The New View From Object Towers

Keeping My Hand In

From time to time, I'm still asked to do the occasional piece of freelance journalism. My most recent effort was for a new arts and culture title launched in Edinbugh called One Magazine.

My piece on social music networks (and LastFM in particular) can viewed here.

All comments - both here and at the One Magazine site - gratefully received.

BBC Live News stats powerd by MySQL

I like bbc.co.uk's most popular stories facility - not least because you can get a sense of how the most popular stories change through the day, as well as the ones that people email to others.

And guess what - it's a MySQL database that drives it. For those who are interested, more detail, go here: Download mysql-bbc-news.pdf

Google acquires Jotspot

I know I said I quite liked Jotspot - but I didn't expect Google to pay attention

MySQL.com Web Traffic - more than Oracle

Link: TheOpenForce.com: MySQL.com Web Traffic.

Interesting post from MySQL's Zack Urlocker - namely:

"Last year we actually surpassed Oracle's web site in terms of traffic, as measured by Alexa.  However, not to pick on Oracle, in the tech sector we also generate more traffic than Red Hat, Novell, SAP, Apache, JBoss, Eclipse, BEA, Borland, Gartner, eWeek and InfoWorld.

Beyond tech, we actually have more traffic than some popular "mainstream" brands including the Nike, United Airlines, AT&T, Honda, Toyota, Ford, Porsche, Shell, GE, Princeton University, Fender Guitars, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Hooters.

Ok, I admit, this was not a scientific analysis (especially the comparison with Hooters), and we have less traffic than some household names like Apple, IBM, Microsoft and Intel.  Nonetheless, MySQL's web traffic is larger than many of the top best-selling brands as reported by InterBrand.  For an open source database company, that's pretty good!"

IT Week - James Murray interviews Hyperion CTO John Kopcke

James Murray - IT Week - interview with Hyperion's John Kopcke

The trackback facility for stories on VNU's website has set me thinking that this is another avenue yet to be fully explored (exploited?) by those of us working in the Web PR 2.0 world. In the past, once a story appeared, you had no further means of continuing the conversation around it - or at least not in a way that was open to public scrutiny. For example, what if someone felt they were misquoted? Rather than write an angry letter to the Editor asking for a correction, you can put your case in the open and let people make their own minds up.

And before anybody asks, James has written an entirely faithful record of his conversation with John at the Gartner BI Summit of a few weeks ago. For those interested, more of John's insights into the whole subject of business intelligence and business performance management can be found here:

Hyperion Executive Thought Leadership Perspectives

Julian Henry's rant in today's Guardian

The following post on the Mediations site - Julian Henry in the Guardian - tipped me off to a rather extraordinary polemic about PR.

According to Mr Henry:

Most of the major PR agencies in the UK construct their business around writing strategies, drawing up Q&As, drafting positioning statements, scripting advertorials, collating briefing packs, printing press kits and countless other bits of waffle that underpin our daily trade. This rationalising process gets charged to the clients, who in most cases seem happy to pay for it...

Get rid of all this stuff and you would demolish half the industry at a single sweep...

If you were to reduce the role of the PR consultant to its most basic function what do you have? The man or woman on the phone whose job is simply to offer a description of their client's product in a topical, creative and engaging way.

Now let's take a look at Mr Henry's own company website: "Henry’s House has a full time staff of 20 executives with experience and skills in media relations, strategy and brand planning.       We are big thinkers with extensive brand experience". (My emphasis). Based on his own analysis, does that mean he will be firing 10 people this afternoon - namely his own personnel involved in "countless other bits of waffle that underpin our daily trade."

Perhaps his clients will be pleased to know that they've been spending money on such "waffle."

      

VNU buys The Inquirer

How things go full circle. Mike Magee has sold The Inquirer to VNU. Guy Kewney has already blogged regarding his possible role as a catalyst for the deal.

