Category: the web

Hack Attack

Hmmm…. this little blog got attacked by a nasty hack the other day. Seems there’s some kind of Microsoft Virtual Machine vulnerability allowing this bastard to add a vicious script to one of my pages.

I only discovered something was up when I got a security notification from my hosting co. followed by another mail announcing my bandwidth allocation had been zapped.

Shit.

I’m still not quite sure what happened or how. But the security hole has been plugged and we’re back on the road.

Bastards…

Is the digital revolution changing kid’s brains… ? Well, that’s a helluva question and a brainy guy called Marc Prensky has had a stab at answering it. Here’s his intro…

“It is amazing to me how in all the hoopla and debate these days about the decline of education in the US we ignore the most fundamental of its causes. Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.

Today’s students have not just changed incrementally from those of the past, nor simply changed their slang, clothes, body adornments, or styles, as has happened between generations previously. A really big discontinuity has taken place. One might even call it a “singularity

Get Organised !

Web tools are cool. I love it when the internet just makes life easier. Whether it’s emailing a document across the world, using instant messaging to keep in touch with mates, blogging about stuff, looking things up, sharing photos or just surfing around. The web is good.

I’ve been looking at online collaboration tools and project management apps recently and wanted to see what free stuff is out there. Why bother with inflexible, overpriced software with expensive licences when you can go online and get better tools for free.

So, here’s some cool organisation tools from around the web.

  • Writely – the web word processor
  • Numsum – sharable social spreadsheets
  • Zimbra – email, calendar, contacts all wrapped up in a neat open source collaboration platform
  • Basecamp – project management utopia ! Scheduling, tasks, to-dos, file sharing. All you need to run a successful project.
  • Backpack – Get organised with this cool online planner
  • Writeboard – easy documents online. Revise, compare, share and manage those document versions.
  • Ta-Da List – simple, fast and sharable to-do lists
  • Meet With Approval – arrange a meeting or event. Work out
    which day is good for everyone & keep track of who is coming.

Zombie content

We must fight shite content. We can’t let it go on. Bullshit management speak, crass corporate buzzwords, management consultancy gibberish, executive waffle and meaningless jargon. You know the kinda thing. Using more words to say less in a clichéd business-speak full of overworked adjectives.

Well, here’s an interesting take on how we can defend ourselves from an Attack of the Zombie Copy.

Set Your Priorites…

I’ve worked on some really funny projects where the functionality list goes crazy once the budget is signed off. We’ve costed a detailed spec, gone round everyone carefully explaining it and got the budget approved on time. Then, as if from no where, new functionality and extra bits start to seep into the requirements lists from all directions.

‘The account team were talking in the pub last night and decided China is the next big thing. We need the new site in Mandarin and Cantonese as well.‘

‘The marketing manager’s daughter saw a cool animated chatroom thing on a Japanese website and he wants one on the site by Friday. He’s got a press release going out on this tomorrow‘.

You know the kinda thing, crazy scope creep while the budget gathers dust in a drawer. When you’ve been through the ‘they want WHAT ?!‘ thing a few times you start to see the funny side.

Anyway, the general rule when developing software, or for that matter any application, is always prioritise those feature requirements….

Joel Spolsky over at Joel on Software has written a great piece on this called, Set Your Priorities. Well worth a read. Here’s an extract:

“Custom development is that murky world where a customer tells you what to build, and you say, ‘are you sure?’ and they say yes, and you make an absolutely beautiful spec, and say, ‘is this what you want?’ and they say yes, and you make them sign the spec in indelible ink, nay, blood, and they do, and then you build that thing they signed off on, promptly, precisely and exactly, and they see it and they are horrified and shocked, and you spend the rest of the week reading up on whether your E&O insurance is going to cover the legal fees for the lawsuit you’ve gotten yourself into or merely the settlement cost. Or, if you’re really lucky, the customer will smile wanly and put your code in a drawer and never use it again and never call you back.”