Sydney

How Good Information Goes Bad

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  The Internet is fast becoming a sort of gossip chamber where the real merges with the fantasy, leaving ordinary people overwhelmed. I’m not sure it’s a good thing. Take an email my wife forwarded me this morning. It’s from a newsgroup comprising Indonesian expat mothers in Singapore (talk about niches!). The sender had forwarded … Read more

Google Killer? A Clip Around the Ears, Maybe

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There’s a new search engine out there, according to the Guardian, and it sort of tries to figure out what you’re looking for. Which is good. Google searches are great so long as they’re simple. But is Powerset up to snuff? Here are some searches I did (betraying my interests): Pretty good stuff. And how … Read more

Bot, Go Out and Do My Bidding

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This week’s WSJ.com column (behind a subscription wall, I’m afraid) is on how we need to get ready for the day when chatbots go out and do our bidding for us. Literally, possibly, but if nothing else to go out and do the pre-flirting bit of online dating.  clipped from online.wsj.com Expect a future where … Read more

Our Nasty Internet

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It sometimes boggles my mind at how messy and nasty the Internet has become. The Canberra Times (no URL available, can’t find it on their website) quotes Peter Tippett, a member of United States President George W.Bush’s Information Technology Advisory Committee and chief technologist at Cybertrust, as telling a media briefing in Sydney last week … Read more