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PCI Compliance for Dummies arms you with the facts, in plain English, and shows you how to achieve PCI Compliance. In this book you will discover:
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The new toolbar has many of the features from previous builds such as auto-fill, page information and so on. It also contains some interesting tools such as the ability to store your toolbar settings within your Google account. This means if you use more than one system you can ensure you have the same buttons, tools and features on all your systems. This is done by having one web based configuration file. This may be a pretty unique way of pushing toolbar users towards signing up for a Google account.
Like all other Google products there are privacy concerns; the new toolbar is no exception. There is an option to store your web history including pages surfed, videos viewed and search history. This does have its uses, but do you really need a web based history when you have a history collection built into your web browser? Without a doubt this feature is more useful to Google than it ever can be to the end user. Thankfully by default web history is disabled. I don't think I will be enabling this feature any time soon. Google does contradict itself within the web history pages...
"This service will not collect any history until you choose to resume. Resume. Learn more."
"Your web history is limited to searches. Expand your web history."
So it does appear Google are recoding your search activity, but then they have been doing this for years, Google know exactly how many searches are performed, what searches are popular and so on, but now they are able to obtain a lot more information about each individual user. For example what sites you surf, do these sites provide you with their information you need, and so on. With this new data Google will certainly be able to make searches a lot more tailored to each user.
It seems as if Google really wants to be the "Cloud" where we store all our information to be later retrieved or shared. From a privacy point of view this may be mundane or may be a total nightmare, but either way we have to agree that sending information into the cloud so to speak may be the way to go. We just need to wonder, are Google asking us to provide more information than is safe?
]]>I decided it was time to revert back to IE7 so I went to control panel > Add remove programs, there was no mention if any version of Internet Explorer in there. I then checked the little check box at the top to enable the add remove/programs window to show updates to software that was installed, but again no IE component is in the list. I know IE8 is beta, but surely the developers at Microsoft could have at least placed it within the add/remove programs list.
There is a way to remove IE8 from your system and revert back to IE7, it only takes a few moments and will have you running IE7 again.
A little warning
By following my solution you do so at your own risk. You are uninstalling beta software in a way that has not been endorsed by Microsoft. You do so at your own risk.
Once you have followed the process through you will be prompted to restart your system. You should do this before opening Internet Explorer. Once you have restarted your system launch IE. You will notice that you are now surfing in IE7. It will be like a clean install of IE7 so it will ask you a few questions before sending you to your homepage. This only takes a few seconds.
During the uninstall process you will be warned that any programs installed after IE8 that rely on IE8 to operate may no longer function. It will provide you with a list of applications you have installed since you upgraded to IE8 beta. This is a very general warning issued by Microsoft Windows systems. This should cause no problems because very few if any programs rely on IE8 to function.
I still have to ask, why did Microsoft make it so tricky to uninstall their Beta?
]]>The simple check boxes next to the messages worked well. Now you have to right click a message and select delete from the drop down menu that appears. The simple fact that you have to go through each message one at a time means it take a LOT longer to delete the obvious spam or unwanted email messages before you can even begin to start reading your email.
Another annoying "feature" that Myway have added is a preview pane. Every message will now open in a preview pane when it is selected; now even the spam is technically being opened as you select the message in order to delete it. This is very very wrong.
Spam mailers will pounce on this weakness. Let's imagine a spammer is sending out mass mails and tracking them using a unique value for an image. All they need to do is check logs to see what user opened the email. This then confirms that the user account is active and in use. the user will then see a lot more spam email to his/her account because it has been proven to be an active email account.
I mentioned that Myway feels very bloated with features. The worst part is a lot of these features are not at all explained. One example is credit cards.
Within the interface there is a small icon, if you mouse over it is says preferences. When you click the icon there is a mini window that pops up. There is then an option "credit card" you can then add your credit card details. The big question is why do they offer this? And why is this feature not better explained?
If I was going to put my credit card details into a web form I would at least expect to be told what my credit card details were being requested for. I mean is this simple storage so you can later view them, or is this for something else? Myway really need to address this new interface, because is plainly doesn't work as it should. The one big issue I found with the adding credit card page is the title "Billing" - billing for what exactly?