Guy Kewney's Role in Inquirer purchase

This is an interesting story for a number of reasons. Mike founded The Register with John Lettice and Drew Cullen before falling out with them in 2001 (although many rumours emerged as to the real reason for the bust up, I don't think anyone other than the participants really know what went on there). He left and set up The Inquirer shortly afterwards - I know a few people at the time weren't sure whether Mike would be able to replicate the success of The Reg - but he ploughed his own furrow and getting a media giant like VNU to buy it must be viewed as somewhat of a coup.

What remains to be seen is to what extent The Inquirer will retain its unique editorial style now that it is under the VNU wing. The Inquirer (like the Reg) has never been one to pull its punches. Take for example Intel's Guide To The European Press - whoever was Intel's PR at the time must have wanted the ground to open up and swallow them.

Of course the terms of the deal are undisclosed. What next we ask ourselves? The Register being bought by IDG?

All the best to Mike on his return to Broadwick Street. At least now the distance from the office to the Star and Garter and Blue Posts can be measure in feet rather than miles.

Verity Stob at The Register!

Delighted to see that Verity Stob has been hired to write for The Reg - look forward to more witty and humourous insights into the wacky world of computer programming.

Verity Stob at the Reg

Web 2.0 in today's FT and Guardian

Interesting that both the Guardian (Jack Schofield) and the FT (Chris Nuttall) today carry big features on Web 2.0 - and both carry similar style box out glossaries.

Both contain similiar comments eg nobody has really defined exactly what Web 2.0 really is, the threat to Microsoft, etc.

Were Jack and Chris at the same press briefing? Or is this simply a zeitgeist co-incidence?

ZONE LABS CRACKS SPYWARE PREVENTION BARRIER - NEW OSFIREWALL THWARTS CYBERCRIMINALS WITH BEHAVIOR-BASED PC PROTECTION

FYI - Press review software for Zone Alarm Security Suite 6.0, Zone Alarm Pro 6.0 and Zone Alarm with Anti-Virus 6.0 will be available later this week. Any journalists who would like a free, long term evaluation copy of any or all of these products, please call or e-mail me. We will hopefully have
the press review download URL and licence key to provide to you later this
week. Any other questions in the meantime, please do let me know.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Andrew Smith
Object Marketing
[email protected]
Telephone: 020 8762 9292

ZONE LABS CRACKS SPYWARE PREVENTION BARRIER - NEW OSFIREWALL THWARTS
CYBERCRIMINALS WITH BEHAVIOR-BASED PC PROTECTION

ZoneAlarm 6.0 to debut a radical new OSFirewall and Anti-Spyware solution to
block the most dangerous Internet threats including spyware, rootkits,
viruses, and more from invading PCs

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - July 18, 2005 - Zone Labs®, a Check Point® company
(NASDAQ: CHKP), today announced ZoneAlarm® 6.0, the much-anticipated update
to its award-winning Internet security product family. ZoneAlarm 6.0 will
offer consumers the most effective multi-layered protection against spyware,
viruses and other insidious Internet security threats.

ZoneAlarm 6.0 utilizes a unique new behavior-based strategy to block malware
and spyware from ever gaining a foothold on a PC. Rather than intermittently
scanning for spyware infections after the damage has been done, ZoneAlarm
6.0 offers the first new defense mechanism, called the OSFirewall, to
guard the health of a PC at the core. This kernel-level firewall monitors
suspicious activity affecting the operating system, programs and files, and
disables destructive programs. To complement the prevention technology,
ZoneAlarm 6.0 also employs a new intelligent anti-spyware removal solution
as well as DefenseNet", a dynamic zero-hour system leveraging the community
of millions of ZoneAlarm users to proactively protect against emerging
attacks.

