Helen Mark

Online Shopping - advantages and disadvantages

2005-12-15T13:45:00.000Z

Its been reported recently that online shopping is becoming increasing more important, with more and more consumers choosing to shop online rather than hit the busy high street especially at the busy Christmas period. Online shopping has increased 50% compared to the Christmas period last year, whilst the High Streets have only enjoyed a 0.9% increase. However the increase in internet shopping doesn't mean people have stopped being wary. Many shoppers, especially the more novice, fear not receiving things on time for Christmas or if something goes wrong having difficulty complaining.

Consumer watchdogs around the world are aware of peoples fears about online shopping and all publish information to help the more novice shopper look out for pitfalls and if it all does go wrong they have advice on what to do. The Office for Fair Trade in Britain publishes information on its website about shopping, the things to look out for before buying and what to do if things go wrong. This information is vital, especially for the novice, to show people the pitfalls of online shopping and make them more aware so they are not so likely to get caught up in sites that aren't legitimate.

The government are backing campaigns to educate people on online shopping and how to stay safe when shopping. Fraud on the Internet is commonplace but if using a trusted site which has proper security settings the chance of fraud is no more than shopping over the telephone or even on the high street. The government want to ensure that people realise the Internet can be a safe place to shop however caution must be taken as it would be on the high street.

As an online shopper myself I have been fortunate to never have had any security problems, however I have heard of people using sites without proper security and having problems with fraud. I think the biggest problem the online retailers face is the postal service. The majority of small items purchased online such as CDs and DVDs are sent via the royal mail in Britain, often now the online companies offer free delivery via this method. Problems with the postal service mean however they cannot cope with the vast increase in orders and therefore post at Christmas time and often items take a long time to get delivered or never get delivered. Some websites such as Play have gained knowledge over the past few years about this happening and now allow customers to report a missing item 15 days after dispatch and have a quick 'click botton' system in order for the customer to request a replacement of refund. Other websites have not got such good systems and the customer has to send numerous emails, or possibly letters in order to get a replacement or refund which is time consuming and if ordered for Christmas or a birthday it is likely the replacement will not arrive on time. If this happens consumers may have to go out to the high street in the days running up to Christmas and buy replacements which have not arrived from online companies. While this remains such a vast problem online shopping will always be viewed with caution.

I think online shopping has great advantages such as often products are cheaper and consumers can buy from their home with no problems of having to hit the busy high street and trying to find parking which is often expensive. There remains to be some disadvantages of online shopping which I think could be reduced by the online companies taking more time with their websites to ensure complaint procedures are quick and easy and replacements and refunds can be given without much delay.

Wikipedia - Good or bad idea

2005-12-02T20:29:00.000Z

Wikipedia was launched on 15th January 2001, it is a web based free content encyclopedia. Anyone with an internet connection is able to add articles or edit existing content of Wikipedia. The popularity of Wikipedia is growing steadily with the English language version containing over 840,000 articles, the site also contains many more articles in various languages. Wikipedia is now run by the not for profit organisation the Wikimedia Foundation. The Wikimedia foundation has started other wiki projects including Wiktionary, Wikibooks and Wikinews. This shows that the Wiki phenomenon is taking off, with many enjoying having the freedom to write what they like on a subject they know about.

This freedom which means anyone can write or edit anything is causing problems, as some authors feel there writing gets changed beyond recognition until it is no longer factual. Mischa Dellinger complained that within a week her writing was changed and after several months none of it was the same as her original writing. Jason Scott reported in November 2004 that wikipedia was failing. He described the idea like a car garage which anyone could go to and fix cars, and when you weren't there other people could work on your car and do what they like, even take the car out for a drive and crash it. This is okay as all the tools are free but after several times of getting your car crashed you will start to get annoyed and drive the car into a river. This is how he and Mischa have both felt, as they put on a piece of work then go back to it the next day and it has been edited, often with untrue information. Jason Scott comments that although he sees many problems with Wikipedia he still believes that the Wiki idea is extremely important.

Another important factor to be remembered when using Wikipedia is that it hasn't been edited by a publishing house, but infact the information could have been placed by anyone with any level of expertise. If people bare this fact in mind then Wikipedia is extemely useful, however if the information on Wikipedia is taken by some as being gospel then there will be many people who get misled on subjects.

