Bing to work with Wolfram Alpha.
Microsoft has today announced that it is to work with Wolfram Alpha in order to provide certain results for its Bing search engine.
Wolfram Alpha is a search engine with a difference, once considered as a rival to the all mighty Google Wolfram is a “computational knowledge engine” that tries to answer questions or present facts about the query you type in.
For example, if we type in the word “egg” the results displayed would include detailed nutritional facts, average daily dietary value, highest nutrients, calories, Protein and amino acids , carbohydrates and physical properties, all beautifully presented and downloadable in standardised format thanks to web. 2.0.
The results you can get from Wolfram Alpha are truly amazing and querying some strange search terms really does bring up some amazing results indeed. The search engine will mainly be used to improve Bing’s results in areas such as nutrition, health and mathematical calculations. The changes will initially be available for users in America
It will be interesting to see how Bing users will view the results. Will they be tied in with normal business search results?, will they be displayed in the sidebar or above the normal search results? whatever way Microsoft implement Wolfram, it is another great string to their bow in the fight to become the world’s number 1 search engine.
The IT Support company I work for recently conducted a survey with its customers to find out what is the most popular search engine within the workplace. The results still swing in the favour of Google, with 76% of users choosing the search engine, with Yahoo coming in second with 13% and Bing with 10%
Losing the fight against unlicenced software piracy.
The fight against businesses using unlicensed software in the UK has been dealt a huge blow this week.
Plans to use trading standards for the fight against software piracy have hit a stumbling block because funds that were originally made available from the government have now been allocated to other activities by local authorities. This included 5 million set aside by the government back in 2007 and 7.3 million in 2008.
FAST (the federation against copyright theft) had run previous campaigns in East London and Cardiff that were both considered a success. These campaigns were to be used as the foundation for future projects across the rest of the country.
Where does the law stand with copyright theft?
Under section 107A of the copyright, designs and patents act which came into force in 2007. Trading standards are able to enter premises they suspect of holding counterfeit products.
Are you concerned that your software may not be genuine?
Our IT Department offer a free software audit for all new clients that have concerns about the legitimacy of their software licensing. Visit our IT Support London website today and find out more.
Microsoft to increase the cost of SQL server in 2009.
For the first time in years, Microsoft is set to increase the price of its SQL server software. Both standard and enterprise editions of SQL server 2008 R2 are due to be released next year and both of these versions will see a price increase. There is no confirmation that these price increases will take effect in the UK but one would imagine that the US price hike will follow suit in Europe.
How much more will it cost?
it is understood that the following price increases will take effect in the US from next year;
- SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition will cost $7.500 per processor compared to the original cost of $5.999.
- Enterprise edition will cost $28.000 per processor compared to the original cost of $24,999.
- Pricing for CALS (client access licences) will remain unchanged.
There will also be two brand new editions of SQL server called parallel data warehouse and data centre. These will weigh in at a hefty $57.500 per processor.
To be fair, Microsoft this is the first price increase of the product since 2005. However the new version will include new features such as data compression, powerpivot, streamInsight and master data services.
Our IT Department are an IT Support company supply Microsoft products at specially discounted rates for their clients. Contact them today to discuss the supply and install of Microsoft SQL server.
Apple Magic Mouse. The peripheral of the future.
Our IT Support London office finally got their hands on the new magic mouse from apple this week, and I can happily report that the mouse has lived up to all expectations.
Time and again, Apple has proven to be at the forefront when it comes to new technologies and this new mouse is no exception, if you hate moving parts and clicking buttons then this is the mouse for you. Gone are the days where you have a left and right button with a scroll wheel, instead these are replaced with a multi touch acrylic surface which behaves in a very familiar way to the Apple track pad. Scroll up and down by gliding your finger up and down the surface, perform 2 finger swipes and vertical/horizontal scrolling, in fact whatever part of the mouse surface you touch, you can scroll to your heart’s content.
You cannot fail to be impressed by this mouse, the build quality is the exceptional and the technology is faultless. The experience of using the mouse is a very natural one and you soon get to grips with no longer having buttons and wheels at your fingertips.
The icing on the cake is a four month battery life.
Our IT Department clients can purchase the Magic mouse by contacting our sales team by visiting our website or by calling us on the support number.
Was key-logging attack behind the recent email scam?
The recent email scam could have been down to a key logging attack and not a phishing attack as first thought.
