Verbo.se

Category: Web

“Illegible players”

01/10/2007

Best thread title I’ve seen in yonks. Wrong on so many levels.

Rams fielded 4 illegible players against Bruins last night

Zimbra Acquired by Yahoo

18/09/2007

Good news for Zimbra, and well deserved. Let’s just hope Yahoo doesn’t fuck it up like they’ve done with so many other things.

Yahoo! is acquiring Zimbra to extend its leadership and reach new customers in the business, education, and service provider markets across the globe. This major opportunity for Zimbra will accelerate our growth using Yahoo!’s worldwide reach, create a larger combined community, plus enable us to build even more powerful experiences together.

The Times Opens Up

18/09/2007

The New York Times that is. It’ll probably take the Irish Times another few years to catch on. Here’s what Jason Kottke has to say about the NY Times’ timeliness:

No more Times Select. The NY Times finally admits what everyone else knew two years ago and stops charging for their content. Additionally, all content from 1987 to the present and from 1851 to 1922 will be offered free of charge.

What changed, The Times said, was that many more readers started coming to the site from search engines and links on other sites instead of coming directly to NYTimes.com.

How did that change not happen for the Times when it happened to the entire rest of the web 3-4 years ago?

Google Docs Multiple Export

10/09/2007

For some bizarre reason it’s impossible to export multiple files from Google Docs without using a Greasemonkey script, despite the fact that (apparently) the functionality used to be available in Google Docs’ predecessor, Writely.

I want to request this feature, but the growing control-freakery in the company put paid to the direct feedback forms that used to accompany all of their services. So I’ve added my voice to this thread on the subject, and I’d appreciate it if you’d add your voice too if you’re a user.

Is Google ever going to get user-friendly again I wonder? Or was that solely to gain market share? Don’t forget Google, if you’re only competing on functionality, you’d better make damn sure you stay ahead of the field. If you don’t you’ll get fucked, not to put too fine a point on it.

vBulletin Attacks

04/09/2007

Any other vBulletin admins notice attacks recently?

Foot.ie was attacked in a big way this morning, with bots attempting automated logins on dozens of accounts. Foot.ie locks down accounts after 5 failed login attempts and emails the account holder, and I receive bounce messages if the email addresses in their profiles are incorrect. I received over a hundred of these in the space of about half an hour this morning, on multiple usernames from multiple IP addresses. These are just the ones that bounced, remember.

Book Depository Makeover

28/08/2007

Well done to Book Depository for – finally – updating their website with a new look. I first thought they had added new features too – a blog, for example – but it turns out they were there all along. I just didn’t notice because of the awful design. :)

I switched to BD in May of last year because of Amazon’s arrogance, and I haven’t looked back since. Dealing with the shitty site was annoying, but acceptable given the amount of time I spend on the site — I hit it about once a week to add a book to my saved list, and once a month to fire a few into a cart and buy them.

The books always arrive within a few days, in plain white padded envelopes instead of showy logo-splashed boxes that are easily spotted for nicking. And here’s something else refreshing: a contact page with an email address. And there’s more email addresses on the About page, if you want to talk to someone higher up.

And the managing editor wants to hear what you think of the site. And he listens, and responds, and asks for more feedback. And he posts his email address in case you want to comment privately. Are you paying attention Amazon? How about you Play.com, and you Dabs.com? See how chuffed people get when they’re not fobbed off?

Jakob Nielsen’s Dishonesty

26/08/2007

I’ve always disliked Nielsen’s holie-than-thou attitude and painful-to-look-at website, so I’m only too delighted to highlight his admission that in 1997 he suppressed research that demonstrated that users respond to dialog-box style ads on websites.

Now hold your horses before you dive in to defend his honour. Yes he’s admitted it now, and there’s no denying that that’s a step forward. But ask yourself, when did you start admiring him, recently or ten years ago? Would you now, with the same information?

Neilsen is a dinosaur. Move on people.

“Torrent Away”

26/08/2007

Graham Linehan to IT Crowd fans on his blog, fair balls to the man.

Wow! Thanks everybody! I’m slightly overcome. And listen, torrent away. Just please buy the DVD when it comes out (unless you hate it, of course, in which case that would be mental).

(About 20 comments down, look for the avatar snipped from the header.)

As I said there, TV LOL moments are so rare these days I get a little shock when I have one; and I had several during this episode. I really must buy series one on DVD, I don’t think I’ve seen all of them.

“Hey, check this out!”

16/08/2007

Bruce Schneier notes a recent study on phishing that found that over 70% of people will click on a link if it looks like it’s coming from someone they know, and jokes about men being suckers for the ladies, what with them being 15% more likely to click if the email comes from the fairer sex. (Although I should also note that, in general, women were 10% more likely to click than men. :)

I think an interesting addition to this research would be an analysis of how the baton is passed between people, and how often it does laps. In this research the names and email addresses probably came from a control set, however in reality phishers get them from address books stolen by a trojans on compromised computers.

Obviously the stolen address book must come from a common contact if both names are in it, but the ruse will be much more successful if the source or target is the owner of the address book, and the opposite number someone in it. And around we go. So what we have here is actually a Six Degrees Of Separation Möbius Strip Of Stupidity.

Another study Bruce notes only serves to highlight the naivety of modern man. Although the response rate isn’t enumerated, a professor at Indiana University has found that people are willing to respond to fraudlent emails if the attacker identifies the first four digits of their credit card number, instead of the usual last four.

You all know why they use the last four, right? If you don’t and the first four digits of your card are 4539, this is Mmbaza from Bank of Ireland and I’d like to talk to you about a trust account in the name of Mrs. Charles J. Haughey and a transaction which will fall in your favour to the tune of 10% of Thirty Million Euros.

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