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Next Entries »The Future of Internet
Pew Internet Project gave out the results of another interesting study. In September 2004 they conducted online interviews with non-random sample of 1, 286 technology experts, scholars and social analysts (from affiliations like Harvard, MIT, Yale, IBM, AOL, Intel, Oracle, Google and some more) about the future of Internet. Mostly, they agreed that by 2014 internet will increase the size of people’s social networks far beyond what has traditionally been the case. Two thirds of them agreed that at least one devastating attack will occur within next ten years on the network information infrastructure. Half of them believed in future of copying and distributing digital product freely thru anonymous peer-to-peer networks. The also pointed out the growing surveillance by democratic governments and by authoritarian regimes due to increasing number of computing devices embedded in nearly every aspect of our lives.
And according to those experts, blogs will bring a dramatic change to the news and publishing worlds as blogs supplant the public’s attention to traditional media.
I try to imagine what would happen if tomorrow I woke up and there was no internet. Hmmmm, I would rather not have this situation to deal with. That would be just awful:))). Am I net-addict? Or net-holic? Do I feel insecure while offline? Intriguing questions, which I find hard to answer honestly, even only to myself. I know am a net-addict. Whatever that includes. At home, my laptop is constantly connected to cable, whether I actually am behind it or not. But I like the possibility of … I like to have all options open. With being signed on to Skype, Gaim (IM application) and x-chat I feel like my room is not bounded only to four walls but rather has all windows open to outside world, way beyond Ljubljana and Slovenia. It is something special about maintaining relationships with friends and colleagues online by overcoming time and physical distances. Information technology is turning into relationship technology:))). The form of online communication that I prefer least is certainly email. I find it so hard to sit down and write an email. I think email, even tho it deserves all credits for what it does make possible for me, is kind of retro. It’s the old way of communication, writing letters has been always at our disposal. Well, it did take a bit more time and effort to actually get it sent and received, but I don’t see anything so new in it. I think what puts me off a bit is its non-real time nature. I prefer synchronous communication to asynchronous. I prefer to be in real time interaction with people. Of course, there are situations where email is the only suitable form of communication. But …. there is one thing I don’t fancy so much. Webcams. I hear people praising them for all their benefits and I honestly believe they are very useful but I couldn’t use one myself. I see it as some kind of distortion of reality. Ops, which reality? Online or offline? I don’t divide these two. Now I got completely carried away with all this communication blah blah. Anyway, I would have troubles to get used to live without internet. And big ones, I guess. I don’t have any problem going away for a few weeks and not get online, but for good - that would be one sad thing to get used to.
By Nana | January 12, 2005 | Topics: Research, Tech | No Comments »
Creative Communists? No, but …
… Creative Commonists! Who are they? A group of developers and academics who are known for working on copyright reform under the project Creative Commons. Nowadays, when appetites for putting a license on just anything that exists is growing day by day, it is quite useful to come across some actors who try to slow and calm down the intellectual property advocates a bit.
On the continuum of creative control we are very much used to copyright and a bit less so to copyleft. Whereas a copyright grants its holder the sole legal right to their original works, a copyleft tries to ensure that every person who receives a copy of an original work, can use, modify and re-distribute the work. So, basically the Creative Commons can be put in the middle of this continuum. They try to ensure creators to enjoy their freedom and at the same time prevent them from various exploitations. To quote them:
“We use private rights to create public goods: creative works set free for certain uses. Like the free software and open-source movements, our ends are cooperative and community-minded, but our means are voluntary and libertarian. We work to offer creators a best-of-both-worlds way to protect their works while encouraging certain uses of them — to declare “some rights reserved.”
I checked thru their web page and database and I must admit I was surprised. One can search for music, sounds, movies, photos, books and essays and also lesson plans, course packets and similar stuff. Of course one can also upload any of these for others to use. I found especially useful MIT OpenCourseWare, which is a free open educational resource for faculty, students and whoever might be interested. And good news: no registration required. I could go on and on …. but instead I ll encourage you to take a look and who knows, you might just find something interesting for yourself. Then digging a bit further, on Images section of Creatie Commons, I found the OpenPhoto project (a free stock photo community), I created an account and am gonna share my photos. For no specific reason really, just to see how it works:)
By Nana | January 10, 2005 | Topics: Tech | No Comments »
Skype Me, Skype You!
Skype has recently released a new edition of its magnificant talk-to-all-your-friends-for-free service. I must admit I very much appreciate the work of its developers since it allows me to stay in contact with my friends from all over. The latest 1.1 issue is introducing a new, improved chat feature, allowing us to hold multi-person conversations as much as up to 50. Wahay, we can have a virtual party on skype:). By apparence it has started to look very much like any other chat application (e.g Gaim) plus all the messeges and calls are encrypted ‘end-to-end’ by using AES. This encryption ensures you that no other party can eavesdrop on your call or read your instant messages. Which is just great, in a public space, called Internet:).