From the above information I think that Wikipedia is an important factor in todays society and can help people learn about subjects, or find a starting point about a subject they require information about. I think that Wikipedia has also got many problems which need to be more widely recognised as until now most people appeared to gloss over the downfalls and focus on its good qualities. If the pitfalls of Wikipedia are widely recognised then people will be aware of its limitations when using it and be able to be cautious when quoting information from it.

Wikipedia has been hitting the headlines yet again recently as Brian Chase from Nashville, wrote false information on Wikipedia to wind up a work colleague. This information was claiming that John Seigenthaler, former editor of the Tennessean in Nashville, had played a part in the Kennedy assassinations. When Mr Seigenthaler discovered the entry he wrote a damning article in USA Today claiming that he was especially annoyed he could not track down the person who had wrote it.

Wikipedia has since tightened its regulations meaning that only those registered can post articles on the site, however anonymous people will still be able to edit existing work. This seems to be ineffective however as editing work is often the problem people have with innaccurate changes being made. The registering process is still quick without even an email address having to be given. This appears to be inappropriate to stop the problems of false information appearing on the site and I feel Wikipedia should go further to try to combat this problem although impossible to eradicate it could be decreased further with tighter restrictions.

Digitising books

2005-11-29T16:20:00.000Z

Google Print (now known as Google Book Search) came under much criticism recently from publishing companies saying its plan to digitise books and publish them on the internet breeched copyright laws without the publishers authority to do so. However more recently it has been revealed that at least 20% of printed books get destroyed, for some genres this figure is thought to be as high as 50%. This appears to build the case for Google, Microsoft and many other companies who are trying to digitise the worlds books. All these companies make the case that digitising books maintains them and keeps history intact. The Library of Congress has been working on a project since 1994 to digitise manuscripts and photographs of importance in American history. The Library of Congress has also made agreements with other national libraries around the world to digitise items of historical importance. Google has made a contribution to the Library of Congress of $3 million to help this project as it believes that this project and the digitising project they are undertaking themselves is important for the history of the world to be maintained as well as important pieces of literature which could start to die out as books go out of print and existing copies grow old and difficult to read. Mr Billington, from the Library of Congress said that Googles contribution was due to the recognition of the importance of the project and not to get them to help fight the copyright problems that Google have been facing with their own book search project.

Google has argued against the publishers saying they have no plans to let the whole book available. They plan to let internet users search within the book and let them then read 4 or 5 lines of text around this word. In order for their search engine to work however they need to scan books in their totality which is what is worrying publishers as they believe Google will soon start to publish entire books after they have got over the copyright lawsuits saying they will only publish several lines. Google and some authors however are arguing that the Google Book Search and similar programmes will help people to purchase even more books as they can search inside them and find books that are useful to them which they would not have thought of by carrying out a title search. As the search programme only allows the user to read several lines if the user thinks it will be useful they then have to go and purchase the book. Mr Adler, of the publishers association has noted however that Google has got no basis to believe that sales of books will increase through such digitising projects.

At the start of November Google started to make out of copyright books publicly available online this included Henry James novels. These books can be searched online and individual pages downloaded and exerts cut and pasted to other documents. Printing the text is limited to one page at a time currently. Google is continuing to scan books from New York Public library and the university libraries of Stanford, Michigan, Harvard and Oxford however needs to resolve the above mentioned copyright arguements before any of this can be published. Googles ambition is to publish all the books held in these libraries by 2015, in order to do this Google is pumping $200 million into the project.

Google has rivals to its digitisation programme as the Open Content Alliance (OCA) set up by the internet archive and backed by Yahoo!, Microsoft as well as other libraries and academics, plan to digitise 150, 000 books. The OCA plan to digitise books from Columbia University, John Hopkins University, University of Virginia and the University of Pittsburgh. They plan to overcome Googles legal problems by only publishing books already in the public domain.

Googles book search project has been made easier recently by the invention of a new automatic book scanner, this machine can copy up to 1200 pages an hour and uses a turning arm more gentle than the human hand.

This is a great invention as it ensures older books can be treated carefully when being digitised to ensure their longevity. It also quickens up the process of digitising university libraries and eventually the worlds books.

Google has now got plans to rent books to users for a short period of time but not allow them to be downloaded or printed, they propse to offer this service for about a tenth of the cost of buying the book. Amazon is also offering a similar service named Amazon Pages, this service would offer to sell single pages of a book for an extremely low price, several pence.

