Covered an interesting story the other day about a new device designed to turn your car into the office of the future, or something like that. According to its maker - comic-strip-baddie-sounding Intelligent Mechatronic Systems - the iLane system is the world’s first hands and eyes-free email solution. This basically means that it will read aloud via a Bluetooth headset or in-car system, any new corporate emails, picking them off your mobile or PDA as you enter the car and thereafter while in transit.

And you can reply by composing an audio message, which will be sent as a .wav file, or by choosing from a set of pre-defined templates. These could include, for example, “Leave me alone, I’m driving you idiot”, or my personal favourite, “Do you want me to die?! I’m doing 80 down the A1 and it’s raining; at this moment in time I’m trying very hard not to lose control of this death wagon and plough into the central reservation, so you’ll just have to wait for that update on this quarter’s sales figures.”

As you might have twigged, I have reservations about the manufacturer’s claims that IT managers will embrace this device because of the safety benefits. Now I would love to see certain sales staff killed or maimed on Britain’s roads, I really would. But I think the jury’s still out on whether having a hands-free phone, let alone an eyes-free email system, is any less dangerous than sneaking a look at your BlackBerry while the lights are red.

July 28, 2006 in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)

The events of last weekend's Black Sunday, when several high-profile sites and services fell over due to power cuts in key datacentres, have again highlighted that when it comes to business continuity, global enterprises can be about as effective as the continuity team on Blake's 7.

Teenagers across the globe were sadly forced to get on and do their homework for once, as popular social networking site MySpace went down; Yahoo email users threw stuff at the screen (oh, just me then?) and our own publisher's data host suffered a power outage, with vnunet's loyal follower reportedly "slightly irritated" at the site being offline for nearly 12 hours.

In the case of MySpace you could argue that firms as big as this – especially with the backing of a media empire – should really know better. Although you can never make a datacentre 100 percent reliable, there are means to mitigate the risks of downtime, especially on this scale, as much as possible. A schoolboy error then, that MySpace doesn't seem to have had a back-up plan, in the form of another centre somewhere else (preferable not in a region beginning in Cali and ending in fornia).

But to give it the benefit, in many ways MySpace is the victim of its own success as popularity has sky-rocketed faster than it has perhaps had time to restructure its systems to ensure its millions of users are not left in the lurch. That said, any site responsible for the musical aberration that is Sandi Thom deserves all it gets in my book.

July 26, 2006 in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (1)

The news that Paris-based Yorkshire lass Catherine Sanderson was sacked - allegedly - due to comments made anonymously in her personal blog won’t surprise many who dabble in the art, and it is an art let me tell you, of weblogging. She can probably feel fairly hard done by, having remained anonymous throughout, although crucially she posted a pic of herself on the site. But if you're attracting around 3,000 visitors a day, you can probably expect your boss to find out eventually, and it was an accounting firm she worked for too, not a liberal, media-friendly post-production company.

Still, it's probably going to take something like this Bridget-Jones style blogger winning her test court case in France for firms to actually get their fingers out when it comes to communicating corporate blogging policies. Just do the maths - there are x million bloggers out there, and I can wager that most of them have a job, and that they at times talk about their working lives in said blogs… ergo they are disseminating content to a potentially huge audience, content which their employer might rather they didn't. Yet research suggests most firms have yet to wake up to this fact.

She comes over as very naive in the stories that have been reported about this case, but some onus should fall on the blogger's side too. Sometimes we want all the glory but none of the responsibility, but it's time to wake-up to the fact that these little online diaries are potential PR time-bombs. And with great power comes great responsibility...

July 25, 2006 in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was trying to explain to my parents the other day about the wonderous nature of the world wide web; about how having internet access is like having a virtual library in your front room, containing answers to all the questions you'd ever wanted to ask, and many more that you'd never even thought of. About how you can communicate across tens of thousands of miles in seconds, reach out to communities of like-minded people, and even (maybe) find love.

Anyway, it didn't really work as they still don't have anything resembling a PC and probably never will, but undeterred, I rooted around to find further fuel for my argument, and came up with the heart-rending story of densha otoko, or train man. For those of you unfamiliar with the tale, it goes something like this...

A couple of years ago a visitor to a popular Japanese forum for single males known as 2Channel wrote an account of how he was sitting on a train next to a beautiful woman when a drunkard started hassling her. Summoning up reserves of courage he never knew he had, he confronted the troublemaker who was eventually expelled from the train.

But what happened next, I hear you ask? Well, in true Hollywood fashion the woman fell on her knees (sort of) in admiration and gratitude at this bemused otaku (geek), who then went home and shared his experiences in the aforementioned online forum.

Days later the woman contacted him again, sending a selection of fine cups and saucers by Hermes to show her gratitude (it's a Japanese thing), and once again the otaku, now known as "train man", turned to his only friends, his online chums, for comfort and advice. In the weeks that followed the couple met several times, densha otoko all the time harnessing the power of online collaboration by seeking counsel with the geek collective at 2channel, and eventually the two expressed their undying love for each other. The end.

The story, although it might be a load of Japanese hokum, has nonetheless been made into a Japanese TV series, manga and anime (comics and cartoons to you and me), although the identity of the train man remains a mystery. But what it shows beyond doubt is the awesome power and influence of the net, not only in that this story swept rapidly through the online grapevine to TV and other media, but also in the way our hero, Mr Train, sought solace and advice from those at 2channel (which by the way is widely regarded as the world's largest internet forum).

