Adobe Flash is a small program that gives websites the ability to play videos and animations, and the internet would be a duller place without it. However, it is possible to have too much of a good thing and some websites use it so much that it becomes annoying. For instance, it is a particular favourite of advertisers, who think that people like using websites that grind to a halt whilst a bandwidth-sapping video of no interest whatsoever takes over the site. Fortunately, there is a fix if you use the Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome browsers, in the form of a small 'Add-on' called Flashblock (Google it). This installs in a matter of seconds and gives you control over Flash. When a web page that uses Flash is viewed, the Flash content is blocked and a letter 'F' appears where it should be. If you specifically want to see that content, just click on it and it will play normally.
Interesting conversation with a salesperson in PC World this morning. Nearly all the computers were running Windows 8 - Microsoft have done a really good job in getting it into the stores, so much so it seems like Windows 7 never existed. I asked how sales were going? "Seems we've got two types of buyer" was the reply, "People who've been holding off buying until Windows 8 came out, but we've also got plenty of people saying it looks strange and maybe it's time to take a look at the Mac instead".
A case of the law of unintended consequences, maybe? Conventional wisdom says that buying things on the internet is cheaper. And indeed sometimes, a lot of times, that is the case. But not always. Canny sellers take advantage of that perception and in some cases actually charge more for things online, working on the assumption that the average person is thick and will always think that he or she is getting a bargain.
Here's an example. A particular item (it's computer related for that isn't necessarily important here) is available from several sources. At the time of writing, it is £111.99 on Expansys, £117.48 on ebuyer, £119.46 on BT Shop. So you'd expect it to be cheaper on say, eBay, yes? You'd be wrong. The cheapest price on eBay is £126.31, with other people/companies selling is for excess of £130. Note that this is comparing like for like, and includes postage and packing. There are thousands (millions?) of things that are cheaper on eBay, but this isn't one of them. Then there's the curious case of the price comparison websites that pollute the internet. You know the sort: you do a search for, say, how to replace your car's headlamp and you get one of the comparison sites advising that you can buy a headlamp for so much from a company you've never heard of. Many of these sites use so-called meta-data; they are not designed to provide useful information, simply to redirect you to another website regardless of what you have typed in (they receive a tiny payment for doing so). For instance, you type in "how do I replace a car headlamp?" into Google and you get responses such as "Book a holiday in how to replace a car headlamp", "Register the domain how to replace a car headlamp", "New medical breakthrough cures how to replace a car headlamp" and so on. Google itself is a major player. Do a search on an item and there is an excellent chance that one of the results will be from Google itself, containing the line "Compare prices from £nnn at nn stores". If you do so, you'll obtain a list of results. And here's the strange thing: chances are that one of the results will be significantly cheaper than all the rest! For instance, if the average price for the item is £120-ish, there will be one entry that reads £100 (and it will be from a company you've not heard of). Click on it and you'll find that the price does not include VAT (meaning it is really £120 like the others). This is despite the fact that at the bottom of the page there is a disclaimer from Google that states "All prices include VAT". A variant of this is where an item is significantly cheaper, but when you click on it you find it is not the same item as all the others. Let's suppose you have searched for a 25ml bottle of a particular perfume; the average price is £40 but one entry has it for just £25, so naturally you click on that. When you are taken to the retailer's site, you find that is actually for a 10ml bottle. This type of thing is very common. We checked 20 different items over the course of a week. On no less that 16 occasions, the cheapest item did not include VAT or was not actually the item that was searched on. So what is going on? It's worth pointing out that the listings which are generated by Google are not paid for; Google do of course charge for advertising but such results are separate and clearly marked, whereas these results are supposed to be objective and based on a trawl of what is out there. One possible cause is that the listing mechanisms are faulty, or that companies have found ways to exploit them. Regardless of cause, the old cavet of "buyer beware" applies just as much in the online era. If you use the internet, what you do and what you look at are being tracked. Most of this tracking is annoying rather than sinister, being done for the benefit of advertisers rather than by Big Brother. However, it is possible to limit it to some degree. Most programs that do it usually have privacy settings to enable you to