T h e :: I N T E R N E T :: R e p u b l i c

Tackling Internet Addiction: A Review of SelfControl Software

noreply@blogger.com (Jo Hedesan) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:59:00 +0000

Do you have self-control issues when you navigate the Internet? God knows, I do. These days navigating the Internet has become similar to buying sweets: you can't stop yourself, even though it's bad for you. You'll say, that's a weird comparison: sweets make you fat, while Internet does not have such risks. Well, yes and no. Internet browsing can be just as addictive as sweets and chocolate. Or perhaps these days, even more so! And, like all addictions, it is bad for you. Think at all the side-effects of Internet addiction: waste of time, not enough exercise (so you DO get fat), information overload, headaches, eye problems etc.

Thankfully, there is some help, but only if you acknowledge the problem. The SelfControl software (right now available for Mac OS X only) blocks your access to some 'addictive' sites. So, if Facebook or Twitter are your problem, you can block them so you only get a blank page when your addiction forces you to open the application. It's like a rational fix for future irrational moments. Of course, this software is based on the assumption that you DO have occasional rational awakenings that prompt you to download and actually run the soft.

Still, when shrinks and doctors will start to address Internet addiction like other addictions, this software might become priceless.

Bournemouth Students Want a Ban on Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Jo Hedesan) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:27:00 +0000

Well I've lived to see this one: students at a college in Bournemouth, UK, are forming a protest group to ban social media on college computers. Apparently, social media fans latch onto the public computers for hours on end, impeding those trying to do some serious college work on them. As you can see there are some earnest folk out there still preferring Shakespeare to Facebook. No worries, the internet revolution shall weed them out eventually, leaving room for us shallow ones.

Cell Phones to Be Recharged through Bodily Movement

noreply@blogger.com (Jo Hedesan) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 13:57:00 +0000

Since the internet is quickly taking over the mobile phone industry, I will be reporting from time to time on mobile technology news as well.

Apparently, the next generation of cell phone charging may be here. Scientists from Georgia Institute of Technology have reported at the American Chemical Society that they are developing a technology that would translate body movement to electrical power necessary to recharge cell phone or iPod batteries. In other words, it would be sufficient to take a walk with your cell phone on you to recharge it! For more technical etc information you can visit the ScienceDaily's webpage report.

For someone like me who always forgets to recharge her phone or never manages to find the stupid phone charger, this technology would be a real blessing. That, of course, assuming there are no health / environment side effects.

April Fools' Conficker Worm May Be Overhyped, Say Experts

noreply@blogger.com (Jo Hedesan) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:46:00 +0000

Are you afraid of the hyped Conficker worm?

It looks like you may be in for a real April Fools' Day. The worm may be somewhat of an overhyped matter, says Symantec Security Response in a CNET article. Contrary to what people tend to think, the hackers behind Conficker are not seeking some worldwide destruction; instead, they look to 'take over' the infected computers to transfer spam and malware. They are profit-driven, so that makes them less dangerous. So to speak. They are still annoying enough to make Microsoft set up a fancy Conficker Coalition Working Group and, directly from Wild West Silicon Valley, offered a $250,000 reward to anyone who might give information on the Conficker hackers.

Truth is, malware is annoying, very annoying, but it is not the boogie man. People enjoy doomsday warnings (look at Y2K) but Conficker will not be the one to bring the apocalypse just yet. I had my computer (actually my desktop) hacked about five months ago by some annoying malware program. It was a whole-day nuisance for me; I remember looking through tens of anti-malware programs to identify the cure. Eventually I cleaned it up, but it was a wasted day of my life. Or perhaps it wasn't - because I learned a lot more than before about protecting my computer from hackers.

Take a look at the CNET article for some tips on what to do to protect your computer. I will later post my own (hard-earned) thoughts on how to protect yourself from malware and trojans.

The Internet Archive Stores the 'History of the Internet' For All to See

noreply@blogger.com (Jo Hedesan) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:17:00 +0000

Rest assured - all the crap that is floating around the internet these days is not going to go away. The Internet Archive project is working hard at conserving the history of everything that went on the internet in the past few years - exposing all the pointless heap of data people post every day to all the ridicule of the future generations. That, in case they will pay any sort of fleeting interest in what their parents and grandparents wasted their time on.

I have a mixed feeling about this, just as I have a mixed feeling about the internet as a whole. I mean, there's very useful and wonderful stuff out there on the web - but, by the gods, there's far more absolute nonsense, beginning with the ads promising you a millions of dollars at the click of a button and ending with a brilliant new Search Engine Optimization technique that you can obtain if you can only part from a small amount of your cash. What can I say? Martian sociology may find even that kind of crap useful to explain the evolution (or perhaps involution) of the alien human species. Someone's crap is someone's gold, like they say.

