Frequent infrequent tech round up.

Here's one of my frequently inrequent news round ups, with comment.

First off Digital Sales are all the rage in Europe but revenue is down. That seems to hit the perpetual argument of the money that record companies are losing to pirates; they're actually losing to lower margins instead. It was time their gravy train ended, IMHO.

"The music industry still looks to faithful older CD purchasers for the bulk of its income." smells to me like the music industry would like to turn back the clock! Oh dear.

An interesting thing for BT is that revenues were down 5% however profit pre-tax was up 20%. That is in stark contrast to Microsoft who reported record revenues and trumpted that fact from the highest mountains; but we don't seem to have their profit figures yet; especially as they are in the habit of spending money to generate revenue in the form of PC subsidies, etc.

Microsoft were downgraded to normal stock status last year in the reports of failure to innovate in the last decade. They (and others) are also now facing licencing problems over their latest hit; the game controller that uses the body rather than the traditional button controller. That is going to be interesting to watch.

A Tory MP is facing investigation for finding out what his constituency staff really thought of him by hiring private investigators! He'll actually get hit with a double whammy as apparently his constituents didn't think much of him. It does beg two questions. Firstly, why did they vote him in. Secondly, why did I include this in a technology round up? Answers on a postcard please, to a private eye near you.

UPDATE - Apparently, Oh no he won't but I think he has suffered enough; although there are calls for the investigators to be investigated.

Birmingham has backtracked on sending IT jobs to India. Hoorah! The lack of detailed comment speaks loads by itself.

Improved functionality and convenience in car secutiry may be more convenient for the thief!

The Police can't find any of the key figures of Anonymous or LulSec so they arrest the spokesman instead. Way to go!

As people start to become more desperate in this economy, criminals are cashing in. If it sounds too goo to be true, then it probably isn't. Be vigilant.

ITV are looking to micropayments for Coronation Street webisodes to try and offset a falling advertising income. Interesting article. For me, the most interesting thing was the information that advertising revenue is falling. This has the power to alter the media dynamic considerably.

More military encryption bites the dust. Encryption has good and bad points to it, but keeping communications secret during military operations is one of the most critical. Cryptography is always a cat and mouse game these days, with the chase getting ever faster. That's part of the problem. Imagine if a bank had to make a change to its systems that would necessitate changing all its customers cards or all its cash point machines. The ever quickening encryption chase has serious implications for public service financial security.

And here is a lesson for those relying on plastic to conduct their daily business. Carry cash.

How about the technology latest in designer pets ... a fluorescent dog that you can turn on and off depending on the food you give it. Personally, I think this is dog poo rather than mutts nuts, but that's just me. I just don't like the degree that they're messing around with nature.

FINALLY - Anonymous listen to the WBM (Wise Beard Man) and get legit about their protests, this time calling for a boycot on PayPal.

The interesting thing about this is that the chatter has highlighted that PayPal has a monopoly market. Trusting other sites directly with your credit card details has always been very risky, but we'll have to wait to see whether the competition comissions can force the likes of e-bay, etc. to actually use an alternative; because if you boycot paypal, then how else are you to pay for your goods?

There is more weight to come on this as Paypal is to cut funding to web sites deemed "illegal" by the music industry. Now, how the heck this is going to work, is debatable. If this extends to credit card companies and then to banks, then other services will simply cash in. The banks will wake up to find that world wide populations have gone back to the bead as a method of currency. Now THAT would really screw up stocks and shares!!!

It looks like Google are aping Apple even more, by pissing off the developer base and not telling any body what they are doing, or why. In Google's case, however, I'd be willing to bet it was because they simply didn't know!

Apparently, the UK was the most challenging retail market during the financial year for gadgets. Personally, I would hope that this represents people waking up to reality and not falling for the advertising junk that comes their way. Well, I can dream.