Google is expanding again

2005-11-17T13:32:00.000Z

Google has recently been coming up with many ways to expand its business. The latest idea is to start a classified advertising listing. This is likely to be searchable by the public, and anyone will be able to upload anything on to the site. The New York Times on 16th November published an article reporting that Google is poised to enter the highly competitive classified advertisement business, posing a threat to online and traditional businesses in that field. This new venture is to be called Google Base as reported by Wired News on 16th November and has the potential to make content such as recipes, job ads, photos and real estate listings searchable. This is a huge threat to conventional classified newpapers as well as the popular Ebay and criagslist online. Craigslist is currently the largest online classified adverts service, craigslist offers free posting of advertisements, although in some select cities there is a charge and this the sole source of revenue for the company. In 2005 offers its sevice in over 150 cities around the world. Googles vice president for product management, Salar Kamangar said in an interview last week however 'the new service was experimental and cautioned against viewing it as a imminent assault on the classified advertising business because it could be used in far broader ways'.

Industry analysts are warning, irrespective of Salar Kamangars words, that this move by google is a serious first step to entering the $100 billion a year industry. The industry has already been shaken by Craigslist who is encouraging the online searching of classifieds. Yahoo has also launched its own classifieds service recently, although anytime I try to use it, it doesn't work. Google needs to ensure it doesn't suffer similar problems, as problems with the service on a frequent basis could put people off using the service both to search and post classified adverts as those posting will not want to pay to put an advert on a website that crashes on a frequent basis which would put customers off searching.

If Google's classified service is to succeed they need to ensure they do not encounter problems as Yahoo! has, they also need to compete with the already established craigslist. It is unknown at the minute how google will charge for its service, if it decides to charge a small fee for posting all classifieds, people in the cities craigslist offers a free service in are unlikely to use Google and pay. However the people in the San Francisco Bay area, who currently pay $75 to list on craigslist would be more likely to use Google if it is cheaper. Another aspect which could affect Googles success will depend on getting its current Google users of other services to start using the classifieds service as Google is a name they trust, for these people the price charged by other competitors will be much less of an important factor in choosing which service to use. If Google keep the wide reach of consumers it is likely their classifieds service will be a success as they have such a well established user base.

XBRL in the Accounting Industry

2005-11-11T15:09:00.000Z

eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is a language for the communication of business and financial data. Using XBRL provides businesses with major benefits in the preparation, analysis and communication of business information. The benefits are seen as being so great that both the Securities and Exchanges Commission and the International Accounting Standards Board are using it and encouraging others involved in the business and accounting world to make use of the new technology. There is a school of thought that filing accounts in accordance to GAAP using XBRL could reduce accounting scandals, as it makes number crunching easier and faster, however whether this is true remains to be seen.

The International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation (IASCF) and the European Committee of Central Balance Sheet Data Offices (ECCBSO) joined together in an XBRL project. The website detailing the project was launched in Dublin on 31st October 2005. The two groups worked on a project which produced a standardised common digital reporting format based on IFRS using MS Excel and XBRL. The new format is known as the reduced format.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have also introduced a pilot scheme where companies use XBRL to file their accounts. In using XBRL the data filed can be more easily searched and analysed as it is 'tagged'. The scheme was implemented by the SEC in March 2005, however as yet the take up has been slow. This could be due to many other changes such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act implementation, meaning companies are already dealing with many changes and have not had time to analyse the benefits and drawbacks of filing using XBRL so have decided to file as they always have until they have more time to analyse the benefits.

The benefits or potential pitfalls of XBRL have not yet been discovered due to its current limited use to file accounts, however the accounting authorities appear to be backing the use of XBRL so it seems to be only a matter of time until XBRL is used by the majority to file accounts. Only when this happens will the potential benefits be fully realised.

Accounting Firms starting to use the internet more

2005-11-04T23:58:00.000Z

Accounting firms have been slow to use the internet to its full potential for there business, however they now appear to be seeing the advantage and taking it up. The popular accounting package for small businesses Sage Line 50 has now an online version Online 50, this package allows both the accounting firm and client to simultaneously access a live system from many locations. This means accountants can be seen as one of the team rather than an external consultant which has to come in when the client is having problems. Sage is updating its software to ensure it stays in line with changes in the accounting firms. Sage is continuing to do well with their financial results for year ended 30th September 2005 up on he previous year with a 13% increase in profits. Sage has claimed organic growth of 6%, this could be due to their awareness of the internet and how it could help its customers with such packages as explained above.