With that, I'm hereby adding to the compost heap the Internet Archive will eventually store for the enlightenment of future mankind or other alien species.

Facebook Is Not Twitter, Nor Can It Be

noreply@blogger.com (Jo Hedesan) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 21:55:00 +0000

I've noticed, and I'm afraid I'm not original at all in this, that Facebook is doing its best to copy Twitter. My question is why? Sure, it's clear that the "Twitter" live-streaming model is enjoying enormous success. But, Facebook is not Twitter. In fact, it is obvious to me that they are quite different, and surely the marketers at Facebook must know it too. For all its 'coolness', Facebook is more conservative than Twitter. It creates rather closed-up communities of friends, people you know, which are not penetrable from the exterior without the accept of the Facebook user. Twitter, on the other hand, is rather open; you can follow pretty much anyone you'd like. Thus, Twitter trades dynamism for privacy - but in the Twitter world, that is not a real problem, because the message (the 'tweet') is more important than the user's profile (or so it is in principle at least).

I mean, I totally understand Facebook's desire to copy Twitter (and any other dynamic and funky social media for that matter). Even though the fastest rising group on Twitter is the 40+'s, (as I read somewhere), Facebook wants to preserve its young, cool feel. But eventually, it will have to face to the fact that the Facebook formula is more conservative; apart from developing more applications, it cannot re-invent itself into a completely new application. Facebook's imitation of Twitter and others are already irking the users, who, guess what, are there for the Facebook formula, not for Twitter or some other. I have a feeling that the users are more in touch with the Facebook substance than Facebook developers themselves.

Overwhelming Twitter Response to Natasha Richardson's Death

noreply@blogger.com (Jo Hedesan) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:42:00 +0000

I was on Twitter yesterday and today and I was amazed and touched by the outpouring of emotion related to Natasha Richardson's untimely death. As I was reading last night there were at least 1000+ posts expressing their sorrow in the space of a half an hour or so. I wish Richardson's mother, Vanessa Redgrave and her husband Liam Neeson would be aware of the level of sympathy people feel for Richardson's death. I know nothing can heal such a sorrow, but at least they would possibly feel less alone in their suffering.
RIP Natasha.

My Review for Kosmix "Search Engine": Rivalling Google?

noreply@blogger.com (Jo Hedesan) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:37:00 +0000

This could be a cool new site: Kosmix. I heard of it from here, my favorite online newspaper, the International Herald Tribune (no, unfortunately they did not pay me...:() I thought I'd give it a try. After all, any buzzy new website that claims to go against Google Search is worth a try, don't you think?

My opinions are mixed. Kosmix looks cool, but for now it's kind of a 'work in progress'. Beta-ish is an overstatement. For goodness sake, when I tried to add my blog to their search engine it popped up a Microsoft Outlook window. Oh boy.

There are two parts to Kosmix, as I could gather: 1. on the home page, it basically tries to add up all the major 'news' sites: I mean, in the internet definition of the news ("whatever buzzes"). In other words, Twitter is high up there, so is Digg, YouTube, Flickr and Google Search (can't forget them!). You can move boxes of content around, but apparently you can't add any other than what they give you (I will keep looking for that). Thus, they pretty much 'assume' what you might be interested in. But if I like to read ZDNET news rather than Yahoo News, tough. And if you like Delicious not Digg, well, that's tough too. There's also no 'sign up', so you can't get personalized recommendations. In today's internet environment, that's a big oops. I'm sure they're working on it.

Now for the Search: I decided to do two rather different searches. One: Dell Adamo (since I just wrote about it). I get a rather unbalanced page with stuff on one side and almost nothing on the other. A big plus: Blogs show up (nothing like that on the front page). Bad news: there's no News section. The main box comes from Meehive News (what the hell is that?). Google search is second, but I don't care too much about that. Second search, something more complex: "Facilities Management". Things are better: I get first a Wikipedia entry; then a YouTube, Yahoo Answers, News & Blogs. Bad news: Google is minimalized on the right hand side, which is disproportionately longer than the central side.

Conclusions: I'm sure Kosmix will improve from its mega-beta state. The whole idea of grouping all sort of social media applications together is by itself a very nice thing to do. However, there's much to be done. It seems obvious to me that they have to balance the box contents and allow customization. I will keep checking it out. Perhaps it will get better. For now, Google is still my first search choice.

Dell Wants to Be the Prada of Laptops: The New Adamo

noreply@blogger.com (Jo Hedesan) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:50:00 +0000

Dell has just unveiled its new laptop progeniture, the Adamo, which will sell for a whopping $2000 a piece. The Adamo boasts an ultra-thin design and aluminum cover. It looks attractive, but at that price you kind of expect some Swarowski crystals embedded in the keyboard.

