Defined: Phorm is a digital technology company and has drawn attention to itself when they announced they were in talks with several UK Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to deliver targeted advertising based on end-user browsing habits by using deep packet inspection (DPI). In short, this means that your Internet connection will be monitored and your ISP will log every website that you visit, and use the data it has collected about you to send you adverts.
Phorm are currently working with British Telecom (BT), Virgin Media and TalkTalk and claim that by working with these three companies they will be able to access the surfing habits of 70% of UK households with broadband.
UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): The ICO has declared that Phorm would only be legal within the UK if it were an opt-in service. However, this is opting into receiving targeted adverts, it does not stop Phorm from collecting data about you.
Phorm is out there to make money, and a lot of money, advertising is a huge cash sack, but do you really want targeted adverts using your data? Do you want your data being logged at all?
If the answer is no, and you are a UK resident, you can sign the petition on the Number 10 Downing Street website to stop Phorm:
STOP PHORM on Number10.gov.uk
Further reading:
As expected, Microsoft unveiled the next version of it’s Windows operating system, Windows 7 (formally codenamed Blackcomb and Vienna), at the Professional Developers Conference (PCD) 2008 which is being held in Los Angeles from 27th-30th October 2008.
There was a demonstration of the operating system, a pre-beta, build 6933, bearing a brand new thicker taskbar, improved system tray area and a slightly different start menu, and removal of the Windows Sidebar seen in Windows Vista. At first glance, it does look a bit Apple mac-ish, as seen below:
Windows 7 Screenshot Galleries on Neowin.net: Here and Here.
Attendees of PDC 2008 were lucky (or unlucky, you decide!) enough to receive a copy of this pre-beta of Windows 7:
Photo from qyblog.net on Flickr
It is said that Windows 7 will be released early 2010, and will come in several flavours, desktop client edition (32bit and 64bit) and server edition (64bit only).
For more information on Windows 7, here are some useful links:
One of my hobbies is photography. I enjoy admiring other peoples work and I also enjoy taking my own photos. In early 2007 I bought myself a Canon EOS 400D Digital SLR, I’d never touched an SLR before then. I soon fell in love with it, my pictures were alive! Since then, I still use this camera, but I now have several lenses, my favourite is my Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 (wide angle), and I also have a variety of accessories, filters, tripod, remote control for long exposures… and a bag to carry it all in!
I didn’t want this blog to be plain text, nor did I want it to just be ramblings, so to brighten it up, here’s some photos I have taken during October 2008:
The Gullet Quarry in Malvern, Worcestershire
On a trip to my home town, Malvern, I took a drive to this old quarry to show my girlfriend. Armed with the camera in the boot, we arrive and the sky against the rock was too good an opportunity to miss! I shot in RAW and when we returned home I used my trusted Photoshop to generate me the images I needed to create this High Dynamic Range (HDR) image.
Autumn Trees Against Blue Sky
Fantastic Autumn colours against this amazing blue sky!
Riverside Staines
Interesting structure, located by the river in Staines, Egham. Unfortunately I didn't see any information explaining what it's for, but I shot this and then later realised how amazingly blue the sky was on that day!
The Moon at Dusk
Dusk in Egham, Surrey. The moon is almost full, and the sky is a pale grey blue, I had to shoot! I'm really pleased with this result, but, but, if only it were sharper! The level of detail is superb, click the image for the full size.
Train Long Exposure in Egham
One Sunday evening waiting on a bridge in Egham... Equipped with my camera, tripod and remote controller. My first attempts at this type of long exposure photography.
Christmas Pringles in Tesco
In Britain, supermarkets tend to go crazy in the run up toward Christmas. My local Tesco has already stacked its shelves of Christmas junk food (yummy!) all the way to the ceilings!
View all my photos on my Flickr Photostream
 Slightly off-track from my Microsoft Certification plan to gain an MCTS/MCPD in ASP.NET Applications, but the company I work for sent me on an the official Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Course 6461A which is three days long, and instructor-led.
The reasons for this is because we have quite a variety of systems that are all currently tightly coupled, and code is mostly copied rather than shared (uh-oh). We have the task of decoupling this mess(!), and our aim is to introduce a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) using… WCF, hence sending me on this course!
I have to say, I’m not sure whether it is just our training provider, but these official Microsoft courses that are “instructor-led” might as well not be instructor led since the majority of the course time is spent following the official text, and unless you have an out of the ordinary question, then unfortunately the instructor is underused!
Overall though, the course was a really great insight and overview into WCF and sparked many ideas for the situation I am about to embark on at work!
I even realised that this course is the only prerequisite to MCTS Exam 70-503: Windows Communication Foundation Application Development. So I might well take my course book and practice it to take this exam too – makes sense.
At the beginning of 2008 I decided that it would be beneficial to get myself Microsoft certified, so I looked into the options available to me. It soon become apparent that actually I ought to wait, the reason being because Microsoft released Visual Studio 2008 along with the .NET Framework 3.0-3.5, and to follow was a reshuffle of the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) development certifications:
FROM - MCTS: .NET 2.0:
TO – MCTS: .NET 3.5:
As you can see, there is now a lot more choice which enables developers to choose a specialist area.
I have selected my specialist area in ASP.NET Applications. Although I plan to take that to Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) level as shown below:
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MCTS: ASP.NET Applications - 2 Exams Required
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Exam 70-536: Microsoft .NET Framework – Application Development Foundation
Exam 70-562: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 – ASP.NET Application Development
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| MCPD: ASP.NET 3.5 Developer - 1 Exam Required |
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Exam 70-564: Designing and Developing ASP.NET Applications Using Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
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Progress at the moment, well, I am studying for Exam 70-536, and to help me out I have the official Microsoft Collection 5160: Core Development with the Microsoft® .NET Framework 2.0 Foundation and Collection 5161: Advanced Development with the Microsoft® .NET Framework 2.0 Foundation.
Progress is… slow, despite finding myself trying to study each and every night. Part of the problem is that I’m a self taught .NET programmer, and I’m confident that I know 60-70% of the content already, however, its not just knowing it, it’s knowing it the Microsoft way.
In an attempt to power forward this exam I have bought myself 170 practice questions and my exam voucher from MeasureUp which expires in March 2009, so I better have done it by then!
How stupid is this?! This popped up when I tried to empty the recycle bin on my work computer: 
When I received that message I had a look in the recycle bin, and as you can see from the screen shot, its already empty, its obviously a ghost file somewhere confusing poor old Windows XP!
I attend quite a few Microsoft UK MSDN events and one of the presenters, Mike Taulty, uses a desktop management piece of software called, you guess it, CubeDesktop. It’s caught my eye every time he has presented, as you’ll see from the screenshots (the software in action is far better than these still shots!):    
I decided to download a trial copy to have a play for myself, mostly because it looked very cool, but upon actually using this software I have found it incredibly useful, especially since my main computer is a laptop with a screen resolution of 1440 x 900, ok so its not too bad, but if like me you run a lot of applications, it can get cluttered and difficult to locate that particular window using ALT+TAB! CubeDesktop has reduced this “problem”, so now I can have a desktop #1) with my Microsoft Outlook, Windows Live Messenger and general Internet browsing, #2) my Visual Studio, #3) SQL Server Management Studio, #4) Remote Desktop to my virtual server, #5) FTP to the live server. See more: YouTube Demo Video | Download CubeDesktop Trial
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