In 2002 the Ohio CPA Journal wrote that the internet is a communications tool that can be used effectively by CPA firms to improve client perceptions of service quality. In this article it is explained that computer literate clients expect to see a website of there Accounting firm and for it to be of some use to them. Many firms have taken this advice on board and all the Big 4 firms have excellent websites both to provide information to clients about them and of any new accounting polices which they feel their clients may be interested in and also excellent careers sections to these websites which allow people to apply for all levels of jobs within the firm online. This is much easier for these large firms to manage as the applications can all be processed and maintained on a computer rather than having hundreds of applications arriving daily through the post. All the Big 4 websites can be found by clicking on the following links: Ernst & Young, Deloitte, KPMG and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Smaller firms also recognised the need to have websites as clients now expect to be able to get up to date information at any time of the day. Some examples of such websites are MooreStephens, Grant Thornton and McClure Watters.

As the accountancy profession is advancing, HM Revenue and Customs is also having to keep up. They have a very detailed site for both Accountants and Lay people to find out information about their tax affairs. In the past few years HM Revenue and Customs has been encouraging people to file their tax return and other forms such as the P11D to be filed online. The website also allows online payment which means more rapid payment of taxes and less likelihood for cheques etc getting lost. This use of the internet is also cost effective to the government as all forms go instantly and directly to where is required and there is much less paper required as all the information can be processed online without having to be printed off. There is also an advantage of all the forms being easy to read which reduces errors made due to bad handwriting.

HM revenue and customs suffered a blow at the start of December by having to shut down its online portal for filing tax credit claims. This shut down was the result of widespread fraud being carried out on the site. It is unknown how much of the total fraud in the system was carried out through the internet but experts say the site was easy to commit fraud on. This is a blow to the government who are trying to encourage people to use the internet more especially for government facilities. They will have to try to have better fraud measures to ensure this does not happen again. Hopefully the online system will be able to be brought back online soon.

I think that the internet is a resource that the accounting profession has to properly utilise, more and more firms are taking advantage of the resource as this article shows, however there is still a long way to go and many more advantages of the internet can be utilised by Accounting firms.

The law is catching up with file sharers

2005-10-28T00:41:00.000+01:00

File sharing has been used for a number of years now by internet users. It means people can share the music they have on their computer with others. The music industry have been campaigning against file sharing for many years as they claimed it was against copyright law, and causing them to have much lower revenues.

More recently the movie industry has came under threat from file sharers for much the same reason as the the music industry. Finally however the entertainment industry have got through to the government, and new laws are being created regularly across the world. Hong Kong and Sweden have both recently convicted people for the first time under their new downloading laws.

A man in Hong Kong was convicted of movie internet piracy using BitTorrent software. This is thought to be the first case brought to court involving this software. The arrest has seen file sharing in Hong Kong drop by 80%, this appears to show the new laws are working now people are seeing that there is a real threat of arrest and up to four years in prison.

Sweden has been critised in the past for its lack of law covering downloading, it has however introduced a new law in July of this year. The man convicted was arrested before this but the judge still convicted him as it was a breech of copyright to distribute the movie. If this is the case, existing law in Sweden should have been adequate to arrest many people participating in file sharing, but this does not appear to have been the case with an estimated 900,000 Swedes downloading films and music prior to the law introduced in July. The new law should make it much easier for arrests to be made if found file sharing as it is much more appropriate than the old law.

It appears however that for many years the authorities have been turning a blind eye to file sharing and the breeches of copyright that have been occurring. New laws to tackle the problem are now only coming into being after the entertainment industry has taken matters into their own hands to catch file sharers. This turn around by authorities throughout the world should reduce the breeches of copyright and such extensive file sharing from occurring. In order for this to happen however a commitment to convicting individuals found breaking the law has to happen. I hope the authorities continue to be vigilant against file sharing and are not just making an example of very few in the hope to scare everyone else into stopping the practice.

