Sending information over the internet can be like using postcards and VoIP (iChat, Skype, Gizmo, Google Talk, etc.) is no exception.
To solve this Phil Zimmermann, the creator of PGP, the most widely used email encryption software in the world, has recently released an application for encrypting video and audio calls over the internet.
It’s called Zfone and it’s as easy as starting the app up before you begin a call (all people on call need the app). It works with Windows XP, Vista, Mac OS X, or Linux. The only VoIP app it doesn’t work with is Skype because Skype doesn’t use open standards, unlike every other VoIP app in the world, so you’re better off without Skype (use iChat, Google Talk, Gizmo or any other option out there).
Highly recommended, download it here.
A little something to make you laugh. I’ve seen some cringe-inducing videos from Microsoft over the years but this one, promoting their Professional Developers Conference, may take the cake. (via Daring Fireball)
Surely they have highly paid propagandists who said, no, bad idea? Maybe their cringe-loving CEO, Steve Ballmer, thought it would be a good idea.
Daring Fireball’s John Gruber explains why he thinks the management of some of the closed aspects of Apple’s iPhone App Store are flawed.
And if that interests you, you might also be interested in this interview with Jonathan Zittrain and a review of his new book, The Future of the Internet—And How to Stop It.
Jane Clifton muses on the emergence of blogging and it’s relationship with old fashioned journalism, complaining that “it’s hard to tell whether the information providers are accurate, biased or simply malicious.”
“The Blogerati” responds in good fashion, but what I like that blogging brings to the table is exactly what Clifton fears: uncertainty about who is telling the truth. One of conventional journalism’s biggest traps is that it purports to be the conduit of truth, when in fact—and certainly from my experiences of being reported on as part of a story—this claim couldn’t be further from the truth.
Journalism, especially in the form of for-profit media, should have never staked this claim, and it now has much to answer for.
Blogging and the internet encourages us all to treat everything we read with a critical eye; not simply to accept something because it’s written down. And that’s a good thing Jane.
This weekend I finally moved my website to a new web host:
Ecohost, possibly the ultimate web host.
It’s been a long time coming because my criteria for a new host included that it be low carbon, not store any data in the U.S. and do business in English. That’s a surprisingly difficult combination being that most English-speaking low carbon web hosts are in the U.S., using Californian solar energy to power their data centres.
I would have liked bragging rights that my web host produced its own energy but these guys do the next best thing, according to their website, and offer webspace in a data centre called Smartbunker, powered by 100% renewable energy sourced from Ecotricity.
Furthermore this data centre is apparently located in a high-security former nuclear bunker, offering a money back guarantee of 100% uptime. Not that my web host offers this but I’ll be curious to see how reliable it is compared to my last host.
And to top it all off, not only is Ecobee low carbon but it’s also a not-for-profit co-operative. Being a pareconist it really doesn’t get much better than this!
So it’s all roses—and fast to boot—but I’ll be sure to keep you posted.
Update 16-05-2008: Name changed from Ecobee to Ecohost
Recent Comments