Over in China, the officially allowed Voice and Video over IP application that closely resembles Skype is… Tom-Skype. Although the fact that conversations are monitored (and in some cases actually blocked) was already well publicised, details have emerged regarding the storing of data related to the banned conversations.

OK, I realise that the image was created for a different sort of Skype issue, but it made me laugh when I was searching around for something suitable. Anyway, in much the same way that Yahoo has had to tow the line when it comes to operating in China, Skype have stated that for their services to be available, they have to assist the authorities to a far greater extent than they necessarily would in the ‘free’ world. Before you get too smug, head on over to this article for details on the German Police’s efforts to intercept in real time citizen’s text and voice Skype messages.

As avid readers may remember, my brother is shortly off to Australia with his lovely girlfriend (Happy Birthday again ) and her mum. With impressive foresight, he has been asking people what they want for Christmas, so the two of them can try and sort out all the pressies now, rather than rushing around like headless chickens when they return to the UK, just a few days before Xmas itself. I would have been tempted to use the trip as an excuse, and wait for the New Year sales to pick up some bargains, but Nick has a more mature outlook already I guess
Anyway, I’ve been struggling to find something I’d really like, and having asked for contributions to charity for my birthday earlier in the year, I have to admit my selfish side is rearing its head, and wanting to have something to unwrap this December.
Something I noticed over at buy.com was a pretty high quality webcam, which has a number of attention grabbing features. Primarily, the $30 rebate on an already competitive price obviously caught my attention, although the Carl Zeiss lens (as used on many top end Sony digital cameras) is pretty important for those of us hoping for a little more than the traditional grainy, blurred video provided by older webcams.

I’m not sure whether the face tracking software included would be a useful addition, or simply a toy to play with, but the ability to pan and tilt the camera from your PC is a definite boon. Although not apparently a built in feature (yet?) I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be too difficult to bodge up some code in conjunction with remote software, so you could scan around your room whilst in another house or even country! Anyway, I’ll need to check a few other details before considering the purchase (by proxy ), but even if this webcam doesn’t end up on my wish list, there are enough other products at buy.com to keep day dreaming for a good long time to come…

Check out the (apparently authentic) script that BBC news readers were to use should a nuclear attack ever have been launched at Britain. (You will need Adobe Reader or another application capable of displaying PDF files to read that link.)

Although the BBC article mentions that the script was written back in the 70s, it does not mention when it was deemed un-necessary or too dated - is there likely to be a replacement that we will not hear (hopefully) for another 30 years, or given that the (original) cold war is over, do we simply not have an alternative plan for the BBC et al?

I’ll post more details later, but I have been testing the UTF-8 converter plugin that I previously mentioned (see the Ooops - Sorry For All The ??? post). I used a blog that doesn’t get much traffic or have many high-income adverts placed on it, just in case the crap hit the fan. After a few minor headaches and periods of intense head scratching, I think I’ve found a way to bodge everything into place after the plugin does it’s work. It will mean that all posts containing Cyrillic letters will have questions marks in their place, however searching Wordpress for multiple ?s luckily works well. Now I need to go and grab the laundry hampers, stick on the washing, grab a shower and head to bed… Well maybe a couple more posts first

Eighty years ago today (October 3, 1908), the Russian Language newspaper Pravda (?????? - this will probably appear as question marks until I try out the UTF converter for this site’s database) which means (the) Truth. It was founded by Trotsky (the one with the striking goatee who met his end via an ice pick) in Vienna, and then smuggled into Russia. After the revolution, the paper continued to be produced, and on March 3, almost ten years later, it became the established as an official publication of the Soviet Communist Party. A lot of politics was obviously involved in the power struggles for running the paper, and other newspapers (for example Izvestia covered foreign relations) also existed to represent other branches of the government. This led to the saying “v Pravde net izvestiy, v Izvestiyakh net pravdy” (In the Truth there is no news, and in the News there is no truth).
My thanks to Wikipedia for drawing this occurrence to my attention

So, when people who know me in real life occasionally dabble with setting up their own site, they often ask for a little advice on who to turn to for their hosting needs. Luckily, web hosting reviews are now two a penny on the internet. HOWEVER, finding honest and comprehensive guides to services offered, and which package best suits any one person’s needs is not so easy. Webhost Rating seem to have the right idea, with awards being presented in a variety of genres, and with just a little questioning of family or friends, it is normally pretty easy to work out what sort of hosting account they need.
Some however like to learn, rather than just blindly follow advice. This is a double-edged sword… why? Because although I enjoy passing on the knowledge I’ve gained over the years (what point otherwise in amounting it all?, it can sometimes take a while to explain the same concepts over and over. Not any more, as family and friends can start their own educational journey a lot more easily with good resources such as WHR’s article on Linux Hosting. Yes, I could type out a 600 word explanation tailored to their enquiry, but if I ask them to go and read the article and THEN come back with any remaining questions or requests for further clarification, then 95% of my work will be done
So, if you find yourself either looking for your first host, or are thinking of jumping ship, give Webhost Rating a shot, and see not only what you can learn, but how much value for money you can attain with just a little reading…