More recently governments around the world have been taking more direct action with the companies who allow people to file share. At the start of November Grokster agreed a deal with a court in Los Angeles which meant it would no longer take part in the spread of copyrighted music and movie files. Grokster also has to pay $50 million in damages. Users of the Grokster software will still be able to copy files from each others hard drives, as this was not covered by the court. It is now thought around 9.2 million people were logged onto peer to peer sharing networks in October up from 6.3 million the previous year.

The popular BitTorrent was also targeted by the entertainment industry and taken to court. The outcome of this case being that Bit Torrent must remove the links to illegal content owned by seven studios which are members of the Motion Picture Association of America. Bit Torrent owner said 'they discourage the use of its software to distribute film without a license to do so' showing that the owners of these sites are prepared to work with the entertainment industry to ensure there sites are utilised under the law not breaking it. The Australian Courts at the end of November also demanded that Kazaa must implement anti-piracy technology or they will be shut down. Kazaa were given 2 weeks to implement the changes necessary. The changes laid down to Kazaa are not exhaustive and will not mean an end to file sharing. Kazaa simply just have to filter 3000 keywords in order to comply, the music companies had listed 10,000 keywords they felt were necessary to be filtered.

These recent court cases show that the entertainment industry are intent in stopping this illegal file sharing and from the above evidence the courts appear to be staying on the entertainment industries side. I think they do not know enough about the industry and the problems however in order to properly assess what the file sharing companies should do to prevent illegal activities.

Have we any privacy anymore?

2005-10-25T00:33:00.000+01:00

The general publics privacy is becoming more and more under threat by the Labour Governments new plans to keep internet data for up to three years. These plans are extremely controversial as they appear to effect Human Rights, and are against existing European Human Rights Law. The government feel that some rights are more important than others and protecting the public against terrorism is most important. The government believe that terrorism could be prevented if internet traffic was monitored as terrorism acts don't happen over night, but instead over a long period of time. If their plans are to be effective they need the EU as a whole to co operate and share this information between countries, as well as being able to get an EU law passed allowing the storage of internet data.

Getting such an EU law passed in order to allow internet data retention may proof difficult as the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has said he is not convinced by the arguments in favour of retention. He has set out strict guidelines that would need to be met if this law was to be acceptable by his office, these include internet data, but not the contents of emails etc to be kept for six months and telephone call data to be kept for one year. He also wants Internet Service Providers to be compensated for its extra costs in keeping this data. This has been a concern for many ISP's as they believe if the directive is passed it will cause costs to rise and subsequently the cost to customers to also spiral. The EDPS has said that any retention cannot breech the publics fundamental rights, as this is both unacceptable and illegal. He believes that the UK's proposal to keep data for up to three years in unacceptable. He also has concerns for the safety of the retained data and who would have access to it.

At the time the data retention law was coming up for a vote in the EU parliament it was widely expected that it would be passed as the law had been considered important enough to get rushed through the process in six months. It is more normal for laws to take 12-18 months before being put before parliament for a vote. The law is expected to get passed dispite telecommunications companies lobbying to get members to vote against as they think it will be too costly for them to handle and due to its rushed status, it may not have been properly thought out. The industry also think that keeping data will not help track terrorists as they will simply sign up for email accounts outside of Europe and therefore outside the scope of the legislation.

It is important that the government do not become a so called 'Nanny State' which breeches the publics human rights, however they do have a duty of care to the public to protect against terrorist acts. There is a fine line as to what is acceptable and what is not, this line will be different for everyone, this makes it practically impossible to bring in a law acceptable to all. This is an important issue for the EU which needs careful consideration. The government need to talk to people throughout the EU and get a view on how everyday internet users feel about the proposals. The UK governments case would be much stronger if it could proof that such retention would help stop terrorism acts, such as the London bombings in July, however this is practically impossible without being able to retain internet information.

The Public may not be aware of ways the government currently retain information which may make the case of retaining internet information more difficult to gain backing. As this article shows however information is gathered on individuals in many ways, including through there printer. The Electronic Frontier Foundation commissioned a study to decode a series of dots printed by a Xerox DocuColour Laser printer. This information provided them with information such as the date the printout was made, as well as the printers serial number. This research means, printouts someone thinks is completely anonymous can be traced back to them.

