ICANN, the body which grants licenses to run top level domains such as .com and .org, is allowing more organizations to apply to run generic top-level domains (gTLD).

London’s Government has joined a number of other top international cities including New York, Paris, Sydney, Rome and Berlin in expressing an interest in establishing local domains.

Officials at tourism agency London & Partners are working to identify the costs and benefits associated with the running a domain for London ahead of making a formal application.

Kulveer Ranger, Digital Adviser to the Mayor commented, “Ownership of the dot London domain could offer a tremendous opportunity to reinforce London’s position as a global center for digital innovation, generate revenue and bring about new employment opportunities.

“There is great potential for engaging with Londoners and the Mayor is interested to understand better what people think this opportunity would mean to them, as well as the marketing opportunities and the business benefit for the capital as a whole.”

The application process opens on January 12th 2012 and the process for allocating domains is expected to last between 9 and 20 months.

This article has been syndicated from: http://itsallmythought.com

Well it appears as though the BBC wan’t to freshen things up again with their website this time with……..Tiles!.

That’s right folks, tiles. For whatever reason beyond me and most folk’s understanding, this appears to be the rage at the moment with Windows phones going this direction and also the new Windows operating system which will be released at some point. It’s not the first time BBC likes to freshen things up on their homepage, but for me, this doesn’t work. I personally dislike it and as such, will just bookmark the BBC Sport bit and prey that doesn’t go into tiles one day.

Whats everyone elses impressions to it?. Do you like it?. Do you even use the BBC site?

I often on a Friday pick up the Barnsley Chronicle as I like to hear my local team managers view on things at the club. Recently, my home town club has come under lots of stick, mostly unwarranted. What annoys me further, apart from the Chronicle now going up in price is that they pick idiot letters from fans to go into the paper. Today, my view slightly changed on this after reading a letter written by Brian Sheridan who resides in Sheffield.

His letter in a nutshell calls some fans a muppet (in my words) because of the ingratitude some fans have given Patrick Cryne, our owner and some vital times and how we have got by within the clubs history. And to be honest, I totally agree with just about everything he has said.

This is the same Patrick Cryne who saved this club from being none existent. This is the same guy who has put us on even footing. If I was a businessman, I wouldn’t put a penny into the club. Football is so hard to make profit so I can only salute Cryne for everything he has done. Same with John Dennis. I know people hate the guy and he got branded the guy that took us almost out of business. But this is the same guy who built us a North stand, a car park and also took us to the premier league and not only that, almost making a swift return. I too would like to see the North Stand become the “John Dennis Stand”.

I remember Cryne saying once he would like a Barnsley team with Barnsley players. As much as this would be a fantastic vision, it’s not going to happen whilst we are in this league.

Fans at Barnsley football club seem to be too concerned at this moment in time about our managers remarks and thinking they are the manager of the club. Let me make this clear.

1. What Keith Hill is saying is the reality. Wake up to it. The sooner you embrace it, the easier it will be.
2. If you want to be a manager, start off in the lower leagues and do it yourself. If you don’t want to do that, stick to your simulation games and shut up!
3. This league has changed on an epic level from 10 years ago. 1 million plus is now the norm for players in this division where as 10 years ago it was the top end transfer fees. Wake up, we are now a small fish in a big pond with really big fish there!.

Fans at this club also don’t seem to understand some facts behind ticketing.

1. Still one of the cheapest about
2. We are surrounded by 3 cities, 2 of which (Leeds and Sheffield) have 3 major clubs between them. We also have nearby Doncaster, Rotherham and Huddersfield. The catchment area is very different and harder
3. Players are on higher wages and as such, the club needs to compensate for it.
4. We can’t expect Cryne to keep pumping money in…Would you?..unless you have billions, you won’t. It’s that simple.

Whilst I don’t like the £30 ticket price, instead of spitting dummies out about it, there’s ways to go about it which would have more effect.It also appears that everyone at this club seems to guess what is what when it comes to finance. If a fan with half a brain cell looked at financial records, which are openly available so look at via Company House, you can see that we need to because self sufficient and quick.

Yes this is a rant, but it needed it!…Some fans are really stupid, face palms don’t even make up for it!.

I did wonder if I should type this up or not, simply because it involves where I work and knowing my luck, I’ll probably be in trouble for it come sometime when it gets picked up. I apologise in advance because this text won’t make much sense because its probably going to be pure waffle but its better me typing this up than keeping it boiling inside.

Today (Friday), I learned something. Sticking to your morals, guns, principles, can win wars even if it looks like a hopeless cause. Today I had a mini war with my manager today, It wasn’t pretty, blows were traded in some sense but I came through it on the right side…which to be fair is very rare.

Recently within my workplace, I’ve been slowly losing motivation, the will and respect to do my job and to respect my superiors. Why?. It’s hard to explain via text, its better said face to face, but when you work hard to no reward and you see the slack folk getting away with things, its deflating. At this point, when you see nothing happening, you wonder; Whats the point?.