Yet the design itself is not as remarkable as the marketing, which has not addressed so much the New York Times as Cosmopolitan, InStyle and Vogue. You get the feeling that Dell is trying to rebrand itself as less of a maker of practical laptops than a top of the line, design-intensive, high fashion brand of technology. Take a look at their website here and you'll get the feeling that Dell wants to be the Prada of laptops.

This of course leads me to wonder: can a laptop ever become a high fashion accessory? Sure, Prada bags serve a utility, but their role as artistic accesssories is very pronounced. Those that buy Prada do not buy a bag - but an image and a prestige. Can a laptop maker offer that kind of value added?

At a first glance, no. The utility of a laptop will always be stronger than its 'accesory' image. Nevertheless, there may be some room to play with the concept of high-end laptops. I'm not sure if Dell, which has been a utility laptop maker for years, can actually make that leap. It seems like a major new brand and an outstanding design (yes, and Swarowski's) are needed to achieve that position.

Why Google Latitude Might Become A Privacy Threat

noreply@blogger.com (Jo Hedesan) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:48:00 +0000

Does Google Latitude scare you yet? You will probably shrug and say: why? Sure, it's fun, knowing where your friends are and everything. It seems pretty harmless, all in all.

If this may seem just another application that has more or less point to it (God knows the internet is awfully full of useless stuff), let's look at its next level of application: the Google Android software. This is the software that is used to power up the Google smartphone. Well, Latitude fits seamlessly into Android. In this case, things get complicated: Latitude can track your cell phone, and hence your position almost at all times.

Now, if this doesn't scare you yet, think about this: counterintelligence services have used cell phone tracking for years to target terrorists. According to several sources, like this one, Chechen leader Ruslan Maskhadov was killed when his whereabouts were tracked by Russian intelligence. Now, mandating secret services with cell phone tracking might sound ok, but think about the consequences of passing this privilege to anyone: employers, stalkers, paparazzi, obsessed boyfriend, you name it. Privacy International London has already raised the alarm in this respect.

Sure, Google will deny it forcefully. It maintains here that Latitude is entirely opt-in and that you can select untracking easily; moreover you can select a location yourself. That's all fine. But think about these possibilities: one, that the employer who gives you a beautiful smartphone already inserts opt-in without your knowledge and you are simply not informed of it; two, that your employer tracks any switches you make to your location; three, that some bully employer threatens to fire you if you switch the opt-in off? I can think many other instances of forceful coercion into Latitude. Not to say that the opportunity for hacking, especially when important people can be tracked, is also very worrying.

Sure, these things are not so big now, when the Google smartphone is only entering the market. Yet, knowing how hooked people are to Google and the internet, I can predict that Android may become the next Windows for phones. Then, the threat might become real.

Despite Privacy Concerns, the Internet Must Remain Free

noreply@blogger.com (Jo Hedesan) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:28:00 +0000

In the advent of the social media revolution, privacy violations have increased to a worrying level. We usually don't realize that there is a ambiguous side to the internet, that just as we get information from it we share the information about ourselves.

The problem of privacy are making some people argue for organizing the internet under a "czar" or overseer. I don't know about you but the idea gave me shudders just as I looked over the article. I had visions of an "internet empire" with an all-powerful dictator that could control every movement on the internet - and implicitly, our internet lives. Perhaps we would not be subjects in real life, but right there in internet-land, we would have to submit to the whim of a person that would have much more power than Stalin or Hitler ever had.

Brrrr.... I hope this will remain internet-fiction (i-fi!!), and the internet will remain a Republic. I'll drink to that.

Google White Search Page Whitewashes My Brain :)

noreply@blogger.com (Jo Hedesan) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:03:00 +0000

Don't get me wrong, I am using Google search all the time. Yet it happens to me almost every time: when I open the search page, at least for a second or so my mind draws as blank as the white background. I usually recoup from this, but sometimes I just can't remember what on earth I was going to look for, so I have to do a back-search on myself to remember! I'm not sure what it is, but I suspect it has to do with the emptiness of the page.

Of course, it was that blankness (lack of ads, forced content etc) that made Google the giant it is. It has that Zen feel combined with a certain playfulness of the letter colors (designed to liven up the page). It was like a breath of fresh air in a world saturated by ads, crowdiness, moving objects etc. A stroke of genius at the time. I used to hate the crowdy Yahoo search page, and at the time I was one of the first people to join the Google search revolution (that was sometime in 1998 or 1999, I can't recall!). In the meantime, Google conquered the world and I found no better search engine to migrate to.

Yet, somehow, in 2009 I am not that great of a fan anymore. Perhaps I'm getting bored of it (despite the 'cute' variations, the page still remains consistently boring). Sometimes I wish they would allow us to choose the background, i.e. put a picture I want. Or something. Creativity, anyone?

