[1] From: Willard McCarty <Willard.McCarty@kcl.ac.uk> (40)
Subject: a Web miscellany
Items noted in today's Guardian newspaper, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>,
Online section, <http://online.guardian.co.uk>, that may be of interest to
Humanists. Most of the following in fact is well presented at the Guardian
site, so a simple bookmark to this is sufficient.
Humane applications of computing
(1) "The smart spec enterprise" (p. 5), about a prosthetic device now under
development to help the partially sighted. It consists of a computer worn on
the belt and connected to a virtual-reality headset. If the only argument we
had for computing was that it extended the abilities of physically impaired
individuals, it would be enough, yes?
Politics and human rights
(1) Arm the Spirit, an anti-imperialist group from Toronto, Canada (!), has
created a Solidarity Page for the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA),
which is holding hostages in Peru, at <http://burn.ucsd.edu/~ats/mrta.htm>.
See also the news links by Mario Profaca, Zagreb, Croatia, at
<http://www.hr/mprofaca/news086.html>. I think of various political events
in the late 1960s and how strenuous were the efforts to distribute and to
suppress information of this kind. The world will never be the same again --
unless someone very clever can figure out how to clamp down on the Internet.
Technical matters
(1) New security for the Web. Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) has developed a tool
that removes information smuggled onto a surfer's computer by a Web site the
person has visited. The tool is "PGPcookie.cutter, a browser plug-in that
provides greater anonymity to individuals while browsing the World Wide Web
by selectively blocking Web "Cookies." Cookies are data files created by Web
servers and stored on a user's computer to record the trail of Web sites
visited, online purchases, electronic transactions and private information."
See <http://www.pgp.com/>.
(2) An attempt to address the problem of "spamming" by e-mail, described at
<http://www.scot.demon.co.uk/spam-filter.html">.
Curiosities
(1) A cinnamon bun that looks like Mother Teresa can be viewed at
<http://www.qecmedia.com/nunbun/>. It was found by chance at the Bongo Java
Coffee Shop in Nashville, Tennessee, US.
(2) A great Shockwave-enhanced Web site to promote the drinking of milk, at
<http://www.whymilk.com/>.
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Dr. Willard McCarty, Senior Lecturer, King's College London
voice: +44 (0)171 873 2784 fax: +44 (0)171 873 5801
e-mail: Willard.McCarty@kcl.ac.uk
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kis/schools/hums/ruhc/wlm/