January 8th, 2010

Facebook launch Ph.D fellowships to 'fix the social web'

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 1:35 pm

Categories: Breaking news, Careers, Industry connections, Next-generation technology, Research, Social networking, University

Tags: Facebook, Student, Social Web, Social Networking, Online Communications, Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, Zack Whittaker

Facebook has today announced the launch of the Facebook Fellowship Program, aimed at Ph.D students for this academic year to help solve some of the challenges which face the social web.

The landscape of the social web and social networking is changing day by day, and soon we may not be able to recognise what was once a simple to-and-fro communications system. The next generation is being called in to help the social networking site to create a more dynamic and better functioning service, along with tackling other challenges that the computing industry faces.

Students involved in computer science, computer engineering, system architecture or similar areas are eligible for this fellowships, and those with backgrounds in Internet economics, social computing, data mining and information retrieval are just some of the areas of interest to the social networking site.

This fellowship will fund the academic research being conducted by the student, though won’t involve employment of the student, but will assist in their research. Facebook, along with Microsoft, are focusing on the academic community to work together in solving the technical challenges presented to them in this ever developing industry.

Ph.D students studying at a US university who qualify can apply for one of five available fellowships which will include a $30,000 grant, tuition fees paid for, and travel remuneration along with other benefits.

February 15th is the deadline for applications for fellowships.

January 5th, 2010

2010 resolutions: Open-source, social media, representation and surviving surgery

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 6:33 pm

Categories: Careers, Events, Hardware, Mobile computing, Productivity, Social networking, Web 2.0, diversITy

Tags: Social Media, Linux, Open Source, Operating Systems, Software, Zack Whittaker

This blog means more to me than just a job, or progressing my career. It gives me an opportunity to discuss, raise issues, and have a laugh. But also on occasion, give the readers what they want - the technological equivalent of a Britney Spears exposé, like Internet Explorer not being secure enough or a peek at the new Office suite.

But along with it is an ever progressing learning curve. I learn not only about myself but also what you, the readers think and feel. With this, my resolutions for this year are as follows:

Take advantage of, and learn more about open source

People seem to forget that Firefox is open source. They see it as a browser and probably don’t even contemplate it anymore. But I haven’t forgotten, and thankfully millions out there haven’t either. My experience with the Linux-based Maemo operating system on the Nokia N900 opened my eyes to open source and Linux.

This year I’ll attempt to break away from the usual Windows based operating system, experiment with Mac OS X a bit further (considering I still haven’t clocked up a full hour usage yet), and try and get my head around the innards of Linux, along with embracing other open-source Windows applications. Maybe I’ll even go the whole hog and start on OpenOffice. I’ll see how I get on first…

See the potential of social media during real world events

Social media is everywhere and accessible to everyone. While a daunting and no doubt incredibly controversial thing to say, the US and the UK are long overdue for a terror attack due to the high involvement with conflicts in both Iraq and Afghanistan, confirmed by the attempt on a transatlantic flight on Christmas Day.

The role of social media and everyone communicating in the masses dedicated to one, single event, could save lives during these events. Mumbai was a perfect example, with the outside world learning of developments within the attack areas being reported by citizens and the ‘hostages’.

With events of terror which are clearly not wanted but are to some extent inevitable, the role of social media will exponentially rise and be used as a force of good to clear up the panic and the confusion of the situations we will find ourselves in.

More representation for students from me and a million readers

I’ve had over the course of the two years I have written here into the millions of readers. I am so lucky to be a voice of the student population and frankly, I’m in a position to do good with this. I’ve represented students before and I think with the welfare work out of the way, I can do better with the force of my readership.

Students and the next generation worker are in a massive minority and I’m so proud to essentially serve you, that I want to make more of a difference. Speak out, say what others dare not say and represent the wider population of students who are facing the workplace in a year, two or even further down the line.

Survive brain surgery

This year, likely February or maybe March, I’ll be going under for three weeks - not on here though, I’ll be having my laptop in hospital - as I undergo groundbreaking brain surgery to attempt to cure a neurological illness I’ve been lumbered with.

With three weeks away from Canterbury, university, and hands-on studying, I’ll need all the support I can with exams only a couple of months after. I’ll be taking technology as my academic lifesaver and will use any means necessary with the kit that I have to ensure my learning takes precedence and that my studies go uninterrupted.

What are your tech resolutions? Comment monster needs feeding.

