The Daily Teaser — 24-9-2013: The Commercial Internet

I’ve got to admit, I’ve got a documentary on, that I taped, last night: A Very British Murder, a potted history of grisly murder tales.

Interesting stuff, I have to admit.

Although, it has to be said, I hadn’t realised quite how much of a ham the presenter — historian, Dr Lucy Worsley — has turned out to be.

Happily singing along with assorted folk songs and doing a lot of the re-enacting, herself.

Still … it’s rather good.

After all, who doesn’t enjoy a gruesome murder, every-so-often … ?

QUITE … !

~≈î≈~

Yesterday’s Teaser saw Debbi* putting in her answers: along with scoring four and a half† out of five, she also let us know she felt there were similarities between the Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings movies.

Let’s see how she — and you — do with today’s rather commercial questions, shall we?

Here they are, along with the ‘How To,’ License and video … 

Q1) 24th September, 1979, saw the launch of the world’s first commercial internet service.   By which company … ?

Q2) That company is — or was — an ISP.   What does ISP stand for … ?

Q3) The debut also saw the first commercial what: email, file transfer service or video streaming … ?

Q4) In which year of the 1990s did the company open a UK service: 1993, 1994 or 1995 … ?

Q5) Finally … that original company is now owned by which well known American company … ?

Here’s yesterday’s questions and answers …

Q1) 23rd September, 1980, saw Bob Marley play his last live concert.   Which of his hits includes the line “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind” … ?

A1) Redemption Song.

Q2) 23rd September, 2000, saw Sir Steve Redgrave win his fifth Olympic gold medal.   In which sport … ?

A2) Rowing.

Q3) 23rd September, 1909, saw the publication of the first part of The Phantom Of The Opera.   Who played the Phantom, in the classic 1925 silent film version … ?

A3) Lon Chaney, Snr.

Q4) 23rd September, 1932, saw the Kingdom of Nejd and Hejaz renamed what … ?

A4) The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Q5) Finally … 23rd September, 1951, saw news that the UK’s king has had part of his lung removed.   Which King was this … ?

A5) George 6th.

I’ll leave you with this promotional piece …

“CompuServe's basic service costs only $5.00 per hour, billed in minute increments to your charge card.”

From CompuServe’s advertising.

And this … 

Have a good day … 

*        I thought they were very different films, myself, Debbi: but I’d grown up on Tolkien.   I do know Frank Herbert and David Lynch were expecting issues with the film version of Dune: deserts, and rebels, fighting an evil empire … 

†        Yeah, sorry about that, Debbi: Lon Chaney Snr and Jnr were two different actors … 

The Daily Teaser — 7-4-2013: The Matrix …

You know, I think I’ve got my Sunday cut out for me.

At least, I’ve got today cut out for myself.

I’m quite happily going to be working on a few more Teasers.

I’ll be frank … ?   I’m thoroughly enjoying the amount of themed Teasers I’ve now put out.

Guess what … ?   Today’s Teaser is one of those very same themed ones.

Let’s get moving on, shall we … ?

««•»»

Yesterday’s saw Trevor suggesting I should have used Telstar as a video, and also saw Debbi putting in her answers: along with admitting loved yesterday’s video contribution*, she also bagged six out of six.

Let’s see how she — and you — do with today’s questions, shall we … ?

Here they are, along with the ‘How To’, Licence and video … 

Q1) 7th April, 1969, marks the birthday of the Internet: it saw the publication of RFC 1, defining the basic software and hardware of the Internet.   RFC stands for Request for … what … ?

Q2) More to the point, what was the Internet called, in 1969 … ?

Q3) That network was initially funded by an agency of which US government department … ?

Q4) According to the RFC series, BCP stands for Best Current what: practice, particle or packet … ?

Q5) The Internet is dependent on the work of Donald Davies and Paul Baran, the men behind what: packet switching, planar switching or planet swopping … ?

Q6) Finally, one piece of revolutionary Internet software was the World Wide Web: what’s the name of the British scientist who designed this software … ?

