So instead of .com or .co.uk, in future you’ll likely see .hotel, .bank, .beer as well as company brands like . . . → Read More: The end of .com?]]> On Monday (20/06/11) the governing body for Internet domain names, ICANN, is expected to approve the final rules to allow organisations to register their own names at the top of the Internet name hierarchy.

So instead of .com or .co.uk, in future you’ll likely see .hotel, .bank, .beer as well as company brands like .canon, .deloitte or .hitachi. Organisations may register keywords that relate to their products, such as .camera or .printer. Cities are considering their own Internet name – for example .london.

For marketers, the creative possibilities are exciting. Think justdoit.nike, enjoy.coke, or getwings.redbull. They’ll all be possible.

Catchy domain names like these will be perfect for boosting advertising recall. If you want to buy an iPad, instead of typing in www.apple.com/ipad you could potentially in future just go to ipad.apple.

They’ll also convey brand trust and security. If a brand secures their name as a .brand domain, they control it – meaning a fraudster can’t set up a site using that domain, and as a consumer you know it’s legit. If you’re a HSBC customer and do your online banking through a .hsbc address, you’re assured you’re at the right place – and ICANN is unlikely to allow a .hzbc or .hcbs address for you to accidentally type in and be taken somewhere malicious.

There are many more benefits to be had. However, there are some things to consider before diving in for a .brand.

Firstly, the cost. The application fee alone will be £115,000. Secondly, human behaviour. We’ve grown used to .com and .co.uk, and most of us just type those in automatically when guessing a company’s web address. Is that behaviour going to change? And will these new names just confuse customers rather than make the online experience easier to navigate?

This explosion in new domain names is likely to create some confusion for consumers at first as we all get used to the new names (“No dad, you don’t need to put .com at the end!”).

Do internet domain name changes spell the end for .com?  Organisations will still most definitely need to maintain their .com and .co.uk presence because consumers are not going to switch to the new .brand overnight. And from a brand protection perspective, you don’t want anyone else to take your existing names.

This award is only given to those few establishments that get consistent 5-star ratings from their guests on Trip Advisor.

Well done to Jen and Kevin.

To enable this . . . → Read More: Take fine control of your cursor]]> Anyone editing photos, designing documents or taking screen grabs will want to select precise areas on a computer screen — but it’s impossible to move the cursor accurately enough with a mouse. Under Windows Vista and Windows 7, though, the cursor can be moved pixel by pixel using the keyboard.

To enable this option, open the Ease of Access control panel, select the mouse control menu and tick the box labelled Turn on Mouse Keys. Save your changes, and you’ll be able to move the cursor by tiny increments up and down, left and right, using the four arrow keys on the numerical keypad.

They also decrypted 200,000 of the least secure passwords. So anyone could see not just the relatively simple password . . . → Read More: Two random words, preceded or separated by a number, make a hard-to-crack password]]> Red faces at the US gossip site Gawker: last weekend hackers hijacked the front page and released the usernames, email addresses and encrypted passwords of 1.3 million registered users of Gawker and its affiliated sites.

They also decrypted 200,000 of the least secure passwords. So anyone could see not just the relatively simple password used by Gawker’s founder, Nick Denton – but the fact that he used the same one for other online accounts, including email, Twitter and Gawker’s internal messaging system.

"More than 3,000 Gawker users chose ’123456′ as their password," says Michael Brunton-Spall, from the web team at the Guardian. "But lots of people used just one simple word – ‘starwars’, say, or ‘princess’. ‘Letmein’ was quite high up the list. And ‘trustno1′, which was Fox Mulder’s password in The X Files, was popular too."

Bad mistake. "If you use the same insecure password for everything, you’re laying yourself open," Brunton-Spall says. "Already Gawker users are complaining that their Twitter accounts have been hijacked. That’s embarrassing. But imagine if they were using the same password for their online bank."

So here are Brunton-Spall’s top password tips. First, make it secure: two random words, preceded or separated by a number, make a memorable, hard-to-crack password (most people add a number at the end, making it much easier to hack). An alternative is to use the initial letters of the words that make up a favourite saying or song lyric – again, preceded or separated by a number.

Second, don’t have a multipurpose password. On the grounds that no one could remember an entirely different password for every site, you could try having three basic passwords – one for things financial, one for things professional, one for things social. Then you could drop in two letters from the name of the specific site: if, say, your basic social media password was shock7asset, your Facebook password might be fshock7basset. Or your Twitter one might be tshock6assetr. Easy, really.

Guardian 15/12/2010

HD Sound will initially be available over the internet, with BBCR3 becoming the first BBC outlet to offer a constant HD feed via its website in December.

Special events on other . . . → Read More: BBC to launch HD radio]]> Today the BBC announced that it is to bring HD to radio heralding the highest quality audio service in its history.

HD Sound will initially be available over the internet, with BBCR3 becoming the first BBC outlet to offer a constant HD feed via its website in December.

Special events on other networks, such as this month’s Electric Proms — which will broadcast on BBCR2 and feature Elton John, Robert Plant, and Neil Diamond — will also be available via the technology.

A BBC spokesman said: “HD Sound uses improved encoding and higher bit rates to offer the BBC’s highest audio quality broadcast to date. It also offers a wider dynamic range, accentuating the difference in volume between quiet and loud sounds.”

HD Sound will initially be available via the radio stations’ individual websites, but the corporation plans to incorporate it into its iPlayer and Radioplayer, a new online joint venture between the BBC and commercial radio that is ready to launch for testing this week.

A BBC spokesman added: “Appreciation of the improved sound quality will very much depend on the equipment used; those using small speakers built into a laptop may not notice a big difference, but listeners with a computer connected to a good quality sound system or high-quality headphones should be able to appreciate the extra clarity and detail in the sound.”

More than 2.2 million US PCs were found to be part of botnets, networks of hijacked home computers, in the first six months of 2010, it said.

Compiled by Microsoft, the research revealed that Brazil had the second highest level of infections at 550,000.

Infections were highest in South Korea where . . . → Read More: Two million US PCs recruited to botnets]]>  

More than 2.2 million US PCs were found to be part of botnets, networks of hijacked home computers, in the first six months of 2010, it said.

Compiled by Microsoft, the research revealed that Brazil had the second highest level of infections at 550,000.

Infections were highest in South Korea where 14.6 out of every 1000 machines were found to be enrolled in botnets.

Full story here