Social Media Triumphing Over Email

noreply@blogger.com (Jo Hedesan) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:01:00 +0000

Is email turning into an internet dinosaur?

A Nielsen study published yesterday suggests this might be the case. For the first time, social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have surpassed email in popularity amongst internet users. Find the whole report here.

Frankly, the news is far from surprising me. I often keep in touch faster with facebook than with email. Email is just too official sometimes and requires too much 'conception', while dropping a few lines to a friend's account is fast, easy and informal. The other problem is with email itself: it just hasn't progressed at all since a few years back when Yahoo and Google were still fighting for email supremacy. Nobody seems to have taken any interest in improving email, apart from giving you more and more space to accumulate more and more junk in a seemingly boundless internet space. I might be the only one now to advocate for Internet Ecology. I mean, is it really a good thing to fill the internet with junk you don't look for in years and years? Never mind that, it's a whole other topic.

Still, I think email should survive as a means of formal communication. It is well suited for job applications and formal discussions. Except that, if the giants Yahoo, Google and the like lose interest in developing it (like it seems they already have), email may end up dying an early death.

Mac OS Still Making Apple Vulnerable, Even in Smartphone World

noreply@blogger.com (Jo Hedesan) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:34:00 +0000

Let the smartphone battle begin!

Google smartphones are set to dethrone the Apple iPhone from its dominant position in the mobile smartphone market, says ZDNET. Why? Mainly because the Google phones are based on the Google Android operating system, while the iPhone has the OS X.

What can I say? Steve Jobs and co seem to always get beaten up when it comes to their Mac-based operating system. All was well while iPhone had the cooler gadget, but the substance behind it is still the Macintosh interface that many people continue to find unfriendly. The Jobs Achilles heel is still aching.

My only question is: where is Microsoft in all this? I have a feeling they are up cooking something, but unless they move faster into this they might end up left out of the mobile phone market.

Lonely with the Laptop

noreply@blogger.com (Jo Hedesan) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:16:00 +0000

Yesterday I passed by a pub and I saw all these people sitting at tables, alone, scribbling on their laptops. Sure, I am one of them at times. Yet this time it stroke me, aren't we perchance starting to build a deeper relationship with the computer than with other human beings? Of course, we don't realize it. We think that through Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and the like, we actually communicate with other human beings. Reality is, that we don't. We're simply communicating with the computer, which in turn will probably communicate with the other person. All is well as long as we realize the difference between having a coffee with someone and having a coffee with the laptop.

Internet TV Is Not Classical TV

noreply@blogger.com (Jo Hedesan) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 00:24:00 +0000

Obviously, and quite predictably, the classical media system tries to take over the internet as well. InformationWeek reports that a new website allowing streaming TV and movies will be launched. To watch the shows on ZillionTV, you only need to buy a set-up box and swallow the same ads that you see on TV.

Are you going to watch?

There's one thing that fascinates me every time: that no matter what, the tycoons of the media keep believing that the same business model that works in classical media will apply to the internet as well. They never learn. Or perhaps, they just don't want to spend any time understanding the internet. Oh well. I'm not gonna miss them.

Tiny Netbooks May Be Too Tiny, Asus Discovers

noreply@blogger.com (Jo Hedesan) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:42:00 +0000

The weird days when laptops thought they could be mobile phones may be nearing the end. According to ZDNET, Asus is phasing out its 7-inch Eee laptop, and possibly the 8 and 9 inch ones as well.

In the past two years, under the influence of more and more potent tiny mobile phones, laptops began to imagine that there was something special and desirable about going as small as they could. In other words, big was out, small was in.

Surely, tiny laptops are good to carry around, but how small can you get before you can't type on a keyboard and you squint at the screen? Apparently, the market has finally decided that the 7-inch version is nothing it can really swallow. I wouldn't. I enjoy small and light laptops, but I need a decent size before I go and seek a new eye consultation.

Weird Internet Names

noreply@blogger.com (Jo Hedesan) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:30:00 +0000

I remember a time when Internet brand names used to be mild. Think about it: Hot-mail, Net-scape, Explorer... Then things started to go awfully wrong. I'm not sure how it started, but I guess it had something to do with the impact of Yahoo. Is Yahoo inspired by the Jonathan Swift characters of the same name? I never got to find out. Anyway, Yahoo was the beginning of the mess. Now look at the internet today:
Google
Squidoo (I love this one. I even joined because it sounded so cool)
Bukisa
Skype
Twingly
Triond
Guba
Technorati
There you go, advertising for free :)

I've actually started a project collecting weird internet names. I will report on the weird name of the day.

I may be having a laugh, but I actually think that the name of a brand has a lot to with its success. In the internet world, the weirder and wackier it gets, the better. I love it. Let the creativity pour forth.