Technology

Most people know my feelings about politicians and social media. Either be good at it or go home. Trevor Mallard is just cringe-worthy, and then you have Judith Collins who has actually grasped the concept of Twitter.

It is no use senior advisors whinging about activities of politicians on Twitter when paid party consultants attend caucus and implore MPs to “engage” with voters via Twitter. Bitching about their screw ups or sledging or even poor messaging is pointless when you are the ones who set the cat amongst the pigeons in the first place.

This post at The Telegraph properly explains Twitter and politicians.

I shudder to think what would have happened if we had been armed with Twitter. Politically, the micro-blogging site has become a weapon of mass destruction. Where Alastair Campbell complained about the drumbeat of the 24-hour news channels, Mr Cameron must contend with the minute-by-minute verdict of social media, where his performances and policies are scrutinised, judged and discarded instantly.  Read more »

The Chinese government sponsored hackers are back in business:

Three months after hackers working for a cyberunit of China’s People’s Liberation Army went silent amid evidence that they had stolen data from scores of American companies and government agencies, they appear to have resumed their attacks  using different techniques, according to computer industry security experts and American officials.

The Obama administration had bet that “naming and shaming” the groups, first in industry reports and then in the Pentagon’s own detailed survey of Chinese military capabilities, might prompt China’s new leadership to crack down on the military’s highly organized team of hackers — or at least urge them to become more subtle.  Read more »

via news.com.au

When you read articles like this, you wonder if we are anywhere near overcoming the challenges of space travel.  Just a short 5 months in space has left Canadian Chris Hadfield’s body in such a state that’s even had to learn how to use his tongue for speaking in gravity again.

Reuters reports

Back on Earth, Canadian astronaut and cyberspace tweeter Chris Hadfield is getting a rough re-introduction to gravity after a five-month stint aboard the International Space Station, the former commander told reporters during a video webcast from Houston.

Read more »

Starting with the line that should close this post first:  You really should sign up for a free Gmail account and start the process of bringing your email across while you can do it under non-emergency conditions.  After all, how may “warnings” do you need?

via business.telkom.co.za

Hot off the press, the next Yahoo security breach has been reported from Yahoo Japan, where 10% of their customer’s information has been euphemistically ”leaked”

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I currently have an iPhone 4…it is nearly time to renew it.

I have also recently become very, very annoyed with Vodafone. I spend a not inconsequential sum of money with them and the last few customer service interactions have been less than desirable.

I also find their network coverage annoying with regular drop outs of service in spots there shouldn’t ever be. So should I stay or should I go…I certainly don’t feel like a wanted customer.  Read more »

via raglan23.co.nz

Yesterday I observed NBR’s Chris Keall getting excited like a little boy about Telecom’s Free WiFi at phone boxes scheme – WiFi Zone.  Repeated tweets, articles and even hurried corrections as his excitement got away on him and he had to adjust some of the fantastic numbers (3000 phone boxes with free WiFi?  No.)

The fact is, I didn’t realise why it was so exciting to Chris.  I’ve been walking and driving past the blasted things for about 6 months now.

Part of a pilot scheme, these have been deployed in parts of New Zealand where the tourists normally flock to.  But as you do when you live away from the bigger cities, you simply assume that they had it all first.

Not so.  And that’s the reason behind Chris’ excitement.

So I decided to pop down the road and see what is actually involved, and how they operate.  I happen to have a Nokia Lumia 920 I’m using right now (you’ll see some posts about that later), and locked on with the WiFi signal.  It asked me to enter my phone number, and it texted me a 4 letter code.  Once I typed it in, it was all go from there.  You’re allowed to use up to 1 GB of data per day that way, which is quite generous if you’re on a smartphone data plan and you need to push a big document up while on the road.

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I don’t know why politicians even bother sometimes.

Social media is supposed to be about engagement sometimes it is about stupidity.

I’d love to see the instruction sent out to back benchers about the housing changes…I just bet it says “Hey you, insignificant back bencher…write something.”

And so they did…exactly that:  Read more »

via treasury.govt.nz

Last year, Treasury released iPhone and Android apps for those who like to see all the Budget data come alive (after the 2pm embargo, of course).  They’ve updated the app for the 2013 budget.  Sorry Windows Phone / Surface users, you miss out, but the rest of you can get your fix here:

• 2013 Budget App for iPhone (iTunes)

• 2013 Budget App for Android (Google Play)

Read more »

via 3 News

Lies just drip out of Kim Dotcom’s mouth. Like his new found concerns over gun safety.

Remember all the hoopla surrounding the launch of Mega? How because it was encrypted no one could know what is there, not even MEGA.

The new Mega is designed around a “see no evil” principle. All your uploads are encrypted on their way up to the server, and downloads are encrypted on the way down, only to be opened afterward. While they’re out there floating around in the cloud, they’re encrypted using the private seed you and only you have: your password.

Don’t lose your Mega password, because you won’t be getting it back; Mega doesn’t have it. The service’s carefully calculated ignorance hinges on this point. Your password is—indirectly and complicatedly—used to generate your login credentials and to encrypt all your files on their way to the cloud. Mega won’t know so much as the file names, and neither will anyone else ever again if you lose that password.

They tout it on their website:

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Yesterday I blogged about a jacked up video put up by Jasons. Pascal Languillon from Jasons responds:

Name: Pascal Languillon

Email: [redacted]@jasons.com

Message: Hi

I am just replying to your article about our Jasons ad.

All ads on TV are staged, and so is ours, we are just trying to make a point and illustrate it visually!

We never tried to hide the fact that this is a simulation. If you go to Youtube you will see it says “video for demonstration purposes only”. The reality is that it always takes less than 24 hours to empty those racks (as stated on the flyer itself!, on youtube and our website; I have now made it clearer on the website).  Read more »