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Rowan Puttergill: Columnist

Rowan Puttergill is a technology evangelist and software engineer with a long career working in enterprise environments. He brings with him the experience of being the Technical Editor at SA Computer magazine, and a career history as a technical author. He is a huge advocate of open-source technologies, and is a huge fan of debian-based linux operating systems.

RECENT POSTS

• Why being a Linux geek could make you more employable

  I love Linux and I have been fortunate enough to have been able to use it as my base operating system in all of the different companies that I've worked for the last ten years or so. But, I know that unless you're a systems administrator, most fans of the OS find themselves battling against corporate IT if they even try to run a non-Windows system at work.Just recently, I noticed a post on Slashdot where a user was ...

• E-Waste and the underbelly of the tech industry

  Last year, the EU updated its directives for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), in an effort to step up recycling and the safe disposal of outdated and malfunctioning equipment. In the US, the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act was introduced as a bill in June last year. India is also taking governmental steps to control how E-Waste is handled.That sounds like good news; after all, old electronics goods are full of good things that can often be re-used. And, ...

• Google ScreenWise pays you for your data

  You're the product! I hear this over and over on all of the geeky sites that I tend to frequent. It's a direct response to every article that comes out describing how yet another "free" online service is gathering every last shred of data on its users, in order to gain access to some of that precious advertising revenue. Now, Google is finally acknowledging that your data is worth a lot of money. In fact, it's willing to pay you ...

• The battle for Brazil’s tech market is heating up

  Brazil is going through an economic boom. In December, it overtook the UK as the world's sixth largest economy.Much of Brazil's success has come through changes within its agricultural sector where, over the past 40 years, it has focussed on the Soya trade. But Brazil's success does not rest on agriculture alone.Brazil has access to huge mineral resources and has recently struck oil. Its industrial sector has been picking up pace, and China has been taking notice.Last ...

• Getting to know you — how internet security is changing

  In my predictions for security in 2012, I pointed out that hand-in-hand with an increase in governmental control over the internet will come a spate of attacks from those that oppose such control.I also harboured some concern over the industrial systems that control infrastructure such as water, sewage, electrical grid, public transport and so on. The year has actually started with a lot of tension around exactly such problems. Towards the end of 2011, Anonymous targeted US Government sites ...

• You wouldn’t download a car… or would you?

  I recently came across an interesting blog post which states that the Pirate Bay (by the way, if you support the kind of thinking behind SOPA you shouldn't click on that link, it takes you to a site that encourages copyright infringement) has created a new download category -- 'Physibles'.According to the Pirate Bay, physibles are digital objects that can be converted into tangible physical objects. Huh? It took me a few seconds to work out what the hell ...

• 4 non-mobile tech trends to look out for in 2012

  Everybody is talking about mobiles. If the trends in 2011 were anything to go by, 2012 will revolve around mobile phones and tablet computing. So making predictions and talking about what there is to look forward to is pretty easy if you just want to stick to safe topics. Of course, with Solar Maximum all set for 2012, major solar storms could make it a tricky year for the mobile. So I've decided to take a look at non-mobile related ...

• Zappos customers feel the boot

  It's already a pretty rough year in the security game. There have been a number of interesting security compromises that have already taken place this year, but nothing has matched the scale of the attack on popular online shoe retailer, Zappos.com. On Sunday 15 January, Zappos sent an email to 24-million customers notifying them of a security breach which is likely to have exposed sensitive customer detail for all of its users. Two days later, Zappos is still offline, which ...

• Mocality scandal: How far in the cookie jar was Google’s hand?

  Last week, Google got caught with its hand in the cookie jar, allegedly engaged in a range of questionable activities with regard to a Kenyan company called Mocality. According to Mocality, Google employees were "scraping data" collected by Mocality for its business listings, and then using that data to target advertise GKBO's services to Kenyan businesses. To make matters worse, Mocality has telephone recordings of Google representatives describing a non-existent relationship between Mocality and the GKBO project. Google VP, Nelson ...

• Online security trends to watch out for in 2012

  Perhaps two of the biggest computing trends that have gained momentum in the past year have also opened up some of the biggest security problems that the internet has faced in its entire history. Cloud services and Mobile internet afford us maximum flexibility and ease of access to the information that we want and need on a daily basis. That ease of access and flexibility has also increased our vulnerability. In this article, we look at recent security trends and ...

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