Category: Ranting

  • Chill the hell out about “Your Data”

    Every single day I hear a news report about how some new app is stealin your interwebz or how some new “thing” poses a danger to information stored about you on the web, and within offline systems like the NHS.

    This morning on the radio they were talking about a new scheme that the NHS are starting to roll out that allows the data from GP’s (your data! :P) to be used to improve healthcare and help improve medical research.

    Its worth noting at this point that your personal identity information IS NOT part of this data – only anonymous info about your medical history that is presented to them without being tied to you or any person.

    The radio presenter interviewed a few people who said that due to their “unusual” medical history, anyone looking at their data would be able to identify them without the need for it to have their name or anything next to it.

    I’m genuinely amazed people put up a fight with stuff like this. Why wouldn’t you want the info from your doctors being shared with the hospital? And shared with researchers that might be able to tell you you are going to get cancer at a certain age as they’ve been able to build amazing algorithms that analyze your family medical history, spot trends and report things before they happen?

    Its being able to harvest, analyse and utilise “data” that has brought us into the amazing technological age that we live in today. Google can assist you in your day-to-day life just because of the data you give them when you use their services. They’re not spying on you for sh!ts and grins, they are trying to make your experience of using their services mind blowing so you tell your friends and keep using them!

    It may just be me, but when I search Google on my laptop for a company that i’m going to visit – then get my phone out and Google Now has already loaded a tile up so that with one click, I can load navigation to the place I just searched for – my mind is blown every time. This is an example of Google “spying on you” and as you can see, its not scary at all 🙂

    Don’t get me wrong, there are bad guys out there that do want to trick you but if you stick to well known apps and websites and ensure you have virus protection and scan for malware on your PC – and only install apps on your phone from the Google Play store you should be OK.

    The next time you hear a news story about some big company stealing info, texting adverts to your mates behind your back or recording your private conversations without you even realising (Facebook messenger!) get in touch with someone who is in the know before you start ditching amazing services and products from awesome companies.

    PS Facebook Messenger is fine too – stop being dingbats!

  • UK Domain Awesomeness (and total Lameness)

    Check it out!

    https://0lly.uk 🙂

    Very excited 😀

    However, i am deeply saddened to find i cant try and purchase olly.uk (o not a zero) until 2019!

    What is the point guys, really?

  • Pointless Social Network Bulls**t

    Early 2013 i decided to sync up my social world and use individual social networks for their main purpose – so for example i was gonna share all my images via flickr as thats what its for…

    But less than a year later i am TOTALLY going back on my plan, and in fact i am adopting the attitude we have embraced this year at work – clear out the crap, and streamline whatever is left!

    • I am no longer gonna use Flickr to share images as their app is terrible.
    • I am no longer gonna check-in via Foursquare, as all i basically do is check-in at work, and then at costa, and repeat. I may still use this on holidays and make it more of a “where have i been in the world” network. I am no longer sharing my check-in’s to Facebook or Twitter if/when i do use it again.
    • I am totally sacking off Miso – it was fun, but no one (including myself) really needs to read about the movies i watch. If i watch a good one, ill remember it, if its crap, then i dont want to remember it.
    • I am only using Facebook for sharing photos and mini-updates of my life as the access is limited and therefore protected.
    • I will only use twitter for complaining as its totally public and customer service representatives scour it looking for you bad mouthing their companies.
    • And Google+ is to become my techie/work related social network.
    • Youtube is my TV outlet of choice and always will be.

    And thats that. I wont be closing any of my accounts as i want to keep the names myself – but i wont be using them, linking to them or referencing them again on here….

    Unless i change my mind in another year 🙂

  • 123-reg Lost my Domain…

    Back in 2008 i blogged about how 123reg messed up and auto renewed a load of domains that i didn’t want – since then their system has improved a lot, and I actually use the auto renew thing properly and it does keep on top of my domains for me..

    However…

    It’s by no means perfect – and this was driven home HARD to me when i visited my own website and it was a spammy crap Sedo holding page 😐

    I was speechless.

    I visited 123 reg, the domain was in my control panel and was set to auto renew. It didn’t give me the option to manually renew the domain though. I searched my email, and there wasnt a single email relating to olly.im since the first time i renewed it (which reminded me of an issue i had at that time too) so no renewal email was ever received – and even if it had of been,  would have ignored it as this was set to auto renew.

    I contacted them, and they basically said that they sent one reminder email out – which i never received – and that its in my control panel due to an error, and that i no longer owned it.

    I WAS FURIOUS

    So due to a HUGE internal f**kup i have now lost my pride and joy domain, that is linked to millions of websites, had a URL shortener attached to it that is now void as none of the links will work – and their response to this catastrophic situation was;

    “Yeah, we cant/wont do shit about it”

    In their T’s and C’s it states that if their system f**ks up, its tough shit.

    So my advice this time round, is if you choose to use the auto renew – dont trust it on its own! Remind yourself of important domain renewals by setting calendar reminders etc – i will be doing for all my domains as they are not causing me to lose another one!