London Business School ranked #1 in the world

FT 2009 global rankings.
I certainly did not contribute to up the salary increase criteria :-)

Facebook U-turn again

For the time being, your pictures belong to you. Guardian. Funny how the Facebook team still hasn't figured out a way to connect with their users before implementing such policies.

Military’s killer robots must learn warrior code

" Autonomous military robots that will fight future wars must be programmed to live by a strict warrior code or the world risks untold atrocities at their steely hands" According to a report from the Ethics and Emerging Technology group. Article in the Times with a priceless comment from Dave E., Laos: "Marvelous – puts the recession into perspective though doesn’t it. Who needs to worry about losing their jobs when in fact the real danger is killer robots without conscience stalking the earth….".

Global recession - where did all the money go?

Frightening. The Guardian.

Look around you: Maths

The World's best complaint letter

To Richard Branson from a Virgin airline customer on the Mumbai to Heathrow flight last December. Hilarious.
On the Telegraph.

Obama's inauguration speech as a tag cloud

From Wordle.net

Affordable glasses turn your computer screen in 3D

"NVIDIA has created a kit that turns computer screen images 3D provided machines have GeForce graphics processors and one of the new-generation of high-resolution monitors launched at CES by Samsung, ViewSonic, or Mitsubishi. (...) Because the technology works with monitors, 2D computer games can be replayed in three dimensions". AFP article.

I want one! and loads of Panadol.

50 Reasons Why More People Aren't Using Your Website

Written by Scott Heiferman. The top 3 are the most common issues:

1. Because they don't want to generate content, they want better life
2. Because it solves a problem they don't have
3. Because it won't help them with their problem

ESTATE AGENTS NOW SHOWING HOUSES TO OTHER ESTATE AGENTS

"BRITAIN'S estate agents are showing houses to each other in a bid to combat loneliness and prevent their traditional skills from dying out." Another classic from the Daily Mash.

Atheist advertising campaign goes global, thousand more buses to burn in Hell!

800 buses in the UK, a thousand tube cards, 2 LCD screens opposite Bond Street tube station, buses in Barcelona, Italy, the U.S. (Washington only)...

If only more were heeding this message from the American Humanist Association: "Just be good for goodness' sake".

Guardian article.

A floating city to welcome future global warming escapists?

Floating eco-city concept by French architect Vincent Callebaut. The city generates more energy than it consumes through a combination of wave power and solar energy. It can host 50,000 people. No price tag yet but it is safe to assume that it will be used as a luxury development rather than a viable solution for the expected millions of people displaced from their homeland by the rising seas. It looks beautiful though... Article in French in Le Monde.

Happy New Year!

Best Wishes to all my readers.

The Guardian's top 100 sites for 2009

Full list here.

Google fall out of 20 Most Trusted Companies list, Facebook creeps in.

In 2007, Google featured in the top 10. In 2008, it doesn't make the top 20. As seen on Andy Beal who includes a top 10 comparison with 2007. Truste reckons that influential factors this year were:

• Importance of privacy continues to rise.
  
• Consumers feel they are losing control of personal information.
  
• Identity theft is top of mind.

This is a US survey, not global.

2008 Ranking

1 American Express (remained number one)

2 eBay (+6)

3 IBM (no change)

4 Amazon (+1)

5 Johnson & Johnson (+1)

6 Hewlett Packard (+10)

6 U.S. Postal Service (+1)

7 Procter & Gamble (+2)

8 Apple (new to the top 20)

9 Nationwide (remained the same)

10 Charles Schwab (-8)

11 USAA (+4)

12 Intuit (+7)

13 WebMD (-1)

14 Yahoo! (new to the top 20)

15 Facebook (new to the top 20)

16 Disney (-1)

16 AOL (-12)

17 Verizon (new to the top 20)

18 FedEx (new to the top 20)

19 US Bank (-2)

20 Dell (-7)

20 eLoan (-9)

Happiness is contagious, research finds

Happy friends make you happy. LA Times.

Warning: UK fraudsters target online car sales

I am selling my car and posted on Autotrader last weekend. So far I received no less than 4 scam emails from crooks trying to part me from my cash. Fortunately, I did my research and came across this excellent explanation from Jim at Autoshippers UK. I am trying to summarise it here but please read his comprehensive post.

The typical scam involves a "buyer" purporting to be a garage wanting to pay the price and pay you extra for you to pay his shipping agent directly. Say you sell your car for £5K and shipping costs £500. You accept his offer, receive a cheque for the car plus extra for the shipping (£5.5K). Your bank informs you that the cheque has been paid to your account. You pay the shipping agent as instructed for £500, usually through Moneygram. A few days later, your bank informs you that the cheque has bounced and withdraws the amount from your account. Leaving you with having paid "shipping fees" of £500 to some unknown untraceable "shipping agent".

You have been warned.

Zinio: Search and read over 50,000 international magazines... for free.

Goodbye press-clipping fees! See Zinio Inside. The coverage in Europe seems limited but worth adding to your "PR on the cheap" toolbox.

As read on Micropersuasion.

World Philosophy Day: Something to think about.

Philosophy was one of my favourite subjects in school. Today it is world philosophy day (so I just learned) and the BBC has a thought-provoking article with 4 questions guaranteed to make you think... twice.

iPhone Google application baffled by British accents

"The free application, which allows iPhone owners to use the Google search engine with their voice, mistook the word "iPhone" variously for "sex," "Einstein" and "kitchen sink". AFP.
I can't imagine what my French accent would have produced...