London -  Some of the text messages read like real-time rallying calls for rioters.

“If you’re down for making money, we’re about to go hard in east London,” one looter messaged before the violence spread.

Others direct troublemakers to areas of untapped riches – stores selling expensive stereo equipment, designer clothes, alcohol and bicycles.

Most show a portent of even worse things to come.

Encrypted messages sent via BlackBerrys are being used by mobs to encourage rioting across Britain – mayhem born of an incendiary mixture of conditions that converged during Europe’s sleepy summer vacation season.

Many of the masked or hooded youths have been photographed typing messages on their mobile phones while flames engulf cars and buildings.

Conditions have been perfect for the unrest. Britain’s economic outlook is bleak, youths are out of school and unemployed, police ranks have been depleted by summer vacations, and social media sites – coupled with dramatic video of the rioting – have bolstered a mob mentality and spread disobedience.

Alcohol has also played a part. Some of Tuesday night’s rioters bragged of booze-fuelled rampages.

Britain has a culture of binge drinking with a recent surge in alcohol-related diseases among the young. The legal age to purchase alcohol in Britain is 18.

Encouraging violence

BlackBerry’s messaging system is popular among youths because it’s free, compatible with multimedia and private, compared with Facebook and Twitter.

Its encrypted messages give troublemakers an added benefit: Police aren’t able to immediately trace message traffic the way they can with regular cellphones.

Social media have been a potent force in fuelling the riots that began on Saturday in London’s boroughs and later spread to other cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds and Bristol.

Messages have also been sent via regular texts and on Facebook.

One 18-year-old boy was detained on Tuesday for allegedly encouraging violence on Facebook.

Community members alerted police to the posts, according to police superintendent Athol Aitken. The teenager is expected in Dundee court on Wednesday.

Fearful residents

But the social networks also have provided refuge for fearful residents and shop owners who say police efforts have been feeble and slow.

Twitter is helping to pinpoint areas of violence, organise community cleanup groups and alert people of alternative routes they can use.

BlackBerry said it was co-operating with police, but shutting down the messaging system could penalise more than just the troublemakers.

More than 45 million people use the BlackBerry messaging system worldwide.

US president Barack Obama is said to use the same secure system to communicate.

“We feel for those impacted by recent days’ riots in London,” Patrick Spence, a BlackBerry managing director of global sales and regional marketing, said in a statement.

“We have engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can.”

The company declined to answer further questions about providing data to police or how a message service suspension might work.

David Lammy, a lawmaker from the Tottenham area where the rioting began, called for BlackBerry to suspend its messaging service.

On Tuesday, hackers compromised BlackBerry’s blog site in response to the company saying it would co-operate with police.

Smash up the place

Britain’s riots began after last week’s police shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old father of four. According to British media, one of the last messages that Duggan sent was via BlackBerry’s messaging system, also known as BBM.

“The Feds are following me,” he allegedly wrote to his girlfriend, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Some of the rioters have laughed off claims that the unrest was sparked by any one grievance. One man who identified himself only as “Zed” said the riots were “just an excuse for everyone to smash up the place” and that stuff “tastes better when it’s free”.

Britain is full of contrasts between the haves and have-nots, where areas of soot-stained apartment buildings are a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace.

It is also a place where the class system is imprinted on the country’s social fabric, seen clearly in the political and business elite.

“You have groups who are highly technically integrated but socially completely outclassed and alienated,” said Rodney Barker, emeritus professor of government at the London School of Economics.

Prime Minister David Cameron, known for his posh accent and privileged education, is thought to have lost votes in last year’s election because he was seen as too much of an elitist who couldn’t understand the common man.

The past year has seen mass protests against the tripling of student tuition fees and cuts to public sector pensions. In November, December and March, small groups broke away from large marches in London to loot.

In the most notorious episode, rioters attacked a Rolls-Royce carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, to a charity concert.

“This is an uprising of all people – black, white, gay, straight,” said a man who identified himself as Bryn Phillips, 28, who picked through the ruins of a convenience store in east London on Monday night.

According to July figures from Britain’s Office of National Statistics, one in five 16- to 24-year-olds is unemployed – the highest rate of youth unemployment in some 20 years. Overall unemployment rates, however, have remained stable.

“These young people, who seem to have no stake in society, are trashing their own communities,” said lawmaker Diane Abbott, whose Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency has seen a lot of the trouble.

“We cannot continue to have increasing numbers of looters on the streets night after night.”

Traumatised

Hot-tempered youths are fuelled by temperate and drier-than-normal weather.

