The Weekly Round-Up: 16.11.07

At some point before he went mental and started talking to horses, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche came up with the idea of eternal recurrence.

It's the idea of history repeating itself but for the stroky-beard brigade. Nietzsche himself had no beard, though he did have a moustache that looked like a partially inhaled badger. But the Round-Up digresses.

Basically, our hero's idea is the universe has been recurring endlessly and will continue to do so for all time in a completely incomprehensible way. It's a concept that will be familiar to fans of the TV series Lost.

Where's the Round-Up going with all this? Good question. We are right in the middle of what everyone is calling web 2.0 and this, naturally, leads one to consider the possibility of Bubble 2.0. Bubbles, by their very nature, burst.

Is the writing on the wall for the internet industry? Events in the last week or so might suggest that a scrawl is definitely visible.

First off, there's the apparently endless rise in the revenues derived from web advertising. This week it was reported US internet advertising revenue rose 25 per cent in the third quarter of this year to about $5.2bn - a new record.

The boom in online advertising has driven media and tech firms to pour billions into building their online advertising businesses.

Yes, anyone who's anyone is throwing their money behind the renaissance in web ad revenues. Microsoft is pledging to be a "powerhouse" in advertising and is putting it at the forefront of its business focus. Well, for this week at least.

Secondly, a lot of folk are putting a lot of faith in company equity rather than hard currency. According to a report this week, most people looking to work for web 2.0 start-ups are prepared to sacrifice pay in exchange for shares in the venture they're joining.

More than 75 per cent of candidates joining dot-com start-ups through IT staffing company ReThink Recruitment have forgone up to a third of their salary in exchange for shares.

Two years ago just 10 per cent of workers did the same but the level is now close to that seen during the first dot-com boom. Hmm.

Offers of equity also help to stop talent walking away at the end of a contract. They also lead to shattered dreams of flash cars and Chelsea pads and an ocean of misery and regret. Not that the Round-Up's bitter, hell no.

Last time round, we were charting brave new territory. Pioneering the digital wilderness. Or something equally prosaic and nonsensical. Next time around you'd think we'd learn from our mistakes, that when the Web and Bubble reoccur, as they may do eternally, we'd learn our lessons. Then again, perhaps not. (And perhaps we should just leave it in the very capable hands of these guys.)

Perhaps the Round-Up's being overly pessimistic and the writing isn't on the wall. But as another philosopher (Bob Dylan) once crooned: "You don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows".

Another eternal reoccurrence is endless arguments that take place between fans of competing operating systems and silicon.com last week enthusiastically poked the wasps' nest of OS discord with the stick of online polling.

There's good news and bad news for Microsoft. Topping the poll of silicon.com users was Windows XP. Old Reliable. Or Old Reliably Unreliable, depending on how you look at it. XP garnered around 42 per cent of the vote. Bravo.

Redmond's latest operating system didn't fare so well, with Vista trailing both Linux and the Mac OS in the popularity stakes with a paltry 14 per cent. The big 'Wow' hasn't quite had the desired effect so far.

Despite claims to the contrary by Microsoft's fearsome PR machine, sales haven't been as great as some expected. It seems business users are holding off until a ROI can be identified, while unreasonable home users are holding off because they still want to use their cameras, printers and scanners after upgrading.

So with Windows out of the equation, the big question is who won the fight between a penguin and a leopard?

The leopard obviously, it ripped the penguin's head off its shoulders with a single swipe of its claws.

The same result occurred with the OS poll, with 27 per cent of pollsters stating a preference for Mac OS X rather than one of the Linux distributions.

Best not ask where 'Other Unix' fitted in. In fact let's move swiftly on...

Laptops. Nice, aren't they? Shiny, useful, expensive, filled with data. So if they're really so nice, why do we feel the need to leave so many of them in airports and exit the country?

It's a curious activity but one that more and more of us are adopting. Plan a business trip, arrange the itinerary, pack, drive to the airport, leave your laptop in the toilets, jump on a plane and fly 10,000 miles away. Perfect.

And it's not just laptops, UK business travellers lose up to 8,500 mobile devices in the country's airports every year.

Those travelling from major London airports are the most 'unlucky', with more than 400 laptops and 2,500 other mobile devices lost annually, according to a survey by information security company SafeNet.

Meanwhile, business professionals using airports in north-west England misplace more than 100 laptops and 800 mobile gadgets - including BlackBerrys, phones and USB sticks - every year.

Leaving BlackBerrys behind 'accidentally' is more understandable. The Round-Up wonders how many were actually abandoned intentionally.

"Beep!"
"For God's sake, leave me alone."
"Beep!"
"Grr, that's it. We need some distance."
"Beep?"

What's more, as one silicon.com reader suggests in a reader comment, how many laptops and phones are lost intentionally to guarantee an upgrade to newer kit?

Meanwhile, if our relationship with our expensive gadgetry could be described as a bit casual, we're positively wanton with our work-related data. The stats don't make for pretty reading.

Most of us store data in places other than work networks, about the same number store corporate files in multiple locations, while around one in five uses a USB memory stick - the ones we're so fond of leaving in airport departure lounges.

So to recap, you go to the airport, leave your laptop or memory stick behind then fly off to wherever. Meanwhile, your laptop goes to airport lost and found - or just as likely into someone's bag - and your data goes in a completely different direction.

It's almost as if we don't care about work. Still, at least UK businesses are taking proper steps to ensure sensitive data is encrypted or better protected in the event of laptop loss.

What's that? Really? Good grief.

Can't get no satisfaction from your IT support department? Then you're probably an unwashed, unloved underling toiling in a branch office of a big company.

If you are, then the Round-Up offers its deepest sympathies. After all you've picked the short straw when it comes to tech support.

Two-thirds of branch office employees feel they do not receive the same IT resources and support as staff based in headquarters. Meanwhile, 64 per cent of branch staff feel IT departments prioritise the needs of head office employees over their own, research reveals.

The ratio of support staff to branch staff is nowhere near that enjoyed by the employees at HQ. Only a third of branch employees have local tech support personnel, compared with 70 per cent at headquarters.

But do the insults don't stop there? Hell no, the research is just getting started.

Get this: not only is the branch office stuck in support hell, you can't even escape because while 60 per cent of HQ workers can also work remotely - a paltry 42 per cent of branch office employees are able to access corporate applications from home or while on the road.

On the bright side, you probably have more access to the countryside, less pollution, better quality of life and you can afford to buy a home. This is because, let's face it, in most cases HQ is going to mean London.

It's true the regions have their charm, it's just they have no support for third-party printer drivers.

The final indignation for the branch offices, according to the report, is that access to senior management is lower than at HQ. Swings and roundabouts, eh?

This is hardly surprising. Senior management is hardly going to be mingling with 'hoi polloi' and strain politely to comprehend their curious regional accents when they can be sipping Rioja in a Soho bistro over a long lunch.

Most will have probably watched The Office and its gallery of grotesques on top-of-the-range LCD TVs and will be using that as their frame of reference when they consider a visit to the Runcorn branch to meet the marketing team.

That's it until next week, except for the extra-special readers who receive the extended edition of the Round-Up sent to everyone inside the M25.

Until next Friday, take a moment to check out the latest caption competition and don't forget to listen to the Weekly Round-Up podcast.