Tales from the Terminal Room

March 2003, Issue No. 41

Archives

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Tales from the Terminal Room (TFTTR) is a monthly newsletter, with the exception of July and August, which are published as a single issue. TFTTR includes reviews and comparisons of information sources and search tools; updates to the RBA Web site Business Sources and other useful resources; dealing with technical and access problems on the Net; and news of RBA's training courses and publications.

In this issue:

• AOL launches pop-up zapper
• Microsoft Teams up with Information Providers
• Information Resources
  • Who Owns Whom in the UK Electricity Industry
  • Zapdata - US company lookup and mailing lists from D&B
  • Research and Markets
  • SkillsBuilder
  • Jobstats - the current state of the UK computer job market
  • Eastern European Business Information Update
• Gizmo of the Month
  • ScanIT - test your browser's security
• Meetings and Workshops
  • Resource Management Strategies (UKOLUG, London)
  • Key Business Sources on the Internet (Manchester Business School)
  • Business Information on the Internet: free vs. fee (TFPL, London)
  • Advanced Internet Search Strategies (Manchester Business School

AOL launches pop-up zapper

AOL has announced that its Web Pop-Up Controls is now available to subscribers of AOL 8.0. The utility will let people zap "most advertisements" that pop up or appear under requested Web pages.

The tool can be viewed as a button at the bottom of the browser window and toggled on and off. This is useful if you find yourself on a site that displays information and help files in pop-up windows. It blocks most pop-ups except for those that people have requested via an "allow list", or ones coming from secure sites such as banking pages. It does not stop pop-ups created with Java or Macromedia Flash technology.

The browser displays a running total of the number of pop-ups and pop-unders blocked during each session, and there is an optional, audible notification. Given the large number of unsolicited pop-ups dished out by some Web sites, the latter is probably best left switched off!

AOL users can download the tool directly from AOL, Keyword: Pop-Up Controls.

Microsoft Teams up with Information Providers

Major information providers are queuing up to link into Microsoft Office 2003. Gale, Factiva and Alacritude are all part of the new Research Task pane in Office 2003, which is currently in beta. By highlighting a company name in a document, Microsoft Office users will be able to receive Gale published company profiles or Factiva news directly into the application. Users who want access to these services can subscribe online immediately.

Gale offers over 450,000 company profiles, available for purchase individually or through subscriptions. Throughout the beta test period, individual profiles will cost USD 35. A six month subscription will be USD 249 and an annual subscription USD 399. Each profile provides an overview of the company's businesses, executive names, financial data, recent news and announcements. (A preview of the service is available at http://www.gale.com/bizdev/)

The Factiva News Search option covers 8,000 sources and the charges for access are the same as on the Factiva Web site itself. Individuals pay an annual subscription of USD 79.95 plus USD 2.95 per document. Enterprises have to negotiate their own subscription agreements.

Alacritude provides access to an eLibrary service of newspapers, newswires, magazines, journals, transcripts, maps, photographs and reference sources. The service has 13 million documents from over 1,000 sources. The article abstracts are free but full document access requires a subscription. Charges are USD 14.95 a month or USD 79.95 a year.

Although there has been initial enthusiasm in some quarters, corporate beta testers have reported that users are subscribing to services for which the organisation already has contracts. Furthermore, customisation of the Research Task Pane does not appear to be easy, although there are Microsoft tools available to do this. IT experts have suggested that the technology may only work on "all-Microsoft" systems.

It is interesting that Microsoft is rolling this out just as some major public and private sector organisations are seriously considering switching to open source operating systems and applications.

Information Resources

Mergers & Acquisitions http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/manda.htm

Who Owns Whom in the UK Electricity Industry
The Electricity Association Web site at http://www.electricity.org.uk/ has been redesigned and re-launched. New features include a current vacancies section, an interactive map of the UK electricity system, and news of publications and events. The Industry Facts section provides statistics on generation capacity, market shares, supply and demand by sector. For industry researchers, though, the meatiest and most interesting part of the revamped site is the section on Who Owns Whom in the UK Electricity Industry. There is a summary table outlining ownerships as well as detailed histories of mergers and acquisitions for each company, all free of charge.

Company Directories http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/directs.htm

Zapdata - sales leads, mailing lists direct marketing business data http://www.zapdata.com/
Dun and Bradstreet's Zapdata provides a directory of over 14 million US companies in its "Company Lookup" section. You can search, free of charge, by company name or DUNS number. The results list gives you the company name, address - with an indication of whether it is a branch or the headquarters - and industry sector. Additional information is priced.

The standard Company Lookup Report is USD 5 and gives name, address, DUNS number, legal structure, top executive, annual sales, employees, year established, and details of the ultimate parent company (if applicable). In addition to the standard Company Lookup Report, you may choose to add Data Bundles such as contact names and estimated IT, Telecom, and Wireless usage profiles. (Data Bundles may not be available for all companies).