control it. But finding them can require a bit of detective work. The way it works on the iPad and iPhone is as follows. Your device generates a random number to uniquely identify it. It keeps tracks of what sites you have visited, what adverts you have seen and what apps you have been using. An advertiser can obtain that information using a feature called IFA or Identification for Advertisers. IFA doesn't identify you as an individual, nor does it identify your device in absolute terms (as in "this is an iPhone 5 owned by Fred Bloggs"). It is more along the lines of "this is an iPad number 123456 which has done the following". Apple would argue that this approach is less intrusive than other methods and there is some justification in that claim. But maybe you don't like the idea of IAF in any shape or form. Can you switch it off? Yes, but how to do so is not obvious, as the setting is not in an obvious place (it is not under privacy settings as you might expect). Instead: Tap Settings. Tap General. Tap About. Tap Advertising. This takes you to something called 'Limit Ad Tracking'. Slide the switch to the right to turn it On. Done! Note: this feature was introduced with iOS 6 and the instructions are not applicable to earlier versions of iOS. Trying to buy a small server or a professional grade NAS box is harder than it needs to be. You cannot just go into, say, PCWorld and buy one. The stuff they sell is strictly consumer only, with little or no concessions to the serious small business user. Instead, it necessary to go to a specialist dealer or buy mail order. But, that has now changed - at least a little bit. Surprisingly, Staples are selling the Western Digital Sentinel DX4000 Networked Attached Storage unit in their brances. The DX4000 is rather nice. It is a well made NAS that runs Windows Storage Server 2008R2 Essentials - a close cousin of Windows Home Server but capable of servicing 25 computers rather than 10. Most NAS systems run a variant of Linux; the choice of Windows means the box has to be more powerful plus the software is more expensive, but it is very polished and capable. The DX4000 has a lot of well thought out quality features; for instance, it uses enterprise-grade hard drives and has twin Gigabit Ethernet connections. It also has two connections for power bricks; unfortunately only one is supplied, but it means you can at least prepare yourself for a failure. The question is: who will buy? The DX4000 is relatively expensive, at £799 for a 4GB model or £1199 for an 8GB one. This is not to say that it is not value for money - Windows-based NAS boxes are pricey, although it is also possible to buy it for less than this online. But the question is really: who will walk in off the street and pay £799 for one? It is not, after all, an impulse purchase. Being able to buy such a sophisticated piece of technology in a retail outlet is an interesting development. It will be interesting to see how it pans out. A reader writes:
Fans of George Orwell will be familiar with the idea of the 'Two minute hate', where everyone is encouraged (obliged) to express their hatred at Big Brother's enemies. I'm beginning to feel we should have one about Google... First, there was the change to Google's terms and conditions for GMail and Google Docs users. You might be aware that Google 'reads' your emails. That is, it electronically scans all your messages and, based on what keywords and phrases it finds, it will then serve up what it considers to be appropriate advertisements. A few months ago they introduced new terms and conditions, the gist of which is that any files you store on Google Docs (or Google Drive as it is now called) don't really belong to you - they belong to Google. That is, they reserve the right to use the contents of your documents and such. Secondly, there was the change of interface as Google Docs became Google Drive. Okay, you can still view it the old way (for now), but this enforced change reeks of arrogance. Finally, as of October 1st you can no longer export Google Docs into the 'traditional' Microsoft formats of .DOC, .XLS and .PPT. Okay, you could say that everyone should have switched to the more modern Microsoft formats introduced in Office 2007 or at least have file converters, but the reality is that many people haven't. Still on Google Docs... if you are using Internet Explorer 8 you will get a message saying that all of Google Docs features aren't supported and you need to switch to a more modern browser. Microsoft don't do a more modern browser for XP users - IE8 is the final version. Unsurprisingly, Google do, in the form of Google Chrome. Else it means they are putting up two fingers to XP users (WIndows XP still runs on over 40% of the world's PCs). Finally, there's the business of the Google Toolbar. Almost every PC I go to fix has it installed and guess what? That's right - the user didn't install it, it has mysteriously put itself in place, bit like malware, eh? Quite why anyone would want such a thing is a mystery. I mean, it has the ability to stop pop-ups and to help you complete forms. Hmmm. Might have been useful about a decade ago but every browser since then does this sort of stuff anyway. Perhaps it's just collecting stats on what you are doing. Google's motto is "Do no evil". Perhaps they should remind themselves of that rather than trying to bully the