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katlalog

071031 00:39 Internet

One to keep an eye on:

The Globe and Mail is reporting that net privacy advocates are spurring ICANN into scrapping WHOIS. The advocates complain that the system doesn't do enough to protect domain owner information from spammers and fraudsters, and compare the problems to those being experienced on a broader scale by email users. 'WHOIS, much like e-mail, is an age-old Internet relic that comes from a time when the Internet was almost considered a network of trustworthy users. E-mail has, quite clearly, some massive problems coping in the modern age, but it's still here. It stands to reason, then, that WHOIS won't be going anywhere any time soon. Just like e-mail, it's prone to abuse. But again, just like e-mail, it's too useful to axe.'

071030 23:44 Internet

The Slashdot 10 Year Anniversary Charity Auction raises $10.000 for the EFF.

071029 18:48 TV, SciFi

A few more words on the new crop of scifi shows (previous, previous and previous):

Due to the can't-watch-everything syndrom i've dropped Journeyman and Bionic Woman. I'm still watching Flash Gordon, probably for the masochistic cringe factor. Chuck is kinda funny and Moonlight has something. Although it's such an obvious Angel rip-off (the female lead even looks exactly like the cop in the first season of Angel), I'm obviously a sucker for the tormented-vampire-with-a-soul-type.

Shows i want the studios to pick up for more are Reaper and the clear winner of the season Pushing Daisies, the Tim Burton-esque show that captures you, forces you to pay attention to a constant stream of narration, which is unusual for today's action-packed and dialogue-scarce style, or often lazy writing.

2nd season of Heroes: Without wanting to give away too much, they keep up the breath-taking pace by introducing the most awesome (and really scary) power yet, both visually and conceptually, when they revealed the identity of the new really bad badie.

Stargate Atlantis Season 4: Well, way past it's best. Especially since Samantha Bloody SG1 Carter took charge. Worst thing is that they make her look like Janeway with a topknot. The strict mother type.

071030 18:46 Web development

Web designers and their customers: strip 1 and strip 2.

071018 00:06 Language

This item keeps popping up again and again: The World's Languages Are Fast Becoming Extinct

While half of all languages have gone extinct in the last 500 years, the half-life is dropping: half of the 7,000 languages spoken today won't exist by the year 2100.

Although i'm a (degreeless) anthropologist and a (in my next life i'm going to be a) linguist, i'm not too worried about this. This is what happens. Everything changes. Everything has a lifecycle and might eventually die. A lot of going-extinct cultures and languages still manage to infuse a lot of their values and idiosyncratic features into the assimilating cultures. Enough to have a legacy.

Besides, at the moment it is more important that we grow closer rather than trying so hard to keep apart.

071005 16:08 SciFi

Serenity 2 rumours. Yippie!

071005 15:44 Science

2007 Ig Nobel Winners announced:

Pioneering research into a "gay bomb" that makes enemy troops "sexually irresistible" to each other has scooped one of this year's Ig Nobel Prizes.

My personal favourite:

Linguistics - A University of Barcelona team for showing that rats are unable to tell the difference between a person speaking Japanese backwards and somebody speaking Dutch backwards.

071005 15:41 Science / SciFi

George Takei gets his own asteroid.

071005 02:04 TV, SciFi

Another pilot: Pushing Daisies. Nice! 6 out of 10 with the potential to rise higher. It adds a certain kind of fluffiness to SciFi, just like Eureka did. It looks like Edward-Scissorhands-land and features a wry narrator who only refers to the main character as "the piemaker". It has a definite fairy tale feel to it. Exactly the fresh approach that's needed to lighten up the genre.

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