Perhaps security flaw is over-dramatising the situation, however there is definitely a problem with supposedly private data being easily revealed

IMPORTANT
1) To any Izea/SocialSpark/PayPerPost staff reading this post - I am happy working for you, and DO NOT wish my blog to be removed from your schemes
2) To everyone else, especially those concerned with the way this information is being revealed, I have raised the issue via the Izea support ticket system. However, despite two separate assurances that the problem either didn’t exist, or had been fixed, the issue remains

DETAILS
People who have the ITK code in their sites are able to have their ‘RealRank’ calculated. In essence, this ranking system is designed to replace the (apparently) easily gamed Alexa ranking system. Average visits, pageviews and also relevant inbound links are all proportionately weighed into the final score, with 1 being the best rank, and the higher your rank, the less popular your blog is effectively considered.
The raw data that goes into Izea’s equation can be marked as private, so that only IzeaRank and other already public information is revealed when you look a blog/blogger up.
Or at least that is supposed to be the situation. However, not all pages correctly ‘hide’ this info.
I will use my own blog as an example, as I do not wish to directly publicise other blogger’s info where they wish it be kept private.

PROOF
Visit http://socialspark.com/blogs/chrismerriman-com - this is the blog specific page at Izea’s SocialSpark scheme. Note the (correct) label of ‘Private’ applied to the Daily Average Views and Visitors.
Now visit http://socialspark.com/bloggers/silentlyscreaming/blogs - this is the blogger specific page at Izea’s SocialSpark scheme. Here, both Daily Average Views and Visitors are incorrectly displayed.
Originally, the analytics page for blogs ( http://socialspark.com/blogs/chrismerriman-com/analytics_overview for example) also gave access to the private data.

Should it be required, I’ve obviously kept a screenshot of the problem. I have also tested this problem in both Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer 7, with cleared caches and ensuring I was logged out at the time.

I have made the decision to publicise this problem, in the hope it will finally speed up the remedial action required to ensure that private data is kept that way.

[edit added after first comment was recvd.]
I have added a little more information about the actual two way exchange of information that occurred via the Support Ticket system.

Zenni Optical offer massively reduced prices on prescription eyeglasses. They apparently outsource the work to China, which is how they are able to keep the prices super low. It would appear that after appearing on a radio show, the website suffered some problems, possibly related to a higher than normal amount of traffic? Anyway, the site now seems to be coping with the peak in demand, so click the radio link to see a list of reviews by customers who have already ordered their eyeglasses through Zenni Optical. As one reviewer puts it on another shopper comparison site, reviewers tend to fall into two camps - those who are so over the moon with their purchase that they want to tell the world, and of course those that had problems with the order or customer service, and so leave a negative comment.

There is a little old lady who I often see walking past our block of flats who has an ancient pair of glasses on, with the bridge repaired with some sticky tape. Given that prices on the site start from just $8, I may just go and pass on the web site address to her

The Dud Or Deal review offered by Fox News summarised the case of two children’s frames by explaining that the older child, whose prescription was a little simpler, had her needs met by the web site (and was therefore awarded ‘Deal’ status), although there were some issues with the smaller boy’s glasses, this could have been down to the initial measurements taken though.

So, with prices so low (thanks in part to the frames being directly delivered post-manufacture to the customer), if you already have your optical prescription, what do you have to lose?

Yesterday I made reference to some happy news I wanted to relay to readers. I went for the first time with Irina to one of her ultrasound scans. All is well with our little baby, and I can now stop calling him or her a him or her. It turns out our little baby is (going to be? not sure on the exact correct tense and terminology) a girl.

3D Scan

Ultrasound

We were very lucky as the doctor allowed us to take a copy of the pictures and a couple of videos with us, once we’d sourced a blank CD. Also included on the disc were some MVL files, which are the raw files the ultrasound scanner machine produces. A quick google found a demo of the program that is installed on the ultrasound machine, so we can now measure her little thigh bones, waist and head to our hearts’ content at home Anyway, after waking up the family back in Britain, we passed on the good news… now we just need to decide on a name!

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