BBC picture Wikipedia is doing a good job of chronicling the war in South Ossetia; its mention of several apparent cyberattacks on both sides makes me wonder whether this is the first instance of a physical war being accompanied by a cyberwar? All those listed on Wikipedia are not parallel attacks, i.e. they are not … Read more
A recent report by Microsoft researchers had breathed life back into something that looked like a myth: the idea that we’re only six people away from everyone on the planet. Six Degrees of separation, as it’s called, suggested that someone we knew would know someone else who would know someone else who would know someone … Read more
Here’s evidence that online publications should try to re-use—and make accessible—old content. The most emailed story on the BBC website at the moment—Aug 5 2008—is actually a story from January 2004: which is this one: I have no idea why it is—although the subject matter is pretty compelling, I must admit. (The gadget, it turns … Read more
Interesting post by Mathew Ingram over at the Globe and Mail on the new-look del.icio.us. His conclusion: great, but who bookmarks anymore? I got all shirty at first, but actually he’s right. It’s not that people don’t bookmark, it’s that the purpose of bookmarking is less obvious now than it used to be. The point … Read more
I was amused, and somewhat perplexed, to read on BuzzMachine yesterday about a bizarre splog—spam blog to the rest of us—which copies text and then converts it to synonyms. Jeff explains: New splog tricks In my ego searches, I just saw a splog that copied text of mine but ran it through ridiculous almost-synonym replacements. … Read more