world into their way of thinking. (the above contribution is from a reader and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of CTACS). The idea of Cloud Computing is now well established amongst many computer users. Definitions of what constitutes Cloud Computing vary, but for most people it is above providing storage in the internet - a safe place where data and backups can be stored. Closely related to this is the idea of syncronisation and replications; as in, store something on the cloud and it is available to all your devices. Or in very simple language: it is liking having a big USB memory stick somewhere in the sky. The most popular cloud services for individuals and small businesses are Apple's iCloud, Microsoft's SkyDrive, Google Drive, Amazon S3 and Dropbox. In one sense, they are much of a muchness as they all do pretty much the same thing, with the amount of storage space and how much (if anything) you have to pay for it. All of these services are Public Clouds; that is, they are available to members of the public and are operated by commerical companies looking for customers amongst the general public. There are numerous advantages in using a public cloud. For a start, they are provided by enormous organisations that have the funding and expertise to provide a safe, reliable service that is always available. Also, there are considerable volumes of scale: with tens of millions of customers, they are able to provide a low cost service (as mentioned above, it can even be free). But, there are some disadvantages with public clouds. First, there is the question of trust: just how safe is your data? This doesn't just mean safe from prying eyes (hackers), it also means safe from the provider of the service. Some cloud operators, for instance Microsoft and Google, state in their terms and conditions that they reserve the right to look at and use your data. Now, you might expect that they need to take reasonable precautions to guard against the storage of material that is clearly illegal (terrorist manuals, pirated software and movies, certain types of pornography), and to provide controlled access to the security services under proper safeguards. But do you really want them trawling through your accounts or customer database or other documents to build up a profile of you and your business? Do you want one of your photographs subsequently appearing in an advertisement somewhere without your knowledge? Or to be bombarded with advertisements based on what they have determined to be your interests? All of these eventualities are catered for in the T&C of some of the big players. Secondly, what if the cloud provider changes the rules? That is, you might be very happy with the way their system operates in terms of pricing, performance, device availability and user interface. But one day you might find that they have changed things, that the system operates differently and that certain facilities have been withdrawn or your operating system is no longer supported (example: Apple's iCloud used to work with Windows XP. It no longer does so). It is unlikely that any of the big names will suddenly cease trading, but what if one of them decides that it no longer wants to be in the cloud business - what happens to your data then? Thirdly, although most cloud providers give some free storage, it may not be enough for you and the cost of additional space may be more than you are prepared to pay. For instance, Apple provide 5GB of storage for free (actually enough for a lot of people) but if you need more - say 50GB - then it is £70 a year. The answer to all of these questions is: a Private Cloud. This is one that you run yourself, one that is totally under your control (Your cloud. Your rules). As the data stays with you, you can feel secure that it is safe from prying eyes. And you can use it as much as you want, without any additional charges. Suddenly need 100GB rather than 5GB? No problem. Now, you might think that setting up a private cloud is something well beyond the capabilities of the average person or small business and, a few years ago, this was certainly the case. However, most modern NAS (Networked Attached Storage) boxes have the capability built-in. It's simply a matter of ticking a few boxes and answering one or two questions and you are up and running. Even consumer grade NAS boxes - the ones that sell for little more than £100 in the likes of PC World, Comet and Maplin have this capability. On prosumer (professional consumer) or small business NAS from the likes of Synology and QNAP, these private cloud facilities are every bit as sophisticated as what you get from Microsoft and Google et al, but without the limitations of price and capacity. Are there any pitfalls to be wary of? Yes. Because your NAS is connected to the internet then potentially it is susceptible to the activities of hackers, although realistically it is not much different than having, say, your normal computer connected and your probably don't worry too much about that. However, you should have a router with a decent firewall, avail yourself of any security features offered by the NAS box, plus use proper passwords on your accounts and change them from time to time. We would normally recommend prosumer equipment, for example Billion routers and Synology NAS |
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