technology

Yesterday the OLPC Foundation announced that they would be making the OLPC (One Laptop per child) laptops available to buyers in the developed world; with the caveat that when you purchase one for yourself, you’re also paying for one to be sent to a child in the developing world. Hardly a difficult ethical decision, especially once you see and get a chance to play with, the OLPC itself, which is one of the cutest and most engaging products I have ever used (although it did take me a few minutes to work out how to open the lid, apparently the kids get it every time).

Whilst I'm loathe to continue blogging so much about Microsoft, I wanted to highlight the antitrust judgement that the European courts handed back to them today. Microsoft was up for antitrust behaviour in Europe for a couple of reasons; firstly shipping their Media Player with their operating system; it's a similar thing to what has happened to them in the past with the browser, Internet Explorer. And, while with IE, there was a genuine, if FUD-y reason for the browser to be included in the OS (basically, much of the same back end is used for browsing your files), Windows Media Player provides few, if any, system wide benefits. Secondly, refusing to provide sufficient details of how their server technology works so that other companies could interoperate with MS servers.

While this post over at uncov, the Techcrunch for cynics, might seem a little inflammatory, people search is apparently going to be one of the big new search tools we use from now on. I went on to Spock to see what it had to say about me, and, after battling with many errors and server problems (this doesn't feel like a site that was ready to come out of beta), managed to find my profile listed. And filled with manifold and varied errors and omissions. I didn't study at Manchester uni, it's been quite a while since I was an editor on Bath's student newspaper(better, of course, while I was there!)and, although I am entreprenurial, I certainly don't run the beerandbreasts.com website!

Virgil Griffith has just made it possible for us to glimpse at how the spinners on wikipedia have been spinning their tale for us. Go and look for yourself.

When you edit a wikipedia entry anonymously, you still leave just a bit of a trace: the Internet Protocal number that your local network uses to access the internet.  So it is possible to tell the organisations from which people have been modifying specific wikipedia entries ... and possible to infer that these organisations were behind those changes, especially where some narrative about the interests involved can be concocted.

Strongly Recommend: Use Diigo!

by Tony Curzon Price

According to our surveys, many oD readers are involved in research in some form or other: as students or academics or media-folk or policy makers and influencers. So here is a recommendation that might well change the quality and usefulness of the web for you.

The best research tool I have come across in a long time - it has really transformed my web habits - is diigo.com, which gives me the ability to make notes as I read the web, to collect all my notes in one place and to share the notes with collaborators.