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Jordan Couzens is the man behind JordanTBH Technologies. He has a keen interest in Technology and Computer Programming.

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BlackBerry service crash affects BBM messaging for millions

10 October 2011 5:34 PM

BlackBerry users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa have been experiencing problems with emails and messaging due to a power outage in Slough, UK. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Tens of millions of BlackBerry users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa have been unable to receive or send emails and messages through their phones, following an outage at the server systems of parent company Research In Motion (RIM) in Slough, Berkshire.

The outage, which occurred at about 11am BST on Monday, was still affecting users more than four hours later with no time given for when it was expected to be resolved.

The company released a brief acknowledgement of the problem at 3.30pm, saying: “We are working to resolve an issue currently impacting some BlackBerry subscribers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. We’re investigating, and we apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused while this is resolved.”

BlackBerry systems receive and send emails and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) communications via encrypted connections to RIM servers located around the world. The systems are particularly popular in a number of Middle East countries where they allow secure communication that the government cannot tap. RIM has come into conflict with a number of governments around the world, which have demanded oversight of email and BBM messages.

The failure will be a huge embarrassment for the company, which has been successful in building up its user base in the so-called “EMEA” (Europe, Middle East, Africa) region even while it has been losing users in North America.

At the end of August, RIM claimed that it had more than 70 million subscribers around the world. In July it claimed to have added 1 million subscribers in the EMEA region in less than three weeks. It would certainly have more than 10 million users in the total region.

The cause of the outage is not known, but one former RIM employee has told the Guardian that RIM has been ignoring problems with its server architecture that could prove its downfall for years. “They didn’t start looking at scalability until about 2007, when they had around 8m active devices,” the former employee said: “The attitude was, ‘We’re going to grow and grow but making sure our infrastructure can support it isn’t a priority.’ They have their own clunky infrastructure to do something that you don’t really need a clunky infrastructure to do anymore.”

The dramatic growth in the number of subscribers worldwide – nearly tenfold since 2007 – will have put serious strain on RIM’s servers if such scalability has not been addressed urgently.

Confirmed: Goldie Cheung quits X Factor

26 September 2011 9:37 PM

xFactor - Goldie Cheung

The X Factor’s Goldie Cheung has pulled out of the show despite getting though to the Judges’ Houses stage of the competition.

Her withdrawal means another wannabe will be thrown a lifeline; they’ll replace her in the Over 25s group mentored by Louis Walsh.

Goldie Cheung said: “The X Factor has been a fantastic experience and very challenging for me at times. I was very grateful to Louis for offering me a place in the final.”

She added: “However, I have decided to withdraw from the competition because I knew I would miss my family so much. I wish all the finalists the best of luck and look forward to watching them every week.”

Hong Kong-born Goldie made a name for herself in the first episode of this series, she was filmed being sick as she struggled to overcome her nerves she then took to the stage and gave a truly eccentric performance that ended with her wrapping herself around Gary Barlow.

During bootcamp, she targeted the Take That star again, chasing him around Wembley Arena.

Goldie made an impression from her very first appearance on X Factor when she puked into a bag before stepping on stage. She gyrated to a song called Copper Bell (that no one had heard of), before launching into a rendition of Tina Turner’s version of Proud Mary.

Louis Walsh said: “It was such a shame Goldie had to pull out of the competition. I thought she had great potential to entertain viewers in the live shows.” He continued: “But it has given someone else an amazing opportunity and although it was a hard decision of who to replace her with, I am pleased with my choice.”

Of course it could be argued that Goldie shouldn’t have been voted into bootcamp in the first place due to her awful singing she was, however, very good entertainment. But should that have been enough? What do you think? Are you sorry to see Goldie Cheung leave X Factor?

Google+ Social Networking Now Open to Everyone, New Features Added

20 September 2011 11:37 PM

Google opened the gates to its social network, Google+, to everyone today and rolled out more than a dozen new features to the service, many of them aimed at mobile phone users.

For 12 weeks, Google+ has been in “field trials,” Google Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra explained in a company blog. “We’re nowhere near done,” he wrote, “but with the improvements we’ve made so far we’re ready to move from field trial to beta.” Now anyone can go to the Google+ site and sign up for the service.

