HE citizens of France want changes and they reckon that a bit of a mess (unrest if not localised chaos) can bring about those changes.

I am sceptical but supportive as I recognise that without modest disruption of some kind (not only criticism) no meaningful change will come about.

At the EPO, for example, there are industrial actions right now.

HIS weekend I published the seventh part of a series, a long series (lots more to come) which concerns swatting in the UK. Here are all the parts published thus far:

The more ‘beefy’ details will come later this week. I’m glad that the time has come to share this information. We have strong momentum because the public can nowadays see what really happened and who the culprits are (they’re connected).

Many decades ago a “household” (with kids, car/s etc.) could – but no longer can – be managed by a single provider or breadwinner as they called it. That sort of ended after the 1990s with stagnation of wages. Then two parents were expected to work full-time – with dashes added as it became a proper word – to attain the same income level (comparatively).

Now the couple is expected to not only work full time (for the same lifestyle) but to also work overtime.

Sometimes overtime is voluntary, but there is a hidden cost. People fall behind on critical chores like food-buying, laundry etc.

As a result of that, even with a weekend off, there is no true rest, just “catchup” ahead of Mondays.

This won’t be sustainable as it leads to mental fatigue.

Did the “architects of the system” take this into consideration?

Lack of sleep worsens the quality of work. Lack of rest makes moody people, which interferes with health of relationships (couples, parents, peers).

ver two years ago Rianne and colleagues celebrated her site that she curates turning 20. Back then the site and its community were besieged by American aggressors. The aggression did not end well. Rianne and the site received more publicity, more people offered to help/contribute, and last month we all celebrated in northern England as the site turned 22.

The Russian authorities have charged opposition leader and former chess champion Garry Kasparov following clashes with police in Moscow.

All the man did was criticise the government (and rightly so).

OMPUTERS slowly penetrate the less developed nations. Only sheer ridicule can at times prevent this from happening, as Bill Gates once tactlessly demonstared. Possibly in response to the $100 Open Source laptop, Microsoft announced that they will launch Windows XP Starter Edition in Africa around July this year. Yet, do not get excited or raise your hopes prematurely. Starter Edition of Windows XP is very limited, much like the Starter Edition of Windows Vista. To quote an old writeup:

The cut-down software limits the users in a number of ways including number of applications running at once, printing and network abilities. Gartner’s research has pointed out that the lack of features and limitations with applications will be very frustrating for users who may have had access to computers before at school or in cyber-cafes.

ORE nations than ever before are showing interest in a purely electronic system for managing people’s records, funds, and vehicles. Take, for example, this older story on the use of biometrics. Cities and individual shops can already make authentication immediate when payment are being made. More latterly, a city in France began testing the idea of cities where cash is a antiquated notion of the past.

The tourist city of Caen in Normandy is hosting a major European trial of the use of NFC (near field communication) – a mobile technology that can be used for anything from paying for groceries to finding out about your home town.

The Movie Timeline is a nice little project which attempts to assign a film to each event since the beginning of time. To get the general idea, here is an arbitrary snippet:

1973 Bobby Darin dies (Beyond The Sea)
New York – Penny Lane becomes a regular on the tour bus (Almost Famous)
Las Vegas – Sam “Ace” Rothstein begins running a casino (Casino)
…

Although many of the entries are humorous, Hollywood has made it possible to watch a series of films which document Earth’s history.

Backed by an ambitious contention, one Web site calls for the halt of Web privatisation.

You think the Internet will always be the great freewheeling information superhighway you’ve grown to love? Well, think again. Media giants want to privatize our Internet.

As one among several threats, consider Google Groups. Under the magnifying glass is accumulation of over 20 years worth of forums conversations (full names included). To make matters worse, consider the practice of appending “Copyright Google Groups” to each of these pages. Then comes the contribution (or lack therefore) from those who post from Google Groups without quoting, which merely leads to clutter in UseNet. It sometimes seems as though UseNet has evolved into ‘Google Chat’, which is worrisome.

Another matter to consider is charging for E-mail traffic, as means of crippling spam. It comes to show that corporations can instate and manipulate ‘Net politics’.

Beyond these facts, rumours are formed and echoed as regards a Google Web or even the newly-proposed ‘Chinese Web’. Then, of course, there is the issue of censorship, aimed to better suit the interest of governments– either through blocking of sites or filtering of search results.

The future of the Web looks not bright. Given present trends, the outlook is rather grim.