Archive for August, 2005

I’m off!

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 15/8/2005
in Personal
. 5 Comments

I mentioned last week that I was taking a break starting this week - the break has started and I am now officially on my break.

I won’t be near a computer again until August 31st so there won’t be any new posts here before then.

I’m sorry to be away from the blog for so long but this is a promise I keep to my family every year around this time - see you soon.

Tom.

Corporate blogging policies

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 13/8/2005
in Blogging, Business blogging and Technology
. 3 Comments

Written blogging policies are always a good idea for a company - they help to avoid any ambiguities for employees on what it is acceptable to blog about (and how). Seemingly it was the lack of blogging policies which led to Google’s sacking of Mark Jen, for instance.

Hill & Knowlton are a PR firm and recently they came up with the following policy document (via Shel) for their bloggers:

  • I will acknowledge and correct mistakes promptly
  • I will preserve the original post, using notations to show where I have made changes
  • I will never delete a post
  • I will not delete comments unless they are spam or off-topic
  • I will disclose conflicts of interest (including client relationships) where I am able to do so
  • I will not publish anything that breaches my existing employment contract
  • I will distinguish between factual information/commentary and advertising
  • I will never publish information I know to be inaccurate
  • I will disagree with other opinions respectfully
  • I will link to online references and original source materials directly
  • I will strive for high quality with every post - including basic spellchecking
  • I will write deliberately and with accuracy
  • I will reply to emails and comments when appropriate, and do so promptly
  • I will restrict my posting to professional topics
  • I will write on a regular basis, at least once each week

While this policy seems quite comprehensive it doesn’t cover what an employee needs to avoid blogging about (confidential info, financials, etc.) and instead pushes that back to the employment contract - as long as the employment contract is clear, then this need not be a problem.

Many companies have started publishing blogging policies recently and a couple of Intel workers have started a debate on possible blogging policies for Intel employees. If you are looking into drawing up blogging policies for your company, it is worthwhile doing some research on it and publishing proposed policies to get some feedback - the chances are the feedback will hit some topic you hadn’t considered and will ultimately lead to better policies.

Mac OS X hacked to run on PCs

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 12/8/2005
in Mac and Technology
. 3 Comments

Wired.com are running a story which says that:

Hackers have found a way to bypass a chip designed to prevent the Mac OS from running on non-Apple PCs, which are often cheaper than Macs …. The hacked version of OSx86 is based on pirated software, which came from copies of the operating system sent to participants in the Apple Developer Connection. The ADC participants also received MacIntel computers for testing and development.

Now the hacked version of OSx86 is running on Dell laptops and other PCs with Intel and AMD microprocessors.

OS X running on Dell PCs and AMD chip PCs? Heads are gonna roll in Jobsville today!

You can bet that before the next generation of MacIntel computers ship, this issue will have been completely locked down - the last thing Steve Jobs wants is OS X running on non-Apple computers!

UPDATE:
There’s a video here of OS X running on a PC laptop - be aware that due to heavy demand this video isn’t always available!

Also, there are not just but videos as well as instructions on installing 10.4 on an Intel machine. (In this case a Sony Vaio.) here.

News Corp to buy Technorati?

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 12/8/2005
in Search Engines and Technology
. 17 Comments

News Corp is the multi-billion dollar media company owned by Rupert Murdoch. News Corp’s full year operating income for year ended June 30th 2005, rose 22% to a record $3.6 billion according to their latest earnings release.

I see from a report on Jeremy Wagstaff’s site that News Corp - are interested in buying a search engine. Jeremy found an article on Bloomberg.com’s site which said:

News Corp., the fourth-largest media company, is in talks to buy a controlling interest in an Internet search engine as the company seeks to build advertising sales on the Web.

The investment would be in “what we think is a wonderful search engine,â€? News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch, 74, said yesterday on a conference call with analysts after the company announced earnings. Murdoch said the price will be “insignificant’â€? and declined to identify the business.

Jeremy goes on to say:

This is part of a $2 billion push in into the Internet, which seems to centre on plans for

a site featuring a search engine and links to Web pages focusing on News Corp.’s movie, television and sports businesses, Murdoch said. “We already have the assets to be a dominant player on the Web,â€? Murdoch said.

That sounds horribly like a portal of old, to me. I do hope Murdoch gets the Internet, and isn’t just grabbing it.

News Corp., Bloomberg says, has bought Intermix Media Inc. for $580 million, owner of the Web sites Flowgo.Com and My Space.com, and has also recently purchased Australian real estate Web site Real Estate.com.au for $92 million, and Scout Media Inc., a Seattle-based owner of 200 sports Web sits and 47 magazines for about $60 million.

Then I read on Scoble’s site that there is a rumour that Technorati is about to be sold.

2+2=?

Mind you, Scoble is referencing BL Ochman who thinks Technorati will be sold to a search engine - possibly even Yahoo! (or Google as some of her commenters are guessing)!

Watch this space!

UPDATE:
A Texan AI called Egor came to the conclusion that Murdoch is buying Technorati as well (I’m not sure I’m altogether happy that an AI came to the same conclusion as me!).

FURTHER UPDATE:
I see Jeff Jarvis is now saying the rumours of a sale are untrue

Start.com updated, I believe

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 11/8/2005
in Mac, Technology and Web Standards
. 8 Comments

Start.com’s blog announced several updates to the site yesterday - roaming profiles and changes to the sidebar - that’s all very well if you can see the site but being on a Mac I can’t tell you how they affect the Start.com experience as the Start.com site is not Mac friendly.

Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised at this - it is a Microsoft site, after all - the company that invented proprietary standards!

On the one hand we have Molly telling us Microsoft are embracing Web Standards and on the other hand we have this site.

Fortunately, Google has a similar site which works just fine on the Mac - check it out here.

Taking a break

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 11/8/2005
in Personal and Technology
. 1 Comment

In case I haven’t mentioned it already - I’m taking time away from the computer starting next week. I’ll be contactable by phone but not by email, blog comment, etc.

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