Google finally allows users to sign in to multiple accounts at the same time. Google started rolling this feature out to accounts near the start of the week and it is now available to all accounts worldwide. At the moment you can only cycle through up to three accounts. You can switch from one account to another with a very simple drop down menu beside your email address on the top right of your Google account. This feature has to be enabled be visiting this link and following the instructions: https://www.google.com/accounts/MultipleSessions. Once enabled, users will be able to switch between accounts using Gmail, Calendar, Reader, Code and Google Site’s apps.

For more information visit Google’s Help Centre: http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=181599

Google Still Facing Problems In China

Earlier this week, Google’s services status page for mainland China was filled with their red block icons, as shown below. This icon indicates the service is fully blocked. The blocked services included Web Search, Web Search Suggest, YouTube, Ads, Sites, Blogger, Picasa and Mobile. Other services such as Images, News, Docs and Groups were partially blocked. These blocks are, of course, directly associated with blocks setup by the Chinese government after the company announced in January of this year that it would not censor any search results in China. This follows  Google’s renewal of its operating license by the Chinese government in early July. Google are still in negotiations with China into restoring all services to the people of China, who needless to say, are the ones affected by this interruption to services.

Google Status

“iPad allows users to connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before” says Apple in it’s press release this morning from it’s Head Quarters in Cupertino, California.

Apple first unveiled the iPad at their press conference in late January this year and first launched the product in late April in the US. It had sold over 300,000 units within 24 hours of launch and announced on June 22nd, sales of over three million in it’s first 80 days.

The iPad weights 0.68 kg, with a display measuring 9.7 inches at resolution 1020 by 768. It is thinner than any laptop or netbook on the market at only 0.5 inches thick. It has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as standard with an option to upgrade to a 3G model for around €130 extra.

It has everything you would expect from Apple’s iPhone family; Safari, mail, photos, videos, YouTube, iPod, iTunes, App Store, notes, calendar, contacts and iBooks with the extra addition of iWork for iPad, including Keynote, Pages and Numbers.

Prices will start from €499 for the base model with Wi-Fi only. It will come in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models.

Check out Apple’s press release here: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/07/19ipad.html or check out Apple’s iPad page here: http://www.apple.com/ie/ipad for more information.

Post written by David Kirwan.

Google, who own YouTube was the first at the hands of the hackers, who had to act quickly to fix a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability on the site on the 4th of July.

Google was alerted to the security flaw in their system when social networks, such as Twitter and facebook as well as the YouTube support forums, were lit up with users reporting pop-ups when watching videos. This pop-up reported that the Canadian Pop Star, Justin Beiber, had died in a car crash.

Google reports that the hackers placed code in the comments section of the site that ran when a video was played.

A Google spokesperson said that:

“We took swift action to fix a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability on youtube.com that was discovered several hours ago. Comments were temporarily hidden by default within an hour, and we released a complete fix for the issue in about two hours. We’re continuing to study the vulnerability to help prevent similar issues in the future.”

Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a type of computer security vulnerability typically found in web applications that enables malicious attackers to inject client-side script into web pages viewed by other users. An exploited cross-site scripting vulnerability can be used by attackers to bypass access controls such as the same origin policy. (Wikipedia)

After users were just about recovered from YouTube’s security vulnerability, they tried to login to their iTunes account to find that up to €1,000 was taken from their credit cards through their account illegally. This problem was reportedly caused by a Vietnamese developer, Thuat Nguyen, who makes Japanese Manga book titles.

At one point the books where so popular that they occupied 40 out of 50 of the top places in the book section of the iTunes store. The apps in questions were removed and users affected are to call their banks to insure that all monies are refunded. Users were also urged to change their passwords and remove their cards details from their accounts.

And just after midnight all websites associated with the Wiki Foundation went down. People immediately rumoured another site compromise. Only later it was reported that a power storage in one of its main data centres in Tampa, Florida was the reason for the downtime of the sites. The sites were down for well over four hours while the data centres recovered from the outage.

A spokesperson said on their Twitter profile: “Thanks for being patient, everyone. We’ve figured out the problem: power outage in our Florida data center. Slowly coming back online!”.

Experts said that YouTube and iTunes’ compromises were carefully planned for the 4^th of July, as it would be a day that IT departments in the US would be less vigilant and it would take longer to resolve issues as less staff would be working on the date.

Investigations are ongoing into all cases.

Post written by David Kirwan.

Carlow College, or St. Patricks as it is more commonly known, is to become the first college in the South East of Ireland to adopt a new virtual approach to learning and communication.  This move will position the local college at the forefront in Ireland of what is being described as ‘next generation learning’.

From the start of the new academic year in September, the college’s students will, for the first time, be able to manage their learning online, while college staff will also manage most of the college management functions online.

Key to the delivery of this new virtual approach, is the development of the College’s new cutting edge website.  The new website will integrate a new online learning management system, as well as software to help staff manage the College’s traditionally paper heavy administrative functions online.

“We believe that this project will revolutionise the learning experience of our students.  It will also be designed to free up our staff, allowing them to spend more time on our students, rather than on administrative tasks.  Carlow College is a vibrant, happy place where students count.  It is our goal to ensure that their learning and time here should be memorable.  This project will go a very long way towards achieving that” said Karen Delaney, Admissions and Marketing Officer, Carlow College.

The College chose  t2 to deliver this significant new project for them, which includes the development of a new website, integration of complex new communication and management based technologies, online marketing and staff training on the new system.

According to Andrew , our MD,  “While we’ve developed similar systems in Dublin and UK colleges, it’s really exciting for us to be working with a local college.  Carlow College’s adoption of these new online systems is ground- breaking, and they should be applauded for the vision they have shown.  These new systems can and will improve student engagement, drive student numbers and ultimately free up huge amounts of staff administrative time, resulting in greater cost and time efficiencies”.