I suppose it also shows lonely stalkers everywhere that there's always hope.

July 19, 2006 in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)

Still awaiting my Pulitzer, The Guardian has since jumped on our software piracy bandwagon, half-inching bits from my reports on the Fast organisation as well my colleague James "Jimbo" Murray's BSA investigation. Far be it from me to have a go at a respectable national publication, especially as IT Week's name is mentioned several times in the piece, but... well, no buts actually, I'm going to leave it there. I'm just bitter cos my name was never mentioned, with the prefix "hotshot reporter" or similar in the copy.

As for further developments on this theme, well the story just runs and runs since our first reader wrote in all those weeks ago to complain about Fast's business practices. Now an ex-Fast employee who left because he wasn't happy with the way things were going has spoken to me about his time there. Basically his insight was a validation of most of our readers' letters and their complaints: aggressive sales techniques, poorly-trained staff, too much selling and not enough focus on the core mission of copyright protection. That was the general gist. Plus a whole host of unprintable stuff.

It's always frustrating to have to leave the best stuff out, but it's necessary from a legal standpoint, or next week I might be knocking on The Guardian's door looking for a job.

July 17, 2006 in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another week, another issue goes to bed. And our campaign around software piracy rumbles on. This week we led on comments from The Corporate IT Forum's chief exec who is backing our piece alleging heavy-handed tactics by the Federation Against Software Theft (Fast).

From what I hear our stories about Fast have drawn some of the most impassioned responses from our readers ever to be seen by IT Week's crack editorial team. Hitherto Fast have been very accommodating when I've asked if they wanted to put forward their side of the case, but as of this week they've all clammed up.

It's a tricky one, that "no comment" defence. The police have obviously got around this years ago by putting in enough caveats to that 'right to remain silent' spiel to make silence appear like an admission of guilt. But is it?

On this occasion I'll maintain my journalistic integrity and give Fast the benefit of the doubt. There'll be plenty of people, of course, thinking Fast have basically nothing to say because they've been rumbled, but it'd be fairer to wait and see what happens. Maybe they've all gone away for a well-earned break.

July 14, 2006 in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaking of Wimbledon, as I was in my column the other day - keep up please - I got an insider's tour of the All England Lawn Tennis Club courtesy of its long-time IT outsourcer IBM the other week. I managed to have a natter with the man with the longest job title in the world (deep breath): Managing Consultant & Senior Producer within the Digital Content and Innovation practice in IBM Global Business Services, Andy Burns (pictured), who told me how his team manage Wimbledon's IT infrastructure. The website in particular is unusual in that it's virtually unused for most of the year and then has to scale up rapidly to cope with millions of hits during the fortnight of the tournament - the mutha of all peaks and troughs.

Wimbledon also benefits from IBM's experience trialling and using technology at other events and in innovative ways, as witnessed in the Wimbledon intranet or WIS, which provides Championship information to referees and other officials and visitors who are constantly on the move, via PDAs and other devices. It certainly shows that even the most established of establishments can't afford to sit on their heels when it comes to technology if they want to stay on top of their game - I'm talking about Wimbledon here by the way. That said though, I did notice one official at the entrance to a show court referring to the order of play not on a state-of-the-art PDA hooked up to the WIS, but on a hand-written scrap of paper carefully placed inside his hat. Some people.

July 13, 2006 in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)

Something struck me about my summer holiday in Malta last week - apart from the fact that Maltese toilets always seem to need flushing at least twice, and that nobody's allowed baths (or they can but without plugs). What struck me is that so much seems to have changed when you come back. When I left, I didn't have a sun tan and England were still in the World Cup, quietly confident. Sorry to harp on about the footie, but having had my nose rubbed in it on holiday by more Italian ne’er-do-wells than you can shake a stick at - or, more appropriately, beat repeatedly with a stick - I’d like to make a suggestion. The day "Three Lions" is banned from its pre-match airing is the day this country might actually win something.

Anyway, it's always a joy to come back from an extended break, as I'm sure you're all aware. The reams of emails, voice mail full to its limit and a crammed diary, and summer has barely begun. Is Henman out of Wimbledon yet? What, Wimbledon's finished?

Technology, of course, is here to help us avoid these little nuisances, although while the work-life balance is all very well for SSL VPN and web conferencing software vendors to bang on about, it is in danger of turning into the work-work balance if you don't have the requisite caring boss and steely resolve to "spend more time with the family" (and to be honest the only people who seem able to do that are disgraced MPs).

The wonders of modern technology enable most of us nowadays to be anywhere in the world and still have no excuse for not checking in with the office now and then. Mercifully IT Week's infrastructure is a good way back from the cutting edge, so I have been spared the horrors of a company CrackBerry, for example. But even with iNotes I can access my work emails from virtually any browser on any device throughout the globe, and to be honest there's always a little voice inside my head nagging me to do just that and catch up on a few emails.

Thankfully though there was a stronger voice in my head during my recent break, telling me to go and glass the nearest Portuguese football fan, or at least cut off their index fingers and thus end their klaxon-sounding days for the duration of my stay.

No, the technology solutions we have for remote and home working today are fantastic but we can't lose sight of the fact that IT is actually no more than an enabler. Now it's time for the working culture in the UK to catch up and make sure we aren't all saddled with yet more ways to work the longest hours in Europe, and ourselves into an early grave.

July 11, 2006 in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)