It appears that Myway no longer manage their own email. It is now handled by a third party email provider called Bluetie. This company specialise in hosted email solutions for corporations and ISP's I wonder if the Myway team perhaps have access to admin area and have simply left some tools enabled that they have no intention of using.
Speaking personally I know I will no longer be using the Myway email service simply because they have taken away its one redeeming feature. Simplicity! It used to be so simple to use, now it is a headache full of un-needed features and general clutter.
Web users like things to simply work as intended. They do not need things to be bloated and filled with things they will never use. Even if Myway where going to go with the Bluetie solution they should have offered it in a very striped down form, and allowed the user to add features as they require. Not do the opposite and provide a cramped user experience with the option to take futures away.
I honestly think that the new email interface will lead to a lot of user simply moving to another email provider. I think this may well prove to be an example of a usability issue. When ever a website makes a dramatic change to any part of their site, they need to make tests and gauge user opinion. You can't simple push a radical change at users and expect them to just carry on as before.
]]>The project is operated by the European Centre for Nuclear Research, known more commonly by its French acronym (CERN) The project was in the planning for almost 30 years and took close to 25 years to build.
By firing very small particles and colliding them the team hope to create even smaller particles. It is these new particles that will be studied. If you think of the smallest particles known to man, and smash them into smaller particles we have new particles that we currently know very little about. It is these "new" particles that scientists believe were created at the time of the Big Bang. By gathering as much information about the impact and the particles resulting in it, scientists will be able to gain more information about the creation of the universe and perhaps life itself. This is certainly the most powerful physics experiment every carried out.
There have been calls for the experiments being carried out at European Centre for Nuclear Research to be cancelled due to the potential risk posted to the planet, the universe and life. Some scientists have claimed there is a great risk posted by carrying out this experiment. Some have even stated the experiment could create a black hole, that as it grew would consume the planet. These claims have been declared false by most scientists and governments. The team state they have done their sums and the experiment posts no threat. This in itself does raise an important issue: just now much risk does there need to potentially be before such experiments are banned? Many would say that even a slight risk is too much of a risk.
There is also a report of a 16 year girl from India who killed herself fearing the Big Bang experiment would destroy the planet.
We will try and keep this fairly simple. Everything is matter, in that it exists. Let's take a stone as an example. it is physically there, but what is it made of? It is made of matter, particles all held together, billions of tiny items coming together to make a larger item. If we break the stone what we have is multiple items, fragments of the original.
The experiment looks a lot closer at the particles themselves. What the experiment aims to do is break a particle into smaller items. In the case of the Big Bang experiment what the team hope to see is a Higgs boson particle. This is a particle that is believed to exist but has never been found as a result of any prior experiment. The entire basis of particle physics was devised in the mid 60s and to this day is still followed as the definitive answer, but the case put forward by the 1960s hypothesis is still lacking proof. For example the Higgs boson molecule would need to be present for mass and gravity. Without this gravity and some mass wouldn't be possible. To an extent the Big Bang experiment if successful will either prove or disprove all of part of the 1964 findings.
The theory used to this day is made of 16 types of particles. There are 12 particles that make up matter, and 4 that are used to transmit force. No one has ever been able to explain the most powerful force, gravity!
The experiment is scheduled to last several months. So far the team have succeeded n sending particle beams clockwise and counter clockwise round the tunnels. They have not yet attempted to collide any particles.
The project is not only one of the largest and most powerful physics experiments every carried out it is also a major feat of engineering. The detectors that are designed to gather information at the point of impact are simply huge. There are 4 different detectors within the tunnels Alice, Atlas, CMS and LHCb. Each detector is a massive piece of engineering wonder.
It is quite incredible to think that it takes machines on this scale to discover and record information about the smallest of particles. The photograph is taken from a CERN press release and shows the CMS detector.
With a total surface area of 205 square metres, about the same as a singles tennis court, the CMS Silicon Strip Tracking Detector is by far the largest semiconductor silicon detector ever constructed. Its silicon sensors are patterned to provide a total of 10 million individual sensing strips, each of which is read out by one of 80,000 custom designed microelectronics chips. Data are then transported via 40,000 optical fibres into the CMS data acquisition system.
"Constructing a scientific instrument of this size and complexity, designed to operate at the LHC without intervention for more than ten years, is a major engineering and scientific achievement," said CMS spokesman Tejinder Virdee. "More than five hundred scientists and engineers from fifty-one research institutions world-wide have contributed to the success of the project."
