Long-time Aardvark readers will know that I have never been a fan of overly-Flashed websites and I've given WebMedia and its work a fair ribbing from time to time -- but it's still sad to see them go.

Take it from me that they won't be the last in the ongoing clean-out within this market sector.

I'd wager that web designers will ultimately be judged, not on the "flashiness" of their work but on the return on investment it offers the client.

I'd also wager that those who manage to survive for another couple of years will be the designers who produce good, solid, ergonomically designed websites that are not dependent or highly reliant on a single technology and which don't discriminate against those without the latest and greatest plug-ins.

How Clever Is That
How smart are INL, the publishers of Stuff.co.nz?

Well if this story is anything to go by -- not very!

Not only is this story pretty much an admission that perhaps their existing online security is inadequate, but then they go and give any would-be hacker/cracker just the sort of information they need to help them break in.

While security through obscurity alone is not a good idea -- neither is it smart to go telling all the world exactly what security products you plan to use.

If you want to crack INL's defenses it would seem that a good place to start right now is checking out the underworld of the Net for information on Borderware. However, once they've done the upgrade, do the same for Safecom and a break-in becomes far simpler. After all, even the best security products are not infallible and if the hackers know what you're using and are quick enough to exploit the holes before they're patched -- wham!

INL -- don't go blabbing any details of your security setups (now or future) to the public. This type of story shows you clearly need more than fancy security software if you're going to keep the hackers out.

Readers Say (updated hourly) Nothing Yet Have Your Say

Making Life Hard For Honest Folks
It looks as if the recording industry is rolling out all sorts of justification as to why they need to make life hard for us by introducing copy-protection and anti-ripping systems into the ubiquitous audio CD.

To date we've been told that thanks to the proliferation of CD burners and the Internet, piracy is costing the industry billions of dollars and that copy-protecting CDs is just a way of protecting the industry's intellectual property.

Well this interview goes a long way towards showing just how dumb the industry really is.

This quote from the bottom of the interview says it all really:

"From our standpoint, we are designing the software for the 99 percent of the people who don't want to steal the music but instead (want to) use it for whatever means--for whatever personal use that's allowed by the artist and the record label. The software was designed for those people, not for the 1 percent who are going to take the lock cutters and cut the lock off and steal music in an unauthorized way."

So there you have it.

• Only 1 percent of the public actually steal music.
• Copy protection is designed for the 99 percent of people who don't steal music -- huh?
• This copy protection won't stop the 1 percent who are the real problem anyway.

My advice: Don't buy copy-protected CDs, and, if you find you have a copy-protected CD in your collection, return it under the Fair Trading Act with the claim that it doesn't play correctly and is therefore not fit for the purpose it was sold.

Maybe the recording industry will eventually get the message that they're actually starting to drive people to the Net to download pirated music because we'll soon be unable to make legitimate backups for their car or listen to our favourite tracks on their PC's drive while at work.

Save The Aardvark Fund
Yes, I have had several donations to the Aardvark fund and I thank those who put their money where their mouse is :-)

If guilt is gnawing away inside you then there's still time to donate.

Just drop by and hand over your loot.

Add Aardvark To Your Own Website!
Got a moment? Want a little extra fresh content for your own website or page?

Just add a couple of lines of JavaScript to your pages and you can get a free summary of Aardvark's daily commentary -- automatically updated each and every week-day.

Aardvark also makes a summary of this daily column available via XML using the RSS format. More details can be found here.

Contact me if you decide to use either of these feeds and have any problems.

Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it now!

There is/are 0 Vacancies Last added 2 July In The Job Centre

There are 14 Domain Names for sale