Imagine being able to access a book anywhere in the world. And not just books but documents, treaties and papers on any subject, in any language, in any corner of the world—all at the click of the mouse. That may be the ultimate fantasy of the bibliophile, the scholar, the …
Facebook-inspired protests in Azerbaijan are turning into a cat-andmouse game. On March 14, the police blocked access to the university in the country’s capital Baku, but there were no protesters. This, after a protest day on March 11—called by Facebook users—never materialised because key leaders were arrested. Uzeyir Mammadli, an …
Scientists have pieced together remains of Xray equipment dating shortly after the discovery of the rays in 1895. Researchers from the same Dutch town where the system was originally built used it to produce striking images that belie its simplicity and age. The team said the images required a radiation …
The microblogging site Twitter has become the setting for a battle of wits between the police and residents of Rio de Janeiro evading a drunk-driving campaign, Operation Lei Seca. Anyone who has had too many beers but wants to drive home can turn to a page on Twitter where citizens …
Ideas and ideologies, images and reports of events, both minor and cataclysmic, fly on the Internet, swirling through cyberspace, gathering resonance, metamorphosing and touching millions of lives in different ways. Many of the ideas—and visuals—could be banal (as they very often are), some dangerous, others bringing promise of change. Some …
Our world is increasingly held together by the network of digital communications networks we call the Internet. Business, government, politics, science and the arts have all been fundamentally transformed by the fact that everyone’s connected to everyone else, everywhere, and no one needs to get permission to collaborate, trade, or …
One day there will be thousands of volunteers out there patrolling the Internet in Russia. That is the dream of a new organisation launched in the first week of February, the League of Internet Safety. The league brings together the three major mobile service providers: Mobile TeleSystems, VimpelCom, and Megafon, …
As global distaste for fossil fuels grows and climate change becomes a household phrase, nuclear energy has new supporters. The site nuclearfissionary.com is run by one such group. It claims arguments against nuclear energy were solved decades ago and spews venom on anti-nuclear groups like Greenpeace. To be fair, the …
With social media stoking revolt against tyranny in Egypt, Tunisia and Iran, it is difficult to be critical of virtual interactions. But there is a group of writers who play devil’s advocate. Last year, journalist Nick Carr warned us of the socially numbing aspects of the Internet, and Evegeny Moro …
On February 4, the non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) doled out its last five batches of IP numbers that identify destinations for digital traffic. Rod Beckstrom, who heads the organisation that designates numbers which give a site its Internet addresses, said, “ICANN cannot give out any …
A Finnish group calling itself the Food Liberation Army has posted a spoof terrorist-style clip on video-sharing website YouTube, with five masked characters threatening to “execute” Ronald McDonald if the fast food giant failed to answer its questions. The group “kidnapped” the McDonald’s mascot from a Helsinki restaurant. “We love …
On January 21, a special ship began laying an undersea fiber-optic cable between Venezuela and Cuba, a connection that will dramatically improve Cuba’s telephone and Internet services. Cuban officials estimate the project carried out by Alcatel-Lucent SA of Paris will cost about US $70 million. Cuba is the only nation …
After the WikiLeak revelation, cyber activists went to town claiming the disclosures as another indicator of internet-fostered democracy. Within days Western governments and their friends in the cyberworld clamped down on WikiLeaks. The not-so-thinly-veiled attacks on the whistle-blowing site and its charismatic founder, Julian Assange, by Western governments was covertly …
JOURNALISM is a serious business. You need to inform the gullible who is taking advantage of them. But let us admit that while reading the morning paper we, at least sometimes, wish journalists had a funny bone. The website www.gobionastick.com does precisely that and in a straight-faced, journalistic manner. An …
On January 4, websites of the Tunisian government were taken offline by a group, which calls itself Anonymous. It attacked sites perceived to be anti-WikiLeaks. On the same day, it targeted websites of the Zimbabwean government. According to BBC, it was in retaliation after president’s wife Grace Mugabe sued a …
Most of Turkmenistan is now without mobile phone communications and access to the Internet after the country’s biggest mobile service provider, MTSTurkmenistan, fell foul of the government. The Russian company that services 80 per cent of the subscribers in the Central Asian country informed its subscribers on December 28 that …
WHEN Mathew Inman is not busy with marketing via social networks, he works on his comic website, theoatmeal.com. It is a funny web comic with cartoons that contrasts the advantages and pitfalls of working at home and reveals the highs and lows of owning Apple products. The simplicity of Inman’s …
The WikiLeaks revelations have made governments around the world nervous. After secret US cables released by WikiLeaks exposed American and European officials indulging in blackmail, threats and even espionage to advance their “climate” agenda, environment departments have gone jittery. The US government has offered “no comment” proclamations and strong condemnation …
It’s been mayhem and murder on the web with the US government and the McCarthy-like Senator Joe Lieberman, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, getting websites to pull the plug on WikiLeaks. Not all of what they did was sane or even legal. First, Lieberman, or the Obama administration …
EVER found an injured butterfly or caterpillar and wanted to help it but did not know how to? Turn to butterflywebsite.com. US butterfly expert Rick Mikula compiled a list of butterfly experts across the world who love butterflies and understand them. The site has several articles on butterflies and moths, …
