, the Naughton household has had a ‘Media Center’ for some years. It’s called a Macintosh!

What Carly did next

Posted on by

Remember Carly Fiorina, the testosterone-poisoned ex-boss of HP? Well, if you’re desperate to hear how she, er, revitalised HP, she will happily give an inspirational address to your AGM. At $40,000 a throw, it’s a steal. And many of your employees will be enthused and follow the example of the former Hewlett Packard workers now building exciting new careers in the fast food industry.

Firefox security

Posted on by

From Mozilla Details Two New Security Flaws in Firefox

Firefox creator Mozilla has announced two security alerts for its popular web browser. The new alerts pertain to security vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to run arbitrary code using the Firefox browser.

The Mozilla Foundation says that attackers through javascript could go back to a users’ prior visited web pages allowing them to steal sensitive information. This issue also affects users of the Mozilla Suite. Mozilla also has found that Firefox’s automated install function could also be compromised. Mozilla, which is updating its servers to curtail further exploitation, recommends users to disable javascript and the automatic installation feature on their Firefox browser until a fixed version is released.

Done!

The election in a nutshell

Posted on by

Front page of today’s Independent. Brilliant encapsulation of a crazy electoral system that gives one party the powers of an “elected dictatorship” (to use Quintin Hogg’s famous phrase) with a minority of the popular vote. Labour got 35.22% of the votes, but 356 MPs. The Lib-Dems got 22.05% but only 62 seats.

Apple apes Microsoft-type cluelessness

Posted on by

Apple software is generally pretty well designed, so it comes a shock to find the company making the kind of dumb mistake that is normally a Microsoft speciality. The new version of Mac OS X (codenamed ‘Tiger’) comes with a facility called ‘Dashboard’ which runs ridiculous little applets called Widgets. These are basically small programs masquerading as web pages. But Tiger also includes a new version of the Safari browser with a crazily insecure default setting which could leave your system wide open to malware via these same widgets. See here for the grisly details. You can turn off the default, of course, but I guess many of the non-technical users Apple is now targeting with the Mac Mini won’t realise the need to do that. As I said, this is the kind of stuff Microsoft does (as when it shipped XP with the firewall turned off by default — now rectified, I’m glad to say).

On this day…

Posted on by

… in 1994, South Africa’s newly elected parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country’s first black president.