"Unlike the adolescent pranksters of the past, today s cybercriminals are
motivated by financial gain and are often highly-organized. They want to
steal your identity, track what you do on the Internet, or even hijack your
bandwidth to create zombie botnets," said Gregor Freund, chief technology
officer of Check Point Software. "And they are using the trust of an
unassuming public to dupe people into inviting malware through traditional
firewalls and antivirus programs. Current anti-spyware solutions can clean
up the mess after the fact, but people now must deploy preventative,
proactive measures to protect themselves from these criminals."

Protection at the PC's Core

ZoneAlarm 6.0 continues Zone Lab's legacy of innovation by creating the
industry s first OSFirewall, adding a completely new layer of protection to
complement the company s powerful network and program firewalls.

The ground-breaking OSFirewall is specifically designed to guard against
kernel-level threats such as spyware, hackers, Trojans, keyloggers, and
rootkits by closely monitoring internal computing resources like vital
files, registry keys and start-up processes at the core of the PC. It goes
beyond the user level to inspect activity between computer applications and
prevent the reading of memory and loading of malicious drivers and services.

The OSFirewall also achieves a new level of granularity by shielding
legitimate programs and preventing program sabotage or hijacking. It not
only blocks traditional attacks, the OSFirewall guards against devious
programs that may hide within a legitimate download from performing damaging
actions that steal personal information or slow computer performance.

The new OSFirewall combined with the existing award-winning firewall
technologies create the Zone Labs "Triple Defense Firewall", a
multi-faceted protection system with inbound, outbound and now internal
filtering for zero-hour defense and seamless integration making ZoneAlarm
6.0 the most effective Internet security solution for everyday consumers.

"The spyware threat is a recent phenomenon that the security market is still
struggling with. Much of the focus has been on the development of spyware
signature databases, but signatures only treat spyware once it has infected
a computer," said Charles Kolodgy, research director at IDC. "The ZoneAlarm
Internet Security Suite has taken a proactive approach that addresses the
spyware threat using several layers of protection through its new OS
firewall and outbound traffic blocking capability packaged with antivirus
and antispam protection. With Zone Labs monitoring how programs are using
the operating system, the rest of the industry will need to evaluate how
they are addressing this problem."

New Anti-Spyware Security
Building on the foundation of the Triple Defense Firewall, the new
ZoneAlarm 6.0 Anti-Spyware solution is tightly integrated into the ZoneAlarm
Internet Security Suite and ZoneAlarm Pro products to remove existing
malware on a PC. It boasts a targeted database of signatures to delete the
most pervasive spyware applications on the Internet today. ZoneAlarm s
anti-spyware technology also targets particularly invasive adware programs
that sap computer performance, interfere with legitimate programs, create
new security holes, hijack homepages, deluge users with pop-up ads, and
track personal Web usage and private information.

ZoneAlarm 6.0 Anti-Spyware and the OSFirewall together provide automatic
prevention, detection and treatment capabilities making it the most
effective integrated solution on the market  right out of the box.

SmartDefense
The SmartDefense service utilizes the expertise of Check Point and Zone Labs
 security research departments and leverages DefenseNet  a community of
front-line users to provide real-time alerts and actionable information on
the latest threats. At work for over a year, DefenseNet enables millions of
active users to share security knowledge and provide instant feedback to
help Zone Labs  security experts discover new malware programs.

Through the SmartDefense process, over 95% of policy decisions are automated
- significantly reducing the amount of noise  and sparing the end user
from having to constantly manually accept or deny application activities.

Once a threat has been identified and validated, Zone Labs in turn sends
customized policies back to the users through a SmartDefense Advisor service
for proactive protection. In addition, SmartDefense Advisor provides
ZoneAlarm users with periodic distribution of anti-virus, anti-spyware and
product updates. The SmartDefense service is included with all licenses of
ZoneAlarm.