The high number of victims suggest that this type of attack was likely, with over 30,000 names and passwords of the victim’s cheekiliy posted online which included login details form Yahoo, Hotmail and Google mail accounts. Typically a phishing attack will catch out a low percentage of targeted users but this particular attack captured an amazing amount of details, which highlights the possibility of a key-logging scenario.
What is a key logging attack?
Key-logging notes the pattern of keys struck on a keyboard with the user unaware that their keyboard actions are being monitored. There are numerous key logging methods but the most common is software based. Key-logging can be used maliciously to record all types of information such as user name, passwords and credit card details.
If you a Our IT Department client and are concerned that you may have been affected by this attack, then visit our IT Support London website to open a new ticket.
Sharp increase in number of Hosted Desktop users during 2009.
The number of businesses using Hosted solutions is on the increase, especially in London. Our company alone has noticed a massive increase of enquiries received, in fact over the last 8 weeks enquiries are up by 40%.
So why the sudden increase? Well, our SEO team want to take all the credit for spreading the word, shoving web traffic statistics under my nose in order to back up this claim! but I think there is a more obvious reason and that reason is money.
If I had to guess, I would say that 75% of the people we speak to are enquiring because they can save money by implimenting a Hosted desktop solution. In the current global fianacial climate, businesses are under pressure to tighten their belts and save money wherever possible, IT networks can be one of the first areas to suffer as people at boardroom level see this as one of the first avenues to cut costs, when in todays world, a good IT network should really be a priority.
A hosted solution is a no brainer for most businesses because it offers them a way of upgrading their IT whilst saving money at the same time. There are not many services in this day and age that can offer an improvement for less money, and this is the reason we are receiving so many enquiries (sorry to disappoint you SEO guys).
If you are interested in finding out more, take a look at our Hosted Desktop website which makes interesting reading.
Google working hard on its new search engine.
Although there is still no release date, Google has been hard at work on its new search engine which can be viewed from the link below. UK owners should be advised that this is a .com development version, so dont get to panicy if you dont appear in the search results!! for the rest of us, remember that this is a development version so the results will be a bit hit and miss until the final version is released, the results are interesting though.
One thing I noticed is that the search results appear a lot quicker, although this could be because this sandbox version is not fully indexed or hopefully (and more likely) it is because the search engine results times have been improved.
Comments from the Google webmaster central Blog;
“For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google’s web search. It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits “under the hood” of Google’s search engine, which means that most users won’t notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we’re opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback.
Some parts of this system aren’t completely finished yet, so we’d welcome feedback on any issues you see. We invite you to visit the web developer preview of Google’s new infrastructure at http://www2.sandbox.google.com/ and try searches there”.
From an SEO point of view this sandbox opens up more questions than answers and it will be very interesting to see if we will have to adapt our optimisation techniques. At the end of the day, Google will place the sites on page 1 that it feels are most relevant to the keyword and there can only be a certain amount of ways Google can assatain who should be ranked highest.
Article provided by SEO Consultant London. Ethical search engine optimisation.
Orange to get UK iPhone contract
Orange has today announced that they have reached an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in the UK. Orange have also confirmed they will be supplying the phone to the UK market this year, but have not specificed an exact date.
Orange are yet to confirm contract pricing but we shouldnt have to wait to long to find out, as we are fast approaching the end of the year.
The deal with Orange should be good news for consumers. Up to now, O2 had an exclusive deal as the UK’s only supplier but now they have some welcome competition although Orange has yet to confirm wether they will be undercutting O2’s price plans.
Our IT Department provide a full range of support services for iPhone users. If your business requires ongoing support for mobile email or voip then visit our IT Support London website today.
Happy Birthday Elite, 25 years young today!!
Elite celebrated its birthday today, 25 years after being launched for the BBC Micro computer.
Created by David Braben and Ian Bell, Elite was released on 20th September 1984. The pair wrote the game while they were university students.They never expected the Elite to be such a hit and initially they just wanted to write a game that they would want to play themselves.
Many consider Elite to be a milestone as it was one of the first games in the world to use 3D graphics. Initially a low key release, the game went on to sell hundreds and thousands of copies worldwide and it was eventually released on other formats such as Amstrad and Spectrum.
Every now and then a classic game is released and elite is one of the best examples. It was like nothing else available at the time, allowing you to explore new world with the objective of going from a harmless human, to an Elite.
Most of the IT Support London team have played the game, but few of them have completed it (SEO David is the exception 
). Our IT Department salute David Braben and Ian Bell for creating one of the best games of all time. We look forward to the sequel
