The Internet

Earlier this year I paid my dues and became a member of Internet New Zealand. There was a bit of healthy peer pressure behind my decision to join up, but also a sense of obligation. I make my living online. I spend a lot of my non-work life online. The web is crucial to me staying in contact with friends and colleagues. But I don't know as much about the internet - and the threats to a free and open internet - as I should.

So, if you've ever looked at your computer screen while browsing blogs or emailing home or facebooking, and wondered - how does this page appear in front of me? how does Amazon remember my credit card details? what's the difference between 'http://' and 'https://'? why do I use Internet Explorer 6? - you should check out this cute little online book from Google.





20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web covers topics from open source browsers through to cloud computing, HTML5 to protecting your privacy online. That might sound dry, but please - just give a few minutes of your time to trying it out. It's a lovely interface to play with, if nothing else; but overall, I guarantee you'll learn something.* If nothing else, you'll find this handy link to the What browser? site, which will instantly tell you which browser and which version you're using (and has a handy 1 minute video that tells you what a browser is).

*Sure, the book is an advertisement for Google's browser, Chrome. But there's no harm in reading it anyway.

Memo to self

You know how some days you go home steaming and unleash a diatribe about the stupid person who was saying those irrational things which are patently untrue about this thing that you absolutely love but are, like, totally not at all biased about?

Days like that, I should remember this two part interview with Clay Shirky on why the internet isn't making us dumb, and this talk by Neal Stephenson from the Authors@Google series.



With thanks to @gnat and @maupuia for the tip-offs.

I love you internet

It's official. I love the internet. In playground lexicon, I love the internet so much I would marry it.

Today I'm loving the web because the official Google Blog has released this analysis of search behaviour during last week's American VP debate.

As Biden and Palin debated, watchers went to the web to answer their questions in real time - "what's a maverick?" "meaning of theocracy?" "pronunciation of nuclear?".



I caught the last half hour of the VP debate via a webcast on the BBC site, which had dynamic commenting from both BBC staffers and just good old interested (presumably signed in?) people. Using Twitterfox I could track Tyler Green's tweets, as he carved out a new niche as a pundit. I found out about the BBC cast from a colleague via Yammer. It was awesome. I love you, internet.

The internet: where your husband can pay for your shopping online

Today I found nothing of interest in my feedreader, so I'm lazily going to point you to this clip on YouTube, a 1969 forecast of our internetted future.



I did a quick office check to see whether I was being naive in accepting that this really was made in 1969, and isn't just a piss-take. An American colleague assures me that the appearance of a young Wink Martindale confirms its antiquity.