If you’ve heard the furore over the MegaUpload website being taken down, but haven’t heard of the beast, then quite simply it was a place where you could drop files, and allow people to download them from your account.

According to the FBI, this allowed users to openly share illegal copyrighted material, and completely closed the site, confiscated it’s URLs, and arrested it’s owners.

This had the effect of all users of the site losing all of the data they had stored there ~ legitimate or not.

Personally I think this is a dangerous step, and is already producing a range of responses from other Digital Locker websites.

Filesonic has removed all access to be able to share files, whilst uploaded.to has completely blocked all access from the USA, annexing all it’s users ~ this is the bit I’m worried about.

This also prompted the biggest hack attack in history from the notorious hacker group Anonymous to be directed against the USAs’ Department of Justice and other sites.

If the USA continues this course of action, the very nature of the Internet is threatened, as they try to set themselves up as the Internet Police. Do we really want an Internet governed by people who themselves have a strange moral compass?

For instance (although not related to this topic exactly) how can it be morally correct to complain loudly over the showing of a female nipple at the Superbowl XXXVIII (the infamous ‘Wardrobe Malfunction by Janet Jackson), whilst having the globes largest legal Pornography industry?

Back on topic…

The blocking of the USA is the interesting part ~ the very nature of the Internet, and it’s greatest strength, is the ability to share things, and this is the very crux of the problems with MegaUpload; What should be available to share, and who should be responsible for checking. Blocking the USA has set a dangerous precedent in breaking that fundamental strength.

Also if I publish an article (such as this one) in the UK which contravenes some law in the USA, can I be held responsible in that country? Should I be forced to remove the offending post? Should I be arrested and taken to an American jail?

Apparently the FBI think so.

You must bear in mind that MegaUpload was a Hong Kong based company, and it’s top guy is German (Kim Dotcom ~ formally Schmitz, read the article, he’s a colourful character!), living  in New Zealand. Spot the complete lack of USA in those countries.

Add to this the recent Internet protests over the proposed new laws in America ~ the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) ~ and you’ve got a perfect storm brewing.

Maybe the USA should simply be disconnected from the Internet if it has such a problem with it!
Just imagine Apple, Mircosoft and Intel all offline, permanently!
A boy can dream 

The next biggest site to offer these services ~ Rapidshare ~ has yet to do something (at time of writing), but is being watched keenly by those in the know, their response will be seen as another precedent…

I’m going to watch these event with a keen interest as they are shaping the Internet for the future.
This is a dark time online…

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Yesterday was an historic moment in the ongoing development of the Internet as ICANN ~ the people that look after all the Internet’s domain suffixes (such as the .com or .co.uk stuff) ~ decided to allow any type of domain suffix to be allowed.

In principle this allows any type of domain to exist, for example you could register a ‘.gardening’ domain, a .magic domain etc. We could register the .rna domain and have any websites we use attached to .rna (i.e. we could run www.support.rna)

Now this all sounds like a great idea, and I can almost hear you corporate types salivating with the possibilities, you must be aware however, that there are a few huge caveats:

1. ‘Cyber squatting” is a frowned upon practice, so buying the .mcdonalds domain is out of the question – there is legal precedent in place that almost ensures that, if challenged, you will lose the domain without any recompense.
2. ICANN are making applicants prove that they have a legitimate claim to that domain name.
3. The cost is a little steep and comes in at £114,000 ($185,000 in actuality) ~ yes that is a comma and not a decimal point.

Now while you are picking yourself up from the floor at the price, I’ll give you my honest opinion – this is a complete waste of time! ICANN should have introduced some more specific names to cover the requests being posted (such as .museum for museums sites (this was already approved) and .sex for adult sites etc…)

Currently we all know the .co.uk and the .com domain suffixes, you will also have heard of people using .org and .net, though less often. These are all recognised and well known.
Imagine that you now have to remember the entire address, not just the web or email address but the whole shebang. ~ There will be no more guessing of the ending, and if you get it wrong, there’ll be no website or email.

The cynical part of me says that the statement from ICANN saying that the price is high to dissuade spurious requests has quite a hollow ring to it – Can you spell ‘profiteering’?