The full experiments are scheduled to start in October 2008 but it is not yet clear when findings will be made available. Let's just hope the findings are worth the time money and investment that has already been poured into the CERN project.
]]>
IE8 looks very similar to IE7. The biggest change from IE6 to IE7 was the tabbed browsing feature. This has been retained in IE8. The first thing that appears different is the "compatibility view button located next to the GO/refresh button. In basic terms this button is to allow you to better display websites that have been designed with older browsers in mind. Many have been critical of Microsoft in the past because they don't exactly follow web standards when designing browsers. In effect the Compatibility button allows IE8 to have a second chance of rendering the page correctly.
In fairness If MS were to develop a browser that exactly followed web standards users would experience problems getting web pages to display correctly. By building a browser that will render as high a percentage of pages as possible in a usable way, it is of benefit to the user.
Another key feature that Microsoft are keen to inform users of is "Private surfing" This feature allows users to explore the web without leaving a trail of history pages or temporary internet files on their computer. This can be enabled or disabled by the user at any time. This feature may well have its uses, but it may have detrimental effects to webmasters who rely of affiliate cookies being placed on users' machines in order to gain affiliate commissions. When a user is surfing in privacy mode the machine will delete all cookies placed on the machine during the private surfing session. By default private browsing is disabled, but it is fairly simple to activate it. This may cause problems for webmasters if this becomes a widely used feature.
One detail I noticed when I installed IE8 was that the menu is visible by default. In IE7 the main menu was hidden by default and the user had to press ALT in order to view the menu. This may well be as a result of feedback received during the IE7 lifecycle. In IE6 a lot of the browser's features were available through the main menu. Perhaps users got used to using the menu and Microsoft have decided to put it back.
There are a lot of users who are still surfing with IE6 or older. I wonder what Microsoft will do to push IE8 towards die hard users of older web browsers...
Microsoft have certainly released IE8 beta at a difficult time. Not only are they competing with Opera and Firefox who are Microsoft's traditional competitors within the browser market place, they are also coming up against Google who have just released their own beta version of a web browser called "Chrome"
Once again it looks as if we may be heading towards a browser war.
]]>
The Google Chrome browser is a fresh looking browser, that has a unique and uncluttered user interface. Simplicity seems to have been high on the list of priorities for the user interface designers who worked on the Chrome project. The first thing you notice is the browser looks very sleek and does not have lots of buttons or other clutter. It only has the bare essentials within the default view. You can however opt to add or remove buttons from within the browser configuration area. One thing you will be sure to notice is the massive address bar, that also doubles as a search box. Now if you mistype a url or type a term in the box the browser will simply Google it and present results for you.
This really does make sense, I have never understood the point of having two text areas, one for web addresses and one for carrying out searches. This is currently the way it is handled by both Firefox and Internet Explorer.
The one thing that can make or break the success of this browser is how Google decide to market it. I suspect within the next few months we will be seeing adverts for Google Chrome all over the internet. It is also possible that Google may pay webmasters a commission for successful download of Chrome though the Google referrals system within Google AdSense. This is just guesses, as nothing has officially been released by Google regarding their marketing intentions for Google Chrome.
Like just about any product released by Google there are countless people claiming foul regarding their privacy policy. In this case the same applies. I simply recommend you read the licence file as you install. In general terms, if you aren't doing anything wrong then why worry? One thing is for sure, the information retrieval possibilities of a Google browser may have profound effects for the way Google does business in the future.
Google Chrome has a set of pretty decent features, it also has its own built in task manager that includes a neat feature called "Stats for nerds" by clicking on this you're able to view information about what applications are using your memory. I think one of the main reasons Google have incorporated this into the correct release is because you can see just how much less memory Google uses compared to other commonly used web browsers. I am not sure if this will be included within the final release (intended for the general public). Google do however appear keen to let the public know the browser is out. It is currently mentioned on the Google homepage with a link to the download area.
It is surprising to note that the Google Chrome browser doesn't have the Google toolbar, if you want Toolbar PR information you will indeed need to use Internet Explorer. Google may be able to cut into MS market share even from developers if they include PR display as part of Chrome.
