The Weekly Round-Up: 29.06.07

So goodbye Tony Blair, the world of high-tech will miss you.

After all, think of all the good things Blair's done for the UK IT industry, such as... well... erm...

Hang on... give us a minute...

There really was nothing, was there? Nada, zilch, zip. The cupboard marked 'what he ever did for us' is as bare as a pauper's parlour.

The man couldn't use a computer and last year even said of the idiot-proof iPod: "I'm not very good with the technology, I'm not very good with any aspect of it."

However, in a week dominated by talk of a new UK Prime Minister, by-elections and even a possible General Election there is still room for some technology because it was revealed this week that e-voting technologies are seriously flawed.

Among the concerns raised by official independent election observers from the Open Rights Group (ORG) were fears that flaws in systems already used could allow hackers to steal authentication details, monitor how somebody had voted and even change the contents of the online ballot paper.

In one instance e-ballot papers suffered a glitch whereby the wrong party logos, those of the likeliest competitors for power, Labour and the Conservatives, were mixed up and appeared next to the wrong candidates' names.

It's worrying stuff even for the most ardent proponent of e-voting.

Jason Kitcat, the ORG's e-voting co-ordinator, said: "Despite our best efforts, we have been unable to verify the accuracy of the elections we monitored."

Now doesn't that just take the biscuit?

The report certainly sheds some vital light on important issues (lest the UK should ever follow in the faltering footsteps of democracy US-style) and the Round-Up hopes, given the hours Kitcat will doubtless have put into compiling this essential report, his bosses now tell him to 'take a break'...

In fact the Round-Up is willing to bet he gets that a lot.

Moving on, poor old Prince Charles, when he's not being lampooned for the size of his ears or having the looks of his handsome lady wife called into question he's being criticised for the amount of money he earns.

And as such you would have been forgiven for thinking Charles' lot was made a lot worse when news broke that he'd had his bank account details stolen - along with those of his staff at the Duchy of Cornwall - following the theft of a laptop from payroll company Moorepay.

Last week news broke that a laptop stolen from a Moorepay employee had contained payroll information for Eden Project staff. But by the weekend the Sunday People newspaper was claiming Prince Charles may also have been affected by the theft.

Without wasting a second, encryption company PGP was all over this story like a cheap suit.

Jamie Cowper, European marketing director at PGP, piped up: "It seems not even royalty is immune to the growing threat to personal data."

Cowper continued: "This regal twist... blah, blah, blah..."

Sadly for PGP the story simply wasn't true, at least not according to Moorepay, who told silicon.com, quite categorically: "Neither Prince Charles, the Duchy of Cornwall nor any of its related activities have ever been a client of Moorepay."

However, this revelation came too late for quick-fire folks at PGP and at least one UK media outlet which appears to show similar disdain for such tiresome chores as fact-checking.

Sticking in the West Country awhile, one dot-com was down on the farm in Glastonbury this past week puckering up for a world-record attempt.

Match.com - an online dating site, rather than a website selling Swan Vestas - tried to break the world record for the most people snogging simultaneously.

And the word on the street/muddy field is that they are confident the record's in the bag, though the final votes are just being counted and verified.

A spokesman for Match.com told silicon.com: "By our figures we have broken the record but officially we can't say until Guinness has examined all the evidence provided."

The Round-Up knows this feeling all too well. Sometimes the Round-Up is very unsure of things until Guinness gets involved...

...and then pretty much anything seems like a good idea...

Speaking of Match.com, check out this week's caption competition for a pic of the company's kissathon.

Still in Glastonbury, a silicon.com team member this week learned one thing previously regarded as a universal truth is in fact a big fat lie.

"Rain like this can't keep up for long... it will soon rain itself out."

It's simply not true but despite this the silicon.com team member thoroughly enjoyed the Glastonbury Festival and to all those cynics who would have you believe the whole event has sold out the message is simple - don't believe it for one minute.

How's this for back-to-basics: SMS text messages took several hours to come through and some areas of the Festival site suffered from terrible mobile phone reception. This was despite some heavy branding from at least one UK mobile phone operator (whose customers, in a twist of irony, seemed the worst affected).

Add into this unholy mix the fact that, given the conditions underfoot, it could take up to 15 minutes to walk to your nearest mobile phone charging facility...

Oh the humanity.