One middle-aged man carrying a recycling bin full of beer bottles and soft drinks on Monday night blamed the government’s planned spending cuts – some of the harshest cuts since World War II designed to slash Britain’s multibillion-pound deficit.

“People are traumatised by the cuts,” he said, identifying himself only as Joe.

Cameron condemned the violence and warned that 16 000 police officers would take back the country’s streets. More BlackBerry messages were encouraging weekend protests.

“This is definitely not the 1980s,” said London School of Economics political scientist Tony Travers, referring to past race riots and other unrest.

“And it is not the same as the instance that occasionally happened in French suburbs. Tottenham and other areas are relatively poor (but) they are not areas of unremitting poverty.”

Britain’s police force has been weakened by budget cuts and summer vacations. It’s also no secret that most officers don’t carry guns, and water cannons and tear gas haven’t been used in years.

Officials said they may be forced to use plastic bullets to control the crowds if violence persists.

“Different people have different views about the causes, but there is no excuses for it,” said Labour leader Ed Miliband.

 

London – The received wisdom may be that it makes you reclusive and isolated, but the internet can actually make us more social, research suggests.

We are brought closer together as it is easier to “maintain contact” online and make plans to meet in the real world, according to a paper by three influential economists.

They found that once adults had access to broadband, their attendance at theatres, cinemas, bars or restaurants increased. Broadband access at home also increased children’s out-of-school activities.

They write: “At least in some areas of social engagement, the main function of the internet seems one of active information and communication.”

The study by Stefan Bauernschuster, Oliver Falck and Ludger Woessmann will be presented at a gathering of Nobel prize-winners this month. – Daily Mail

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/internet/internet-makes-us-more-social-study-1.1113798

San Francisco – Google’s latest deal is aimed at helping people find the best daily deals on the Web.

The Internet search leader bought Dealmap, a 15-month-old startup that compiles discount offers from local merchants scattered in markets across the nation.

The financial terms of the acquisition announced on Tuesday weren’t disclosed.

Google bought Dealmap just a few weeks after starting its own daily deal service to compete with Groupon and LivingSocial, the early leaders in one of the Internet’s fastest growing advertising niches. Google’s version, called Offers, currently distributes daily deals in New York, the San Francisco Bay area and Portland, Oregon.

Dealmap, based in Menlo Park, California, has built a database that lists deals from more than 450 different sources. It says it has more than 2 million users. – Sapa-AP

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/business/google-to-take-on-groupon-1.1111444

Voice Calls from Gmail, a feature previously only available to Google’s user base in the United States of America, is rolling out in 38 new languages to countries all over the world, a post syndicated on various official Google blogs revealed yesterday (2 August 2011).

Julie Taylor, spokesperson for Google Sub-Saharan Africa, has confirmed that the feature is rolling out in South Africa, but is still not available in all countries. “We will continue to work on expanding the availability of this feature but do not have any timeline available,” Taylor said.

Pierre Lebeau, product manager at Google, also wrote in the blog post announcing the expansion of the service that it is available in 38 new languages. They have also reduced their call rates to over 150 destinations, Lebeau wrote.

We were able to test the service at MyBroadband. After loading credit onto a Google Voice account we were able to call a South African cellphone at $0.17 (around R1.15) per minute.

According to Google, you can buy calling credit in Euros, British pounds, Canadian dollars and U.S. dollars.

The ability to get your own Google Voice number still doesn’t seem to be available, which means that the feature is currently limited to within the Gmail web client.

Source: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/telecoms/30858-google-voice-in-sa-phone-calls-from-gmail.html

Cape Town – Online shopping in SA has been given a boost with the introduction of a debit card payment system that promises to make the experience easy and safe.

MTN Mobile Money has launched payD, an e-commerce platform that allows users to make purchases online using bank debit cards.

“payD removes a significant obstacle to e-commerce’s mainstream adoption in South Africa – finding a convenient and cost-effective payments mechanism that doesn’t require the opening of yet another bank account,” the company said.

The system will work in conjunction with a users cellphone when making a payment and it is similar to a transaction at an in-store pay point, the company said.

The move may provide a boost to online retailing which has generally relied on credit cards to make purchases, but in SA, a large section of the population does not have access to them.

Micro-transactions

“On the consumer side, only 3% of our population has credit cards, and this is generally the only way to transact online.

“On the merchant side, transaction costs for credit cards cut deep into margins and this reduces the range of products that e-tailers are able to offer online,” said Dave Parratt, head of new business development at MTN Mobile Money.