]]>If we think about another popular online service such as Yahoo!, they get users to create a Yahoo account. Once you have done this you have access to all of Yahoo's services from within your Yahoo account. This makes sense and I will never understand why Google didn't do this from the start.
Merging your various Google services into one Google account sounds like a great idea, but it is not an easy task to say the least. I have several different accounts all using just a couple of email addresses. Today I tried to access AdWords to be told I had an incorrect password, when I requested my password be resent the Google accounts system changed my AdSense password because they are on the same email address. It becomes a real problem when I try and merge these two accounts together, it gives me an error message saying a google account is already in use with this email address. Yes my account.
In short if I want to comply with Google's wishes and consolidate my accounts I will need to lose some of my services. It will be a matter of prioritizing what I have with what I need.
The solution appears to be the creation of a new Google account, them merge the services I need to the new account. At this point anything that I can't merge over due to email address conflicts will need to be forgotten about.
We just need to hope that Google and other future web companies bear this in mind. Always plan ahead and leave room for growth.
]]>To put this into perspective I will provide some examples from the game. The concept behind Pirate Quest is simple yet effective. You are a pirate and you can sail around the Caribbean sea robbing people, buying ships, smuggling goods and more. Every new member starts off weak and needs to train and gain experience in order to become a stronger pirate. This takes time and effort and can be a slow process. What if a user wrote a program that kept automatically refreshing the "Training" page when the user was able to train. This would mean the user would gain strength or defensive skills with very little effort. This is basically cheating and something the game developers have tried hard to avoid.
In all fairness Pirate Quest doesn't have a great problem with cheaters. The staff and developers are strict regarding this type of activity and will ban any account that has been found to be cheating. The problem is industry wide and there are lots of users on RPG games who are all too happy to use automated systems to enable cheating. There are two problems that face RPG developers: detection and prevention.
Detection is never going to be easy. To a large extent this process will be manual. Let's say for example a player's stats have shot up rapidly in a relatively short time. This may raise a flag about the honesty of the user on that account. The developers will then be able to look back and find out just what the user is doing. It may be that the user has been working hard to improve his/her game abilities or the player may be cheating.
Prevention would appear to be the key in this battle. If you can make it as difficult as possible for cheaters to run automated systems on your site then you will greatly reduce the chances of it happening. This is one area Pirate Quest have been very active in over the past few months.
On Pirate Quest one area where automated systems could be used is training. Let's imagine you set up a macro or automated system to train your player every 30 minutes. This time would be long enough for your players "strength" and "awake" to fully recover before training again. This sort of system could be left running at night. The player is asleep and the system is improving the game stats whilst he/she sleeps. This is clearly cheating and gives them an advantage over other game players who are having to do this process manually.
What can and does work is throwing something into the mix to affect the cycle that the system is following. In our simple technique we mentioned above, the system trains, waits 30 minutes then trains again. What if the system randomly showed the user an image containing numbers and letters that had to be typed in. At this point our simple system becomes unable to continue, and all advantage has been lost. Victory to the developers! But what if the system being used was smart enough to read the letters and numbers within the image and typed them into the game and then trained? This sort of system is available and has been used in the past.
OCR technology (Optical Character Recognition) systems can be used to read the letters and numbers within this type of system. This means that if people really are determined to cheat they potentially still can.
What Pirate Quest have done now to to make the images totally unreadable to anything other than humans is to use "gestures" as opposed to letters and numbers. I guess there are some great programmers that would be able to work round this somehow, but if they are that good then they probably have more important things to do. This is simply out of the reach of the people who attempt to cheat at this sort of game. This system really levels the playing field and makes it a lot harder for users who are tying to manipulate the system.
Not only is this system a lot harder to trick it is also a lot easier for the end user to read. It really is very clear and simple to use. In an ideal world we wouldn't need to use anti-cheating systems like this but in reality there are people out there who are determined to manipulate games like this to their advantage. Let's hope this new system will act as a sufficient deterrent to prevent this type of thing from happening.
You may wonder why people choose to try and cheat at games like this. Well there are two main reasons. The first reason is simply to enable them to be a better player at the game. The second reason is because there will be people willing to pay for a strong account. In theory there is money to be made by creating accounts, getting them into a powerful playing position then selling them on. World of Warcraft accounts for example have been known to change hands for large sums of money.