Within my 1,5 years experience with sykpe, I can only say:
- it always works just fine;
- no echo included (it could depend whether the person you talk to uses headset or a mic I think);
- sound is great;
- works all over the world;
- easy to use;
- I haven’t tried skypeout yet tho.
See also Skype Goes Hand In Hand With Logitech!
By Nana | January 8, 2005 | Topics: Tech | 1 Comment »
“Mirror Mirror On the Wall …
… what is the world’s, largest, most varied, most participatory, most controversial encyclopedia of them all?”, Britannica asking its mirror, grinning while waiting for an answer. The mirror: Erm …… hmmmm ….hmh … WIKIPEDIA. Little piece of statistics: as of November 2004 there were about 28.000 Wikipedians, 109 languages and 380.000 articles in it’s archives.
And a piece of gossip: its co-creator, Larry Sanger, is a professional epistemologist, a devout doubter, believing only the things that he could directly perceived or that could be logically derived from what he perceived. But eventually he began to realize that some truths can not be observed, and this pragmatic view even became the focus of his dissertation. Anyway, he left Wikipedia in 2002, party because the funding for his position ran out and partly because the fractiousness and nasty revert wars among Wikipedians themselves. Now he’s a lecturer at Ohio State University.
By Nana | December 25, 2004 | Topics: General, Tech | No Comments »
What a Fancy Cake!
Looks delicious, huh! 
By Nana | December 24, 2004 | Topics: Tech | No Comments »
Wiki With Social Computing Resources
was recently created by Lab for Social Computing at Rochester Institute of Technology. This wiki’s intention is to be kind of starting point to learn about social computing and social software as well as gathering point for researchers interested in topics like weblogs, internet relay chats, social networking and content sharing sites. They also created a database of researchers, interested in these topics and you can add yourself in. Everything is still pretty much under construction so …. you might have to look in.
Otherwise my day was quite monotonous … sitting at the desk, finishing the first RIS report and again - crying from laughing so hard. Ian sent me a link to a song, the so called Hokey Cokey song. Well, Ian just wanted to say OK and he used Hokey Cokey instead and I immediately began to interrogate him. I was told it was a silly children’s song/dance. Then I got that link into my mailbox, I listened to it and …. tears were running down my cheek … from laughing sooo haaard.
By Nana | December 21, 2004 | Topics: General, Tech | No Comments »
Leading Libraries Books At Our Disposal Delivered by …
… Google. Apparently, Google is going to get really academic friendly since his intention is to scan books from some of the most important academic libraries and make them instantly searchable. So we can look forward to searching thru books from Michigan, Harward and Standford University Libraries, alongside with some archives at Oxford University Library. Wahay …. what a nice gesture.
By Nana | December 15, 2004 | Topics: Research, Tech | No Comments »
A Computer Without Windows is Like a Fish …
… wihtout bicycle:))). But let’s take a look how many respondents to last RIS survey think so. Right now I am dealing with the database so I can give you a sneak preview: approximately one tithe of those respondents, who use internet at least on a monthly basis, actually use someof FOSS software. Is that a lot or a little? I think that’s not too bad:). Most of them use OSS web browsers and audio/video players. Oh, speaking of web browsers, Firefox 1.0 is really great. It’s at least 10000 times better than IE:))))). No joke!!
By Nana | December 12, 2004 | Topics: Tech | No Comments »
Laptops Dangerous For Reproduction!!
How is that? Every morning when I wake up, even before my morning run, I take my laptop in bed and check sites on my list. But, luckily, l am not a man and I don’t produce any semen.
First, it was tight pants, then it was saunas. Now, when it comes to fertility, men have something else to worry about: laptop computers. According to associate professor of urology dr.Yefim Sheynkin at the State University of New York, the effect of heat of laptops on man’s lap can threat the fertility of young men who use them. Why, you might be wondering. Well, supposedly laptop’s heat raises the temperatures in the genital area and therefore reduces the formation and the quality of semen.
So guys, keep your laptops on the desk, not on your lap. You see, laps are only suitable for girls to be kept on;)))))))
By Nana | December 11, 2004 | Topics: Tech | No Comments »
Skype Goes Hand in Hand with Logitech! Or Vice Versa?
Free Internet telephony provider Skype and Logitech announced marketing agreement which includes free trial offer of SkypeOut with Logitech USB headsets. Those who will buy the headset in Europe will be lucky enough:)) to receive free vouchers for SkypeOut.
Well, I have a pair of that special headset and I am using it with great benefit:)) but when I bought it more than a year ago, there was no such tempting offer at my disposal. Sniff, sniff.
So, everyone out there who is bothering with speakers and a mike, go buy this headset. You won’t regret it!!!!!
(ups, did Skype and Logitech hire me to do a bit of promotion? I am happy to, cos it really works!)
By Nana | December 9, 2004 | Topics: Tech | No Comments »
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