Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything.
  - Kurt Vonnegut

Filed under: miscellaneous
1 Comment

According to eWeek’s Security Watch, there’s a very nasty bit of code embedded in a website at the moment, all geared up to lure the disarmed net traveller into a false sense of happy yuletide security.

Here’s just a sample of the subject lines in the email you might receive offering you

A fresh new year
A fresh new year…
As you embrace another new year
Blasting new year
Happy 2008 To You!
Happy 2008!
Happy New Year To (emailhere)
Happy New Year To You!
Happy New Year!
It’s the new Year
Joyous new year
Lots of greetings on new year
Message for new year
New Hope and New Beginnings…
New Year Ecard
New Year Postcard
New Year wishes for you
Opportunities for the new year
Wishes for the new year

According to Gary Warner, the main URLs he’s are seeing at this point are:
     uhavepostcard.com <== (majority use this one)
     happycards2008.com
There are more than 100 samples using these two URLs so far. The first was received December 24th at 12:10 PM.

Gary also noted that some of the anti-virus and anti-trojan software that failed to detect it were F-Prot, Kaspersky, McAfee, and Sophos. If you use any of these providers for your protection I assume that they have updated their data files and you should update yours accordingly (which is something you should do on a daily basis anyway — if you are in control of your computer then set your software to auto-update at midnight each night and leave your computer on, just turn your monitor off to save electricity and our planet).

Security Watch suggests you:

Install anti-virus software, and keep its virus signature files up-to-date.

Block executable and unknown file types at the e-mail gateway.

Refer to the Recognizing and Avoiding E-mail Scams document (.pdf) for more information on avoiding e-mail scams.

Refer to the Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks document for more information on social engineering attacks.

Very VERY good advice!

Filed under: Uncategorized
No Comments

So said Computer Weekly’s John Riley ages ago, but I’ve only just caught up with it.

BP, ABN Amro Bank and Diageo PLC have revealed details of the ways they are working in virtual worlds.

Joe Little, who works in BP’s chief technology office, said the company has identified 30 interactive web and virtual worlds as the breakthrough technology for 2008.

By mid-2008 BP executives hope to increase the use of virtual worlds, especially for collaboration, marketing public education, mentoring, learning and development and refining business processes.

Dutch bank ABN Amro is using the virtual world Second Life for recruitment and for one-to-one meetings with prospective employees.

Key points:

• BP, ABN Amro and Diageo are using Second Life to increase productivity
• BP is using virtual worlds for strategy planning and global collaboration
• ABN Amro says virtual consulting and financial planning are the way forward
• Diageo is using Second Life to boost productivity among global R&D teams

———–

Related CW article: How to do business in Second Life

Other related SL articles:

• The future of virtual worlds
• CIO Essentials: Virtual worlds, biometrics and green IT
• Top Technologies for 2008
• Economist explains move to virtual world
• Virtual Worlds Get Down to Business

Filed under: Second Life
2 Comments

cross-posted from my Second Life blog

I recently upgraded my graphics from the on-motherboard NVIDIA GeForce 6150LE to a dedicated ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro, to amusing effect.

Whilst there is no doubt that things have sped up quite considerably on my display and I get less of the ‘out of virtual memory’ messages from Windows XP, Second Life has been displaying weirdly!

Here’s a snip of a screenshot — note: “I ain’t got no body!” as David Lee Roth once sang. Nor does anybody else, but they at least have hair and sometimes their boots!

And my SL client has grown two new features, too — I am confused!

But equally confusing, because I don’t know if it is a graphics card issue or a SL client issue, is that I now have a second window open up showing me the processes going on behind the scenes…

I’ve just upgraded my graphics driver to the latest version but that hasn’t improved things!

You can see that I am wearing clothes, but no clothes (or body) can be seen. Any clues, anyone?

Filed under: Second Life
2 Comments

Courtesy of our good friend Shel Holtz comes news of a one-stop shop for social media training — the cunningly-named ‘Social Media Training’ wiki.

I’d previously set up my own wiki to show seminar attendees how simple and useful such a tool can be, but as Shel acknowledges, getting folks to ‘come and play’ in that particular sandpit can be difficult, especially after the initial interest wears off and delegates and seminar attendees return to the hurly-burly of working life.

Joining the community of contributors is easy — just register and begin to add content. Joining is made even easier if you have an OpenID profile, which you should have (more info about OpenID here).

This initiative by Dave Fleet deserves to become as profoundly useful as the great Constantin Basturea’s NewPR wiki. Kudos, Dave!

Currently listening to:
Slide Hampton - Cool Jazz - In The Groove - The Cloiser Suite Part 2

Filed under: Uncategorized
2 Comments

The rascal has also sent me a link to a unique version of Jingle Bells.

Thanks, Dave; have a great Christmas yourself, my friend!

Filed under: Uncategorized
No Comments

Mitch Joel and his team at TwistImage in Montreal have outdone themselves with this year’s Christmas Card.

Twelve luminaries from various disciplines share their top video of 2007 — compelling watching.

Speaking of compelling watching: David Jones (vice president, digital communications at Hill & Knowlton in Toronto) sent me the link to a client’s Christmas card: this is brilliant — Turn your volume waaaaay up!

Thanks for sharing these, guys!

Filed under: Uncategorized
2 Comments

This is sheer video brilliance, and thanks to Kathy for letting me know about it.

Filed under: Uncategorized
No Comments