So-called micro-transactions have been a challenge for the industry in SA and several vendors have offered alternatives to credit card payments for online purchases.

Social network MXit allows users to make purchases with Moola, its own online currency, and recently, international payment system PayPal launched in SA.

The payD system is only available to Nedbank and Standard Bank debit card holders at present and there are hopes that will soon roll out to other banks.

One factor that may limit adoption of the system is the number of retailers.

Currently, the system is available at 77 retailers and one of the biggest brands in 1time airlines.

“payD will make paying for 1time flights even easier. Although we have a wide customer base, not everyone has a credit card with which to purchase their tickets online,” said Rodney James, CEO of 1time.

Source: http://www.news24.com/SciTech/News/payD-to-allow-easy-SA-online-payments-20110729

Fancy a gold medal for tweeting? Well, hold on to your hashtags because the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are set to become the most social events in history, according to organisers.

The official Olympics website features an interactive contest on social networking sites designed to discover which country will produce the biggest online fan base. The aim of the contest is to promote the fact that the Olympics are a year away from the opening ceremony on July 27, 2012.

Social media fanatics are beside themselves and are already showing their support for the London Olympics on Twitter, by calling on their favoured sporting teams to win. Comments with the #1yeartogo hashtag are sky-rocketing.

While a few individuals seem to digress from this newly introduced gaming event, supporters from Finland, New Zealand and Philippines are tweeting their way to the number one spot.

“The contest ranks the top 20 countries based on the number of tweets, YouTube videos and Flickr photos submitted. Fans already have submitted more than 20 000 tweets with Great Britain in the lead, followed by Brazil, the US, Canada and the Netherlands”, said Brian Anthony Hernandez of mashable.com

Hernandez said: “To be considered, tweets need to include the hash tag #1YearToGo, along with the three-letter code for your country.”

“As with past sporting events, social media will play a huge role in how fans participate in next year’s 17-day festivity, whether they’re watching from home or at one of the 32 Olympic venues. We’ll have to wait to see if the level of tweets reaches the magnitude seen during this month’s FIFA Women’s World Cup final game, for example, when Twitter users set a new record of 7 196 tweets per second,” Hernandez said.

The Olympic Committee encouraged the competing athletes from 200 countries to “take part in social media and to post, blog and tweet their experiences,” so long as their efforts are not for commercial purposes.

Over 12, 000 athletes from over 200 countries will compete in the Olympic and Paralympic Games next year. The Olympic Games will feature 26 sports, which break down into 39 disciplines, while paralympic games feature 20 sports, which will break down to two disciplines.

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/internet/on-your-marks-get-set-tweet-1.1107123

Mini Cape from Timmy Henny on Vimeo.

In Feb this year, Timmy Henny  asked us to put a wanted message up on 10and5. He was calling for apartments or office spaces anywhere from the second floor upwards that would allow him to film from a high angle to create a short film that would make Cape Town look like lego land. You must’ve obliged because 5 months later here is the result!
‘Mini Cape’ is a 2 minute film that gives us a mini day in the life of Cape Town City. The film has been selected as a finalist for the San Fransisco International Festival of Short Films out of over 1600 entries.

Timmy Henny directed, shot and edited everything himself and his goal is now to do a film like this in cities all over the world.

He says, “A special thank you to everyone who helped by giving me rooftop and balcony access all over the city of Cape Town. Without you this video would have never been possible! And I’m sorry if you emailed me to help and I couldn’t make it to you. I was so overwhelmed by the amount of responses I had from all of you but unfortunately I didn’t have time to go shoot at all the amazing venues on offer.

Thank you to Ross and Myles McDonald from Hey Papa Legend Studios  for producing the amazing soundtrack.”

Source: http://10and5.com/2011/07/19/mini-cape-by-timmy-henny/comment-page-1/#comment-17066

Today, we’re officially introducing AdWords Express, a faster and simpler way to start advertising online in under five minutes. We first launched this product as Google Boost last October for a small number of local businesses. Since then, we’ve continued to improve the product and enabled all U.S. businesses new to online advertising to reach customers with ease. AdWords Express is designed to help local businesses that aren’t already AdWords advertisers create effective campaigns—watch the video below to see how you can create and run an online campaign from start to finish in just a few clicks:

AdWords Express helps potential customers find your website or Place page, and gives you a quick and straightforward way to connect with them and grow your business. You simply provide some basic business information, create your ad, and your campaign is ready to go.

