Category Archives: In the News

Tech news and opinions

Google goes mad!

Leave a Reply

Earlier today I was horrified when Google had decided that every website on the internet was a malware risk and “may harm your computer”.

Google mistaked the whole of the internet for a malware risk.

For most of the afternoon I had to manually enter Google search links into my browser as Google just said I would have to manually go to the site.

According to a report here, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/31/google_malware_snafu/, it was a nationwide issue and my computer wasn’t insane (as I thought).

As far as I am aware, I found the problem fixed by 4.30pm UK time.

The problem has now been fixed, but what the hell caused it?!

Microsoft Windows 7 Beta download deadline confirmed

Leave a Reply

The deadline for the Windows 7 Beta download has been confirmed. You have until February 10th to get your hands on a copy, if you haven’t already.

Users who have started but not finished the download will have until February 12th to finish it. And if you are an MSDN or Technet subscriber, you’ll be able to get the Windows 7 Beta download after the deadline.

However, Microsoft has said that product keys for Windows 7 Beta will still be available after the download deadline expires.

No matter what, though, the beta will expire on the 1st of August – even if you are a Technet or MSDN subscriber.

There are even rumours going round that a Windows 7 release may well be available in July – but that is hardly believable since I seem to remember Microsoft saying they would go through a second beta testing stage before a release. I highly doubt we’ll have a release before the fourth quarter of 2009 – at the very earliest.

So there you are – an update on Windows 7 and dates for your calendar.

Mac’s 25th Birthday

Leave a Reply

Now I’ve never been a big fan of Mac’s (I’ve been a Windows user since day one) but I thought I ought to write a post to celebrate 25 years of Mac history.

Yes, today, 24th January 2009, marks 25 years of the good old Macintosh.

Remember the first Macintosh around back in 1984? You might want to take a look at this… it’s a video of the first ever Mac demonstration with Steve Jobs.

But there you go… something to think about. What was the first Mac you ever owned? Have you ever owned one – or are you the Windows type?

Happy Birthday to Macintosh…

Feedburner transferring to Google

Leave a Reply

Feedburner, which was acquired by Google in 2007, is in the process of moving to google.com and at the end of February they plan to have all accounts hosted on Google instead of Feedburner.

If you have a Feedburner account, you can log onto feedburner.com and transfer your account now. I did it yesterday and it took about 3 hours to move 80 posts. But you can just set it and leave it.

Once you transfer it, you have to log in via your Google Account. You can do this by going to www.google.com and then My Account. It’s all relatively easy, but just takes a while.

The interface on feedburner.google.com is much the same as the original feedburner.com – in fact very little has changed.

So get in asap if you have a blog or site that uses Feedburner – I wouldn’t want to be in the last minute rush to move over.

IWF closing in on The Internet Archive Wayback Machine (web.archive.org)…. why?!

Leave a Reply

The Internet Watch Foundation in the UK has decided to close in on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, saying that it has made many ISP’s restrict or deny access to the website as http://web.archive.org. Virgin Media, Be and Demon Internet customers are apparently on the list of banned or restricted ISPs.

Personally, I think this is insane. If I haven’t mentioned it already in previous blog posts, I love the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. It’s a fantastic resource that I regularly use to see what websites were like several years ago. If you haven’t heard of it already, please have a look (if you haven’t been banned from it) as they have been caching pages from almost every website that existed since 1996.

So why the hell are the IWF restricting access to it? The IWF were under fire when they banned a Wikipedia page for a music album because the uploaded artwork of the album was pornographic, but after many complaints from many users, the IWF removed the page from the blacklist. Maybe there is some sense in this (as it was pornographic), but what on Earth does the Wayback Archive have to do with it? The Wayback Archive is by no means pornographic or dangerous to young children, even if some of the sites cached on it may relate to dangerous content. But, that’s exactly the same problem we have now – there is dangerous content all over the Internet now – and that probably wont change anytime soon.

In effect, changing history won’t necessarily change today.

According to this page, the IWF have said “We’re investigating the issue more fully at the moment and will discuss it with Thus to get a better understanding of what has happened.”

So if you want to know what I think, get the Wayback Machine off the blacklist. I, thankfully, am not currently with any of the ISPs that restrict access, but if it does become restricted on my ISP,  I will be complaining.

Update 15.1.09 – The IWF has now confirmed that a large number of pages from the database of around 85 billion web pages have been blocked due to indecent content. However, the IWF has said that it is only specific pages that have  been blocked so the damage is minimised. I still don’t believe it should be blocked, but feel a little better since they aren’t totally blocking out the site.

Update 17.1.09 – Demon Internet customers now have access to the Wayback Machine again. It has been seen by the company as a technical issue. However, Demon Internet still say they will be working closely with the IWF.