The new system introduced by Pirate Quest reassures me that the developers and staff are keen to keep the game as fair as possible. This is best for all honest players and will ensure the game remains fun and enjoyable to all.
]]>Now things have changed, although for the majority of users the answers will still be the same. There are however a growing minority of users who have looked past Microsoft to seek alternatives. The Firefox web browser is a prime example of a non-Microsoft product that is rapidly gaining market share. Some analysts believe the Firefox web browser takes up to 18% of the market share.
Let's have a look at some of the tasks that average users would carry out on a daily basis and look at some alternatives.
Microsoft Office has dominated the desktop office suite market for many years. Microsoft's marketing power and product bundling with new machines has ensured they retain their impressive lead within this lucrative market. The plus side to Microsoft Office is it is feature rich. It empowers the user to become more productive in their day to day tasks, the downside is it can be expensive.
There is however a free office application that supports pretty much the same features as Microsoft office. It is also compatible with most documents that have been created with Microsoft office. This piece of software is called Open Office.
The Open Office Office suite is a rich selection of office applications that allow you to do pretty much the same tasks as you would do with Microsoft Office. For example you can open and manipulate documents created with Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and more. You can also save your edited or created documents with a Microsoft friendly file extension and later open them again with Microsoft Office.
It is possible to use Microsoft office and Open Office within one environment. Documents created using one system can be opened, edited and saved with the other.
Although Open Office and Microsoft Office are very much the same, they do look, feel and operate differently. This is probably one of the main reasons industry hasn't jumped on the OpenOffice bandwagon as of yet. With Microsoft office you get a system that is a perfect companion to Microsoft Windows. It behaves in exactly the same way that the user is used to with other Microsoft applications. With OpenOffice things are done differently. As a result staff would have to be retrained on how to use the software correctly.
However, the learning curve is not steep and for the average home user the time spend learning to use Open Office may well be worth it as opposed to the cost of licensing a copy of Microsoft Office. Each does have a learning curve, it's just a case of each system doing things differently.
Microsoft Outlook and Outlook express are the most popular email clients available today. Microsoft Outlook is actually a component of Microsoft Office. The free version, Outlook Express is a Microsoft Windows component. Outlook Express is technically free, although you do have to purchase a copy of Windows in order to use it so in reality the cost is built into your Windows licence fee. Outlook Express is basically a stripped down version of Microsoft Outlook, it is a very basic email client designed to send and receive email and also check newsgroups. The same features and more can be found in alternative applications such as Thunderbird.
Thunderbird is a free email application developed by the Mozilla Foundation. It contains all the features you would find within Outlook Express and many of the features available from within Outlook.
Thunderbird allows you to manage your email and newsgroups. it also allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds and manage your contacts list. The application has the same look and feel as Outlook Express but is supplied with many more features than the default installation of Outlook Express. Thunderbird has advanced spam and scam fighting features that try to protect you by alerting you to potential spam and scam emails. It does this by connecting to a remote database and checking the mail as it is received. You can use Thunderbird to manage multiple email accounts and it allows you to use the software with multiple Windows users. Each user has their own accounts and settings.
One of Outlook's great features is its contact manager. Thunderbird offers the same feature and it also works in very much the same way as the conventional Outlook contacts manager. You can also import all your existing contacts to Thunderbird when you install the software. It will detect what email system you currently have installed and offer to move all your existing contacts and also accounts over from the existing software to Thunderbird.
In the majority of cases Thunderbird will be able to be used as a direct replacement for your existing email application, but there are some exceptions, for example Active Sync will not work with anything apart from Microsoft Outlook. This can be vital if you intend to carry out synchronisation between your pocket PC or smart phone and your PC computer system.
Without a doubt Internet Explorer is the most popular web browser currently in use, but this doesn't stop other companies providing alternatives. Firefox for example is slowly but surely cutting into Microsoft's market share. Opera is also up there as a competitor in the browser market. Web browsers are simple to use and someone who has experience using any of these browsers will surely be able to get the most from them all in a relatively short time. The browser developers have all settled for simplicity within their applications. By keeping the software simple it is easy for users to migrate from one to another.
Both Firefox and Opera have made it easy to set the browsers up. When you are carrying out the installation it will prompt you if you want to copy your bookmarks favourites and cookies from Internet Explorer to your new browser. This makes the migration very simple.
