So I made this permanent switch this week from Mozilla Thunderbird to web-based Gmail.
In the past, I’ve used web-based Gmail when I’ve been away from home, or on campus, or on a different computer, say in a library, but I’ve always maintained my e-mail accounts using an e-mail application. In the days of old it was Eudora (see above). In more recent years it’s been Thunderbird. Since as long as I’ve had the Internet I’ve always used an e-mail application.
So if you haven’t gathered just yet, I’m a big fan of the World Cup.
Even if you aren’t a huge fan though, Twitter’s World Cup coverage is nonetheless very interesting to follow. They’ve set up a very ingenious website which displays soccer-related tweets from both countries while their teams play. Presently, I can watch live tweets from Greece and Korea, displayed head-to-head, as these teams play their first World Cup match. It’s neat seeing the tweets roll by from the two countries. Less interesting because neither of these teams, and therefore countries, speak much English so most of the tweets are in languages that I don’t understand.
Still, it’ll be interesting to see how things look for the USA v. England match up this afternoon. Should be very cool to see opposing tweets from either side of the Atlantic.
Another incredible use of this kind of technology.
I can’t wait!
Someday I’d like to write an article about the high pace of technological advancement in the 21st century. For now, I’d just like to share this little gem with you:
I don’t cover technology news with an incredible fervor here on the site, but it is something I like to write about from time to time. So, when I read this, I found it way too interesting not to mention. This story is so hot off the presses that I’m burning my hands just handling it, but here it is.
Apple’s new iPhone has been found, in a bar. Yes, you read that right. While it’s been known that Apple have been working away on a new model of their popular iPhone, no details, and certainly not any pictures or prototypes have been released to the public. At least, not on purpose.
Gizmodo, a popular technology website, has just released a complete run down of the new iPhone, an iPhone which, they allege, was found in a bar in Redwood City, California. Yes, you read that right, and it gets even more interesting. Not only was this new model iPhone found in a bar, it was found disguised to look like an older model iPhone. That is, this technology was so new, and presumably so secret, that whoever was using it didn’t want anyone else to know what it was. Interesting, eh?
Gizmodo has had it, they say, for a week and spent enough time with it to know for sure that it’s indeed a new Apple product. The fact that it was found in a bar, left there, I assume, by some Apple insider, is certainly going to rub the super-secretive company the wrong way. Whether they come out and admit that what Gizmodo has found is real, we’ll have to wait and see.
In his article this morning on BoingBoing, Cory Doctorow, sci-fi writer, tech guru and University of Waterloo prof. suggests a series of very compelling reasons why he won’t—and we shouldn’t—buy a new Apple iPad. Clearly, he’s thought a lot about it and his article is such a wonderful breath of fresh air in a tech market that’s gone nearly out of control.
The cliff notes:
If you can’t open it and take it apart, you don’t own it. You’re locked into only the content that Apple says you can have. It won’t save the journalism industry. It’s over-simplified. It takes away from what makes computers and gadgets great: being able to mess around and share them. It’s a fad.
A highly recommended read.
I haven’t seen one of the new 3D movies. We didn’t go watch Avatar when it was in theatres, and personally I think the technology seems pretty hokey. But what about choose your own adventure?
The clip below, from a company called 13th Street is advertising a new kind of cinema, one in which the viewer can interact with the film and change the outcome. In this case, it’s done by phoning different viewers in the audience and changing the outcome of the film based on recognized voice commands. Is this the new step in immersive horror films or just another hokey Hollywood breakthrough?
What do you think? Leave a comment.
Google’s battle with the Chinese government has been brewing for some time now but it appears as if it’s finally come to a head.
Since they first came onto the scene in China, Google’s position in the communist country has been tenuous at best. For a company who’s mantra has been “do no evil,” censoring search results in order to hide and cover up dissension within the country seems to be pretty, well, against code. If you aren’t aware, China’s Internet policy is among the most strict in the world. The government actively filters out content which it doesn’t want its citizens to see online. That includes dissenting comments, protest movements, blogs, and, as far as I know, anything that’s overly critical of the Chinese government. (I’m probably blocked now, too!)
Even worse, Google has recently uncovered an enormous string of hacking attempts and successes on a number of its services—namely, Gmail—which it traced back to the Chinese government. According to Google, it was the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists which were the target and these accounts, it says, were routinely accessed by government officials in a kind of cyber-espionage.
Up until now though, Google has been pretty complicit. There have been ups and downs between China and Google and much, much, global criticism leveled against the search engine giant, but for the most part Google has gone along with the government’s Internet policies. The government hacking was the crack that broke the dam though, and today came the flood.
Beginning this afternoon, all traffic to the China search engine page, says Google, is now being redirected to their unfiltered servers in Hong Kong. Here’s a snippet of the press release,
Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard. We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement. We believe this new approach of providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese from [Hong Kong] is a sensible solution to the challenges we’ve faced—it’s entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China.
What’s more, Google has set up this page to monitor exactly what the Chinese government is blocking access to. That means if China decides to block Google’s new unfiltered searches, the world will find out.
It seems like Google is finally taking serious steps towards a sensible Internet policy in China.
