Archive for the ‘Computers and technology’ Category
May 24th, 2009 | Comments Off
My gmail account was hacked yesterday at 12:22 PM (Atlantic time), and a spam e-mail was sent from my address to every e-mail address ever entered at the account. The e-mail advertised the services of a Chinese company that I’ve never heard of. I apologise to everyone who received that e-mail. According to gmail’s activity [...]
Posted in Computers and technology, Personal | Comments Off
April 19th, 2009 | 1 Comment
The British Home Office calls it “search engine optimisation”, but that’s just a euphemism for “manipulation”. Whatever you call it, it’s idiotic and futile. Whitehall officials will train pro-West Islamic groups to manipulate their Google search ranking in an attempt to drown out extremist voices online, The Register has learned. The policy is being developed [...]
Tags: Folly, Internet, Islamic teaching, UK politics
Posted in Computers and technology, Islam, United Kingdom | 1 Comment »
March 29th, 2009 | Comments Off
Erstwhile rock singer Courtney Love is being sued for messages she sent via that nasty new “social networking” tool Twitter. Fans of Twitter say its beauty is that it allows users to upload their thoughts as and when they think of them. This can be a serious disadvantage for those of a belligerent disposition. Ms [...]
Tags: Courtney Love, Folly, Internet, Monty Python, Pop music, Twitter
Posted in Computers and technology, Law Crime and Legal Issues | Comments Off
March 19th, 2009 | 1 Comment
The list of websites banned by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) was supposed to be a big secret. No more: The list was leaked to and posted at Wikileaks. ACMA responded by blacklisting the whistle-blower website. Any Australian internet site that links to Wikileaks risks a fine of A$11,000 per day. Earlier this [...]
Tags: Australia, Censorship, Civil liberties
Posted in Asia-Pacific, Computers and technology | 1 Comment »
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) threatened to fine a company up to $11,000 per day over a link to an anti-abortion site on ACMA’s list of verboten websites. Nowhere does the lengthy news story in The Australian address the issue of why an anti-abortion site is on the “top-secret list of banned internet [...]
Tags: Abortion, Australia, Civil liberties
Posted in Asia-Pacific, Computers and technology, Media and Journalism | 4 Comments »
February 1st, 2009 | 3 Comments
Saudi Arabian authorities last month arrested Hamoud Bin Saleh and blocked his blog, Saudi Masihi, after he announced his conversion from Islam to Christianity. So, no one using the internet inside Saudi Arabia could view the blog. Now, however, Blogger.com has blocked his blog, so no one in the world can view it. Anyone trying [...]
Tags: Blogging, Civil liberties, Hamoud Bin Saleh, Persecution, Saudi Arabia
Posted in Asia-Pacific, Christianity, Computers and technology, Religious Liberty/Persecution | 3 Comments »
January 29th, 2009 | 1 Comment
A UCLA psychology professor has linked deteriorating critical thinking skills with advancing technology. She tries to put a positive spin on her findings by arguing that technology has boosted visual skills, but I think wise people would generally view that as small compensation for an important loss. As technology has played a bigger role in [...]
Tags: Education, Internet, Modernity, Patricia Greenfield
Posted in Computers and technology, Social sciences, Worldview Issues | 1 Comment »
January 20th, 2009 | Comments Off
The little island with the funny three-legged flag has hitherto been popular as a tax haven, but it could soon attract visitors looking to download music from the internet. Speaking at the MidemNet conference in Cannes, the Manx inward investment minister explained that the island has achieved 100% broadband penetration and now seeks that its [...]
Tags: Internet, Isle of Man, Pop music
Posted in Computers and technology, Europe, Popular Culture | Comments Off
November 19th, 2008 | Comments Off
A fascinating conversation appeared earlier this week at Apple’s online discussion board. A poster claimed to be a woman who had discovered troubling and suspicious items on her husband’s iPhone. When she asked about them, he claimed to be the victim of an iPhone “glitch”. I took my husband’s i-phone and found a raunchy picture [...]
Tags: Apple, Chutzpah, Folly, iPhone
Posted in Computers and technology, In a Jocular Vein | Comments Off
November 19th, 2008 | 4 Comments
Australia’s proposed nation-wide compulsory internet filter will cause a major reduction in web access speeds. Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is the point man for mandatory internet censorship down under. The key shortcoming is ISP filtering will slow down the web to all Australians by as much as 60 [...]
Tags: Australia, Civil liberties, Internet, Stephen Conroy
Posted in Asia-Pacific, Computers and technology, Media and Journalism | 4 Comments »
October 29th, 2008 | 3 Comments
Is another Western democracy about to sacrifice freedoms of speech and the press to government nannies? THE Federal Government is planning to make internet censorship compulsory for all Australians and could ban controversial websites on euthanasia or anorexia. Australia’s level of net censorship will put it in the same league as countries including China, Cuba, [...]
Tags: Australia, Censorship, Civil liberties
Posted in Asia-Pacific, Computers and technology, Media and Journalism | 3 Comments »
October 11th, 2008 | 1 Comment
Very rarely does a commercial make me laugh out loud. This one did. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2q9Znp8U0U[/youtube]
Tags: Advertising, Sports
Posted in Computers and technology, In a Jocular Vein | 1 Comment »
October 10th, 2008 | 1 Comment
I’ve moved up to high definition television and bought a Samsung Blu-Ray DVD player. It’s a very nice piece of equipment, but I got a laugh out of the documentation included with the unit. The four-pages of “quick start” instructions look great—printed on heavy glossy paper, English on one side, French on the other. I [...]
Tags: Folly
Posted in Computers and technology, In a Jocular Vein | 1 Comment »