The James Kilgour BlogA Life Blog.

The BBC is reporting today that there is a new virus affecting Facebook users, known as ‘Koobface’, (great name!). Now, when I saw this I thought déjà vu. I blogged about this a month ago on November 2nd. 

Apparently the virus send out messages acting like a friend, linking to a virus. Hundreds of websites are now reporting the same, see here. In fact, Google returns 5,580,000 results. If only people had listened to me lol.

1. My Post here.
2. BBC here.
3. Google here.

JK

Today, BT has announced a ‘trial’ of fibre to the cabinets technology. In Muswell Hill, London, and Whitchurch, South Wales. Homes and businesses in the area will be able to enjoy broadband speeds of up to 40mb! The trial is due to start next year, and it’s definitely a step in the right way.

But why couldn’t they have done this earlier? What about the rest of us? In Japan and South Korea, users already enjoy 100mb broadband; costing the same as my 4mb! (Sky Unlimited, £10 per month).

The Internet is apparently on the brink of collapse, with the popularity of Youtube, BBC iPlayer and others. This would solve the issue, and make surfing the web amazingly fast. It would also lead to ‘Cloud Computing’, (the use of processing power of high performance computers elsewhere), which demands high speed Internet.

This is something I blogged about a few months ago. Hopefully BT’s trial will be proved successful!

JK

Halifax Bank of Scotland is one of the UK’s big four financial institutions, and whether separate or together, have been part of the highstreet for years. In fact, the bank holds 20% of all mortgages in the UK, and has millions of savers.

The events of the current economic climate though have caused unsteadiness, with the HBOS share price falling by more than three quarters.

But is a Super Bank a good idea for the UK? The new bank would have just under 40 million customers, with a 28% hold of the Mortgage market. (Under UK law, no financial institution is permitted to hold more than 25%.) The Bank would also have nearly 3000 branches, making it unmissable on the highstreet. 

The bank would offer unrivaled security, and would prevent collapse of HBOS, which if this were to happen could be devastating for the UK economy.

The bank would also have unrivaled financial powers, and would gain a controlling stake in the UK economy. However, with plentiful smaller alternatives,  I doubt it would really have an affect on the consumer.

JK

Medicine is one of the most stressful careers out there. Not only do they have to deal with the pressure of treating hundreds of patients daily, but also the stress of getting something wrong and litigation.

Now the idea of testing doctors every few years on clinical skills is being thrown about, with the least efficient doctors being struck off. But is this fair? No. Doctors have to firstly get into Medical School, (which is extremely difficult), then train for 6 years, followed by another 5 years working as a foundation doctor.

How is it fair that they should then have to repeatedly be re-tested for the rest of their career; at a cost of 15 million! The NHS already claims poverty, and 15 million, in my opinion, could be much better spent.

JK