Building on the Basics

Over 35 million Internet users have downloaded the original ZoneAlarm
firewall and its premium versions since the company s launch in 1998. Now,
the ZoneAlarm family includes the ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite (for
all-in-one protection including anti-spyware, antivirus, antispam, IM
protection and more), ZoneAlarm Pro (a firewall for users seeking advanced
functionality), ZoneAlarm Antivirus, and ZoneAlarm Wireless. ZoneAlarm
Internet security solutions have received the industry s highest accolades,
and with the added security features in ZoneAlarm 6.0, the company has
extended its commitment to delivering the most advanced Internet security
available to consumers.

Pricing and Availability

ZoneAlarm Security Suite, ZoneAlarm Pro 6.0, ZoneAlarm with Antivirus and
ZoneAlarm will be available on Monday, July 25th on the Zone Labs web site
at www.zonelabs.com. ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite costs £49.95 for a
single user, ZoneAlarm Pro 6.0 costs £34.95 for a single user and ZoneAlarm
with Antivirus costs £19.95 for a single user. Prices include VAT. Existing
customers can update to version 6.0 for free if their subscription is
current, and will receive a notification within two weeks of availability.
ZoneAlarm continues to be free for personal and non-profit use.
The ZoneAlarm family of products supports Windows® 98SE, ME, 2000 Pro and
XP.

About Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (www.checkpoint.com) is the worldwide
leader in securing the Internet. It is the market leader in the worldwide
enterprise firewall, personal firewall and VPN markets. Through its NGX
platform, the company delivers a unified security architecture for a broad
range of perimeter, internal and Web security solutions that protect
business communications and resources for corporate networks and
applications, remote employees, branch offices and partner extranets. The
company's ZoneAlarm product line is one of the most trusted brands in
Internet security, creating award-winning endpoint security solutions that
protect millions of PCs from hackers, spyware and data theft. Extending the
power of the Check Point solution is its Open Platform for Security (OPSEC),
the industry's framework and alliance for integration and interoperability
with "best-of-breed" solutions from over 350 leading companies. Check Point
solutions are sold, integrated and serviced by a network of more than 2,200
Check Point partners in 88 countries.
####
©2003-2005 Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.
Check Point, Application Intelligence, Check Point Express, the Check Point
logo, AlertAdvisor, ClusterXL, Cooperative Enforcement, ConnectControl,
Connectra, CoSa, Cooperative Security Alliance, DefenseNet, Eventia, Eventia
Analyzer, Eventia Reporter, FireWall-1, FireWall-1 GX, FireWall-1
SecureServer, FloodGate-1, Hacker ID, IMsecure, INSPECT, INSPECT XL,
Integrity, InterSpect, IQ Engine, Open Security Extension, OPSEC,
OSFirewall, Policy Lifecycle Management, Provider-1, Safe@Home, Safe@Office,
SecureClient, SecureKnowledge, SecurePlatform, SecuRemote, SecureXL
Turbocard, SecureServer, SecureUpdate, SecureXL, SiteManager-1, SmartCenter,
SmartCenter Pro, Smarter Security, SmartDashboard, SmartDefense,
SmartDefense Advisor, SmartLSM, SmartMap, SmartUpdate, SmartView, SmartView
Monitor, SmartView Status, SmartViewTracker, SofaWare, SSL Network Extender,
Stateful Clustering, Triple Defense Firewall, TrueVector, Turbocard, UAM,
User-to-Address Mapping, UserAuthority, VPN-1, VPN-1 Accelerator Card, VPN-1
Edge, VPN-1 Pro, VPN-1 SecureClient, VPN-1 SecuRemote, VPN-1 SecureServer,
VPN-1 VSX, VPN-1 XL, Web Intelligence, ZoneAlarm, ZoneAlarm Pro, Zone Labs,
and the Zone Labs logo, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Check
Point Software Technologies Ltd. or its affiliates. All other product names
mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
owners. The products described in this document are protected by U.S. Patent
No. 5,606,668, 5,835,726, 6,496,935, 6,873,988 and 6,850,943 and may be
protected by other U.S. Patents, foreign patents, or pending applications.