January 4th, 2010

Start-up visas to entice 'foreigners with good ideas'

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 3:51 am

Categories: Breaking news, Careers, Environment, Government, Legal and political, Major breakthroughs, Money, Workplaces

Tags: Visa, Recruitment & Selection, Entrepreneurship, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Management, Zack Whittaker

This year will see a Congressional debate for the proposal of a new visa which will make it far easier for non-US residing entrepreneurs and “foreigners with good ideas” to stay in the US, and to contribute to the rebuilding of the economy. 

With technologists and graduate students facing difficulty in getting a visa for work in the United States, they are forced to go elsewhere or stay in their own respective countries. The BBC also state this will be part of a proposed overhaul to the entire immigration system.

Congressman Jared Polis, who is proposing this initiative, is aware that, in line with Duke University research, around half of all the major tech company founders are immigrants or non-US nationals such as Google, Yahoo and eBay.

In a nutshell, at the moment:

• The USA issues 10,000 EB-5 visas (designed for foreign nationals to invest money in the US) a year.
• At the moment the current legislation requires these visa holders to invest $1m and create ten full time jobs - essentially entrepreneurs setting up a start-up and bringing on staff.

The new system of visas will instead:

• Grant foreign nationals a visa if their business plan grants them $250,000 from a US based venture capitalist, or $100,000 from an informal investor and,
• Show that the business will generate five to ten jobs or generate a profit and at least $1m in revenue.

This new scheme will allow foreign nationals to generate less money from more sources, as well as generate a profit without necessarily creating jobs straight away, but have the monetary potential to in the future.

Yet the typical usual will argue that this will take away jobs from existing citizens, which personally I cannot see being the case. The visa scheme will take into account a broad spectrum of ethnicity’s and foreign backgrounds as well as those studying at universities, including homegrown citizens. Regardless of these variables, the best will be picked, but those who are indeed foreign and don’t have the appropriate visa or immigration status will benefit from the scheme to ensure they can stay whereas before they would lose out.

The website, StartupVisa.com, houses more information and the aim and goals of the initiative to reform the EB-5 visa legislation.

December 26th, 2009

Student vetting before study: Waste of time or necessary evil?

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 9:13 am

Categories: Careers, Discussion, Government, Legal and political, Research, Security, University, Workplaces, diversITy

Tags: Student, Terrorism, Details, Chemistry Student, Homeland Security, Security, Government, Zack Whittaker

A Nigerian student, at this time thought to be from University College, London, is facing charges of international terrorism offenses after seemingly attempting to detonate rudimentary explosives on a transatlantic flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Details are still emerging and police on both sides of the Atlantic are working together to piece together what happened and is still considered breaking news. Widespread disruption is expected at all international airports flying to the United States.

However this has opened yet another long standing thought in my mind in regards to students at university and the wider communities. Should students be vetted before entering on a university course, which could perhaps have negative implications on other people?

Mentioned before on this blog, two university students were arrested last year under terrorism laws for accessing “terror related material” which was not only in the public domain, but on a US government website. The materials they were accessing were relating to their course, however were nonetheless held in custody as a possible result of their non-white ethnic backgrounds.

Had they been vetted before they were brought onto their terrorism studies course and deemed suitable for study, perhaps this would have not occurred in the vastly out-of-proportion way that it had.

With a number of courses, the education aspect covers the good alongside the bad. Chemistry students are told about pyrotechnics and explosive elements, computer science students are thrown into the security deep-end and some dedicate their university careers to understanding the in’s and out’s of Internet security to create white hat hackers.

• Read more: The next generation of terrorism
• Read more: Ethical hacking: the next generation security specialists
• Read more: Global security: is study restricted?
• Read more: MI6 search for the next generation spooks

But when working with children for example, it is expected to gain a level of security clearance - the UK has the e/CRB service while the US has certain police checks. When studying at university, you will be given access to materials which may not necessarily be for non-academic use and should only be used in an “educational manner”. Why shouldn’t the same rules apply, and have a police check or a level of vetting to ensure that students may not take these bits of knowledge and use them for ulterior motives?

Some already do - a postgraduate certificate in education for those working with children, or academic degrees involving health and social care; working with those more vulnerable. But as technology becomes more and more intrinsic to our every day lives, surely infrastructure services and knowledge for these systems should be somewhat protected also?

Should students be vetted before they enroll on their course?

December 18th, 2009

Google: Best tech place to work in 2010

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 8:24 am

Categories: Adobe, Apple, Careers, Discussion, Google, Microsoft, Money, Workplaces

Tags: Google Inc., Restructuring Issue, Recruitment & Selection, Payroll Solutions, Benefits, Personal Finance, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Zack Whittaker

Glassdoor.com published their best places to work for the coming year yesterday, highlighting a number of key technology companies in the top 50.

