UK IT workers train overseas replacements

UK IT workers train overseas replacements

UK IT contractors are being forced to train overseas workers to take their jobs.

Businesses are bringing overseas staff to the UK to cut costs by using Intra Company Transfer (ICT) migration rule, which is not meant for this purpose. This is in addition to increased offshoring to countries such as India to cut costs.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) will today publish a report on the ICT rule in response to complaints about its overuse and misuse, particularly in the IT sector.

Offshoring to cut costs and using ICT to bring cheap offshore labour onshore is reducing UK IT jobs and damaging UK skills in the process, say IT contractors.

The ICT scheme was introduced to allow businesses to bring in people with important skills that the company could not source within the UK. But these rules are being used to bring in cheap labour, claim IT contractors.

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Bing gains search share on Yahoo, Google

Bing gains search share on Yahoo, Google

Microsoft’s Bing search engine maintained momentum in July and gained a bit on both Google and Microsoft.

According to comScore data (Techmeme), as relayed by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, Google wound up with July search share of 64.7 percent, down from 65 percent in June. Microsoft was up to 8.9 percent in July, up from 8.4 percent in June.

Now these incremental gains don’t signal a huge trend or anything, but they could add up over time. The more important item may be overall search trend growth. Here’s what Munster said:

"Bottom line is we view yesterday’s comScore data to represent a potential headwind to Google’s Q3, but note that paid click data will give a more accurate representation of the search marketplace. Google’s total U.S. queries were down 4% m/m and up 21% y/y in July, which is the slowest y/y increase in queries reported by comScore data since 2005. We note that Google’s...

Bug exposes eight years of Linux kernel

Bug exposes eight years of Linux kernel

Linux developers have issued a critical update for the open-source OS after researchers uncovered a vulnerability in its kernel that puts most versions built in the past eight years at risk of complete takeover.

The bug involves the way kernel-level routines such as sock_sendpage react when they are left unimplemented. Instead of linking to a corresponding placeholder, (for example, sock_no_accept), the function pointer is left uninitialized. Sock_sendpage doesn't always validate the pointer before dereferencing it, leaving the OS open to local privilege escalation that can completely compromise the underlying machine.

Full Story: here
I'm sure theres a dig to be had here somewhere...

Microsoft backs long life for IE6

Microsoft backs long life for IE6

Microsoft has underlined support for its Internet Explorer 6 web browser, despite acknowledging its flaws.

The software giant said it would support IE6 until 2014 - fours years beyond the original deadline.

Critics - some of which have started an online campaign - want the eight-year-old browser mothballed because they claim it slows the online experience.

"Friends do not let friends use IE6," said Amy Bardzukas, Microsoft's general manager for Internet Explorer.

"If you are in my social set and I have been to your house for dinner, you are not using IE6," she said. "But it is much more complicated when you move into a business setting."

"It's hard to be cavalier in this economy and say 'oh it's been around for so long they need to upgrade,'" Ms Bardzukas told journalists in San Francisco..

Web monitoring firms estimate that 15-20% of people still use IE6 to browse the web.

Full...

This website will self-destruct...

This website will self-destruct...

Read it quickly: this article will self-destruct in eight hours.

Not really, of course - but soon, permanently vanishing web correspondence could be the next step in maintaining your privacy online.

Emails, Facebook messages, and Google Docs can all be set to disappear into thin air by using new software developed by the University of Washington and called, appropriately enough, Vanish.

"We wanted to create a system that would allow our data to self-destruct and become permanently unreadable," assistant professor Yoshi Kohno, who designed the software, told the BBC's Digital Planet programme.

"[This would be for] both to ourselves and everyone else after a certain period of time."

Full story : here

Thanks to jk2447 for spotting this one

VoIP will 'interest UK consumers in the future'

VoIP will 'interest UK consumers in the future'

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) could rival fixed and mobile calls as one of the preferred methods of communication in the UK, a telecoms advisor has claimed.

The use of software-based VoIP in the UK is not particularly low when compared with other countries but there is not yet any major operator offering the service except as a secondary line, Analysys Mason explained.


Full story : here

Judge bans Microsoft Word sales

A US federal court has ordered Microsoft to pay over $290m (£175m) for wilfully infringing on a patent by Canadian firm i4i.

A US federal court has ordered Microsoft to pay over $290m (£175m) for wilfully infringing on a patent by Canadian firm i4i.

The patent relates to the use of XML, a programming language that allows formatting of text and makes files readable across different programs.

XML is integral to Microsoft's flagship word processing software Word.

Texas district court judge Leonard Davis also filed an injunction preventing Microsoft from selling Word.

The row specifically relates to the use of Extensible Mark-up Language, or XML, documents.


You can read more about this story at the BBC News Website

Virgin Media to avoid unachievable speed claims

Virgin Media to avoid unachievable speed claims

Virgin Media are promising to avoid claims of unachievable speeds for its National Broadband product. This is the service that is available if you live in a non-cable broadband enabled area, and is provided using DSL over the phone line like most other broadband providers.

The new marketing for the national products will set out the speed as being "the fastest broadband we can give you" which is largely limited by the distance to the local telephone exchange. The cable broadband service, which it calls fibre optic broadband, will still be listed as providing an "up to" speed based on the product purchased as these are not affected in the same way as the technology limited ADSL based products.

Full story : here

NHS IT needs overhaul, say Tories

NHS IT needs overhaul, say Tories

The Conservatives have said they would create huge cost savings for the NHS by scrapping plans for a central database of patient records.

Their plans would include electronic medical notes being stored locally by GPs and hospitals and patients having online access to their medical records.

They also say NHS trusts would have more choice over new computer systems.

The government said patients were already benefiting from the progress that had been made in online records.

Speaking on Sunday Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said proposals to allow NHS patients access to their records online would give people "greater control over their own health care".

Every patient would have a username and password and IT firms such as Google or Microsoft could host the information.

Users could update their medical records with information like blood pressure and cholesterol levels, he added....

IT unemployment reaches highest level in five years

IT unemployment reaches highest level in five years

Demand for IT professionals falls and short-term recruitment prospects are bleak, says e-Skills report

Unemployment rates in IT reached a five-year high this year and demand for technology professionals has plummeted, according to the latest report by industry skills body e-Skills UK.

The proportion of IT staff out of work during the first three months of 2009 reached 4.8 per cent, the highest since the first quarter of 2004.

Demand for IT professionals has also continued to fall, according to the report, with the number of job ads for permanent staffers falling by 27 per cent, while advertised vacancies for contractors dropped by 32 per cent over the period.

IT strategy and planning professionals suffered the biggest impact, with a seven per cent quarterly decline in employment rates, but web authors and editors were the only occupational group that saw increased demand.

According to the...