ICANN say that the costs will go towards:

• Paying for the domain creation
• Employing people to scrutinise the applications
• Legal costs to defend the inevitable challenges

Yup – that’s exactly where it’s going to go

Lets see where this goes – I’d like to believe that the corporates willing to pay such ridiculous sums to “increase their Internet presence” hold off and don’t play this game – though I’d doubt it

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Our new site is finally ‘Live’

This stands as a major milestone for us as the design is radically different from what we usually go with – Personally I really like it, it shows a professional ‘clean’ image.

The content is as you’d expect from us here – a mixture of advertising what we do and informing the masses as to how to help yourselves.

I must however, take this opportunity to apologise for the length of time it has taken to deliver.

Avid readers will recall that recently I posted about our foray in to the mystical realms of ‘Marketing’ ~ well, I’m glad to say that my cynicism has been proved soundly wrong and we are busier than ever!

This is a great thing, but something has to give, in this case getting the new website online took a back seat in preference to serving our clients (much as you’d hopefully expect :) )
One of the painful problems with running a small business is you have to wear many ‘hats’ ~ that is you have to take on many differing roles within the company, this is where things can slide.

Anyhow – we hope you like the new looks and we’ll look forward to working with you all in the future

 

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After our recent employee left the company, we were left with a couple of difficult projects that were running badly, mainly through poor management and communication.

Two of these we’ve completed already – a 3^rd completed today.

In our line of work it’s a necessity to keep all parties in the loop to maintain the project integrity – there’s too much ‘one upmanship’ between the egos of some of the protagonists and so things can go south rather quickly.

It’s imperative that all interested parties know who is doing what and the point at which they are at doing it.

In this case though, the problems stemmed from two major issues:

1. Lack of communication (within R&A and with the client)
2. Lack of documentation

In the first instance the client communicated his ideas, preferences and needs to us via our previous employee, who neglected to communicate that to the rest of the team.

This was compounded by the second instance as there was no record of any of these being discussed or planned beforehand.

Marking a huge deviation in the processes we have developed over the years for managing exactly the issues raised above, I am still at a loss as to why these procedures were not followed!

This resulted in much unhappiness all round ~ both we, and the client were not happy.
Furthermore this almost began the first salvos of a legal case!

Not good…

Well, today we finally completed the project

After long discussions (and the patience of the client who took the time to explain things a second time – and I duly documented them!), things were finally put to bed.

The end result was a happy client (eventually) – a reduced bill from us (we took responsibility for some of the problems) and a much reduced stress level!

Just a couple of minor bugs and we are home and dry!

YEAH!!!!!! 

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In my job, there’s a certain look people get from time to time – it’s a kind of stare, looking into the middle distance.
(This obviously has NO reflection on my ability to enchant a conversation with my lively personality )

In general it signifies that I’ve pushed the client off the end of the ‘Technical description’ plank and whomever is on the receiving end is floundering in uncharted waters.
At this point it’s customary to ask “Does that make sense” – oddly most people say “YES!”

This happened today…

A client wants a new website, something which I’m increasingly aware is not as simple as it may sound.
What KIND of website the client (and not specifically this client), isn’t quite sure of.
Is is a simple ‘Brochure style’ website?
Maybe a portfolio style showing the clients service offerings?
Would you like it to be content managed?
There are LOTS of qualifying questions to be asked, this is where the fun lies…

Once you’ve educated the client, and produced some spectacular creative images for the client to look at, it’s seriously disheartening to hear that the client thinks that’s “MOST” of the work done.
After all, there is the imagery staring them in the face right?
Oh dear…
Analogy time:
I show you a picture of your nice new, custom built, car – it’s still a picture right, not the actual car! ~ It’s going to take some time to build this…

Now the client has an understanding of the concepts AND the process involved ~ still no easy ride!
“Will it be finished by next week? Only we’ve got a [insert reason for ridiculous timescale here] coming up…”

I’m off to see the website pixies, maybe they can create a custom built, CMS based, website with full client tracking and contact facilites in a week!
Now where did I leave my fairy wand..?

If this makes little sense ~ and I suspect it doesn’t ~ I’m back from my Irish Odyssey complete with heavy cold.
This medication is great though

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