Here’s yesterday’s questions and answers …

Q1) 6th April saw the launch of Intelsat 1, the first satellite to be put into what sort of orbit … ?

A1) Geosynchronous.

Q2) More to the point, in which year of the 1960s was this … ?

A2) 1965.

Q3) Was Intelsat 1 a spy satellite, a communications satellite or a weather satellite … ?

A3) A communications satellite.

Q4) Science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke, is credited with first coming up with the idea of this sort of satellite: in a 1945 letter to which magazine … ?

A4) Wireless World.

Q5) What — in 1971 — was the name of the only British satellite to be launched in a British rocket … ?

A5) The Prospero X-3.   (The British government cancelled the funding not long afterwards.   I’m still angry: have been ever since I first heard about the cancellation of the whole Black Arrow project.   ‘MUPPETS’ is too mild a term … )

Q6) And FINALLY … what’s the name of the US agency that launched Intelsat 1 … ?

A6) NASA.

I’ll leave you with this thought from Jonas Whitespore …

“On the internet, nobody can hear you fart”.

Jonas Whitespore.

And, because I couldn’t find songs about the ’Net, I’ll show you a few songs that were hits because of the ’Net … 

Or went strangely viral on the ’Net … 

Or — in the case of Eduard Khil — gave a career a latter day boost … 

Enjoy the day … !

*        I’m just wondering what you and Trevor will make of today’s videos, Debbi: the songs concerned were either hits — or international hits, at any rate — because they got posted to the ’Net.

Argh ... !

JUST in case you're wondering ... ?

I've got to confess, I'm up at Brentwood library, posting this up.

Seemingly ... ?

Seemingly, it seems that my Internet Service Provider - Brtitish Telecom, in case you DIDN'T know - dropped the signal.

And were experiencing an outage they EXPECTED to last for up to eight hours.

Saying that ... ?

I've just had one of my neighbours phone me to tell me it seems to be back on.

I hope it stays that way ...

Blogging through a Windoze machine is NOT my first choice ... !

An FB Workaround.

You know, I’ve got to ask, what on EARTH is all the fuss about … ?

No, really … ?

You see, what with one thing and another, there’s a lot of talk about online security, and about HTTPS versus HTTP.

Just in case you DIDN’T know, the former is a somewhat more secure version of the latter, and used by both Twitter and Facebook to improve their users online security.

Or partially used by Facebook, I should add.

You see, a lot of the time, when you use many of the games on FB, it’ll ask you if you want to switch off secure browsing.

You have to, in fact, to use the games concerned.

That’s not an out-and-out criticism, I should add: but it IS fiddly.

Especially when you consider that the secure browsing feature isn’t automatically turned back on, once you’ve finished playing the game.

There’s a work around, though.

Or a couple, I should add.

First off … ?

Logging OUT of Facebook, quitting your browser, then re-strarting it, and logging back in.

Those of us using a desktop or laptop can do it the easy way, of course.

Just go to the URL bar at the top of the browser windo. And in-between the ‘http’ and the ‘:’, type the letter ‘s’.

And press ‘Enter’, or the ‘Reload’ key combo.

There.

Wasn’t that easy … ?

I’m just hoping you notice the new Favicon for Nik Nak’s Old Peculiar, while you’re there …

Up In the Clouds: Just how secure IS that … ?

Hmmm …

Now, I’ve GOT to admit that I’m an Apple fan.

Or Mac fan, I should maybe add.

You’d possibly noticed, hadn’t you … ?

But at any rate, like many of my fellow Apple watchers, I saw — with interest — Apple’s announce of both the upcoming new version of OS X — codenamed Lion — and it’s new cloud service, iCloud.

The trouble the whole cloud thing, though … ?

I mean from where I’m sitting … ?

Well, do you remember the Sony hack attacks, recently?

When Sony had to take down it’s Playstation Network, and start issuing warnings about one or two of their other networks.

On top of that … ?

Nintendo’s ALSO seen an attack on its servers.

And today … ?

Lulz Security, who carried out the Nintendo attack, announced that the NHS computer systems are extremely vulnerable.

And on top of THAT … ?