At the top, Southwest Airlines with a rating of 4.7 out of 5.0 (classifying it as employees being “very satisfied”) with Google ranking at number 14. The company, famed for its practical jokes and revolutionary workplace style, slips 7 places since last year, yet still ranking higher than Apple, Intel and SAP America, at 22, 41 and 43 respectively.

Adobe seems to be the biggest slip, dropping 26 places, after employees said that the “technology is limited to their cloistered family of products”, such as Flash, Reader and AIR, and others blame the management and boards for lack of sales for products which don’t seem to generate much revenue.

However, Google isn’t exempt from the grilling after accusations of people skills ranging from “arrogant and stubborn co-workers” to “middle managers with little by way of people skills”; these could well be personal perspectives from individuals and may not represent the wider picture.

The restructuring issues are not unique to Google, as my time at Microsoft seemingly all those years ago was dogged by management reshuffles and reorganisation which never seemed to benefit anybody or any of the products in the long run. On the other hand I wasn’t there long enough to see the changes in full effect.

Microsoft does not appear in the top 50, yet has a rating of 3.6 (classifying it as employees being “satisfied”) based on just under a thousand reviews. In the long battle between the companies, Google can chime a victory in this area for being the better workforce to be part of.

Google employees’ average salary ranges between $32,000 - $40,000 and $140,000 - $202,000 for jobs including group product managers and directors, while Microsoft’s average salary at the moment seems to be stable between $44,000-$48,000 a year and $160,000 - $203,000 for the higher paid jobs such as senior attorneys and senior directors. (Estimations are rough, only; never been great with maths).

Do you agree? Disagree?

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December 14th, 2009

Updated Facebook privacy: How to privatise your profile

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 3:27 am

Categories: Careers, Discussion, Events, Piracy and file-sharing, Security, Social networking, University fun

Tags: Facebook, Privacy, Privacy Setting, E-mail, Search, Online Communications, Zack Whittaker

Facebook has caused a massive storm this past week with the revamp in privacy settings. Now it is far easier to publish something to everyone on the web for anyone to read. Many blame Facebook, I took the high road and blamed the user. Regardless of who is right or wrong, many are still confused at the settings.

Most users would have, or will see this notice when they sign into Facebook. It’ll allow them to alter their settings accordingly to ensure that your profile is as open as you want it to be.

This isn’t enough as many people are thoroughly confused. This guide will step you through the privacy barrier and ensure you know the basics and the advanced settings, taking into account my previous post of hidden gems the site still has to serve.

First and foremost, head over to your privacy settings and then we can begin.

At any point, you can leave a comment or question and I’ll get back to you.

Changing exactly who can see what on your profile –>

November 6th, 2009

Facebook profile privacy: Take control, student style

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 1:25 pm

Categories: Careers, Discussion, Multimedia, Security, Social networking, University, Weird and wonderful

Tags: Facebook, Advertisement, Privacy, E-mail, Online Communications, Zack Whittaker

(10/12/2009) This post is now out of date. Facebook rolled out new privacy settings on the 9th December 2009. Stay tuned for an updated post; this will be linked to shortly.

A question arose in one of my seminars yesterday, asking whether universities spy on students through Facebook.

Yes, they do in many cases. But then the discussion evolved into another topic and this got me thinking. I get emails all the time asking about Facebook privacy settings and those who are worried about certain things being discovered, and the employment problems for future reference.

With the multitude of settings, and more often than not rather confusing and somewhat contradictory, how do you effectively lock down your photos, notes, profile and information, to not only certain people but everyone else outside your close-knit networks?

There are articles already on how to lock down your Facebook through the in-built settings, and this one is particularly good. However there are tricks and subtleties I’ll mention here which you may not have considered before.

Feel free to leave verbal heckles, but in the meantime - are you sitting comfortably? Shall we move on?

Network hacking to avoid staff/student snoopage –>

September 15th, 2009

IT support: Cut the jargon or find another job

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 7:49 am

Categories: Careers, Discussion, Gratuitous rant, Skills development, e-Learning

Tags: Job, DNS, Generation Y, Information Technology, SSL Certificate, SSL, Domain Name, Ssl/Tls, Domain Names, Authentication/Encryption

I had a phone call from an extended colleague working for a charity here in the UK. The website they have is throwing up SSL error messages due to the extended security in modern day browsers - Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3 are the best examples.

