Computing’s Greatest Conspiracies
My Clippings September 10th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from My Clippings on NewsGator Online
The date is 7 July 1947 and the place is Roswell, New Mexico. Something has crash-landed in the desert – but what is it? The debate is still raging today and AWitnesses reported shiny silver debris scattered over the impact site. Was it the remains of a flying saucer, as the Roswell Daily Record suggested, or just fragments of an errant weather balloon? Stories and conjecture were rife, and from them came the most famous conspiracy theory in the history of the species. Were aliens being hidden from the rest of the world by the United States government?
Conspiracy theories are a thoroughly modern cultural phenomenon. In loose terms they explain historical events as being the work of secret and powerful conspirators. After 9/11, conspiracy theorists insisted the hijackings were the work of the American government. Black helicopters in the sky – that must mean that secret and wealthy juntas are up to no good. Even the humble light bulb isn’t safe from suspicion: was the everlasting light bulb designed in 1930 and then suppressed to bolster bulb makers’ future profits?
A conspiracy theory’s recipe is disarmingly simple: all you need is an occurrence, the suggestion of a dark cabal, a wilful disregard for evidence and a creative mind. Critically, however, once released the tale takes on a life of its own and begins galloping around the globe. As it travels, self-appointed experts begin picking it over, searching out ‘the real truth’. Layers upon layers of detailed information are added to what may originally have been an overheard whisper, a lie or just a simple misinterpretation.
Government cover-ups of extra terrestrial life might have been the mainstay of conspiracy theories for decades, but today the world of computing is an equally fertile breeding ground. Fuelled by never-ending debate on web discussion forums, conspiracies relating to computing and the internet abound. Here we examine 10 of the top PC-related theories and try to decide, once and for all, whether they are rooted in reality, or are nothing more than the result of too many paranoid and furtive imaginations. The truth is out there.
Hidden messages found in the Bible
Tags: bit.ly, email, Google, Information, IO, Microsoft, security, Spam, Trash, video, way, wind, XP
Lessn offers an easy way to create your own URL shortener
My Clippings August 20th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from My Clippings on NewsGator Online
Filed under: Utilities, Web services, web 2.0
With all the drama around brand-name URL shorteners, a lot of blogs have advised people to skip the big guys and create their own. Easier said than done, though, right? Well, maybe not: Lessn, a service from brilliant designer Shaun Inman (who also developed the Fever feed reader), makes getting a personal shortURL as simple as possible. All you need is some server space where you can throw up some PHP and MySQL.
All you have to know how to do to set up Lessn is enter some login info in a php config file and upload the whole package to your server. After that, you’re good to go. You can put in your full URL, and Lessen will give you a short one for it. Then, whenever you want to use your shortener, you can click the included bookmarklet. It might be a lot more work than just using Bit.ly, but having your own shortlinks on your own server means that you don’t have to risk a service shutting down and leaving you with dead links.
[via Lifehacker]
Lessn offers an easy way to create your own URL shortener originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: bit.ly, Bookmarklet, email, Google, Inc., IO, Mac, php, way, Web 2.0
