Reader Comments on Aardvark Daily 6 August 2002
Note: the comments below are the unabridged
submissions of readers and do
not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher.
From: Stuff fan For : The Editor (for publication) Subj: Sure it looks like some teething problems but... Are you sure Stuff is guilty of the things you are accusing them of? I mean you have a dead link in your own article - throwing stones in glass houses? (Check out the IDG link) To me, the new Stuff is great, it is so much faster and I will continue to have it as my homepage - the best news service in NZ. It is easy to throw mud but what's your qualification? - ever done anything big like Air NZ or INL is doing? Even self appointed experts should appreciate that in IT even the best laid plans can go awry (if only temporarily). May the Internet remain at the bleeding edge! Stuff fan. Aardvark Responds The dead link (now fixed) was caused by IDG deleting the original story to which I was referring -- hardly my fault ;-) What is my qualification? Have I built anything as large or complex as Stuff? Well I've performed pre-launch/relaunch surveys of sites for some of the most well-known names in the world, as well as many very large local sites. Clearly the writer isn't a long-time Aardvark reader or he'd also know that from 1997 to 1999 I built and operated a news website that attracted a larger audience than CNNfn, the BBC, The NewYork Post, The Washington Post, Wired, and even Playboy.com. I think those are adequate qualifications to back up my comments in today's column. From: Gavin For : The Editor (for publication) Subj: Hacking.... Its quite funny you mention hacking by URL's, as one of my internet accounts was suspended a few years back for "hacking". I was not aware I had been hacking - I had entered an IP that was given to me by someone which took me to a page which basically said "You shouldnt be here" - I thought "how boring" and left the site yet the next day i couldnt log into my account. I contacted the company and was told I was under investigation for hacking their internal system!!!! (The IP turned out to be an "entrance" for internal NOC use) Now the stupid thing is, I was actually employed by the ISP at the time and the "hacking" episode went on my record there and I was not entrusted with any "secure/sensitive data" for the 3 years of employment. All because I viewed a website. Whats next, are we going to be taken to court for a breach of copyright because IE has someones copyrighted logo in the cache after we browsed their site ? From: J J For : The Editor (for publication) Subj: INL & IT Your critcisms of INL are spot on, and probably don't go far enough. Having taught a few hundred Wellington students the basics of making websites, I heartily agree that "server overload" is the least plausible reason for this week's problems at stuff.co.nz. Poor design, implementation, and lack of testing are readily apparent. Unless they somehow manage to fix this amusing debacle before the morning, their site will make an excellent example in class tomorrow. Not that INL has ever managed to impress anyone with their grasp of IT-related issues, of course. Unlike other major news websites of the world, they fail to include most of their printed articles and features on the site, and then refuse to archive anything for public access. The subscription-based "archivestuff" service provides access to the archives, but again omits the full corpus of printed features.Hit Reload For Latest Comments
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