Mike Butcher

So I got my Virgin Media customer pack today. They must be sending it to everyone who has ever touched Virgin (I had a Virgin mobile number once, plus I was on Telewest at one time). Clearly they are going for the whole "we'll simplify TV, broadband, phone and mobile for you" pitch. There is also a response mechanic: If you got to Knowfirst.co.uk you'll obviously have read their printed marketing material. Not just found it via a blog or something. Oh no. To cap it all, in the small print on the back of their slick marketing material are the tiny words: "Security features not available to Mac users." Hmmn, so much for the Apple-esque marketing material then.

So I got my Virgin Media customer pack today. They must be sending it to everyone who has ever touched Virgin (I had a Virgin mobile number once, plus I was on Telewest at one time). Clearly they are going for the whole “we’ll simplify TV, broadband, phone and mobile for you” pitch. There is also a response mechanic: If you go to Knowfirst.co.uk you’ll obviously have read their printed marketing material. Not just found it via a blog or something. Oh no. To cap it all, in the small print on the back of their slick marketing material are the tiny words: “Security features not available to Mac users.” Hmmn, so much for the Apple-esque marketing material then.

Here’s quite a sophisticated (well, compared to 90% of it) bit of spam I got today. Not only does it leech off the tragedy of the London 7/7 bombings, but it also comes from a vaguely plausible email address. Plus it even has the usual legal disclaimer from a law firm. These spammers are really getting into spear phishing (targeted spam):

<snip>

From: “Anthony Singer-Singer”<anthonysingers@aol.co.uk>

Subject: Information For Your Attention.

Greetings from Guildhall Court Chambers!

Pursuant to our fundamental commitment to human rights, social justice and equality which still underpin everything that we do whether in the courtroom, or out in the wider world, we wish to seek your cooperation and guidance, if you could perhaps provide us with detailed information as you share the same last name with our late client who died on July 7, 2005 London terrorist bombing leaving no trace of his immediate family members information.

Over the years, we have worked indefatigably and uncompromisingly to locate any of the relatives of our late client and all to no avail hence, the need for this correspondence. We would be delighted to have you as the apparent heir of our late client hence, you share the same last name and could possibly be somewhere in his family tree. We have been mandated by his bankers to provide any of his family members to claim his lawful assets with the bank because it is legally incumbent on us to do so as the legal representatives to the deceased.

We have decided to take this chance with you as out last resort to have you stand as the apparent heir of our late client since you both share the same last name as we have secured an order of mandate from the Probate Registry to locate any member of his family to claim what rightfully belong to him and for this reason, it remains your legal right and responsibility to protect the interest of your family in this regards.

Contact me for additional information and to discuss the modalities of this brief. Your earliest response is imperative and shall be appreciated to enable us conclude this brief in good time without delays.

Thanking you for your kind attention in anticipation of your response ASAP.

Respectfully submitted,

Anthony Singer-Singer, LLB (Hons)

Guildhall Court Chambers

Lincoln ’s Inn Fields,

London WC2A 3LS

WARNING:

The information contained in this e-mail (and or accompanying attachments) may be legally privileged and is confidential. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient you are notified that any use, disclosure, copying or distribution of the information is prohibited. If you have received the message in error please notify us

immediately, delete the original and all electronic copies, and destroy any hard copies.

</snip>

It looks like OpenID is an idea whose time has come if this long and detailed post by Tom Coates is anything to go by. You see, it’s all very well having the convenience of being able to log into several sites with one ID. In a phrase: big deal. Where OpenID could be really useful is in aggregating all the IDs of the real, trusted people, and thus distinguishing them from the fake, untrusted people created by comment spammers, robots and other entities trying to spoof identity online. Now you’re talking. Now you have a possible system for reputation and trust, the like of which has not existed before. Of course, it doesn’t exist yet, but if the standards behind OpenID are adopted and developed then a lot of the drawbacks which come with social networking and user generated content networks could be addressed in a big way.

In a great article about Joost, The Guardian’s Owen Gibson looks at the main points behind the services. Jost will “split” the signal so it cannot be pirated, and there will be no user content until copyright issues are sorted out. Joost also lets you construct your own channels and will pull together all the available car content and “schedule” it into a bespoke channel for you. You can chat to other users watching the same channel, have a news ticker running along the bottom of the screen, or access online content provided by the broadcaster. A key quote from Fredrik de Wahl, Joost’s chief executive: “I haven’t seen anyone who has fundamentally redesigned what they do and integrated the content-owner needs or the advertiser needs or the viewer’s needs into one platform. We’re unique in that we get what viewers want – the end-user attraction, the simplicity of use.” Don;t believe the hype because we haven’t seen what Babelgum.com is capable of yet…

Time magazine is among the latest large media owner to realise that the Internet is not a place where you spend a lot of money. In fact, it’s so efficient at disintermediating the income streams of traditional media companies who mainly play in print, that they are having to cut staff and put what resources they have left online. This something UK Press Gazette failed to realise and paid the price for last year.

Time magazine is among the latest large media owner to realise that the Internet is not a place where you spend a lot of money. In fact, it’s so efficient at disintermediating the income streams of traditional media companies who mainly play in print, that they are having to cut staff and put what resources they have left online. This something UK Press Gazette failed to realise and paid the price for last year.

On Vecosys today I have an exclusive story on Izimi.com, a UK-based P2P and instant messaging startup, about to relaunch with a social networking and file sharing strategy. They are a pretty ambitious bunch, aiming at the US market. It would be nice to see a UK startup take the fight back to Silicon Valley, for once.

Global digital music sales almost doubled in 2006 to around $2 billion, or 10 percent of all sales, but have not reached the industry’s “holy grail” of offsetting the fall in CD sales, says the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Reuters reports that expected digital sales to account for a quarter of all sales worldwide by 2010.

It looks like Koopa – a punk trio which a mate of mine has been involved with – have now proved that real punk (the kind that really does screw the establishment) is not dead. From Reuters:

Koopa is the first unsigned band to land a top 40 single — “Blag, Steal & Borrow” — that is available only by downloading it on the Internet. The breakthrough followed changes to the chart this month that mean no physical version of a record is required for the track to qualify.