The Round-Up, not for the first time, was put in mind of the question, 'How did we cope before mobile phones came along?' as public school types shouted into their Nokias, 'Tristan, I'm by the Pyramid stage with Camilla and Felicia'.

In fact Carphone Warehouse recently commissioned some research into just how dependent on mobile phones 'the next generation' has become.

According to the research, 'the kids' would be entirely and hopelessly lost without their mobile phone (and not just because: 'Hugo has got the bloody tent and we can't find him anywhere').

The survey revealed the majority of respondents aged between 16 and 24 would rather give up alcohol, coffee, chocolate, tea and even sex than face a life without a mobile phone (though what kind of 'life' it would be without chocolate, coffee, sex and alcohol is anybody's guess).

However, further up the age scales the research revealed, as you might expect, older and wiser mobile phone users with less tragically empty lives are far more willing to surrender their mobile phone than any of life's other little pleasures.

Obviously Carphone Warehouse wouldn't have released the research if it didn't prove what they wanted it to show (this is the nature of commissioned research) but it has led some to question whether research that proves the items you sell are less popular than tea and chocolate to the majority of the population is really the kind of marketing any company should embark on.

Now, hats (and much more besides) off to security vendor Sophos this week which unveiled - possibly quite literally - the latest customer to buy its antivirus protection.

No doubt some hard-working Sophos salesmen put in the hours during negotiations and went above and beyond the call of duty, spending hours on-site with the customer to secure this particular deal.

Of course it probably helped that the customer in question happened to be the famous Hooters chain of bar-restaurants where serving girls wear little more than a smile and a tight fitting vest and hot-pants.

The Round-Up knows this because it happened to wander into Hooters in Las Vegas once under the mistaken notion that it was a theme bar dedicated to owls - the Round-Up's favourite bird of prey.

Not being one to learn, the Round-Up made the same mistake in New York and San Francisco...

...and Los Angeles and San Diego... not a barn owl in site though there was a lovely Tawny.

Dick Faulkner, vice president of North American sales at Sophos, said: "We are pleased to be selected by one of the world's most recognised restaurant franchises. Sophos is committed to providing flexible, reliable and centrally managed solutions that are consistent with the needs of today's businesses."

And Hooters is committed to providing flexible, reliable and centrally managed bar staff, consistent with the needs of today's businessmen, so there are some obvious synergies there.

Also in the security space, John Thompson, the thoroughly likeable CEO of security titan Symantec, has been heavily criticising archrival Microsoft this past week (and for as far back as we can remember) for a lack of innovation in its security products.

Now, far be it from the Round-Up to stick up for Microsoft but at this point it might be relevant to check out some highlights from Symantec's own approach to innovation which could perhaps be best summed up by picturing Thompson scrabbling in a desk drawer asking, 'Did anybody see where I put my cheque book?'

For example, Symantec recognised the need for end-point security. So what did Thompson do? He got out his cheque book and bought Sygate.

Anti-spam? Got out cheque book, bought Brightmail and TurnTide.

Anti-phishing? Got out cheque book, bought WholeSecurity.

Application management? Got out cheque book, bought Relicore.

IM protection? Got out cheque book, bought IMLogic.

Compliance? Got out cheque book, bought Bindview.

Consultancy division? Got out cheque book, bought LIRIC.

And of course who could forget Thompson getting out the book of oversized cheques and buying Veritas for a staggering $13.5bn... though the reason for that one is still eluding most.

You get the picture.

Though it does make you wonder, what will Thompson do once the cheque book becomes a thing of the past, as predicted this week?

Buying companies with your debit card really doesn’t have the same look or feel.

And finally, the Round-Up has been getting emails from The Telegraph all week. The first asked, 'What would you like from the Telegraph?'

It's an opportunity for readers to let the faltering newspaper know what they want - as the subject line suggests - but the first point to note here is the Round-Up has never read the Telegraph nor ever will.

Then the Round-Up received another email: 'Reminder: What would you like from the Telegraph?'

And then another email 'Second Reminder: What would you like from the Telegraph?'

Less spam please, would seem to be the obvious answer.

Now before you go, make sure you listen to this week's Weekly Round-Up podcast.

And check out this week's caption competition (if pictures of girls kissing is your thing there's something for you here).

Congratulations to last week's winner, Ian Paterson.