It’s nice to be believed

21.04.2011/07.15

The bug I wrote about a few days ago that’s emerging when I use Autocade is now ﬁled with Telstra Clear—and it’s been escalated. For years I would report various faults, including with Telstra Clear, and I would not be believed. What a difference now that I am believed. For around two years, […]

National thinks the internet is ‘Skynet’ as copyright amendments pass second reading

13.04.2011/13.10

This would be humorous if the implications of the copyright amendments were not so serious: Also speaking in favour of the bill, National MP Jonathan Young compared the internet to Skynet, the ﬁctional artiﬁcial intelligence network in the Terminator movies that tried to destroy mankind. That was in the National Business Review. I believe […]

Not all American hosting companies get it right

03.04.2011/22.37

While there was a British company that took months to respond to the equivalent of a DMCA complaint (under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act), generally American ﬁrms are very on the ball. There are exceptions. I won’t name this outﬁt but the weekend’s responses were laughable. March 21: Pirate puts up a copy […]

Someone’s doing something right inside Google

01.04.2011/23.45

The troubles with Google that I’ve faced—privacy breaches, Ads Preferences Manager not honouring its claims, ﬁghting for six months on behalf of a friend over a deleted Blogger blog, Chrome being buggy (but not nearly as badly as IE9), phantom entries in my Google dashboard, unanswered messages—would suggest, to anyone studying business or a graduate […]

Chevrolet’s new Malibu might still look like a Daewoo

/00.54

I took a few digs at the forthcoming Chevrolet Malibu on my Facebook yesterday. First: a few things GM got right. It’s right to put this on a global platform—in this case, the Opel Insignia‘s. It’s also right to make it a world car of sorts, where it can be sold globally with […]

Three out of three: Google’s Ads Preferences Manager does not work

19.03.2011/23.19

I know you’re sick of reading three of these blog entries on three consecutive days but here’s what my Google Ads Preferences Manager has shown me today. I’m sick of writing about it, but Google’s being so damned predictable. First, the cookie is back, though it hasn’t picked up preferences yet this morning: […]

A bad choice of word, but what does the gay community actually think?

/02.17

While I was out, I had noticed on Twitter a news item about an octogenarian, working for American Airlines, who was sacked for his use of the word faggot. I despise words like that, just as much as chink or nigger, but the question arises: should he have been sacked, losing some of his […]

Google advertising doesn’t understand that opting out means opting out

/01.25

Yesterday, I wrote about Google’s Ads Preferences Manager. I mentioned that I had opted out before, but had found myself having to repeat the exercise. I did, however, stop short at levelling blame at Google for another privacy gaffe, despite its behaviour with Web History, Buzz, Reader, Notes, etc., just in case I had ﬁddled […]

Check that your Google ad opt-out has been honoured

18.03.2011/10.35

I have opted out of Google’s Doubleclick (and others’) advertising cookies many times. In theory, you only need to do it once, but I have been to Google’s opt-out page many times to ﬁnd that the company has set another new cookie on my system. I ﬁddle around with my cookies a lot, so […]

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9: the worst browser on the scene

15.03.2011/11.58

Microsoft has released its Internet Explorer 9 to much fanfare at SXSW. I’m really not sure what the fuss is, because it appears, as usual, the browser hasn’t been tested. Here it is on my Asus laptop, running Vista. That’s apparently my company’s home page. Looks slightly different to how Firefox, Chrome and Opera […]