ShadowRAM: What a load of... webshite!

COMMENTARY: Rumours, truth and innuendo

Apparently, thousands of dollars are being spent building websites these days and most of it is money down the toilet, according to Sydney-based website design company Purpose.
 
Well, judging by some of the websites around the place, they’re probably right. Nevertheless, The Shadow can’t help thinking that Purpose is pushing its own barrow a bit here. In spades . . . or shovels (enough of that!).
 
Purpose spokesperson Toni Fitzgerald exclaims: “99 percent of websites today are just a load of crap!” -- before plugging the company’s own design services. “A purpose-built website is not about pretty design -- although they employ award-winning designers,” a press release said.
 
Fitzgerald and her brother Laurence are behind the “controversial” Webshite campaign, a soon-to-be-launched billboard that suggests there’s a load of . . . shit out there. Their billboards depict a website buried under heaps of the stuff, and other plans include advertising on toilet paper, toilet doors and around footpath drains. Ew, how smelly!


Simms digs in for the community

Specialist distributor Simms International last month celebrated two years of community service to Sydney’s elderly and disable community members.
 
Since May 2003, its corporate volunteer program has involved the company donating an additional two days’ leave per year to each of its 24 staff members to support not-for-profit organisations such as the Crows Nest Meals on Wheels program and the Lower North Shore Easy Care Gardening Service.
 
The programs assist elderly and disabled people to keep their independence and delay the transition into formal care.
 
Meals on Wheels involves delivering food to the homes of people that can no longer cook for themselves while the gardening service involves basic maintenance of garden areas where disabled tenants can no longer perform the duty. Simms boss Danny Moore said these organisations need more support and encouraged other businesses to take part. Nice work Simms!


Storage shenanigans

EMC and Hewlett-Packard both held storage user confabs in the US earlier this month. The EMC Summit was in New Orleans, while HP StorageWorks set up house in Las Vegas.
 
HP also decided to go on a road offensive, however, and set up a competing storage conference in an 18- wheeler parked near the New Orleans Convention Centre. HP advertised with flyers and a billboard truck emblazoned with a most unusual message: ‘Save yourself from another storage failure’.
 
Why unusual? HP, coming off a couple of bad quarters in storage, is telling customers of EMC, which is showing strong growth, to save themselves from storage failures? Get real.


NEXTEP partners honoured

NEXTEP Broadband announced Pacific Internet, Integrated Vision and Oak Telecom and Finance as the winners of its Channel Partner awards at its recent partner forum. Pacific took out Channel Partner Of The Year, Integrated Vision took out the Most Innovative Broadband Solution Of The Year award, while Oak Telecom and Finance was recognised as the Most Improved Channel Partner Of The Year.


iTunes Toasted!

Folks who buy a lot of iTunes from the online iTunes store may get burned if they use Roxio’s Toast 6 Titanium recording software.
 
The latest version of the staple Mac product, 6.1, which works with Apple’s new Tiger OS, will not let users burn purchased iTunes audio content to CDs and DVDs or export it to their hard drives.
 
They would have to use Apple’s iTunes or iDVD software. Roxio’s website said the move came “following discussions with Apple”.