The domain name for the site stands, but the website is hosted by another company which has an SSL certificate for their own subdomain, which covers this charity’s website and every other website they host. When accessing the members-only part of the site, they are faced with an SSL certificate error, which is causing havoc with non-technical users and deterring them from using the site.

So from the charity’s domain name, hit the Login button and it throws an SSL error because the SSL certificate is issued to the hosting company’s subdomain, and not the charity’s domain name. It’s a domain name mismatch issue and quite common nowadays. Keeping up?

Their support response was to “advise your visitors to ignore this warning”. That threw me back quite some way. Is that really the best solution? Or perhaps installing another SSL certificate to accommodate the additional domain name would have been a better idea?

This colleague got in touch with me to ask for my advice after emailing back and forth for weeks, ladies and gentlemen. Weeks.

The first question she had asked was in fact spot on, “Can just purchase a certificate to cover our domain name?” Instead of giving her a valid response, they quite simply bounced around jargon and technical bull which would have made very little sense to someone outside of the IT community.

This happens every day, in every organisation, and this is what I truly hate - hate - about the computing industry. It’s the self-important, arrogant nonsense which IT professionals bounce around. They use language which confuses the lay person and causes them to feel inferior, when in fact they are the paying customer.

The reason people ask me for advice is because I don’t bounce around technical language, or when I absolutely must, I explain it in almost gratuitous detail so they actually learn from what I say. More often than not, they don’t just want an answer or a solution to the problem; they want to know what the problem was and learn from it.

One of my friends working for the Home Office didn’t go in for two days claiming she was ill, because she was too terrified to speak to the IT technician on call, because of the flurry of patronising and condescending comments she would have to endure as a result of not knowing something.

Another example was last year. I went to the IT support desk at the university with a friend whose laptop was playing up. I was hungover and tired, and didn’t have the energy. But I went for morale support because English wasn’t her first language. From memory, this is how it went:

IT support: “So what’s the problem?”
Friend: “The Internet won’t work. I plug it in and network doesn’t connect. I need to submit my work otherwise my marks will be zero.” [Bad English, I told you]
IT support: [sighed and rolled eyes] “Fine, open it up.”
[The laptop loaded and she put in her password]
IT support: “Well it’s clear to me that the DNS cache is clogged and needs to be refreshed, so I’ll open up a command prompt and flush out the DNS. I’ll resolve it and the IP configuration will automatically reset. If you [something, something] the DNS resolver will fail and the connectivity will cease.”

All good and well to me, as I understood roughly what was happening. For some reason, the DNS cache needed flushing out and the slate needed to be wiped clean. He did this in a matter of seconds and it was all good and well.

But the attitude he gave my friend - perhaps because of her lack of technical skill or the fact that she was did not speak in eloquent English tongue - he was clearly “attitudey” and made her feel like it was her who was in the wrong. Sometimes computers just screw up, and this was one of those occasions.

She left that office with a negative experience. But it was his fault, the spotty, rude and arrogant idiot who clearly shouldn’t be in a public facing job if he cannot grasp the concept of basic social skills.

So this is a plea to the IT community. For crying out loud, get a grip. Sure, you may hate your job and hate people asking you for advice when their computers or devices screw up. But you are a specialist in your field and are respected for knowing that knowledge.

So pull your finger out and learn some social skills, because I can tell you now, ladies and gentlemen, that the Generation Y will not put up with your attitudes. The Generation Y do not appreciate being patronised because we’re younger. The Generation Y will rip you to shreds.

Thoughts?

September 15th, 2009

Employment after college: Start off low, work your way up

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 6:13 am

Categories: Careers, Discussion, Events, Industry connections, Money, Skills development, Workplaces

Tags: Credit Card, Industry, Experience, Industry Connection, Sales Channel, Productivity, Financial Services, Strategy, Sales, Management

A question risen on the Guardian Money section asked:

“My daughter is off to university to study physics, but I’m concerned that she’s planning to do paid weekend (and possibly) evening work while there. We are not well off, so we can’t help out much, but I would prefer her to focus on her studies. What is the best paid work to combine with university studies? Or should she restrict earning money to her vacations?”

An interesting one which I have debated over many a minute of a frothing pint of English ale.

There is no doubt in my mind that I am one of the luckiest students in the country today. Not only do I earn a living working here online, or more specifically from my office at home, but I gain experience and industry connections and have the time to study also.

However the vast majority of students simply do not have the same luck as me.

What does annoy me to the root core of my being is when Daddy with a Range Rover and Mummy with the pony, give their child a credit card and any payments made are repaid by the parents. One student came to me (as a friend) in tears because, “Daddy cut off my credit card, and now I can’t go into town and buy clothes and have a good time”.

