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Mixed Signals

Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise

Rupert Goodwins

Rupert has worked at ZDNet UK, IT Week, PC Magazine, Computer Life, Mac User, Alfa Systems, Amstrad, Sinclair, Micronet 800, Marconi Space and Defence Systems, and a dodgy TV repair shop in the back streets of Plymouth. He can still swap out a gassy PL509 with the best of 'em. If you want to promote your company or product, fine -- but please tell me what it is and why it's interesting right up front in the message. PRs: the probability of a successful pitch can be calculated by the following handy formula applied to the details of your client's latest wheeze. 3NT x 4UP x 2BI x 5EAI = P(copy)3M^3 x 2ACE x 10L, where NT = New Technology, UP = Unique Product, BI = Beer Involved, EAI = Engineers Available for Interview, M = Marketing Managers, EMEA or Mornings, ACE = Already Covered Elsewhere (i.e. your American brethren have already spilled the beans) and L = the word Leading or Leader in the first para of the press release. Dear Engineer, Researcher or Inventor: Talk to me -- it's the new stuff that makes this game worthwhile.

Latest Posts

Dutch ratify net neutrality law

Dutch ratify net neutrality law

The upper house of the Netherlands parliament adopted on Tuesday a new Telecommunications Act, making the country the first in Europe to put net neutrality into law. The lower house approved the act in June last year.

May 9, 2012 by in Innovation

The ZX Spectrum: Birthday memories

The ZX Spectrum: Birthday memories

It may have been startlingly modern once, but at 30, the Sinclair Spectrum is as close in time to the world's first commercial computers of the 50s as it is to the latest iPad.It's doing rather better than LEO, though; last year, around a hundred new programs were written for the Spectrum, there are double that number of emulators, and thousands of fans still chatter away online.

April 23, 2012 by in Innovation

Everything Everywhere LTE spectrum sale nears

Everything Everywhere LTE spectrum sale nears

Everything Everywhere, the mobile operator combining the UK T-Mobile and Orange networks, has appointed Morgan Stanley to oversee the sale of part of its 1800MHz spectrum.The sale, a regulatory condition set when the networks merged in 2010, will potentially give its competitors a chance to roll out 4G LTE wireless data in advance of Ofcom auctioning off new spectrum at 800 and 2600 MHz for these services.

April 10, 2012 by in Innovation

Friends Reunited relaunches

Friends Reunited relaunches

Friends Reunited, the 12-year-old UK-based social network, was relaunched on Tuesday.The site was bought in 2009 from broadcaster ITV by Brightsolid, part of Scottish newspaper publishing group DC Thompson, for £25 million.

March 27, 2012 by in Innovation

Millions of Barclays customers at risk in NFC attack

Millions of Barclays customers at risk in NFC attack

Up to 13 million UK customers of Barclays Bank are vulnerable to losing payment card details through a mobile phone attack, ZDNet UK has learned.In a report due to be transmitted on Channel 4 News on Friday, the broadcaster is to say that contactless readers in mobile phones can be reprogrammed to extract card data from Barclays cards when they come near each other, even through clothing, wallets or bags.

March 23, 2012 by in Innovation

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