Malware

Have you ever been the target of a phishing scam? Did you recognize it as a scam right away? What tipped you off?

Yes indeed, but my phishing experience was over the phone and I related it here on my personal blog.

A more recent phishing experience comes from my workmate and all the details are to be found here.

A fews things to look for:

*  Does the site have the usual security features you'd expect?  For example the small yellow lock at the bottom right corner of your Internet Explorer screen

*  Check the address you are sent to, does it look like what you'd expect to see if it was a genuine site?

*  How about the overall appearance of the site, does it sit right (check the second link above for an example of what I mean).  Do all the elements in the site sit nicely without overlapping each other?

*  If in doubt ring or get in contact with the company directly.  You may be surprised to know that they already know about that individual fraud.

Mashups 'r' us

You weren't kidding there were a lot of mashups out there!  My attention has been drawn by one for promoting Southern African tourism called Africa Bespoke.

Both Google Maps and Flickr are used to present images of tourist destinations all over the eight countries that make up the lower half of Africa.  Very neat presentation.

We use mashup everywhere.  The white pages (dependant on country) uses Google Maps, Where is or Bing to show where address were located, even sites linked to shops use Google Maps to help potential customers find their nearest stores.

One of the more impressive ones I've found so far is Conflict History which uses several 'doorways' to get access to wars from all over the world stretching more than 5000 years.  It uses information and images for Wikipedia connected to an unfortunately modern Google Map.  An interactive timeline allows you to change the date even show a range of dates.

One that makes any library map collection look boring is David Rumsey's Geo Garage where old maps from David's collection are overlayed over a Google Map world.  Though not extensive the site works really well and is very beautiful.














4. Make a Mashup-These sites let you find and combine info to make a "custom" mashup. Embed it in your blog.