Had I not also been a welfare officer for the union, I probably would have slapped her and told her where to shove her sodding credit card.

So, you have a number of options. And considering this is a technology website, I’m somewhat limited to writing about the technology side of industry - but most are synonymous with other areas and industries.

Industry connections are important. A university-level education nowadays is worth diddly-squat. You can easily walk out of college with a first-class degree with honours in engineering or computer science. You can tell this to your office manager at your new job, and they’ll still tell you to make the coffee for everyone else.

During college, make the efforts to go to events, conferences and places where people within the industry you want to go into meet. Yes, they will be boring and most of the time you will question your own sanity at the boring tripe these people come out with. But making an appearance and a positive impression will do you well in the future.

But working in a local computer store - that is, if you are studying computer science - gives you the experience and the real-world scenarios that future employers want to see. Just because you have a piece of paper with your name on it doesn’t prepare you for what the real world throws at you.

How do you think medical students cope? They have years of lectures, seminars and medical training, but the only real-life experience they get is once they kill their first patient on their first day.

Not only do you get money for working but the experience is more valuable in the long run. It is important to remember that. Most jobs strive for previous experience which leads me to question as to how you gain this experience in the first place?

The answer is simple: by starting off low, and working in the crappiest of the crap, and working your way up.

If you want proof of this, do you remember where I used to work before getting this gig? Microsoft. You have to take some serious knocks in life to get to where you want.

September 9th, 2009

Real cash for virtual cash: FarmVille's business sense

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 6:03 am

Categories: Careers, Major breakthroughs, Money, Next-generation technology, Productivity, Skills development, Software development

Tags: Farm, FarmVille, Games, Personal Technology, Zack Whittaker

FarmVille has become of the most popular social game applications for Facebook for my generation, and the creators must be laughing in almost incomprehensible proportions at the millions they must be making.

The application is a simulation-based game that not only involves community spirit by other application users with gifts and extra tasks (which give the recipient farm coins to spend within their own game), but exploits the virtual cash (”farm coins”) based marketplace for real money.

See Screen Gallery: Real cash for virtual FarmVille cash

When a user accepts the game/application, you  are presented with a blank canvas with which you are expected to create a virtual farm. You can plant seeds and they grow over time, and when you harvest the produce you receive farm coins, which perpetuate further spending.

Like other simulation games, you build up to different levels and can purchase more and more items - decorations, animals, trees and produce of higher wealth which then give a more substantial return. It’s addictive and keeps you playing by offering the farm cash incentive.

I’ve been playing for only five days and the feedback received from the game in terms of farm cashflow, the experience level received and the number of neighbouring farms accepted (from other friends in my actual social network) all make the game quite addictive. It doesn’t take up much of my time and constantly offers further advancement to a better farm.

It’s pathetic that an online game has gripped me so much, but it’s truly fantastic. But what has impressed me more is the business side behind the scenes of the game itself.

If you tried hard enough, you could earn your farm coins and farm cash through buying and selling of produce and animals. This would take you through weeks of repetitive tasks. The urge to bypass this laborious process and inject your own, real money into the game to convert into farm cash and coins is constantly playing on my mind.

Until I did. I spent $160 (£97) in the course of one hour just so I could expand my farm and further my game.

The interesting side is the real money vs. virtual money system. While this isn’t a new concept, exploiting the popularity of the game and the exchange of real money for further tools, plants, crops and decorations would have no doubt gripped so many people - myself included.

The trick when generating games or applications such as these is the monetary remuneration. Nothing can be created for a truly free amount, therefore this system of money exchange has propelled Zynga, the creators of the game, into an entirely new dimension. The key fact here is that you don’t have to spend money to further your advancement in the game, but if you do then you have the opportunity to fast track.

The temptation to spend money to engage with this cultural phenomenon is constant, for myself at very least.

My point is that if you are a budding entrepreneur and struggling to consider ways of gaining financial reward from the software you create, something like this should be taken away with you to the next developer meeting.

Business software could work on a pay-as-you-use-a-feature process - such as Word which restricted areas of the application to only the very basic functions. By linking in your credit card and requiring the use of a feature - say a SmartArt feature once and once only - you pay a few cents to use the feature and as a result the overall price of the software would go down.

With this, every copy of the software would be suited to the person who may only use a small handful of features, each application would be customised for that particular person and piracy could also be nearly-eliminated.

Would this work? Could you see software going this way, or has Zynga got the nail on the head with their process? Comment away.