A recent introduction of a new law in Italy to try to combat terrorism is forcing anyone who uses an internet cafe or public computer must show identification and give their name and document type. Many are dubious of this new law, which is the first of its kind in Europe. However Switzerland already requires people to show ID before using computers in internet cafes. This law is worrying for peoples civil liberties as everyday some liberties seem to be taken away. How far is the government willing to go to try to combat terrorism? With the introduction of this new law in Italy it appears that it is only a matter of time to it is introduced throughout Europe.

Britain are already increasing their 'nanny state' status by proposing to introduce identity cards. These have been very contentious since the government suggested them as again many feel it is a breech of their civil liberties. The proposed identity card introduction has been made worse by the proposed cost of the cards which every citizen will have to pay the way things currently stand. The taxpayer is likely to have to pay for the additional costs of the identity cards not paid by all individuals meaning taxpayers have to face the fact of possible higher tax bills as well as the extra cost of the cards themselves. The many problems facing the introduction of identity cards mean that it is likely that they will not be introduced for a number of years, if at all.

Web based office, giving Microsoft a headache

2005-10-16T18:40:00.000+01:00

The idea of web based office applications, such as those currently provided in Microsoft's Office package, has been a theory for a number of years. A memo written by Microsoft engineer Ben Slivka, entitled 'The web is the next platform' came to light 5 years ago in Microsoft's antitrust trial, this memo was written as early as 1995. This theory is starting to look like it may become a reality and Microsoft appear to finally be thinking about this potential problem, as explained in this article, however as this memo shows the company has been aware of the problem for over 10 years and appears to have been ignoring the threat. Microsoft appear to have the belief that they are invincible from the behavior they have shown and as many other companies in all sectors have learned to their detriment over the years, past success does not guarantee future success. The article also explains another problem Microsoft have is Google. From the internal memos, it appears that they may be taking this slightly more seriously and view Google as a real threat. However, as these are internal memos they have just been leaked and it is not known how dramatised they have been. So this information cannot be relied upon, it is possible Microsoft do not consider Google a threat at all.Peter Rip, Managing Director of Leapfrog Ventures posted 'AJAX software is everywhere', saying he has "bumped into a web-incarnation for every Microsoft desktop product". This poses a huge threat to Microsoft who need to act quickly to this very real threat. Microsoft have survived other threats against their survival, such as web based mail versus Outlook Express, however people are now busy and more on the move than ever before meaning they are not at their desktops to use desktop applications. However Laptop computers are replacing desktops in order for people to be able to travel more, so this may mean that the prediction that Microsoft's days are numbered may prove to be untrue. Other predictions, such as the paperless office made 25 years ago never materialised. Microsoft may survive however they do need to recognise this threat to their company and work to overcome this.

It appears web based office is starting to take over in the business place. According to this article the French Tax authority, Direction Generale des Impots, plans to upgrade all its Microsoft office 97 packages with openoffice.org. The plan to implement openoffice.org is expected to save the agency 29.3 million Euros ($34.5 million) compared to the cost of implementing Microsoft Office XP. This change is planned to take place next year, its likely many other businesses and tax authorities throughout Europe and the world will be waiting to see how the implementation goes for the tax authority and if successful Microsoft may find many major companies changing to cheaper office applications than what they offer.

Hi Tech Fraudsters and Hackers in court

2005-10-05T12:37:00.000+01:00

Internet fraud is on the increase as described in this article. Several years ago much of the internet crime was carried out by young people, just showing what they could do. Today internet crime is much more serious, with organised gangs often from Eastern Europe making up to $300,000 a month from innocent internet users. These gangs often survive without fear of arrest as their victims are often in another country, usually in the West. The countries where the crime is committed and the countries where the victims are have usually got very different laws, this makes arrests very difficult and often impossible.

This article shows hackers are being caught by police and convicted, contrary to what was said by the previous article. However these hackers were not benefiting financially from their actions, just causing havoc for computer users the world round. This possibly shows how police are only managing to catch the small time hacker and not the organised gangs who are conning many innocent people out of their money. The men were jailed, and the judge said that men like them need to be deterred from committing such offences, however the article does not say anywhere what length of a jail sentence either man got. For this reason I don't think many potential hackers will be put off as the article doesn't explain the consequences of the men's actions very clearly.

