17 Feb 2004
Extinction Of Human Languages

I originally caught the link below via Slashdot, where the concern was about the loss of human languages from the perspective of programming languages. I'm not sure that's a valid concern, but, as the piece points out, with each language lost there's a huge hole being punched in human cultural history.

Half of all human languages will have disappeared by the end of the century, as smaller societies are assimilated into national and global cultures, scientists have warned.

(link) [New Scientist]

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Webmonkey, RIP: 1996 – 2004

Ah, Webmonkey ... a good site, well designed and well done. I remember seeing it back in the Good Old Days - haven't looked at it for years, now, as I've moved beyond it's kind of basic tutorials. I wonder what other sites for HTML newbies there are out there?

Webmonkey, the pioneering Web development site known as much for its informal tone as its tutorials on how to write code, is shutting after an eight-year run. Fans are disappointed, but not surprised. By Paul Boutin.

(link) [Wired News]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Japanese Capital and Jobs Flowing to China

It's not just the United states that suffering from offshoring. And there's a bit or irony here, eh? Japan was, after all, a huge beneficiary of the first round of industrial offshoring in the sixties and seventies, and now those jobs, which started in places like Bloomington, Indiana and the Sarkes-Tarzian TV plant in the early 1950's, are moving from Japan towards cheaper pastures in China.

Perhaps (and I'm thinking out loud here) the movement of jobs across borders is like the movement of water seeking the lowest place. What happens when all the low spots are full? The water will pool and rise, of course, but it'll never actually climb back up the mountain. If you want water, and you live on a mountain you need a dam. Or you need to move off your mountaintop.

It's our choice.

The qualms are gone. Now even Japan's pride and joy, its top-end electronics manufacturers, are coming to China.

(link) [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Cyberchondria

A downside to the availability of information.

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Malicious E-Cards - An Analysis of Spam

This would be absolutely brutal to a user who was unaware - and note that it's not detected by Norton. Be alert! Better yet, use a better browser!>/p>

While most of us simply hit the delete key, the author has taken the time to see exactly what is going on when an innocent user clicks on one of these fake e-cards that are going around.

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Detecting Patterns in Complex Social Networks

One of my favorite things to do with these nets is to "calculate connections" - I've already uncovered a couple of other folks that I either know personally or have heard of who are in my "persoonal network" on some of these services. Fascinating stuff - but I still wonder if it's really useful.

So-called social networking is very popular these days, as show the proliferation of services like Friendster, Orkut and dozens of others. But do the companies behind these services have any idea of what is hidden inside their complicated networks?

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link