By now, the death-grip of the world's quadrennial football carnival will have eased. In its wake: skull-cracked hooligans, bent barstools, trashed plasma TVs and maybe even a few careers: some workers on the mainland reportedly quit their jobs rather than request a month's leave to stay up all night watching Togo and Tunisia boot around a leather orb.
And let's not forget the crucial role of IT in throttling cyber hooliganism and virtual absenteeism. One security firm promised to "enable organizations to prevent or minimize the network impact of employees viewing World Cup football" by providing "stream splitting for live video and local caching for on-demand video" by using a 'policy engine enables granular control over content usage."
The NASDAQ-listed firm said in a press release that "even a handful of employees simultaneously accessing streaming video or downloading video clips can saturate an organization's Internet connections, hampering connectivity for business-critical activity...many organizations also fear the loss of employee productivity." Oooh.
But help is at hand, said the firm, promising that its appliances could "manage employee video viewing in multiple ways," including:
' Blocking content, based on media type/site/type of site/content
' Providing selective viewing, based on employee/group/time of day, and other variables
' Providing stream splitting to minimize impact of streaming video on the Internet connections
' Providing local caching of on-demand video to minimize impact of multiple downloads on Internet connections
Lest this be seen as draconian, note that "in the case of live streaming video, [the firm's] appliances can take multiple requests for the same video feeds and only have to download one stream and split it as needed for all of the internal requests...a single video stream will only minimally affect an organization's Internet connectivity, versus having numerous streams that will quickly overburden the connections." Such generosity does not seem to extend to free popcorn or beverages however.
Oh, and "in addition, [these] appliances can prevent the introduction of viruses, spyware and other threats from content sources on the Internet." Better than a physics-defying "banana kick" from Roberto Carlos or David "Bend-It-Like" Beckham.
Beware the electronic visa phish-hook
This one caught us by surprise: one of our reporters was invited to a vendor event in Sydney. But Australia requires that entrants have prearranged visas, an electronic formality...let's fire up the Firefox here...WHOA!
From Australia's electronic tourist-visa website:
"WARNING: Important message to users of the ETA website.
Recently a Trojan / virus has been targeting users making credit card payments over the Internet.
The Trojan triggers a fake pop-up window to appear when a user enters credit card details. The fake pop-up window asks the user to enter further details of the credit card, including the validation code on the back of the credit card (3 digit security number) and / or the PIN.
DO NOT enter these details.
If you receive the pop-up window:
* Perform a scan for possible viruses and Trojans using your virus protection software. Should you require further information, please contact your software vendor.
* If you continue to receive the pop-up window do not attempt to apply for an ETA on the affected computer.
* If you have entered the details in the pop-up window, please contact your bank immediately."
OK, well, Firefox tends to be pretty good at blocking pop-ups, but still. We're not buying DVDs or dodgy battery-operated products, we're just trying to get into the country.
Be careful out there...the phish are flying.
Not good to be King
We got an email from someone calling himself "King of Spamer." This self-proclaimed monarch of pig-emulsion wrote:
"6 months trial email Email service
Nothing to pay during trial period
Our clients data base over 10,000,000
If interest, please reply"
No, King of Spamer, we're not going to reply. Your grammar and spelling are atrocious, your service is specious at best and criminal at worst, and frankly, we thought idiotic emails like this were a thing of the past.
They ought to be.