Another article telling of a spammer who got arrested may however be more of an eye opener to potential spammers or hackers, but as the man in question has not yet been sentenced this remains to be seen. This article may be more of an interest to internet users as the spammer was making money fraudulently, although it appears that this was mainly from companies and not individuals. It is good to see, the use of the internet by some individuals for their financial gain, is finally being recognised by police and the appropriate action being taken. However, it appears that the company launching the .eu domain name may be slightly to blame for making this mans job easier. An important point is made in this article that companies cannot put their faith in someone just because they have a website, companies and individuals should now all be wise to this and therefore not make spammers jobs so easy. The article mentions however that Spamhaus, a firm that identifies spammers knew of Mr Francis-Macrae's existence, however it doesn't explain whether it was them that helped the police to make the arrest or what they do with their information. If they exist to identify spammers, what do they then do with this information? The answer to this question can be found on their website, which explains they work with law enforcement agencies across the world and provide anti-spam software for Internet networks.

An article published on 29th November, claims that for the first time ever cybercrime worldwide is more lucrative than drug trafficking. In 2004 it is thought that more money was earned from cybercrime, such as phishing, corporate espionage, pornography and copyright offences than the extremely lucrative trade in illegal drugs. The worldwide drug market is thought to be worth over £105 billion. A US government advisor has been reported saying "that cybercrime is moving at such a speed that it is impossible for the law to keep up". This article shows a worrying trend that cybercrime is on the increase and a lot of investment needs to be carried out in all countries so the government can try to catch up with the technology being used.

VoIP technology taking off

2005-10-01T19:26:00.000+01:00

Making phone calls over the internet using voice over IP technology is becoming a more widely preferred route of communication, mostly due to it being much cheaper than using a conventional telephone. Skype, a well known VoIP company carried out research, described in this article, which surprisingly found more over 55's are interested in the technology and would use it more than 16-24 year olds. This is mostly due to over 55's wanting to keep in contact with long distance friends and relatives. It was also found the younger generation still prefer to text rather than talk.

Recently Skype has came under fire for security breeches. As this article describes virus writers have targeted Skype users by sending emails telling users that they could download the new version of the Skype software if they clicked on the link. However when the link was clicked on it downloaded a trojan horse virus. The virus was timely as it was circulated the same week as the new version of the software was released.

This has not been the end of the bad news for the popular VoIP company, a report published by Skype which had analysed its own security claimed their security was first class. However just days after this report was published an independent security researcher revealed they had found two major security flaws within the Skype software. This is an embarassment for Skype and makes their report and internal controls seem weak.

Skype, the VoIP giant, has recently been threathened by other companies making there VoIP services better and more able to rival Skype. As this article shows Yahoo! has recently announced that their new version of Yahoo! messenger will enable users to make broadband calls cheaper than its rival Skype. Another rival to Skype's domination is BT, which plan to spend millions giving its VoIP services a make over and subsequently more user friendly. BT's existing two services, BT Communicator and BT Broadband Talk will be merged under the BT broadband talk banner.

I think that this new competition for Skype will ensure that the technology continues to improve and the cost to consumers will remain low.

Sub $100 laptop and the developing world's e-waste

2005-09-30T22:17:00.000+01:00

This article informs of how the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have produced a durable sub $100 laptop for use in developing countries. This would enable everyone to access the internet and the educational resources it contains. I think it is a really good idea as they are making it easier for the developing countries to learn and have put much research into developing the laptop but are selling it cheaply so that it is accessible to more. Although $100 is still too expensive for many developing countries to be buying in bulk.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4292854.stm

The above article is showing how the developed world is trying to help the developing world by producing cheaper technology for them to use. However as this article shows the western world are also causing many problems for the developing countries. India is buying many second hand computers, as they are much cheaper than new ones, however also have a much smaller life span. This means they have lots of old computers they need to dispose of. Currently they are just dumping them, and poor locals are taking them apart and burning them in order to try to extract any precious metals that may be in them. The problem with this is that many poisonous substances are inside the computer and by taking them apart and burning them these are being emitted. This is resulting in lead poisoning in many Indians, this is causing children to have lower IQ's and therefore will mean India will soon find they have many fewer intelligent individuals.

This dumping of PC's and other so called e-waste needs to be addressed throughout the world as it effects every country. The western world has to be responsible for its own e-waste and not sell its old PC's off to the developing world who are in desperate need of cheap PC's and let them worry about disposal. PC company's need to be made to take responsibility for there products and when they are beyond use, take them back from customers for free and dispose or reuse them in a responsible and sensible manner.