Today’s seen game company, Codemasters have a lot of personal details lifted.

I’ve got to wonder if, from a security standpoint … ?

Is any kind of cloud service sensible … ?

OK, granted Apple are seen to have a good track record in this sort of area.

But … … … …

Look Out … Fraudster’s About

You know, I’ve got to admit, I’ve known some bright women, in my time, I really have …

And bright women, I’ve noticed, tend to be able to smell rats, from a mile off …

Remember Kelly? And the Comantra scam she managed to avoid, a while back … ?

Well, I’ve had another old friend — Maggie — who’s also a former boss get in touch about a chap she’s been introduced to on Facebook, called James Paul.

By another person called Carol Iannella.

From what Maggie told me, the Chief’s* always on the lookout for good causes to promote, as she’s always keen to be helpful: and, seemingly, Carol had been helped out by Mr Paul to the tune of some $30, 000 worth of wedge.

James Paul managed to befriend Maggie, and get chatting her about the work he does.

And asked for her email address …

Maggie was … cautious.

Ex-pub-landlady that she is, part of her automatically does ‘DING’ whenever large sums of cash get a mention.

And goes into overdrive when someone does something like what James Paul does next.

Asked for her email address …

And the associated password …

She immediately did two things.

Messaged me for a second opinion.

And confessed she was smelling a three-week-old, extremely dead rat.

As, while James Paul was pestering her for her login details, she’d down a search on FB for Carol Iannella …

And found Ms Iannella has at least three accounts with differing details, but exactly the same profile picture.

Old campaigner that I am … ?

And never being able to resist the Chief, when she needed a hand … ?

IMMEDIATELY started writing this post, with one aim in mind.

To suggest that, if you’re contacted by either of these two … ?

You block them.

AND report them to Facebook.

I’m thinking that James Paul and Carol Iannella are up to no good.

* Chief is the nickname Maggie ended up with, when she was in charge of the White Horse, back in the day, before it got turned into The Sugar Hut.

Digital Rights Rear Their Head …

Hmmm …

This is going to be quick, but I thought I’d flag up a news item or two, for you.

As you’ve probably guessed, I like films.

But I’m a film lover  who’s aware of the various legal issues.

Now, I’ve said before, that I think the various forms of copyright law in the UK are bloody weird … !

If not out and out silly.

Effectively, you can’t legally back up DVDs, nor copy them across to an MP3 player.

»»•««

So, lets talk, briefly, about the Digital Economy Act quickly, shall we … ?

The act went through its second reading, just before last years election: and — in theory — allows ISPs to cut off connections, if they’re shown to be using file-sharing sites.

It’s been challenged by both British Telecom and TalkTalk: mostly, I think, because the policing role involved means they have to cut off paying customers: and people who’ve had their Wifi signal hijacked: wrongly prosecuted, in other words …

Given that it was a piece of legislation introduced by the previous Labour government … ?

I’m none too surprised that this piece of news cropped up.

Basically?

It seems the Coalition government is trying something similar.

Personally … ?

I don’t think that’ll stick, either …

Dot Triple-X

Ah …

Now that’s a welcome piece of news, I think.

I’ve just managed to catch this article on the BBC’s site.

About how ICANN, the body responsible for managing the Internet, has now given final approval to the ‘.xxx’ domain.

The domain name allows for adult sites to be grouped together under one banner.

Now some in the adult entertainment industry are complaining this will lead to its ghettoisation: and various religious groupings have argued this will legitimise the industry.

Personally … ?

Personally, I’ll happily admit that — like a lot of men and one or two of my female friends — I’ve watched some entertainingly explicit material.

But it’s material I think may well be inappropriate for anyone under 18 to go near: my former partner, Allison would certainly give me an earful if I let Squeaky near anything untoward, while she was using the Mac Mini, or Archie, the Dell Pc, just behind me, with a version of Arch Linux.

I’m also very aware that one or two friends and co-workers — much more devout than me — may not be be happy about a .xxx domain: but would probably be happy about being able to filter the contents.

Personally … ?

I’m pleased to see this.