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INTERNET
Cyber Vigilantes
Did you know that US
banks were warned well in advance that there
would be attacks against large websites but
that they told nobody except other members
of an Internet security organisation for
financial institutions? Let's spin that
another way. You're in a neighbourhood and
you see some of your neighbours boarding up
their windows. They won't tell you why
they're doing it, so you pass it off. That
night a hurricane strikes. There were no
warnings on the radio, TV or in the
newspapers. The emergency services were
totally unprepared. But this select group of
neighbours knew because they happened to be
members of a specialist weather monitoring
organisation.
# The
full article is reproduced at the *end* of
this newsletter. #
FreeServe and BT to Deliver ADSL
FreeServe have started a trial period of
ADSL, the high-speed connection that
provides lightning speed downloads of video
and software for a monthly fee of £50 (how
much!). BT are expect d to launch ADSL this
spring, with FreeServe a few months latter.
ADSL will provide constant connectivity, and
dual net telephone/fax capability, all for
the one monthly payment.
PAYROLL
On-Line Payroll
WELL DONE 10/10
The first on-line payroll web site at
Staffpay should
take a major burden away from the small
business owner. The web site covers BACS,
Electronic Transfer, PAYE, Income Tax, Tax
Credits, NI, Pensions, Sick Pay, Maternity
Pay, Working Time Directive & Minimum Wage,
Expenses, P11's, Court Orders and Student
Loan recovery
...
The
fees look great and the web site looks easy
to use with lots of info at the site:
MONTHLY or 4-WEEKLY PAYROLLS
monthly payroll up to 3 employees, 1st year
£100 then £70 pa
monthly payroll up to 10 employees, 1st year
£200 then £160 pa
monthly payroll up to 25 employees, 1st year
£350 then £270 pa
WEEKLY or 2-WEEKLY PAYROLLS
weekly payroll up to 3 employees, 1st year
£150 then £120 pa
weekly payroll up to 10 employees, 1st year
£300 then £270 pa
weekly payroll up to 25 employees, 1st year
£500 then £450 pa
The Inland
Revenue collected 128.1bn pounds, an
increase of 9 per cent on last year, but
experienced difficulties with the NI
recording system and could not finalise the
tax position of almost one in five PAYE
taxpayers.
PHONE'Y
WAR
Free Calls - They Are at it Again!
Regular readers of this newsletter will know
that we have followed the telcoms attempts
at offering free net access with contempt.
Well, they are at it again!
Telewest are offering free net access at
£10 per month, plus £9 per month rental and
a minimum of £10 spent on 'other' calls per
month. A good package.
But, they may
be splitting at the sides already. Of
course, any company offering such deals will
be swamped. Many customers will leave their
current supplier, just in time to transfer
to the new supplier, followed by no service
in a couple of days due to overload. If
another company fails to deliver the
government must act to protect us. Surely
the telcoms must be stopped from directly
and indirectly ripping off consumers at
will.
Whilst on the
subject, BT's charge of £35 for unlimited
access *IS* about grabbing profit and not
about quality of service. We will see if the
chancellor, Gordon Brown, will tackle them
today in his speech.
TIP OF THE WEEK
Don't
Buy That Car Today
Come the end of March a car price war will
develop on the Internet - new car sales web
sites and imported cars will rock the car
industry. OneSwoop.com and Virgin leading
the way.
H'MMM
THAT'S INTERESTING
Government Web Sites and Information
Take a look at
thousands of links to every conceivable
topic, department, local
government office blah blah: a great
time saver.
Increase in Minimum Wage
The Minimum Wage will
increase later this year by 10p - from
£3.60 to £3.70 per hour - however, business
said that an
annual increase would not be acceptable.
FT Returns
If you have not looked at the
FT's web site for some time, take
a look. If you are into on-line organisers
the FT's is up there
with the best, and the info is, as always,
first class.
FREE
Banking to 2002
The
Royal Bank of Scotland are offering free
banking to Jan 2002, worth a look.
Ring the Net
An ordinary telephone will soon the only
device needed to access the Internet,
according to a report from Cnet. A number of
start-up companies are developing speaking
Internet services that can be accessed from
any telephone. These services will read
emails, share prices, news and sports
headlines and point-to-point driving
instructions to users. A standard language
that would render Internet pages into spoken
files is in development but, for the time
being, companies have to develop a template
for each site they want read to their
customers. Customers using the service can
opt for an advertising-supported version to
which the calls are free, or they can pay a
nominal fee and skip the commercials.
Source: NUA Survey
TOPIC
Small Business
(Limited Company)
Abbreviated Accounts for Small Companies
CYBER VIGILANTES
Did you know that US banks were warned well
in advance that there would be attacks
against large websites but that they told
nobody except other members of an Internet
security organisation for financial
institutions? Let's spin that another way.
You're in a neighbourhood and you see some
of your neighbours boarding up their
windows. They won't tell you why they're
doing it, so you pass it off. The night a
hurricane strikes. There were no warnings on
the radio, TV or in the newspapers. The
emergency services were totally unprepared.
But this select group of neighbours knew
because they happened to be members of a
specialist weather monitoring organisation.
There are
some profound issues at play with regard to
the Internet today. Perhaps the most
profound is the role of government business
and citizen. A large, powerful, media savvy
voice is constantly saying that government
should stay out, that it doesn't understand
the Internet, that the Internet should
develop a voluntary code of conduct that is
privately policed. Individualism, liberty
and freedom of speech are the colourful and
emotive flags that this 'Government-Out'
constituency vigorously waves. Let me tell
you what they are really about. They are
about big business who are in themselves
mini-governments, who if they could engineer
it, would have no laws, no regulations,
nothing in the way of making as much money
as possible out of the customer.
This
short-sighted greed is no good for anybody.
It will ultimately ruin the Internet
environment as a commercial medium, as
customers get tired of having their personal
information ripped off, get tired of private
security vigilantes snooping in their
computers, get tired of returns policies
that aren't worth the bits and bytes they
were typed on. We can't treat the Internet
as some junk yard sale, where everyone is
trying to get their fingers into everyone
else's pockets, without running the risk of
it turning into a junk yard. Government
has flaws; we all know that. But government
is our best attempt to create institutions
that allow society to be managed in a
civilised manner. Without government the
choice is chaos or vigilantism. The current
search for the hackers behind the major
spate of website attacks is a mix of both.
Scores of security firms are out looking for
the culprits. Their driving objective has
nothing to do with law and justice and
everything to do with the hoped for PR
announcement that their firm caught the
nasty hacker. Members of these firms are
posing as suspects and friends of suspects
in online chat rooms and other areas, to the
extent that 'suspects' are turning up all
over the place at the same time confusing
everybody.
Law
enforcement on the Internet is becoming a
farce, and that's not good for anybody.
Internet business will suffer if consumer
confidence in the medium declines. As much
as we would all like to clean up politics
and make government more accountable, today
right now - it is still all we've got. I
have no problem with big business per se,
but I don't want it 'protecting' my privacy
and I don't ever want it out 'policing' my
streets. |