I don’t intend to have a go at people for the fun of it and wind them up, I do what I do in my way to show that working hard without sucking up to people, can get you places and that people like me, shouldn’t be pushed aside as one feels fit. This is the feeling I have had for weeks, if not possibly months at my workplace. I’ve not said anything because it always goes on deaf ears and you end up wasting your time.

So what is this all about?

Today I almost got forced by my manager (will not name) to have side by side coaching. I’ve hated side by side coaching and its always had a negative impact on how I work and has also done on previous jobs. It also makes me exceptionally nervous. I explained my reasons to my manager and he pretty much refused to take any of it in. Side by side coaching is good if you can learn something from it. Problem is, I never have. Also I find it an personal invasion of space because there’s hardly sufficient space at work on desks..having someone else next to you, whether its an stunning model or 6″6 basketball player, its something I can’t work with. I need space. I don’t wan’t someone in my face.

To establish my dissent against this and my concerns, I had to send a formal email to my manager explaining that if he chooses to ignore me and is adamant to side by side coaching, I would raise a formal complaint. Now this isn’t something I would take joy in doing, but If that’s what I have to do, then so be it. What got me down the most about this is that I had to send a formal email. The fact that he didn’t take me seriously creates an issue.

So what happened after?

It appears that my manager now understands my concerns. Why he couldn’t in the first instance, I have no clue. Now I have to have a meeting to delegate and see what can be done even when I offered a solution.Not really looking forward to this meeting, because I know more blows will be traded.

My respect for my manager has been rapidly going down hill almost to a point of a sub level temps of Russia. I’m sure he’s a decent enough person out of work, but work wise is a totally different ball game. My personal opinion is that his extra responsibility of late has put too much stress on him and its having an effect on the people who report to him.

Closing Thoughts

I’m happy that I stuck to my guns, regardless of how much trouble i’ve probably put myself in. Lets face it, I’m either going to be in trouble for typing this up or acting the way I did. Something will be twisted over to make me look the bad party. It’s how companies work.
If things improve, work relationship wise, then great, if they don’t, I know where I stand and as does my manager. Today I learned that if you believe in something and you have deep feelings about it and someone tries to get you down over it, fight for it, don’t let anyone push you over. Fight for what you want, its not going to be handed out to you.

Without some of my colleagues at work, I would have not only walked out a couple of months ago, but probably thrown myself off a bridge into motorway traffic!. Thanks everyone. You know who you are!.

Hi all, 3 articles in the space of a couple hours. Where am I getting this time, I have no idea. Anyway, just noticed that there’s a little issue with some of my articles are not auto posting on Twitter and Facebook. This is causing a little traffic issue (low traffic). Most of our traffic currently comes from social networking so its a little issue…Saying that however, there hasn’t been any content up bar Leon’s posts.

I think I might have solved this issue (this post is also a test). I’ll keep an eye on it and troubleshoot.

I also want to apologise for the lack of content recently. To be honest, I’ve lost some motivation for the site and some things at work have got me down or tired which makes me not want to do anything. I’d like to say I can continue to blog, but i’m finding it hard. Time will tell if I can keep going..I guess its stay tuned.

Keep safe everyone!.

It’s not unusual to see TalkTalk come out with something, hell I work in an industry where I hear the company’s name almost on a regular basis and it usually ends up in a negative offspring…Maybe that’s because I work for Plusnet and we are their main competitor, who knows!.

According to David Goldie, Commercial Director for TalkTalk, he stated in an exclusive statement to The Guardian that BT are in essence are leaving the country with a second rate infrastructure and BT are gaining back the lost monopoly. Instances such as BT bidding against Fujitsu to deliver another super fast fibre network is an example to such an extent, but durely its still goes to who can deliver the best bang for buck. Goldie also went onto say that TalkTalk do not know the price of the Fibre whereas BT do. Now does this mean to connect up, because Plusnet, who I work for and a couple of other companies do or is it the price of to connect up a customer. Once again, other companies such as South Yorkshire’s Digital Region knew as well with access duct fights although Digital Region themselves have been disputing some costs.

What is interesting to hear is that Goldie feels that BT are not building the right infrastructure for the country. I’m not pro BT and i’m not anti BT either, but if Goldie has a better plan, I’d like to hear it. Considering that Fibre to the premises to every home is out of the question financially, the copper has to still be there in some form. You can only upgrade so much, best example is the London Underground. No matter how hard we try, It’s not going to be like Hong Kong’s MTR system where is flawless!.

Other countries such as Scandinavia may have a quicker network, but it’s also smaller and pretty much has no copper cabling. A more realistic comparison in fairness would be to the USA.

Whilst I can understand companies can be worried, its up to them to innovate and entice customers to use them as a provider, its what separates them from each other.The product is out there, they just have to figure out how they can use it to their advantage.

If you are interested in reading the full article, you can see it here at The Guardian

According to site 01net the WiiU console is lacking some power in the controller/screen area. Some rumours are even going out as far as that the wireless connection to it isn’t working correctly and its having to be tethered connection to get the data to transmit. Now tihs would be an issue. Now i’m sure Nintendo will always have there issues with any system so i’m not worried although if they are having issues, it would be wise to push the product back instead of rolling out for March/Arpil next year.

