In the 'deep web'

The dark side of the internet | Technology | The Guardian

As Kosmix and other search engines improve, he says, they will make the internet truly transparent: "You will be on the same level playing field as the bad guys." The internet as a sort of electronic panopticon, everything on it unforgivingly visible and retrievable – suddenly its current murky depths seem in some ways preferable.

Fascinating article in the Guardian about the dark web. There is a tendency in the visible web towards the visible, the named, the identified and the controlled. But as we more and more walk along well lighted and controlled streets, there are the dark side streets where one can walk in shadow, where one can experience the unanticipated and the random. In many ways, the web, like the city, seeks a balance between the safe and controlled, on the one hand, and the dangerous and uncontrolled, on the other.

Coming soon to Canada: something similar

Digital economy bill: A punishing future | Comment is free | The Guardian

The digital economy bill is misnamed. A more honest title for the legislation, recently introduced in the Lords, would be the copyright protection and punishment bill. It is less about creating the digital businesses of the 21st century than protecting the particular 20th century business models used in music and film.

The Noble Savage Space

Cyberspace the liberator is now a tyrant’s tool | Bryan Appleyard - Times Online

Cyberspace was born free, but everywhere it is in chains. Once a promised land inhabited by visionaries, libertarians and freedom fighters, it has become a war zone. “The Harry Potter age of the internet,” says Professor Ron Deibert, “is over.”
Deibert is director of the Citizen Lab at Toronto University, which monitors state and corporate control of cyberspace. In a recent Citizen Lab survey of 69 countries, it learnt that 40 had internet restrictions.

I have been reading lately about Deibert and the Citizen lab. They are doing interesting work (citizenlab.org)

H1N1 symptoms -- they didn't mention hallucinations

t is important that as swine flu spreads, you hump the symptoms of the disease so you can recall it in yourself and others at an aboriginal platform.

Delight construe this attender and reckon your symptoms carefully before using the Human Pandemic Flu Delivery mentioned below.

So far, most swine flu cases score been moderate, with symptoms same to those of seasonal flu. Only a miniature circumscribe of people hit had author sobering symptoms.

If you or a member of your kin has any of the followers symptoms and a temperature of 38°C or above, you may hold swine flu.

The representative symptoms are:

* a sharp pyrexia (a luxuriously body temperature of 38°C/100.4°F or above), and

* a fast cough.

New symptoms may permit:

* headache,

* tiredness,

(http://www.symptomsswineflu.net/)

My body temperature is luxurious, and my cough is fast--at times, but I have not construed delight, and I hope I am not in the miniature circumscribe of people.

the type in Mad Men

The same applies to TV shows, including the otherwise excellent “Mad Men.” It is rare to find a review of the show that does not rave about the accuracy of its early 1960s styling, yet the “Mad Men” team is woefully sloppy when it comes to typography. Mark Simonson, a graphic designer in St. Paul, Minnesota, blogs about typographic misdemeanors on his Web site, www.marksimonson.com, and he once catalogued the flaws in “Mad Men.” The 1992 typeface, Lucida Handwriting, appears in an ad in the opening titles. Gill Sans, a British typeface designed in 1930 but rarely used in the United States until the 1970s, is used for office signage. A lipstick ad features one wholly appropriate 1958 font, Amazone, but two incongruous ones, 1978’s Balmoral and 1980’s Fenice. He noted lots of other clunkers too, but admits that he has spotted fewer new errors in the most recent episodes of “Mad Men.”

from Mistakes in Typography Grate the Purists
NYTimes November 15, 2009

Social Network world changing

In May of 2008, the median age for Facebook was 26. Today, it's 33, a good seven years older.

ReadWriteWeb reports a strong uptake in the last year in those 18 - 24 using Twitter.