There is also a mailing list "Prospects" section. The data sources include D&B, Harris InfoSource, and OneSource Information Services. This is a pay-as-you-go service and prices vary depending on the output options that you chose (there are five formats) and the number of records. You can purchase basic direct mailing lists, telemarketing lists, enhanced telemarketing lists, detailed prospecting data, or full strategic marketing information.

Search options include location, industry, company size, company site Information, years in business, legal status, job functions. When using a credit card there is a USD 10 minimum charge.

Market Research http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/mr.htm

Research and Markets http://www.researchandmarkets.com/
Research and Markets, based in Dublin, provides access to nearly 31,000 international market research reports. The report titles and summaries can be browsed by subject or keyword searched. Summaries and tables of contents are free of charge, and there is a free "New Arrivals" notification service. Depending on availability from the publisher, reports can be purchased in hardcopy, electronic form, CD-ROM or via a site licence.

There is no buy-by-the-slice as is possible with the US based Marketresearch.com so you have to buy the whole report. Other minor drawbacks of the site are that there is no list of publishers; and although you can sort reports by name, date published, publisher and number of pages when browsing via the menus, you cannot change the sort order if you search by keyword.

Support for SMEs http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/sme.htm

SkillsBuilder http://www.skillsbuilder.co.uk/
Active Information, publishers of the magazine Better Business, have launched a service called SkillsBuilder. SkillsBuilder is a library of over 150 practical guides to help people in organizations top up their skills across a wide range of topics, as and when required. It designed to be accessed from corporate Intranets and is sold by annual subscription dependent on the size of the organization. SkillsBuilder is mainly intended for use in England and Wales as some legal and tax issues apply only in the UK. Nevertheless, much of the content is generic and applicable around the world.

The guides include: how to make your staff think for themselves; avoid the classic mistakes of sales letters; how to delegate more effectively; eight ways to get better deals from suppliers; simple strategies to balance work and home life.

For a free trial email freetrial@skillsbuilder.co.uk.

Statistics http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/stats.htm

Jobstats - the current state of the UK computer job market http://www.jobstats.co.uk/
Provides a detailed picture of the computing job market in the UK. Information includes: which skills employers are looking for; where jobs are being offered; how much you can expect to get paid. There are graphs and figures showing trends in hourly rates and annual salaries. There are also links to job listings pages and a monthly newsletter.

Keeping up to date http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/uptodate.htm

Eastern European Business Information Update http://www.dataresources.co.uk/eebiu.htm
This is a practical monthly guide to locating and using sources of business information on central and eastern Europe and the CIS to support commercial development. The newsletter is directed at all those engaged in the development of corporate eastern Europe: business leaders and decision makers, managers, analysts and researchers throughout commerce and industry, government bodies and financial institutions. Articles include: company, industry and country information resources; monitoring news companies and markets; accessing legal information in Eastern Europe; competitor intelligence; new information resources; and a diary of events.

Business Information Update is delivered by email in PDF format. The annual subscription is GBP 25 or EUR 45.

Gizmo of the Month

ScanIT - test your browser's security

http://www.scanit.be/

For the seriously paranoid amongst us who subscribe to the two sets of braces, a belt and a second pair of trousers approach to Internet security, ScanIT now offers us waterproofs as well!

ScanIT can test all the major browsers for system vulnerability to 22 simulated attacks. When the test is finished, you can view a report describing the vulnerabilities, their effect and how to eliminate them. Before you run the test, you must ensure that you are not blocking pop-ups and that you are accepting cookies. Also, Opera must be reporting itself as such to Web sites and not pretending to be IE or Netscape.

I submitted four browsers to the test: Mozilla 1.3b (my default browser), Netscape 7.0, Opera 7.0, and a regularly patched Internet Explorer (6.0.2900.1106......etc.).

Both Mozilla and Netscape were given a clean bill of health. For Opera 7.0 it came back with two medium risk and two low risk vulnerabilities. The recommendation was to upgrade to 7.01. I upgraded to 7.02, ran the test again and received the all-clear.

It was a different story for IE 6. ScanIT identified two medium risk vulnerabilities. I was told that the bugs can allow a malicious Web site to access data on other web sites, for example to read my mail from a web mail system. No patches are available for this problem yet and the only workaround ScanIT could suggest was to disable Javascript. Not a realistic option as that would render a significant proportion of Web sites unreadable!

Before you run the test, do read the instructions. Numerous pop-ups litter the screen during the simulations and must be left open for the test to work. There are also instructions on how to deal with any requests to open or run programs.

TFTTR Contact Information

Karen Blakeman, RBA Information Services
UK Tel: 0118 947 2256, Int. Tel: +44 118 947 2256
UK Fax: 020 8020 0253, Int. Fax: +44 20 8020 0253
Address: 88 Star Road, Caversham, Berks RG4 5BE, UK

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