November 2009 Archives

The UK off-shoot of Wikipedia today insisted the site was "definitely not dying" after research suggested thousands of volunteer editors across the world had left.

Work by Felipe Ortega from the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid found that 49,000 editors deserted the site in the first three months of this year - 10 times the number in the same period of 2008.

Spokesman for Wikimedia UK Michael Peel said it was too early to say whether Mr Ortega's numbers were accurate, and that it would depend on the definition of a Wikipedia "editor".
He said: "Wikipedia is very open so anyone can come along and edit, so you do get a constant flux.

Internet search giant Google has apologised for a racially offensive image of Michelle Obama that appears when users seek pictures of America's first lady on its site.

Google placed a text ad above the image, titled Offensive Search Results, that states: "Sometimes our search results can be offensive. We agree."

Users who then click on the ad are directed to a letter from Google that explains its results "can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries", but notes that Google does not endorse content on these websites.

I see Facebook is in the news, once again for changing user terms and conditions to allow more of their personal information to be available to any Tom, Dick or Harry.

Developers are being given access to users' email addresses when people sign up for applications.

According to the social networking giant, the goal is to create a more 'open' Facebook and let developers feel their users/customers are actually their own, rather than just Facebook's.

Hum.

And people won't be able to tick a box to stop this information being given out.

Now I've blogged in the past about the information allows application developers access to, but this seems to be a step too far.

When you install or allow an application, now the developer will be given your email, and your first and last names.

Now a key security measure of sites such as ebay is that they use your real name in emails (rather than your username), so you know it's come from them.

It doesn't seem beyond the realms of possibility that fraudsters could through applications gain this information, and then use it to make people hand over their passwords etc, so being able to hijack accounts.

People must at some point question how much information they want to be freely available, and at the very least set up email accounts purely for applications such as Facebook.

A controversial video game broke sales records on its opening day to make it the biggest entertainment launch in history, according to its publisher.

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sold 4.7 million copies in the UK and US alone within 24 hours of its launch on Tuesday, generating a revenue of £186 million, Activision said.

US-based Activision chief executive Mike Griffith said: "The Call Of Duty franchise has become a cultural phenomenon, showing the power of video games as an entertainment medium.

Thousands of gamers have been barred from playing Xbox Live by Microsoft in an attempt to clamp down on piracy.

The US computing giant said it had banned consoles because owners had modified the equipment to play games without paying for them.

People whose Xboxes have been blocked will have to buy new machines if they want to connect to Xbox Live.

The internet service allows the 20 million gamers signed up to compete against each other via the web.

The latest handset to challenge the market supremacy of Apple's iPhone is hoping to attract users with one of the biggest screens on the market.

The HD2 will hit UK shops later this month and its manufacturer, Taiwanese firm HTC, hopes to attract buyers with a 4.3 inch touch screen display.

HTC Corporation chief executive Peter Chou said he was "excited" about the handset's launch.

West Midlands Police have announced they will be taking to the Twittersphere in their battle against crime.

Bobbies will be using all manner of new media including micro-blogs and Facebook in a bid to connect with communities.

Chief Insp Mark Payne, said: "Our research has shown that large groups of people are now using social media and not just the young.

"We will continue to communicate with the people we serve across the West Midlands in traditional way, but social media is another opportunity for us to listen and pass on information."

Some officers in the force are in the early stages of setting up blogs to 'talk' to the neighbourhoods where they work.

Chief Insp Payne said: "Twitter means we get can get short messages out to people quickly to let them know about initiatives we are carrying out in their area.

"We can use tweets as a way of directing people to more detailed information which may help prevent them becoming a victim of crime."

Let's take a look at what the police might say on twitter, given so much of that posted is either textspeak, what people had for breakfast and 'meaningful' observations on life:

@hungrybobby Receive intelligence local chippie @oceanbar is closing early proceed under blue lights to collect lunch for station

@Bluepatrol LO LO LO Whats going on ere thn?

@arrestingoffice @criminalelement UR ncked

@hungrybobby Member public takes picture of panda car in disabled bay outside @phillpotssandwiches arrest person for obstructing officer

Very rarely do I sign up to Twitter news feeds - mainly because they're so relentless.

You just get bombarded with update after update and everything else can get a bit swamped.

Naturally they are, of course, automatically generated.

And yesterday Sky News came a cropper after it updated twice within a two minute period.

Unfortunately that two minute period was the silence at 11am on November 11th, when the nation came to a halt to remember our war dead.

In apologising the news giant said: "We are sorry our automated feeds engine posted two updates during the Twitter silence for Armistice Day. They were promptly deleted."

Follow me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/BenHurst

A political row broke out over levels of violence in a video game as shops opened early for its release today.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which went on sale at midnight, is expected to break sales records.

Crowds gathered in London's Leicester Square for a "premiere" complete with tanks and military costumes ahead of the epic hitting the shelves.

Described in press material as featuring "gripping and heart-racing action as players face off against a new threat dedicated to bringing the world to the brink of collapse", the game reportedly allows players to plot terror attacks against civilians.

Modern Warfare 2, developed by US company Infinity Ward and published by Activision, is rated as mature, for its "blood, drug reference, intense violence and language".

Labour MP Keith Vaz called for action to ensure the 18-certificate game did not end up in the hands of children, while fellow Labour former digital minister Tom Watson said it would be better to support the UK's video gaming industry.

Mr Vaz, the Home Affairs Select Committee chairman, told MPs during Commons question time: "It contains such scenes of brutality that even the manufacturers have put in warnings within the game telling people how they can skip particular scenes."

He asked what steps ministers were taking to ensure that violent games did not fall into the hands of children and young people.

"It's not about censorship, it's about protecting our children," he added.

Junior culture minister Sion Simon said the clearest recommendation of the Byron review - which last year looked into the risks faced by children from inappropriate video games - was that content suitable for adults should be labelled and sold as such.

"The game you refer to is a Certificate 18 game," he said.

"It should not be sold to children and the Government's job is to make sure that adults ... can get what adults should be able to and children are not in danger of being subjected to adult content."

Mr Watson said he had seen the game and it "wasn't pleasant, though no worse than many films and books".

BT is currently plugging its new up to 20Mb broadband service.

For some unknown reason, scooters play a large part in this campaign - why - who knows?

The communications giant has created a team of BT super scooter taxis, which will land on the UK's busiest commuter routes, "allowing commuters the opportunity to 'beat the rush with BT to work" by hitching a lift.

And in true Pr style, they've got TV lovely and erstwhile George Clooney girlfriend Lisa Snowdon to pout alluringly on said scooters.

So here's the pic - it may inspire you to fork out for 'up to' 20Mb broadband. And then again, it might not.

You decide.