Who do you know that still uses Internet Explorer, other than your old relatives that force you to fix their computers? That’s right, pretty much no one, because anyone in the know uses Chrome, Firefox, hell, pretty much anything else. And so Microsoft is killing what was once the most-used browser in the world. When Windows 10 releases in 2015, it will come with a new browser codenamed Spartan. (The name is likely a reference to Halo, as they did the same thing with their Cortana software.) This new browser will behave much more like Chrome and Firefox, running in a more lightweight form and including options like extensions. I didn’t even know that IE lacked extensions! Welcome to the 2000s, Microsoft. Read more…
Since moving across the country, the requests to fix my parents tech problems have been drastically reduced. Still, I can only imagine how frustrating it is for them to have a problem and have no idea what is causing it. Mike Lacher has explored this in a piece for New York Magazine, and now it has been animated with narration by H. Jon Benjamin (Archer, Bob’s Burgers). When an old couple’s WiFi breaks, it’s up to the son-in-law to fix it. It’s a straightforward story told with all the bombast of an epic quest in ye olden days. I bet this is how my parents viewed it when I taught them to just restart their computer. Read more…
Well damn. Net neutrality has been considered one of the most important policies for the Internet to have. The concept is that the Internet should be a free and open space to encourage competition and allow smaller sites to grow big; therefore, internet service providers (ISPs) must give equal treatment to all websites and traffic, regardless of how big or small they are. ISPs have wanted to offer faster connections that bigger sites must pay for, or section off certain types of websites for an additional fee. Net neutrality argues that a start-up like Amazon may not have been able to fully grow if it had to compete with other websites that could afford to load faster. Unfortunately, that just got thrown out the window. Read more…
Everyone is celebrating Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary… even Google! The search engine’s latest Google Doodle is a retro-styled game that takes place in their header and lets you play as any of the various Doctors. You can click to move your character around the screen,solve simple puzzles, avoid Daleks, and collect all the letters of the Google logo (obviously). It’s nothing too complex, but like most Google Doodles, it’s a heartfelt and creative little diversion. Check it out on Google’s homepage, or if you’re looking at this page in the far future and have missed it, hope over to Google’s Doodle archive where it should be archived. Read more…
Yelp certainly has its problems, and anyone who has taken the time to wade through the sea of nonsensical reviews would agree, but even I have to admit that its been useful on occasion. Unfortunately, upset customers tend to be the most vocal, and it’s impossible for an establishment to please everyone. That being the case, the service often finds itself plagued by it own users — people with a false sense of entitlement and way too much time on their hands. Don’t believe me? Just check out this hilarious Tumblr account that chronicles some of the worst Yelp reviews ever written. Normally, I would say that I’ve never seen so many ridiculous reviews in one place before, but that’s not true — I’ve also browsed Apple’s app store.
In this clip author Nicholas Carr addresses the topic Does the Internet Discourage Deep Thinking? And I’ve got to say that he’s dead on — I tend to find that in it’s current form the web is a mile wide but an inch deep. For example at your fingertips you can google the name of any historical figure who has ever lived and find at least a wikipedia entry, however if you want to go that extra step and read book on the topic you hit a real dead end. Although I think blaming the net is a bit of an excuse because in reality the signal-to-noise ratio has been been weakened since the advent of television over fifty years ago.