With the new "Hangouts on Air" feature, you can open up a hangout session and as many as nine people can join in.

In addition to open enrollment, Google introduced a number of improvements to the hangout feature of Google+. Hangouts allow people to chat face to face through video. With today’s improvements, users of Android phones will be able to use hangouts on their mobiles.

Google is also expanding the online version of hangouts. Now, through “Hangouts on Air,” you can open up a hangout session and as many as nine people can join it. An unlimited number can watch the hangout session.

Hangouts is getting some extras, too. They allow you to share what’s on your computer in a hangout, scribble with friends on an online sketchpad, share Google docs, and create or join public hangouts about a topic, like the collapse of your favorite sports team or raising alpacas.

Searching, Now Made Easy
A welcome improvement for many Google+ users will be the introduction of a search feature into the social network. Now you can type words into a Google+ search box and find content you’re interested in and as well as people to connect to.

Some mobile phone improvements were announced today, too. Better text messaging (SMS) support is now available in the United States and India. Now, from your cell phone, you can post to Google+, receive notifications, and respond to group messages through SMS.

You can also +mention people in posts or comments viewed on your phone. When you do that, the person will be notified that they’re mentioned in the post or comment. And you can +1 comments, too, but only from iOS devices.

You can take care of more housekeeping of Google+ from your phone now, too. You can edit your profile photo and customize the notifications you receive on your cell, since you may not want your phone flooded with notifications while you’re on the go.

If you have an Android phone, you can now move the Google+ app to a SD card to free up the mobile’s internal storage.

Google+ Vocabulary Changes
..read more at www.pcworld.com

Clegg vows: I won’t let Osborne cut 50p tax

17 September 2011 4:15 AM

Nick Clegg has declared that he will veto George Osborne’s plan to abolish the 50p top rate of tax. He warned that cutting it could “destroy” public support for the entire tax system and provoke a taxpayer revolt. In an exclusive interview with The Independent, the Deputy Prime Minister promised the Government would do more to kickstart the economy in a “Plan A-plus“, including a boost for housebuilding.

Mr Clegg issued the clearest possible warning that he would not allow the Chancellor to bow to pressure from business leaders and Conservatives to axe the 50p rate on earnings over £150,000. Speaking on the eve of the Liberal Democrats’ annual conference in Birmingham, Mr Clegg said: “What I, and any government including Lib Dems, are interested in is lowering the tax burden on the millions of people on lower and middle incomes – not rushing to make sure the very, very richest pay less tax.”

“It would be utterly incomprehensible for millions of people who work hard, do their best for their families, and play by the rules, if suddenly the priority is to give 300,000 people at the very, very top a tax break.“

Reading man jailed for dead girl “trolling” insults

13 September 2011 3:23 PM

Natasha MacBryde threw herself under a train after being bullied.

A Berkshire man has been jailed for posting abusive messages online about a schoolgirl after she committed suicide.

Sean Duffy, 25, of Reading, was handed an 18-week sentence for posts on social networking sites about Worcester teenager Natasha MacBryde.

He previously pleaded guilty at Reading Magistrates’ Court to sending indecent or offensive communications.

Police said Duffy also posted abuse about dead teenagers in Northumberland, Gloucestershire and Staffordshire.

Duffy admitted two counts of sending a communication of an indecent or offensive nature. The charges related to Facebook and YouTube posts about Miss MacBryde, 15, who Duffy had never met.

She had thrown herself under a train in February after being bullied.

Duffy subsequently posted messages on a remembrance page set up by Miss MacBryde’s friends.

In one of the posts he called the teenager a slut. He also posted a video on YouTube, entitled Tasha the Tank Engine, showing the children’s character Thomas the Tank Engine with Miss MacBryde’s face.

The magistrates were also asked to consider three other cases when sentencing Duffy.

He had also posted offensive messages, known as “trolling”, about Lauren Drew, 14, of Gloucestershire, who was found dead after suffering a suspected epileptic seizure, Hayley Bates, 16, of Staffordshire, who died in a car crash, and Jordan Cooper, 14, who was stabbed to death in Northumberland.

Magistrates also gave Duffy an Asbo, banning him from using social networking sites for five years.