On the Net

with Chris Goh

Hotnews

Arfa Karim, 9, of Pakistan, is the world's youngest Microsoft engineer. She completed the exams to gain Microsoft-certified practitioner status and scored a meeting with Bill Gates as her reward. She rated him second after her Disneyland visit.

Speaking of youth and Gates, in Korea, Park Kyoung-hoon will gain special recognition from Microsoft for his Master of Visual C#, Microsoft's language challenge to Java. At age 23, he's completing the closing chapter for the guide book to the language for Microsoft.

At the same time India has produced its youngest ever post-graduate student. Aarti Jaju is a mathematics genius and will be recognised in India's version of the Guinness Book of World Records. She credits her father and brother as her inspiration. And since we're in India, Parimarjan Negi is the world's youngest international Chess Master. He's 12.

Apple has notched up the 500 millionth download from its online iTune stores. Meanwhile IBM has announced the end of a unique era. OS/2, created by IBM & Microsoft, could have been the Windows we used, but Microsoft took the experience it gained from the partnership with IBM, and itstead created the competing product, Windows, which now dominates as the desktop operating system for the world. IBM has now tossed in the towel and will no longer support its first multitasking operating system in IBM-compatible machines.

Sony has announced that it will develop its first digital SLR with interchangeable lenses in a partnership with Konica Minolta.

Hotsites

www.winlike.net

WinLike has taken a conventional layout and Windows functionality and applied it to how you surf the web, in the process creating something simple and accessible for web developers. The clever interface is intuitive and shows that potential web developers have to use and manage the content delivery of a website.

www.factnet.org

It's worth reading up on about this fascinating organisation. They are dedicated to uncovering cults, especially those using exploitation and mind control. These guys aren't your run-of-the-mill mythbusters and show a clear passion for uncovering the truth. As a result their offices have been raided (instigated by a group they regularly investigate). Their determination to publish the truth in the face of litigation is something you don't often see on the internet.

www.ihr.org

Napoleon said that history was written by the victorious. In the information age, some organisations are challenging that maxim by looking into history with a more objective view. The Institute of Historical Review aims to give us a better understanding of history without the political spin that dominates today's history wars.