UK Royal Mail stamps on Linux lovers

In their ongoing quest to shut down post offices offer a great customer experience, the UK’s Royal Mail has been encouraging visitors to their website to print their own postage-paid labels. As the system is browser based, delivering the labels as pdfs, even hippy Linux lovers were able to use the service to post their Christmas prezzies around the world.

This standards compliance was too good to last. Following an upgrade, the labels now feature a big ‘Sample’ marker when viewed on screen: “‘Sample’ will not appear when printed”. Unfortunately for Linux lovers, common software like evince and xpdf doesn’t understand the Royal Mail’s game, and prints labels complete with ‘Sample’ markings - very expensive sticky waste paper.

Royal Mail chiefs have refused to regress the software ‘upgrade’, claiming that “The change to add the word ‘Sample’ to the screen was taken as a security measure as it was decided that screen prints of the postage impression could pose a risk of fraud.”

The fact that the ‘protection’ can be bypassed simply by clicking the ‘print to file’ box on Adobe Reader appears to have passed them by.

Possibly loss of face is a bigger issue for the Royal Mail than loss of business.

IP Addresses Are Personal Data, E.U. Regulator Says . BRUSSELS, Belgium -- IP addresses, strings of numbers that identify computers on the Internet, should generally be regarded as personal information, the head of the European Union's group of data privacy regulators said Monday.
By Aoife White. [washingtonpost.com - Business]
8:15:49 AM  
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Mouth Eyes PicturesñEEEK!

No, this isn't the latest gossip about who's leading the Iowa Caucuses, this is a story about some people who have enough time on their hands to do some pretty scary Photoshop work. The picture above is one of many Mouth Eyes Picturesfrom the Freaking News web site.

This particular contest started 12-18-2007 and ended on the 20th and contains 78 entries. So, it's too late to enter this one (don't worry, there will be more). The one above of Hillary Clinton was done by Chucklebuck. And, as expected, he lists his “clan” as the “Republicans“. This images has been viewed 1,165,541 times (although we suspect it’ll get a few more now particularly by Obama fans).

Oh yeah, Obama got in his “licks” too. Here’s the Obama entry by jsodessa.

Just to prove we’re not some sort of anti-Democrat rag, here’s one of the current Republican President, George Bush (also done by jsodessa).

Not all entries were political in nature, here’s one we like, Paris Hilton by Mandrak.

As we said…EEEEK!

Actually, the funniest part of this contest is the rotating Google ads that accompany this contest, specially this one:

Trench mouth
Symptoms, causes, and treatments of Trench mouth
www.Healthline.com

Ya gotta wonder whose keywording those ads.

See all the entries here.

InfoTrends says 89% of Pro Photographers are “Digital”

InfoTrends Study Shows Significant Changes in Pro Photography Workflows as Image Capture Volumes Increase

InfoTrends Press Release: According to a recent InfoTrends survey of over 1,000 professional photographers across specialties, the increased use of digital photography is leading to new opportunities in the imaging industry. Itís no surprise that the percentage of total digital images captured by pros has grown from 82% in 2006 to 89% in 2007; however, a pronounced increase in the number of digital images captured per week by the average pro suggests that software, service, and printing solution providers are likely to benefit in the long run.

The study indicates that over 90% of professional digital images captured are saved and stored, suggesting that pro photographers will need help managing their image workflows and backing up their work. The market for image management tools is wide open, and storage media vendors have yet to fully capitalize on this opportunity by committing more of their marketing dollars to the professional photographer segment.[sgl dagger] The survey also shows year-over-year changes in the production of proofs and final prints, which has implications for photo labs, retailers, and printer vendors.

ìTodayís photographers are technologically savvy, as a significant majority is using image editing software and many are using RAW conversion and color management software,î commented Ed Lee, Director at InfoTrends. ìItís particularly interesting to note that 83% of professional photographers are using the Web as part of their business and about 30% use an online photo service provider. This suggests that a variety of Web services providers could see future growth opportunities.î InfoTrends is currently conducting a study that specifically examines the Web services market for professional photographers.

InfoTrendsí recently released report, ìDigital Imaging and Professional Photographers: 2007 Survey Results,î provides further insight into the opportunities that are available as a result of the transition from film to digital. It also examines the digital photography behaviors of professional photographers, including the equipment they own; what they plan to buy; how many digital images they take, save, store, and print; the types of software they use; and more. A subset of the study, entitled ìPhoto Printing and Professional Photographers,î looks specifically at output activity.[sgl dagger] As appropriate, each document considers how the results from this yearís survey compare to the results from previous yearsí studies.

The complete research reports are available immediately to clients of InfoTrendsí Digital Photography Trends Service and Photo Printing Trends Service. For more information about either report or to make a purchase, visit our online store or contact Matt OíKeefe at +1 781 616 2100 ext. 115 or matt_okeefe@infotrends.com.

InfoTrends, a Questex company, is the leading worldwide market research and strategic consulting firm for the digital imaging and document solutions industry. We provide research, analysis, forecasts, and advice to help clients understand market trends, identify opportunities, and develop strategies to grow their businesses. Additional information about InfoTrends is available on the Web at http://www.infotrends.com.

