There’s been quite a bit of discussion here about PaperMaster and Paperport, two scanning and filing programs that in the past have been very useful tools. But now I’m not so sure. Both have glitches that I find worrying. I’ve reviewed PaperPort, which I think is a good program, but I was alarmed … Read more
If you want to know how spam really works — and how closely it’s tied to legitimate big business — read an excellent piece by Bob Sullivan at MSNBC. He describes pursuing a spam “from Alabama to Argentina, from a tiny Birmingham-based firm and someone named ?Erp? past a notorious spammer named Super-Zonda ? and … Read more
Further on my posting about mapAmobile, the UK service that tracks the whereabouts of ‘loved ones’ via their handphone, reader Lynn Dimick points out quite wisely: “Why not just turn off the phone, and claim the battery died, if you don’t want to be monitored? I know that’s what my kids will do.” How do … Read more
I think Friendster is probably a more dynamic version of this experiment, but it’s interesting anyway. Duncan J. Watts, author and Associate Professor of Sociology at Columbia, has launched an experiment to update the 1967 findings of social psychologist Stanley Milgram who coined the phrase ‘six degrees of separation’ by testing the hypothesis that members … Read more
Now you can monitor the whereabouts of anyone using a mobile phone, at least in the UK. Scary, or what? MapAmobile offers a service which can locate someone via their mobile phone, anywhere in the UK, notify you when they move from that location, 24 hours a day. The privacy element: mapAmobile, which is touting … Read more