“We are delighted to be in a position to work with a local firm on this project.  Not only did they have the required skills and experience, unlike other web development companies, t2 has made every effort and accommodation to personalise this project to suit our every need and we’re impressed with their uncompromising vision thus far” concluded Karen Delaney.

I recorded their version of  Amazing Grace on my trusty camera phone but unfortunately it came out very dark. Luckily they are a choir so you can still hear their rendition! For more information on Aspiro click here.

Facebook Profile

Personal Profile

This is my personal profile. This is where I keep in contact with friends and families, I post photos of my adventures/misadventures, nights out and my nieces and nephews. I have set up my privacy settings so only friends can see my photos, status updates, wall posts etc.

Many businesses  have ill advisedly set up facebook profile pages. Profiles are designed to represent individuals. If a business has a facebook profile page the general facebooking public  have to add you as a friend in order to connect with the business.  As a facebook user if I add you as a friend you can see all my photos, status updates etc.  No matter how much the general public  like / support your business they don’t necessarily want your  facebook profile page administrator perusing photos of them after a few pints on a Saturday night. In this scenario becoming a friend is an obstacle between the business and the facebook public.

Facebook Page

Facebook pages on the other hand are ideal for business. Here’s what facebook themselves say about it

According to facebook

“Profiles represent individuals and must be held under an individual name, while Pages allow an organization, business, celebrity, or band to maintain a professional presence on Facebook. You may only create Facebook Pages to represent real organizations of which you are an authorized representative. People who choose to connect to your Page won’t be able to see that you are the Page admin or have any access to your personal account.”

Download facebooks guide to Pages here .

To create a facebook page for your business click here . On a Page you can’t see your connections personal details or photos but you actively interact with them through the wall posts, discussions etc. Mashable explain the value of pages well, “Facebook Pages can be thought of in much the same way as normal profiles on the site – brand or celebrity Pages have the ability to have friends, they can add pictures, and they have walls that fans can post on. Pages communicate by “updates” which show on the update tab or a person’s wall if they’re a fan and have allowed the page to show updates. Pages can have applications as well.. ”

Facebook “Become a Fan” replaced with “Like”

Up until today anybody who wanted to support your brand on facebook “became a fan”.  Facebook have now replaced the “become a fan” button with a “like button”

Here’s the reason why, ” Starting today people will be able to connect with your Page by clicking “Like” rather than “Become a Fan.” We hope this action will feel much more lightweight, and that it will increase the number of connections made across the site”

Here’s hoping it works. I don’t think it will go down too well with facebook users though. There is already a “Like” functionality on the site which is generally just used for showing friends you like their activity.  Facebook users, although always adapt to changes, tend to have a good grumble about them. Will they notice this one?

On an aside, if you want to connect with, support, like, become a friend, follow or poke t2 you will find us here on facebook.

Irish Blog Awards Winners 2010 – Click here

“I’m David Kirwan CEO KILLER FM.COM. I use the internet daily for business, personal, informational and for entertainment use. My site is my main source of income and it is of the utmost importance to me to update my site regularly and have the content that my audience require or seek.

I use Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for business as well as a long list of others. Social media in my opinion is the future of the internet and communication as we know it. I can instantly let my audience know about new posts, interesting articles or videos I have found, through social media. Social media also drives traffic. They are essential referrals for the site. I usually link all my social media sites together so I know that wherever my audience is online they can see my articles or updates. My site is often linked to other people’s updates too. Most of my audience are on the most popular social media sites. Facebook is the number one social media network and is constantly growing. YouTube is where I usually host my videos. This is the bulk of my content, which we have converted to in the last few months, from text only pages. I believe that you should make use of the resources you have. For any webmaster, these resources are virtually endless. Website design has also expanded and has opened up a whole new business opportunity for design companies with the help of flash and video content, to interact more with their audience and to create the next generation in functionality for the user.

I believe there is a very thin line between business use and personal use of the online world. I use the internet regularly to check bank balances and transfer funds without having to leaving the house. I use YouTube for entertainment. YouTube is a great resource. I love YouTube’s ease of access and the amount of content that is available there. It is also a great resource for information with videos on practically everything you could possibly want. I have practically eliminated my TV as I rarely use it now. All my entertainment content is available online. Be it YouTube videos or content from TV station sites. It’s all there.

I believe that the older generation can’t grasp the concept of social media or the importance of the web in general. They can’t see the opportunity for business that the web presents.  Most of them only check their emails and book holidays. They don’t usually look at TV online or use it to check their bank accounts. They especially don’t use social media, the heart of the modern net and the driving force behind the future of web functionality and use. Technology was and still is a big part of my life. I grew up in the digital age where everything was automated or processes by computers. I got my first computer for my sixth birthday and have had one every since. This, I believe, is the main difference between the younger and older generation. They are, for the main part, afraid of the internet and the power it holds. The media has a lot to do with this.Reports about files being stolen and information about people being leaked to the public. My generation trust the internet and use it to its best ability. Yes, the internet is a powerful tool but it can be the biggest resource that we have when in the right hands. The future is online but it has to be policed better than it currently is, if it is to last. Currently anybody is allowed to do anything they want and post anything they want. Control needs to be in the hands of those who have the future of the internet at heart.”

Happy Paddy’s Day to All and Sundry.

What did St Patrick say as he was driving the snakes out of the country?

“Are ye alright there in the back lads?”

Anyways have a happy and safe Paddy’s day. have a game of wallop the snake if you feel like partaking in some paddywhackery

http://funschool.kaboose.com/fun-blaster/st-patricks-day/games/game_wallop.html