Steam is a company which provides an online based game service where you can buy games and then download them to play them. When Half-Life first came out, it was a CD based game, but shortly before the release of Half-Life 2, Valve (the makers) moved to using Steam to distribute their software. This forced everyone who wanted Half-Life 2 (including me as I had a CD-key which came with a graphics card) to use Steam to download the game.
About a week ago I decided to log back in to Steam after around 4 years of not using it, but I found that my account had been hacked… I wasn’t best pleased. Not only that, but I found from searching around the internet that I’m definitely not the only one to have had their account hacked and I won’t be the last (YouTube search for “steam hack” and you’ll see why).
So I requested Steam tell me how I can cancel my account as I feel that their security is not good enough for me to want my personal details stored with them. But I’ve currently been told that it is impossible for them to cancel a Steam account. So now I have the fun task of asking around various authorities in the UK to see what my rights are regarding the storage of personal information. With Steam being US based, I guess they are under different laws to over here in the UK, but I’m sure that there are similar rules. Bear in mind that in a Steam account you can enter your credit card details… I am so glad that I have never entered my credit card details into Steam!
Fun.
When I joined Senokian I was enrolled on an HSBC Health Cash Plan, which means that I get an allowance for various health related things each year. One of these things is optical and as a glasses wearer I decided to make full use of the allowance and get an eye test and some brand spanking new glasses!
So, I decided to go to Boots for the test and then buy online with Glasses Direct. Well by glasses arrived yesterday and I was slightly concerned at first because I was starting to feel horribly disorientated whilst wearing them. So I rang Glasses Direct and spoke to a very nice optometrist called Jon who told me to keep trying them, but to also go and see if I could get another reading of my PD (pupillary distance). The PD reading is quite important with glasses, but it isn’t something which the optician is obliged to provide on the prescription. So it was to my amazement that when I went to Boots the woman measured it for me for free – thank you very much Boots!
Well, I found that my PD I had given Glasses Direct for making my glasses was slightly out, but John told me to give the glasses a whirl for a few days and see if I get used to them (my prescription had changed slightly so it might have been that I was finding it hard to adjust).
I can only say, thanks Glasses Direct & Boots for amazing customer service!
Well, we at Senokian, did it! Operation Canine was launched and we managed to create a web app in 3 days!
Spend Meter was launched at 17:29 today, which was 1 minute before the deadline! It really does show that you can design and implement a solution to a pretty basic problem in a pretty short time frame. My favourite part is that we used Asterisk and PHP together, along with bespoke scripts to get the data to synchronise between the two systems to enable the software to work!
GO TEAM CANINE!
At work, we’ve been working on Operation Canine for the past 2 days with today being the final day. We’re trying to set up a company and build a product within the 3 day time span, using just a handful of people. I am working on the phone system for it, which has been coming along nicely and I am very confident that we will reach the goal and have something released today.
The idea of this task is to show that you can get the ground work done for a new company is a very short time frame and that you don’t need to have an absolutely 100% completed project at first – you can start small and work from there. The aim of Operation Canine is that the product will be developed over time if it starts to become popular (i.e. make money!).
Today is launch day, so check out the website and look back at 17:30 GMT for (hopefully) a release!
Tonight (yes, just tonight) I have coded and released my 2nd iPhone app. I decided to do an experiment and see if I could do it all in one night, and I did!
Check out my iPhone app blog for more information.