Whilst some feel the idea is rushed out, Nintendo will always stick to their guns and innovate which is a credit to the industry!…doesn’t take away my doubts about this controller however.

Source: 01net

WARNING: Source is in French!.

Researchers at the University of California in San Diego recently showed how they could “read” the buttons of an cashpoint keypad with an infra-red camera, revealing which buttons had recently been pressed. As you can see in the picture, the recently pushed buttons have a distinctive red glow in the middle that tells all.

That’s sounds worrying, but before you start carrying ice cubes with you to the cashpoint consider the hurdles a potential PIN code thief will face. The camera used by the researchers costs about $18,000, and apparently a cheaper model won’t do. So your thief will need to have deep pockets. Another problem is that the camera method only works on Cashpoint’s with plastic buttons, because the metal type tend to throw off too much stray heat. Finally, the picture tells you which buttons were pressed, but not the order they were pressed in.

Final Thought
Considering all of this, I don’t see that there is much to worry about just yet. Most scammers are not going to buy a camera for $18,000 that does not really show in what order you pushed the buttons. But if any of you are worries, then just use a cashpoint with metal buttons.

This article has been syndicated from: http://itsallmythought.com

Initially Three will give 11 communities dongles and broadband access for a year, at an average speed of 2Mbps, which is the minimum speed the government wants to achieve for fixed broadband across the UK. Free public access will also be made available in pubs and community centers using Mi-Fi devices.

Gringley-on-the-Hill in North Nottinghamshire is the first community to be included in the initiative. It will receive 30 dongles and free data access for a year, and will also get public Wi-Fi hotspots in the local pub and community center.

The mobile operator will work with the Countryside Alliance to identify rural broadband “not-spots”.

The move comes as mobile firms await Ofcom’s decision on how the sale of the wireless spectrum for 4G will be regulated later this year.

Rural areas have recently received £363m from the government intended to provide 90% of UK homes with super-fast broadband by 2015 and for everyone to have access to a minimum of 2Mbps.

But Sarah Lee, head of policy for the Countryside Alliance, said the amount could fall short of the cash needed to improve coverage and could take several years to be properly realized.

Mobile internet access could be the answer to bridging the digital divide in the countryside, she added.

Matthew Howett, senior analyst at Ovum, agreed that mobile broadband will play an important role in increasing coverage to rural areas.

“Ofcom is deciding how the spectrum will be packaged and awarded. Three has made a convincing case that it has a network designed for the roll-out of mobile broadband, so it’s not surprising that it is going after these parts of the country,” he said.

The mobile network operator wants to secure enough spectrum in the wireless auction to support a credible network. That will be the intention from multiple parties. Ofcom may even increase coverage obligation, added Howett.

“All the operators are interested in getting as many customers on the network as possible, and rural areas are a big potential source of customers,” he said.

Ofcom’s consultation on wireless spectrum closed in May. The body is due to release a regulatory statement later this year, but has not yet confirmed a date.

This article has been syndicated from: http://itsallmythought.com

Registered developers can download iTunes 10.5b6.1, which allows the iTunes Match service to be turned on by paying the $24.99 yearly fee. Apple told developers that they will get an additional three months of service for free in order to cover the beta period, though those who manage to access the 6.1 beta without a developer account are told that they’ll still have to wait to give iTunes Match a shot.

Once activated, iTunes scans a user’s library for music. Any songs that match up with tracks in the iTunes Store get linked to a 256kbps iTunes Plus track that is stored on Apple’s servers. Songs that don’t match are uploaded to a special part of the user’s iCloud storage, which doesn’t technically count against your storage quota. We say “technically” because Apple still limits iTunes Match to 25,000 tracks total—apparently larger libraries won’t sync at all with iTunes Match.

Previously, Apple indicated that iTunes Match would only allow users to download tracks to authorized computers or authorized iOS devices. The free “previous purchases” feature works this way as well—by download only. However, Insanely Great Mac discovered Monday night that iTunes Match tracks—at least those that are matched to tracks in the iTunes Store—can stream directly to iTunes or an iOS device without downloading first. (The ability to stream non-matched, uploaded tracks has not yet been verified.)

Streaming capabilities have been expected to be added to Apple’s iTunes ecosystem ever since the company purchased music streaming service Lala in late 2009. The company developed a protocol called HTTP Live Streaming specifically to make streaming audio and video content to computers and mobile devices a simpler process. While Apple did switch to streaming TV and movies to its Apple TV last autumn, the company made no mention of streaming songs from iCloud when the service was announced this past June.

The great thing about being able to stream tracks is that you won’t have to wait for songs to download fully to listen to them, nor will they be permanently added to your mobile device’s limited storage space. If you plan to be outside the range of a reliable network, however, you can always download the track for offline listening.

Apple said that iCloud and iTunes Match would launch this autumn along with iOS 5. We believe these services will launch in September, likely in conjunction with typical next-gen iPod announcements.

This article has been syndicated from: http://itsallmythought.com