 On The Net - Computing News
with Chris Goh
Names Change, Same Insults
I remember when I first started school in Australia back in 1980. Six year 3 kids used to pick (and spit) on me and call me Nipper. I don't think it had anything to do with surf life saving.
I asked them politely what it meant and they said "it's a name we give to wogs like you when we don't want you here".
Then in year 5, as AIDS awareness rose, kids would snigger and run away from me. I asked and they said it was because I was gay.
My English had improved but I wasn't sure of the meaning, so I looked it up the dictionary. It meant that I was happy. Since it was a compliment, I thanked them. For weeks I'd pass them smiling, not understanding the full implications of their taunts, until they stopped me and asked if I knew what it meant. Happiness, I explained. They laughed and tried to give me a lesson on sexual preferences, but the close-knit little gang of boys gave up.
I was now in year eight and went to a farm to study crop rotation for geography. I saw all these beautiful flowers. The farmer said don't pick them up, you'll spread them. I asked why and explained that they're weeds. I looked at them and I thought that can't be right: weeds are twisted and spiky, annoying plants, how come they're weeds. The farmer gave an insight into the way many people view others: "We call anything weeds when we don't want them there."
Almost two decades later, George Bush has his war on terror, and anything regarded as 'un-American' is labelled terrorism. It's caught on like wildfire. Now Pakistan and India are calling each other terrorists. I suppose, it's a name you give to things, when you don't want someone there.
HotNews
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (www.abs.gov.au) released the first data from the 2001 census on Monday. On the computer and Internet front there's some very pleasing results. By the end of this year, the statisticians predict that 50% of all homes will have some kind of Internet access. In NSW 30.2% of people said they used the Net. That figure was even higher in Lismore and Ballina, at 34% (and 39% in Byron Bay). Richmond Valley, on the other hand, was ranked low with only 22% of people using it. Around 1.3 million people purchased something on the Net last year though the majority prefer to pay for things over the phone, with 49% of people thinking phone banking and paying of bills is the way to go. Some 74% of people use ATMs but sadly, they didn't ask people if their bank had closed first. And it doesn't matter whether you're male or female, you're equally likely to surf the net and play on a computer.
For years now those nasty virus makers have been seeking their Holy Grail, which they can embed in common file formats code to replicate in other files. The W32 Perrun virus was sent by its creator to major virus vendors last week and demonstrated that JPEGs, the most popular image format on the web, can be encoded with a virus that can replicate (though admittedly the file has to be corrupted to do so). It's a big concern, especially since it's a dangerous step forward, is how the copy cat writers will respond.
At just two atoms wide, the molecule Vandium transistor is the smallest transistor ever made. Although it has yet to take on silicon transistors, it has heralded a breakthrough with the potential to improve the development of nanotechnology.
CitiBank has had a rough ride on the Net, suffering from highly publicised hacking in which thousands of credit cards were stolen and published on the Internet a few years bank. Recently regulators from New York have informed CitiBank that if they allow clients to use their credit cards for online gambling, the bank may be liable to public prosecution. So Citibank has now banned all its cards users from using their plastic in online gambling dens.
Sometimes the movie industry can surprise you - and not just in the cinema. Warner Home Video has released both DVD and VHS versions of the Harry Potter Movie without any copy protection, which means that users are able to duplicate the movie. The funny thing is that when news broke about it, the company initially refused to acknowledge the truth - I suppose because they didn't want to encourage copies. But then why give them the chance?
HotSites
- www.mypetspages.com
- If you've lost Misty, Milo or Muffy and aren't sure how to grieve your pet, you can build a virtual memorial for them for all the Net to see. Admittedly your pet doesn't actually have to be dead - it's also cool to create a Website to honour them while alive too.
- http://searchenginez.com
- If you're after a good search engine portal, Search Online is an excellent example with up to date news about what's happening in the search engine world. It's bit tricky to work out at first but good content.
- http://environmentalchemistry.com
- This is an exceptional site, and I wish it had been around when I was studying chemistry - it would have made those wretched molar equations a breeze. Environmental Chemistry does have a strong emphasis in teaching people about how chemistry can help the environment, but it also has a wealth of other chemistry information, from the anatomy of the atom to a geological time scale of the earth. And it's very well done.
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