Even although Microsoft have a clear lead in the browser market share, there is nothing to say this will last. Remember what happened when Netscape used to be the dominant browser supplier, you do remember Netscape right? Where are they now.
If a company employs the right approach and builds a better browser than Microsoft Internet Explorer then there is no reason why people wouldn't choose to switch. In such a fast paced industry nothing is set in stone. Users are getting wise, and know that alternatives are out there.
In recent times Mozilla have taken stops to actively promote their Firefox web browser. They are marketing it using Google. Web users are being invited to download the Browser along with the Google Toolbar. Google gain by generating toolbar users, Mozilla gain market share of their web browser.
The days of consumers just accepting what they are given along with the Windows operating system are limited. Users want choice and the software companies are only to happy to deliver it.
]]>Because of this, backing up your files is very important. It is also critical to make sure your backup files are stored in a different drive or different device from your main files. If you simply make copies of your files and store them on your C: drive your backup files are not safe. Let's imagine you have a hard disk failure with your documents backed up on the same drive. You will not only lose your documents, you will also lose your backup.
Because of this is is important to have your backups stored on a different location from your main files. One way of doing this is to go into your "My Documents" folder and create a folder called Backup. Within this folder copy and paste your the rest of the "My Documents" folder. Once you have done this you will have a folder within "My Documents" with the contents of "My Documents" placed within it. What you can then do is right click the folder you created, go to <Send to> then <Compressed (zipped) folder>. What this will do is create a Zip file containing the "Backup" folder.
By Zipping the folder what you are doing is compressing it. This means it will take up less disk space on your hard drive, or in this case another storage device. What you then need to do is get the Zip file to another device. This can be a CD/DVD Rom, memory card or any other media device you have access to.
The principle behind this technique is simple. Windows will run as normal. You will periodically create a new Zip file and save it to your non C: drive location. Then if you have a serious error occur you may lose your Windows install, but at least your documents and files will be safe. What you would then do is repair the problem, reinstall windows, copy your zip file onto the computer, open it and move the files and folder into their correct locations. This is a simple backup solution but in most cases it will be adequate.
Another method of achieving a similar result is to install a second hard disk into your PC. What you will then do is copy and paste your documents from C: drive onto your second hard disk. Windows XP makes it simple to install another disk. Once the disk has been physically installed it will appear as a different drive letter from within "My Computer"
Using this method if you lose your main drive you will have a backup on your second drive. Then all you need to do is reinstall your first drive and/or Windows, and the operating system will then automatically detect the second drive. You will then be able to copy your files back over from the second drive to your main drive. This method is fairly effective although I still recommend having a remote copy of your documents, particularly your most important files. In theory it is possible that a power surge may cause you to lose both disks.
The back up solution I use is to have a second hard disk, and make a backup every 2 days. I then burn a weekly backup to DVD as a worst case scenario backup.
There are other sections of your computer that you may want to backup. For example any downloaded software that you have installed. You may wish to backup the setup files so that you don't have to download them again should you need to reinstall the software.
Another important area that you may wish to backup is your cookies. Cookies are small files that store data that you use on the internet, for example remembering passwords and log in details for websites that you are required to sign into. Although this is not vital to backup this area it can be beneficial if you can't remember your login details.
A number of companies provide remove backup solutions. Remote backup companies allow you to store your data and information on their servers. This means that if you experience a system failure your information is safe on the third party companies server. You can then obtain the data from the company when you have restored your system. We can't provide any recommendations regarding these companies because we have never tried them. All we recommend you do is research the company before you sign up or agree to their services.
Developing your own backup procedure can save you a lot of hard work and heart ache if you ever lose your valuable data. A few minutes of time each week could save you countless hours of lost work.
]]>On demand isn't new, it has been offered by various broadcasters and carriers for several years, but online on demand is a relatively new concept and one that the BBC seem to want to be a front runner in.
Currently the BBC iPlayer is in beta, which means it is still under development but is available for testing purposes. if you would like to get your hands on a beta account for the iPlayer you need to submit an application from the BBC iPlayer web pages. Your submission will then be approved or declined by someone from the BBC.
