Archive for the 'News' Category

Flegg High PE Online Developments

Published
by
Phillip
on Wed November 26, 2008
in Flegg High School and News
. 0 Comments

The latest developments with the Flegg High PE ONLINE Website are as follows:

  • I have recently held a meeting with the Head of Physical Education to discuss future developments.
  • I am currently in the process of rewriting the base code of the template for the PE website. The new theme will be widgetized, the code will validate as XHTML and CSS compliant and meet priority 1 and 2 (AA) of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The new templates will also include semantic tags and the presentation, behavioural and form layers will be separated. A beta version should be available early in the New Year.
  • Newsletter distribution functionality has been incorporated into the website using Feedburner publicity tools. Those wishing to receive the newsletter can register on the website.
  • Early in the new year, the hosting package for the site will be upgraded to accommodate future growth and new functionality. The hosting provider will may be changed.
  • I am currently investigating how video content can be incorporated into the site. Due to the nature of the site and its target audience, security concerns need to be considered and addressed.
  • A Twitter account has been created to distribute news on events and fixtures results with the minimum of delay. Specific tweets will then be aggregated into a blog post. The Twitter feed will be incorporated into the website once the updated theme is available.
  • A photo gallery will be incorporated into the new site. Investigations are currently taking place as to whether this will use Flickr, a Javascript Library or Wordpress plug in.
  • A calendar will be integrated showing events and fixtures.
  • Further enhancements will take place to accomodate further information relating to the 2009 Flegg High School Sports Festival.
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Blog Referral in BCS Newsletter

Published
by
Phillip
on Thu November 20, 2008
in News
. 0 Comments

I have just been advised by Fran Paterson at Peterborough City Council, that my write up on the first ReadWriteGov event is being referred to in the next British Computer Society Newsletter, ITNOW.

ReadWriteGov is led by Dave Briggs (Twitter) along with a number of guest speakers, in this case, Dominic Campbell (Twitter), Steph Gray (Twitter) and Hadley Beeman (Twitter). The event provides excellent discussions and information on social media developments and also some very good networking opportunities - well worth attending.

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Global Reduction in Spam

Published
by
Phillip
on Tue November 18, 2008
in News
. 0 Comments

ascii spam email

On the 13th November 2008, the BBC reported that two US Internet Service Providers have pulled the plug on McColo - a US hosting provider. During the month of November, I have received very little spam in my Google Apps email account. Bearing in mind I normally recieve between 5 - 10 spam emails per day, throughout this month, I have received only 4 emails so far.

According to a BBC report, there has apparently been a 70% reduction in spam globally, as McColo was believed to have had spam gangs as clients. Unfortunately, this will only be a temporary respite, as the spam gangs move to less scrutinised networks. As Google reports, they had noticed a similar decrease in the number of spam emails their servers were processing in July, but this had reversed within a few days.

The spammers can make millions in profits, making it a lucrative business, despite only receiving one response per 12.5m emails they send. This information comes after computer scientists from America infiltrated the Storm bot network, estimated to make £4,430 per day or more than £1.28m per year.

Has anyone else noticed a similar decline in the number of spam emails they are receiving?

Photo Credit: Yandle

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