There has been a marked increase in the number of viruses and other related attacks on computer systems in the past six months. Although nearly all of these do not affect the Macintosh community directly, Mac users can still run the risk of carrying an "infection" and passing it on to a client or supplier. For many years, the incidence of infected Macs was extremely low, but this has definitely now changed. You do need to make sure you have anti-virus software installed and active on your computers.
Peer to peer piracy
In America the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed lawsuits against the operators (students) of private computer networks on three college campuses where it claims the networks are being used to illegally trade copies of digital music files. Between them the college networks are said to be hosting nearly 2.5 million files. The RIAA are calling for fines of 150,000 dollars per each copyright infringed - an enormous sum of money.
I would guess that many design companies have computers that might have Napster or similar peer-to-peer file sharing software installed. Be aware that similar action may follow in the UK.
Apple are said to be about to launch a music subscription service for iPod owners - which could be good news, if the price is right.
New technology - new issues
Some establishments and businesses are banning the use of any mobile phone with a camera. Already surreptitious shots of innocent naturists taken with a mobile phone have ended up on the Internet. In Saudi Arabia they have banned camera phones altogether. In Japan users have been prosecuted for taking voyeuristic pictures of women and in Italy they have introduced strict laws governing their use. In Edinburgh, the David Lloyd gym has banned the use of phones in the changing rooms and a local lap-dancing club has also banned camera phones to protect the identity of the dancers and the customers.
Bill Gates dies - NOT!
The Korean stock market lost 3 billion dollars after local TV reported that Microsoft chairman Bill Gates had been assassinated. The fact that he was shot by a lone gunman at a charity event in Los Angeles was reported by three Korean TV channels. Unfortunately it was a hoax - picked up from a highly convincing spoof CNN website. A week earlier the Chinese media had fallen for the same story.
You know, he hasn't been seen in public lately...
Friday, April 04, 2003
When and how much?
Quark have announced some of the features they are going to offer in version 6 of QuarkXPress. Better table handling, a whole load more web authoring features, better colour control, reorganisation of the palettes, PDF creation (without a third party application such as distiller) and many workgroup features for teams working on a document.
Whilst these will please publishers and designers who fancy creating web pages with QuarkXPress, there is so far nothing too exciting - but Quark promise more details are to come - so who knows?
We do know that it will only run under OSX 10.2 or higher and require at least 128Mb of RAM and 230Mb of hard disk space. (As always with pre-release information, the details may be subject to change).
Of course they are not going to answer the two most important questions just yet.
Another birthday
It's hard to believe, but it's the 30th anniversary of the invention of the mobile phone. When inventor Martin Cooper (now 74) of Motorola made the first call, the phone he used weighed nearly 2 pounds and measured 250mm by 75mm by 40mm. Now they are building them into watches.
Whilst these will please publishers and designers who fancy creating web pages with QuarkXPress, there is so far nothing too exciting - but Quark promise more details are to come - so who knows?
We do know that it will only run under OSX 10.2 or higher and require at least 128Mb of RAM and 230Mb of hard disk space. (As always with pre-release information, the details may be subject to change).
Of course they are not going to answer the two most important questions just yet.
Another birthday
It's hard to believe, but it's the 30th anniversary of the invention of the mobile phone. When inventor Martin Cooper (now 74) of Motorola made the first call, the phone he used weighed nearly 2 pounds and measured 250mm by 75mm by 40mm. Now they are building them into watches.
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
Fired for Photofibs
Next time you're tempted to use PhotoShop to "improve" an image, spare a thought for photographer Brian Walski - who was fired today by the Los Angeles Times for submitting a digitally altered photo. The photo was featured on the front page of the 31st March edition and the LA Times has a strict policy forbidding the alteration of news photos.
No danger of that in the UK tabloids of course.
Less piracy = more jobs
A study by the Business Software Alliance reveals that 40 percent of all programmes in use are pirate copies. They calculate that reducing that by just 10 percent would add 64 billion dollars to the world's tax coffers. Perhaps more usefully they predict it would also create 1.5 million jobs. Amongst the Alliance's members are Microsoft, IBM and Apple.
Apple's Birthday
The birth of Apple on 1st April 1976 has been celebrated with a mention in Time Magazine's 80th anniversary issue in an article called "80 days that changed the world" - also available online.
Chalk and Cheese
Steve Jobs currently has the highest CEO approval rating - 91 percent at forbes.com whereas Steve Ballmer of Microsoft is trailing at a mere 18 percent.
No danger of that in the UK tabloids of course.
Less piracy = more jobs
A study by the Business Software Alliance reveals that 40 percent of all programmes in use are pirate copies. They calculate that reducing that by just 10 percent would add 64 billion dollars to the world's tax coffers. Perhaps more usefully they predict it would also create 1.5 million jobs. Amongst the Alliance's members are Microsoft, IBM and Apple.
Apple's Birthday
The birth of Apple on 1st April 1976 has been celebrated with a mention in Time Magazine's 80th anniversary issue in an article called "80 days that changed the world" - also available online.
Chalk and Cheese
Steve Jobs currently has the highest CEO approval rating - 91 percent at forbes.com whereas Steve Ballmer of Microsoft is trailing at a mere 18 percent.
Tuesday, April 01, 2003
A report on the Loof Lirpa factor
Given the circumstances there’s been a marked lack of April Fool stories on the web, but here’s a few that made me laugh (or at least wince):
About.com has the news that George W has cancelled the 2004 presidential elections and the “Cheerleader in a box”
thinkgeek.com are offering the George Foreman USB iGrill…
…and caffeinated glow in the dark beer! (If you want to order you will need to hold your ID up in front of your monitor to verify your age)
cnet is offering, “in the interests of balance” pro-virus tools to help infect your own and other systems
And from Forrester Research (the leading IT research and intelligence company) 74% of users don’t trust Microsoft
Oh, sorry, that last one is actually a real story!
Some April Fool stories were too obscure to be either funny or satirical. Some are simply too close to the truth.
About.com has the news that George W has cancelled the 2004 presidential elections and the “Cheerleader in a box”
thinkgeek.com are offering the George Foreman USB iGrill…
…and caffeinated glow in the dark beer! (If you want to order you will need to hold your ID up in front of your monitor to verify your age)
cnet is offering, “in the interests of balance” pro-virus tools to help infect your own and other systems
And from Forrester Research (the leading IT research and intelligence company) 74% of users don’t trust Microsoft
Oh, sorry, that last one is actually a real story!
Some April Fool stories were too obscure to be either funny or satirical. Some are simply too close to the truth.
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