After you sign up, the campaign will be automatically managed for you. AdWords Express will figure out which searches should trigger your ad to appear and displays it when these searches happen. Your ad will be shown in the Ads section of search results pages—on the top or right hand side—and in Google Maps with a distinctive blue pin. Customers can see your ad whether they’re searching on laptops or mobile phones.

As with all our ad products, you pay only when a customer clicks on your ad. To make things even easier, AdWords Express optimizes your ads to get the most out of your advertising campaign and budget.

Many businesses are already finding success through AdWords, but we know many of you are looking for an easier way to begin advertising online. Visit www.google.com/awexpress to sign up or learn more about how it works.

Source: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/making-local-online-advertising-easy.html

DStv Online recently launched BoxOffice, an on-demand movie rental service that operates through DStv’s PVR offering.

John Kotsaftis, CEO of DStv Online, explained that they chose to launch on satellite first due to the broadband constraints in South Africa, but that doesn’t mean they’ve forgotten about online.

BoxOffice, or a service like it, will be launched online by the end of 2011 and will be open to all South Africans, not just DStv subscribers, Kotsaftis said.

Kotsaftis said he could unfortunately not reveal many more details about the online offering, saying only that the online version of BoxOffice will be similar to the updated DStv On Demand service.

He could not comment on the pricing structure the online BoxOffice service might have.

However, Kotsaftis did reveal at the DStv BoxOffice launch event yesterday (21 July 2011) that they plan to support both Windows and Mac PCs, and later explained that they are looking at using a PC as a kind of PVR (personal video recorder).

When you rent a movie from their upcoming online video on demand (VOD) service it will download an encrypted video to your hard drive rather than streaming it directly. This is because they won’t be able to stream the video due to South Africa’s broadband constraints, Kotsaftis said.

Kotsaftis said that there is a risk that people will get content illegally when broadband becomes cheaper in SA, but that there is opportunity as well.

“People are willing to pay for a service when you help them navigate the sea of content,” Kotsaftis said. “If you look at Netflix people are willing – they want the easier path.”

Source: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/broadcasting/29844-dstv-boxoffice-coming-to-the-internet-in-2011.html

Australia will consider strengthening its privacy laws in the wake of the British phone-hacking scandal that has shaken Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., the government said Thursday.

The proposed changes would give Australians the right to sue over serious breaches of privacy, something that is not guaranteed under current laws, Privacy Minister Brendan O’Connor said.

“Right now there is no general right to privacy in Australia, and that means there’s no certainty for anyone wanting to sue for an invasion of their privacy,” O’Connor said in a statement. “The News of the World scandal and other recent mass breaches of privacy, both at home and abroad, have put the spotlight on whether there should be such a right.”

The move comes amid growing public fury over allegations that staff at the now-defunct News of the World tabloid hacked into cell phones and bribed police for information on politicians, celebrities and crime victims. The outrage has been especially intense over the tabloid’s decision to hack into the phone of a 13-year-old murder victim in the hopes of getting information for its stories.

On Wednesday, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Murdoch’s Australian media company, News Limited, had some “hard questions” to answer about its operations. News Limited CEO John Hartigan called Gillard’s comments unjustified and insisted there was no link between News Corp.’s operations in the U.K. and News Limited in Australia.

O’Connor told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio on Thursday that the government is not suggesting the Australian press is guilty of conduct similar to what has happened in the U.K. But he said the uproar over the tabloid’s actions has made a debate over the right to privacy necessary.

“This government strongly believes in the principle of freedom of expression and also the right to privacy,” he said in a statement. “Any changes to our laws will have to strike a balance between the two ideals.”

The public will be allowed to submit opinions on the proposal, which was among a slew of recommended changes to the nation’s privacy policies put forward by the Australian Law Reform Commission in 2008. The government plans to release a discussion paper on the issue later Thursday.

“People care about privacy and so they should,” Gillard told reporters in Brisbane. “They also care about freedom of the press and so they should. So we’ll obviously be seeking views on how these things can best work together.”

Leader of the opposition Liberal Party Tony Abbott said he would consider supporting a change in privacy laws, but not if they were used to silence the media.

“The last thing I want to do is to support anything which is a thinly veiled attempt to intimidate the press,” he told reporters in Melbourne. “Politicians don’t always like the coverage that they get, but if you are in public life you have got to take the rough with the smooth.”

News Limited said last week that it would launch a review of editorial spending over the past three years to confirm that payments to third parties were for legitimate services. On Thursday, the Australian Press Council said it would appoint two former Victoria state supreme court judges to assess the review.

Source: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/security/29682-privacy-laws-and-phone-hackings.html