NHS database 'could be targeted'. The man in charge of setting up the NHS IT system says "you cannot stop the wicked doing wicked things". [BBC News | UK | UK Edition]
11:12:42 AM  
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With ministers now pondering what to do with the £12bn programme to computerise the NHS in England, it's worth trying to separate the truth from the spin about what five years of work have achieved.

As usual, it's a more mixed picture than the "IT fiasco" stories make out. While the ill-conceived scheme to standardise acute hospitals' software has been a disaster, there are welcome signs of progress elsewhere.

I've commented previously on the programme's success in jollying the NHS along to replace film X-rays with digital imaging.
9:39:50 AM  
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Photoshop, as seen through Johnny Cash

John Nack writes about the the development of Photoshop and compares it to a Johnny Cash recording One Piece At a Time singing about the building of a Cadillac from 20 years’ worth of evolving, mismatched parts. John Nack says: “I’ve gotta say, I know the feeling.”

He goes on to say “In fact, I sometimes joke that looking at some parts of the app is like counting the rings in a tree: you can gauge when certain features arrived by the dimensions & style of the dialog.”

But later in his post he says “The good news is that we’ve been plotting the solutions for a number of years, chipping away at the problem. Good stuff comes to the surface in bits and pieces, but we haven’t quite turned the corner–yet.”

Read his entire post at Photoshop, as seen through Johnny Cash

Computer Kaizen

We were at a business meeting and my coworker was waiting impatiently for his laptop computer to finish booting up. He and I were sitting next to each other, had identical machines, but I was already working. He made some comment about my machine booting faster for some reason.

But that wasn’t the case.

Here is his laptop startup sequence:

1. Unzip bag, remove computer from bag, set on table: 7 seconds.
2. Remove power cord from bag, unwind: 8 seconds.
3. Crawl under table to plug in power cord: 14 seconds.
4. Re-emerge, connect power cord, connect network cord: 11 seconds.
5. Open lid, press start: 3 seconds.
6. Wait: 61 seconds.

This seems reasonable, doesn’t it? Why was my setup faster?

1. Unzip bag, remove computer from bag, set on table: 7 seconds.
2. Open lid, press start: 3 seconds.
3. Remove power cord from bag, unwind: 8 seconds.
4. Crawl under table to plug in power cord: 14 seconds.
5. Re-emerge, connect power cord, connect network cord: 11 seconds.
6. Wait: 61-33 =[sgl dagger] 28 seconds.

The core question is “Why can’t I turn on the computer sooner?”

It is a laptop. It will start up just fine on the batteries while I fidget with the power cord. And the networking doesn’t come on line until well into the boot cycle, so no time is lost if the network cable isn’t connected right away.

Net result is my wait time was half of my co-workers even though we both did the same thing. We just did them in a different sequence.

In the terms of a changeover, this is identifying internal tasks that could be external and moving them there.

This is the kind of improvement opportunity your Team Leaders should leaders should learn to spot. In most cases, though, they should not implement a change. Instead they should use the opportunity to teach the Team Member who does the work how to see this opportunity, and teach the Team Member how to make the improvements.

What kind of performance would you have if everyone in your operation thought this way for a year?

British Airways blocks Boing Boing. David Weinberger -- author of Everything is Miscellaneous -- is in London's Heathrow airport today, and he's discovered that British Airways' internet terminals block Boing Boing:

Internet Access to this site has been BLOCKED

British Airways Plc prohibited website information page.

British Airways has blocked access to certain Internet sites which may be considered to be illegal or offensive. This site is currently on the barred list.We understand that the Internet changes constantly and that the decision in respect of this particular site may no longer be appropriate. If you would like us to review the decision to bar access to this site, please give the website URL and a contact e-mail address to a member of staff at the Lounge Reception. The response will be written confirmation that either the ban on this site has been lifted, or that the site continues to contain material that is inappropriate and, therefore, the bar on access will continue.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Date/Time: - 07:29:54
Website: http://boingboing.net/
Category: "Nudity;Personal Pages"

BA is probably using one of the censorware companies like SmartFilter, who also supply the censorship technology to governments in countries like Syria and the United Arab Emirates. SmartFilter's business model is to fill sleazy boiler-rooms with prudish unemployable drones who spend all day clicking on web-pages and classifying them based on whether they'll offend the delicate sensibilities of the world's tyrants.

BA contracts with these scam-artists to control which information the adults who fly on its planes can use -- because you lack the capability to choose which web-pages you want to look at, and need an airline to choose the pages for you. We've been vocal critics of these companies, and so they all block us, using rubrics like "nudity" or "circumvention" -- because if you have one nude thumbnail or one page about circumvention, then all the tens of thousands of pages on your site will be blocked. What a "non-nudity" site is, then, is a site in which no nudity has ever appeared and no nudity ever will appear (SmartFilter says that a web-page with a picture of Michaelangelo's David counts as a "nudity site").

I'm a BA platinum flier, logging hundreds of thousands of miles per year on the oneworld network. I guess it's time to try Virgin instead.

Link, Link to Boing Boing's "Defeat Censorware" page