The IT Skeptic - internet

Internet discourse is becoming unreal: I can't tell a Poe from an idiot any more

skeptic — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 22:35:19 +0000

A fascinating phenomenon on the internet is the sophisticated illusions being spun to satirise opposing positions.

GrokLaw tantrum

skeptic — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 04:34:59 +0000

A website called GrokLaw closed down recently, supposedly because of US snooping into email. The response of the internet chattering classes has generally been supportive and upset. I don't understand why. I think it is one of the daftest things I have heard in a long time.

Imagine using the internet as knowledge

skeptic — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 21:56:41 +0000

What a dumb idea; directing user search to internet videos to solve IT technical problems.

The anti-email crowd is shooting the messenger. Email is lovely

skeptic — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 23:01:35 +0000

If I see one more rant about "email is dead" or "let's replace email" I'm gonna throw up. Email is great. There's a reason it is so wildly successful and widely adopted.

Internet I gave you all the best years of my life

skeptic — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 01:29:27 +0000

The world is full of those chasing fame and fortune on the internet. The glittering lures of e-commerce, Adsense and cult-herodom draw them from far and wide, looking for easy money, good hours and groupies. It is not like that.

Talkin bout my digital degeneration

skeptic — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:49:46 +0000

The My Generation generation faces the Me Generation: a world populated by Digital Natives, and the prospect of their digital degeneration.

Why forums are dangerous

skeptic — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:44:27 +0000

Forums are often full of total newbies trying to find out, and only slightly-less-newbies answering their questions. I know blogs like The IT SKeptic are nearly as dangerous for their self-appointed-expert status, but at least you have Google page-rank as some indicator of how others view the site. On a forum it is hard to evaluate what a poster knows unless you already know the answer to the question. Look at this example

The internet brings middle class capitalist socialism

skeptic — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:54:40 +0000

Wired magazine seems to think the internet heralds a new socialism. This silliness stems from the same hypocricy and self-delusion that has middle class kids sitting in a house someone else built wearing clothes someone else cast off and lusting after DVDs and cell phones, while pretending to plot the downfall of Western capitalism. The internet is perhaps the greatest creation of capitalism. It is only through the surpluses generated by its money engine and the freedom generated by its armies that twaddle such as this even gets written and read.

The hot internet topic of IT jobs

skeptic — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 08:22:43 +0000

Apparently the IT job market is a great generator of traffic. So much so that any story will do. Up one day, down the next.

Advertising to the itSMF keyword

skeptic — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:32:56 +0000

Google AdWords/AdSense is a fascinating thing. Internet advertising may be the most revolutionary thing ever to happen to small business marketing (or big business for that matter). The sensitivity and feedback are extraordinary for testing and refining marketing messages. (So why do vendors still do so badly?).

The point of this ramble is that right now someone is paying over five bucks a click for the "itSMF" keyword.

Google rots your brains

skeptic — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:07:12 +0000

I found a fascinating article from the ever-interesting Nicholas Carr (remember "IT Doesn't Matter"?) on how Google is making us stupid.

OGC need to get broadband up at Castle ITIL to understand the 21st Century.

skeptic — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:15:49 +0000

This may not come as a surprise to you, but it does to me. I - along with The ITIL Imp - was under the misapprehension that the ITIL Live Portal was going to be free. Nope.

The community must police digital theft on the internet

skeptic — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 10:30:57 +0000

It occured to me today that defending your digital IP is like having a puppy [warning: yet another puppy analogy].

Privacy is dead - get over it.

skeptic — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 09:16:52 +0000

People demand online privacy as if it were some god-given right. Privacy is an abberation of recent history, a transitory phenomenon that is evaporating quickly in the hot light of technology. Privacy is dead - get over it.

VOIP and the anti-competitive behaviours that would logically induce in a telco

skeptic — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 10:16:46 +0000

These are ugly times for telcos, a topic I look forward to exploring a little more on this blog. Today's topic is VOIP and the anti-competitive behaviours that would logically induce in a telco. Let me share with you a recent email from my broadband ISP. First some background. My ISP is a telco, the big dominant telco. They also provide me phone lines. Actually they try to pretend they don’t, by branding the ISP arm as an excitingly named subsidiary, but it is a pointless sham really when it all comes on one convenient monthly bill.