Monthly Archive for August, 2005

Strategic business blogging presentation updated

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

I have updated the Strategic Business Blogging presentation (PDF) which I uploaded a couple of days ago.

After receiving feedback online from Angsuman and offline from Piaras, Shel Israel and others I have updated the presentation to take into account the new Technorati statistics, to add a page on brand evangelism and to correct a couple of grammatical mistakes.

The new version is now available for download here. Enjoy and please feel free to leave feedback.

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Apple finally deliver a functional mouse

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 2/8/2005
in Mac and Technology
. 5 Comments

Apple's new Mighty Mouse mouse

Apple have today launched a new mouse, dubbed the Mighty Mouse - no, honestly, you couldn’t make that up!

The Mighty Mouse looks like the current one-button mouse Mac has been famous (and famously criticised for) for so long, but this mouse has:

touch-sensitive technology under Mighty Mouse’s seamless top shell detect where you’re clicking, transforming your sleek, one-button mouse into a two-button wonder

It also has:

360-degree scrolling capability, thanks to its Scroll Ball, perfectly positioned to roll smoothly under just one finger

and:

Apple engineers added force-sensing buttons on either side of Mighty Mouse that let you squeeze the mouse between your thumb and finger, activating Mac OS X Tiger Dashboard, Exposé or a whole host of other, customizable features — instantly.

Personally, I think Apple should have done something like this years ago. I can’t stand Apple’s one button mouse, so I forked out for a Logitech cordless mouse with a scroll wheel long ago.

For those fans of the single button mouse (both of them!) this mouse can be configured to act as a single-button mouse (don’t ask me why you would want to do that after buying this mouse!).

Finally, Windows users needn’t feel left out - this mouse ships with Windows drivers so you can use it with Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

By the way, if anyone in Apple reads this, I’d be happy to review this mouse for you - just send it on :-)

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Technorati publish more blogosphere stats

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 2/8/2005
in Blogging and Business blogging
. 0 Comments

Dave Sifry published more Technorati stats on the rate of growth of the Blogosphere yesterday.

As well as the numbers posted last week which I wrote about here, Dave also tells us that

  • About 55% of all blogs are active, and that has remained a consistent statistic for at least a year
  • About 13% of all blogs are updated at least weekly

Dave also points out that the blogosphere is doubling in size about every 5.5 months - see chart below:

Technorati graph of the rate of growth of the Blogosphere

This is a phenomenal rate of growth and personally, I can see this rate of growth being maintained if not surpassed in the short to medium term as more people and businesses become aware of blogs.

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Cisco harass security worker

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 2/8/2005
in Security and Technology
. 1 Comment

Bruce Schneier has posted a fascinating story about Cisco’s harassment of a security worker called Michael Lynn:

Lynn was going to present security flaws in Cisco’s IOS, and Cisco went to inordinate lengths to make sure that information never got into the hands of the their consumers, the press, or the public.

Cisco threatened legal action to stop the conference’s organizers from allowing a 24-year-old researcher for a rival tech firm to discuss how he says hackers could seize control of Cisco’s Internet routers, which dominate the market. Cisco also instructed workers to tear 20 pages outlining the presentation from the conference program and ordered 2,000 CDs containing the presentation destroyed.

In the end, the researcher, Michael Lynn, went ahead with a presentation, describing flaws in Cisco’s software that he said could allow hackers to take over corporate and government networks and the Internet, intercepting and misdirecting data communications. Mr. Lynn, wearing a white hat emblazoned with the word “Good,” spoke after quitting his job at Internet Security Systems Inc. Wednesday. Mr. Lynn said he resigned because ISS executives had insisted he strike key portions of his presentation.

A copy of Michael Lynn’s presentation is now available here.

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