The File Room began as an idea to serve as a model for an interactive and open system where censorship is studied and its effects are scrutinized. Its designed to prompt our thinking and discussion, and serves as an evolving archive of how the suppression of information has been orchestrated throughout history in different contexts, countries, and civilizations.
Continue reading… “The File Room vs. Censorship”
Search Engine Watch: How many searches are performed each day? Here’s a look at available figures, gathered from industry press releases or interviews.
Google – 130 million – 10/01 –
(About half of these are at Google.com and the rest generated through partner sites such as Yahoo and Netscape Search)
Inktomi – 80 million – 8/01 –
(as per various public statements)
AltaVista – 50 million – 3/00 –
(as cited by AltaVista in press release)
Direct Hit – 20 million – 4/01 –
(covers searches on DirectHit.com or through distribution partners such as Salon.com)
FAST – 12 million – 10/00 –
(probably for the FAST site itself and doesn’t include partners)
Overture (GoTo) – 5 million – 4/00 –
(as reported by Overture to a reader, who forwarded the information to me. Includes queries through affiliates and partners).
Ask Jeeves – 4 million – 3/00
Continue reading… “Search Engine Statistics”
A virtual fish network known as Daliworld aims to re-create the world’s oceans on thousands of interconnected PCs. Using a file-sharing technology similar to Napster, DALiWorld, lets you spawn digital fish that swim around your computer screen. And when they’ve had enough, the little devils swim right off your PC and onto the screen of another Daliworld user, who may be in Japan, Zaire, Argentina or any of the 47 other countries represented by the more than 30,000 people DALi says have downloaded the software.
Continue reading… “Daliworld – The World’s Largest Virtual Fish Network”
Meet the NeoPet, an addictive Web phenomenon spreading among children from Atlanta to Argentina. NeoPets require frequent attention from their owners, who must feed the critters, educate them, and keep them out of harm’s way.
Raising a NeoPet is a popular project. The 2-year-old, free site, originally created by British college students, has climbed to the top of game site rankings in recent months–with people spending more time on the site than at major competitors such as America Online.
Sprint plans to introduce a service later this year that will let people e-mail photographs or other types of images from their cell phones. Sprint said the relationship it has entered into with LightSurf Technologies will let people “point and shoot” a photograph using a cell phone or an attached digital camera.
Continue reading… “3G Telephones with Built-in Cameras”
Even though 2001 was the worst-ever year for the semiconductor industry, Intel Corp.’s Chief Executive Officer on Monday exhorted geeks gathered at the No. 1 chipmaker’s technology conference here to keep investing and churning out new products and applications.
“Collectively we need to invest and bring new technology into the marketplace,” Craig Barrett told about 4,000 engineers and developers attending the Intel Developer Forum, which the company touts as “the world’s largest geekfest.”
Continue reading… “World’s Largest Geekfest”
Scientists are winning the fight against cancer but it is a long, slow process and the disease that kills about six million people each year may never be eliminated, said Nobel medicine laureate Sir Paul Nurse.
Don’t expect any magic bullets. Forget miracle cures.
Cancer is not one but more than 200 different types of disease and far too complicated for any quick fixes.
Continue reading… “Nobel Prize Winner – Cancer May Never Be Eliminated”
The BBC reports, “There are three phases to falling in love and different hormones are involved at each stage.
Events occurring in the brain when we are in love have similarities with mental illness.
When we are attracted to somebody, it could be because subconsciously we like their genes.
Smell could be as important as looks when it comes to the fanciability factor. We like the look and smell of people who are most like our parents.”
Continue reading… “The Science of Love”
Sony newest AIBO robotic dog has been designed incorporating the latest in robotic technology. It is now even more expressive and interactive and has a slick new futuristic look.
Nicolas Babin, the General Manager of Sony describes the new robotic dog as having “enhanced functionalities” that will “enable customers … to experience deeper emotional ties with the AIBO”.
Continue reading… “Sony Announces New AIBO Robotic Dog”
Clay writes, “This is too cool not to share, especially for space heads and map
nerds. It’s a shot of Earth at
night, taken from Space Station Alpha. Warning to those looking at this from their place of employment: you
can expect your productivity level to take a slight dip, at the very
least.”
Continue reading… “A Picture of the Real Earth”
A shiny white pod that began road tests this month may well be the taxi of the future.
The pod, known as ULTra — Urban Light Transport — could make driver-free transport a reality and not just the stuff of futuristic fantasy.
The pod — which seats up to four passengers — is the brainchild of Bristol University’s Martin Lowson, who is no stranger to making science fiction dreams come true.
Continue reading… “Travel Pod Makes Science Fiction a Reality”
Hungry snowmobile riders in northern Sweden can now eat a hamburger without getting off their machine.
The first McDonald’s drive-through for snowmobiles opened on Saturday in the town of Pitea, about 80 miles south of the Arctic Circle.
Continue reading… “McDonalds Opens First Snowmobile Drive-through”
