Cody Taylor

An anonymous reader writes “University researchers in the UK have put together a team tasked with predicting the next big thing in terms of communication technologies, in a bid to tackle ethical pitfalls before they become a problem. This is in the wake of the rise of social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, which has led to a dramatic increase in the amount of personal information available online.”

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An ISP review website in the UK claims that 25 percent of its readers have run into “excessive use” warnings. Compared to the new caps being trialed in the US, though, there’s little to complain about on that front.

clickclickdrone writes “The BBC are reporting that Amazon has said it will not allow online advertising system Phorm to scan its web pages to produce targeted ads. For most people this is a welcome step, especially after the European Commission said it was starting legal action against the UK earlier this week over its data protection laws in relation to Phorm’s technology. Anyone who values their privacy should applaud this move by Amazon.”

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What Google did with Gmail in conventional browsers five years ago it is expecting to do again with a new mobile version of its Web-based e-mail service.

On Tuesday Blizzard rolled out the first major content patch for World of Warcraft since the launch of Wrath of the Lich King last November. The 3.1 patch includes the long-awaited dual-specialization feature, which allows players to quickly and easily switch from one set of talent choices to another. Action bars and glyph choices change as well. The patch also includes a new end-game raid dungeon, Ulduar, which expands upon the variable difficulty modes Blizzard has recently experimented with. The instance contains 14 bosses, 10 of which have an optional “hard mode” that players can attempt for better rewards. In addition, the patch contains a host of class balance changes, bug fixes, and UI improvements. You can see the full patch notes at Blizzard’s website, and a brief trailer is also available.

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Just as some cities’ newspapers sputter, a handful of Web sites emerge to cull local content from government data, blogs and news media.

MJackson writes “The European Commission has opened an infringement proceeding against the UK after a series of complaints by Internet users, and extensive communication with UK authorities, about the use of Phorm’s behavioural advertising system, which uses Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology, by internet service providers. Phorm works with UK ISPs to monitor what websites you visit for use in targeted advertising campaigns, though its methods have raised more than a few fears about invasions of privacy. Similar services in the USA have caused an equal level of controversy.”

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gilgongo writes “It’s more than 10 years since people started making a living writing web page markup, yet the job title (and role) has yet to settle down. Not only that, but there are different types of people who write markup: those that approach the craft as essentially an integration task, and those that see it as part of UI design overall. The situation is further complicated by the existence of other roles in the workplace such as graphic designer and information architect. This is making recruitment for this role a real headache. So, how do you describe people who ‘do HTML’ (and CSS and maybe a bit of JavaScript and graphics manipulation)? Some job titles I’ve seen include: Design Technologist, Web Developer, Front-end Developer, HTML/CSS Developer, Client-side Developer and UI Engineer. Do you have any favourite job titles for this role?”

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Quality is a word that a lot of people like to use when describing their web design services. But what is quality, how do you know if a design is quality or not. Well, I think that there’s quite a few ways to spot quality within web designs. Once you can see just what goes into making a quality web design, you can use the techniques yourself.

Hugh Pickens writes “While it’s probably not true that P. T. Barnum was the originator of the saying ‘there’s a sucker born every minute,’ the proliferation of nearly 23,000 Ponzi schemes on YouTube, with an astounding 59,192,963 views, proves that the sentiment is still alive and well. The videos usually don’t ask for money directly, but send viewers to web sites where they are urged to sign up for the ‘gifting program,’ usually for fees ranging from 0 to ,000. One of the videos recently added on YouTube featured Bible quotes, pictures of stacks of money and a testimonial from a man who said he not only got rich from cash gifting, but also found true happiness and lost 35 pounds. ‘They make it seem like it’s legal and an easy way to make money, but it’s nothing more than a pyramid scheme,’ says Better Business Bureau spokeswoman Alison Southwick. Some of the videos claim that because it’s ‘gifting,’ it’s somehow legal. ‘They talk about “cash leveraging,” whatever that means, and other vague marketing talk,’ says Southwick, but the basic scheme is that participants are told to recruit more people who will put in more money. ‘It’s just money changing hands,’ says Southwick, ‘and it always goes to people at the top of the pyramid.’ A spokesman for YouTube, which is owned by Google Inc., said the company doesn’t comment on individual videos.”

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