The BBC iPlayer is web based and there have been a few critics who have commented on the BBC's incompatibility issues. For example the iPlayer requires the Windows operating system. it also requires Internet Explorer and also needs Windows Media Player to be installed on the end user's machine.
There are a lot of people who feel left out, for example users who do not wish to use Internet Explorer, or users of Apple computers. What I would stress at this point is quite simple. iPlayer is still beta. Beta is a very important with with regards to any software development project. The important point to bear in mind is beta = still not finished or ready for public release. The BBC may well be working towards allowing the service to be used on other platforms or on computer systems running different software.
To an extent it makes sense for the BBC to keep their focus on the most likely end user system during the development stage. This way it is easier to iron out any bugs or issues that may be present along the way. Then once the software is starting to become usable and stable the developers can start looking at other branches of the development, for example non-IE web browsers, or perhaps non-Windows operating systems.
By this time you are probably thinking, where is the actual review of BBC iPlayer? Well to be totally honest, I was not able to get it to work at all. Our test machine was a PC running a genuine copy of Windows XP professional with service pack 2. It also had Internet Explorer 7 and Windows Media Player installed to their most recent versions through Microsoft windows update. Even with the correct software installed iPlayer was still unable to work for me.
The iPlayer page showed the system requirements and had a green tick next to each item, although it would not allow me to play or download the program. The only option available was "back to program details"
I know I said earlier on that this was simply a beta, but it is pretty annoying when you apply for a beta program and get accepted to be issued with software that simply doesn't run. I know there will be a fix for this and it will work, but I feel the BBC could have done a lot more testing on this software before it was released even into beta stage. If I am having this issue I am sure there will be others in the same situation. I have posted my issue on the BBC iPlayer forums so hopefully there will be a solution to my issue pretty soon.
If and when I am able to fully test the BBC iPlayer I will report my findings.
]]>Web accessibility refers to the way that websites are designed and developed so that they are accessible to all people using the internet. Accessible websites are built using technologies that enable users to access them from a wide range of user agents and devices regardless of what browsing technology they are using. Accessible websites allow access to both disabled and non-disabled people.
Yes. In the UK, it illegal to discriminate against people with disabilities, as outlined in the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). In 2002, the DDA published a Code of Practice, which specifically states that web accessibility is a legal requirement. As the DDA has not provided instructions on how to create accessible websites, The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Internet's governing body, has created guidelines for web designers and developers to adhere to in order to create accessible websites. The combination of the DDA's Code of Practice and the W3C guidelines form the basis for adherence to the DDA.
According to The Disability Rights Commission (DRC), there are over 10 million disabled people living in the UK, which is over 16% of the total UK population of 60.2 million (National Statistics).
Although the need for web accessibility has been driven by the DDA, accessible websites benefit all internet users and website owners.
Accessible websites:
As there are many technologies currently used to build websites, not all web agencies adhere to the W3C guidelines, so companies need to ensure that they engage an agency that specializes in Accessibility and Web Standards. In 2006, the DRC and the British Standards Institution (BSI) published PAS 78: A guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites.
Web Standards are a set of rules and guidelines, set out by the W3C, for those who design and develop websites. Web Standards provide the foundation for the creation of accessible websites. Web Standards are the leading web technology over other existing technologies and will become the norm for the industry over the next few years.
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This article was written by Sandi Wassmer of London based digital agency, Copious
]]>It is now possible to have an operating system installed on your flash drive and boot it from any PC system you happen to be at. This means you can use the same "system" at home, in the office, at your friends house or even at an internet cafe. One great feature about this is the ability to take all your settings with you not just your documents. It also means you can set up your email system on the flash drive based operating system and not have to do this on every machine you use.
One of the most popular systems being installed for this purpose is Linux. The main reasons are:
Having an operating system stored on a flash drive means you can take all your files with you in a very portable format. You can also store, create and edit new files and save then to a virtual hard drive within the USB flash drive. It is almost like having a very small PC system that you can plug into any host computer system.
One of the main downsides to this process is the lifespan of the flash drive. Flash drives are not designed to, or able to endure a long life of re-writing information. By saving an operating system files to one they will be constantly updating and changing. This could be anything from your documents to configuration files for the operating system itself.
Because of this it makes good working practice to regularly backup the contents of your flash based operating system to your local computer hard disk.
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