TechCrunch has published some Twitter stats with a graph that shows trends both before and after its Twitter account was suggested.

While there’s a decent spike in followers at this point, Michael Arrington concludes:

We love these new users, but they aren’t nearly as valuable to us as the ones that we fought for in the early days of Twitter.

OK, you love them but they’re not as valuable. Quite what this definition of valuable is, I’m not clear. In any case, I can’t remember when I joined @TechCrunch but I’ve since stopped following.

For the record, anyone wanting to follow me on Twitter will be most welcome indeed, no matter how valuable you think you are. No strings or variable value assessments attached. Oh, no spammers, though.

Here’s a useful video explaining how Google ranks advertisers using the AdWords system. [Via]

The BBC bought and used a botnet which hijacked a number of vulnerable PCs to send email to several test accounts, with the blessing of security firm PrevX, in order to make an edition of BBC Click (the fact that the Beeb calls this their flagship technology programme yet it’s only available on BBC News or at stupidly early times, in highlight form, on BBC1 is another issue).

A technology lawyer believes the BBC broke the law even thought the Corporation (which we law-abiding Brits fund to the tune of £140 each per year and rising) didn’t do it with any malicious intent.

Straun Robertson claims, “It does not matter that the emails were sent to the BBC’s own accounts and criminal intent is not necessary to establish an offence of unauthorised access to a computer,” he adds.

“The Act requires that a computer has been made to perform a function with intent to secure access to any program or data on the computer.

“Using the botnet to send an email is likely to satisfy that requirement. It also requires that the access is unauthorised - which the BBC appears to acknowledge.”

It’s interesting that security firm PrevX gave their blessing to the experiments, even though (reportedly) most security software companies won’t mess around with computers even if they are infected.

I doubt anything will happen, but remember if you live in Britain you’ve helped to fund this little experiment.

@billt tweeted an interesting thought about using Lynx as a Twitter client.

Lynx is a text-only web browser that can be easily run from a command line. There’s a version installed on a web hosting account I used so I tried it out and… disaster.

Admittedly, there’s something a little odd going on with my version of Lynx, but even so, I couldn’t log in and the actual display was hard to use. You’d think that a text-based browser for a primarily text-based service would be great, but I didn’t think so.

I tried to access the mobile version of Twitter, too, but that just tried to get me to download something, which was most odd.

No, it’s desktop clients, iPhone clients or the plain old web site in Firefox or Safari for me.

If you’re over in Chicago, take a look at this working model of a Samsung Messenger. It’s 15 feet long, 13 feet high and 3 feet deep and has been used to make free voice calls and send text messages since Wednesday.

Totally impractical, of course, but it is an official Guinness world record. It’s around until Sunday. At least no-one’s going to steal this one.

The BBC has announced that it’s created a new mobile-friendly, customisable version of its home page for a variety of devices including the iPhone and iPod touch, Android phones, any handset running Opera, N Series and other high-end Nokias, Sony Ericsson and Samsungs and some Blackberrys.

The home page can be arranged as desired and there’s localisation for such things as news, weather and TV schedules. iPlayer also fits into the mix.

While the iPhone and other handsets with larger screens and decent browsers could access the standard BBC home page, this is useful as a cut down version in areas where there’s only a 3G (or lower bandwidth) signal and no Wi-Fi.

Tried it? What do you think of it?

According to this report in the Media Guardian, Platte Media’s UK operation is no more.

Two years ago, Micro Bill Systems appeared on the scene and started causing trouble. So much, in fact, that I helped set up a forum and got myself in the Guardian as a result.

A company name change (to Platte Media), some legal threats and hassles later, it does appear as if the infamous pay-for-porn company has ceased trading in the UK.

Hiwat said in an email to Michael Pollitt, the reporter who has uncovered story after story about Platte, that “Our reasons for this decision and our further intentions are simply related to our original marketing and business model.” He added: “Obviously, and just like any other business should and would do, I am making sure that stopping our marketing to the UK Market, is done in such a sensible and orderly manner, that will best preserve the interests of our customers and of our own.”

It could, however, be something to do with the Office of Fair Trading, or HM Revenue and Customs, both of whom have expressed interest in the company’s activities.

Is it too soon for celebration?

We still don’t know what Oriel, Platte’s appointed debt collection agency, will do with the “debts” it has had passed to it. We also don’t know whether Platte International will continue to run its rather dubious sites (Get Films Now, for example) in other countries. The global reach of the Internet means that access by UK computer users and minors could still be just a mouse click away.

It will also be interesting to see what Platte UK’s directors move on to. I find it hard to believe that they won’t set up another business in due course - one that could have very similar properties (and problems) as Platte and MBS had.

Watch this space.

For those that haven’t been watching the world of blog networks, last week Shiny Media cut a number of jobs due to the current economic climate and the need to restore some stability.

Unfortunately this has meant that I now have a reduced workload — hopefully temporary but who can tell — with Shiny Media.

I’ve been very fortunate to have found so much regular work with them over the past three years or so, and I will continue to have input on both HDTV UK and iPhonic, but that leaves me in a place where I could use some more assignments.

Naturally, I’m not sitting around on my backside simply waiting for opportunities to plop on to my lap, but if some nice friendly editor or blog owner types were to come along and offer me some work — whether on an ongoing basis or one-off assignment — I certainly wouldn’t complain.

As well as writing on a wide variety of topics — most notably consumer electronics, HDTV, Apple products and the Internet — I am also happy to build web sites and blogs (primarily in WordPress) from a design idea.

If you’d like to find out more about me, you can contact me via this form or see me on LinkedIn or Facebook.

Chris Brogan has written another inspiring post entitled Your 3 Goals for 2009 in which he encourages readers to think of three keywords that could then be tied to goals throughout the year.

On their own, the words seem extremely abstract, but the person who creates them – presuming they’ve thought them through – should know exactly what they mean and how they may influence actions throughout the coming year.

So much less restrictive – and less guilt-inducing – than setting lists of resolutions.

“If you want to try the process, it works something like this: think of how you want to be successful in 2009. Then, try to think in even broader terms. Extrapolate on the broader terms, and find one word to hang the idea on.”

Here are my three words: Read the rest of this entry »