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Category: Interesting
Be Careful Before You Believe A Cute Little Girl
Back in my college newspaper days, I can’t honestly say that this wouldn’t have happened to us. I’d like to think we would’ve done our homework and the research needed to verify her story, but it’s hard not to believe an innocent looking little girl when she says her father died in Iraq. But, in reality, the little girl was part of a bizzare, elaborate hoax pulled on the campus newspaper by an alumni of the school. The little girl wasn’t who she said she was, nor did her “dad” exist. She just thought she was acting as part of a movie.
The newspaper obviously apologized and campus reaction was mixed. The former editor of the paper called himself a bad journalist, but said that he’s innocent of the charges that say he was involved in the scheme.
More coverage in the Chicago Tribune, as well as in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
Moral of the story for journalists? Always check your sources. Even if it’s your mom, always do a background check. Don’t believe anything unless you can prove it yourself.
Harvard’s The Top University in the World
At least according to this site’s methodology. Their methods seem a bit off to me and seem to focus more on awards and articles published than more useful things like how well the students learned, etc… . I’m not discounting the value of winning great awards like the Nobel prize and such, but I’m willing to bet many the folks who helped these various universities rank high in these rankings are probably horrible teachers. And what good is knowledge if you’re no good at sharing it?
Out of the Oregon schools, Oregon State and OHSU both made the Top 100 North American schools. University of Oregon, my alma-mater, just missed the top 100, according to the Full List.
Air Traffic Patterns Over The US
This is a neat little video, showing a simulation of the air-traffic patterns over the US. Obviously, there’s a lot more air-traffic over the Eastern half of the US then there is over this side of the Mississippi. Link via BB.
That’s A Lot Of Big Gulps
Apparently it would take 266 cans worth of Dr. Pepper for me to die by caffeine
Blogger Tool For Microsoft Word
For those of you who use Blogger (and there are lot of you) and also use Microsoft Word (ditto), you can now compose your blog entries and post directly from MS Word. This way, you can also compose entries off line and post them when you have a connection again. Link via the Google Blog.
BendBroadband Working On Wi-Fi Service
Of course, their press release (the full text of which is below, since it’s not on their site yet) doesn’t mention anything about prices, rollout schedule, etc…, and I’m sure it’s not going to be free like it is in Hermiston. Considering that I’m able to get free Wi-Fi around most of Bend via open Wireless Access Points, I don’t know if I’ll be paying the price (unless they need a freebie beta tester, of course). They apparently had Wi-Fi at the fair this year as part of their first roll out. While I can’t see too many fair-goers using the Wi-Fi, it was probably handy for some of the exhibitors.
If I remember correctly, OregonTrail was the first company to offer Wi-Fi service in the area, but I don’t know if they still do (especially since they were bought up) or had too many takers considering the price.
Full press release from BendBroadband is below.
Farm Country More Wired Than Rest Of State
I wish this was happening in our neck of the woods, but a few hours Northeast of here there’s a gigantic Wi-Fi hot spot, some say the largest in the world
This is cowboy country, where the rodeo is coming to town, the high school’s “kiss the pig” contest involves a genuine hog, and life seems about as high-tech as the local calf-dressing competition, when teams race to wrestle protesting calves into T-shirts.
But Hermiston is actually a global leader of our Internet future. Today, this chunk of arid farm country appears to be the largest Wi-Fi hot spot in the world, with wireless high-speed Internet access available free for some 600 square miles. Most of that is in eastern Oregon, with some just across the border in southern Washington.
Obviously, the money to fund this came because of the fact they have a large chunk of hazardous government property up there that they want to keep safe, but it’s still nice to know that I could (if I was so inclined) fly down Interstate 84 and browse the ‘net.
Thanks Blake for the link.
Secret Documents About Indymedia Server Disappearance Unsealed
Apparently, it sounded like the Web hosts‘ fault (though they may have been pressured more than the documents show).
EFF last week won a motion allowing it to access sealed court documents about the mysterious disappearance of two web servers used to host news websites for Indymedia, a global collective of Independent Media Centers (IMCs) and thousands of journalists. After six months of secret litigation, EFF obtained a copy of the federal court order that resulted in the October 2004 handover of copies of Indymedia servers to the government by Indymedia’s web host. That handover resulted in the silencing of more than 20 news websites and radio feeds for nearly a week.
However, the unsealed documents reveal that the government never officially demanded the computer servers – the subpoena to Rackspace only requested server log files. This contradicts previous statements by the web host that it took the servers offline because the government had demanded the hardware. The documents also contradict Rackspace’s claim that it had been ordered by the court not to discuss publicly the government’s demand. It cannot be determined from the unsealed documents whether or not the government informally pressured Rackspace to turn over the servers.
Full Story via Library Autonomous Zone. Original story about the server takedown on EFF’s site.
Bad Design
Some beautiful examples of some poor decisions. From dumb street names to product lid designs, it’s all here. Link via BBspot.