Mark Pilgrim released a new tool that gives recommended reading based on any pages you feed it. I run it on my index page and it gave me a couple of recommendations besides the blogs I already read, but I didn’t get interested on those new. I will try again in a few days.
However, Mark Pilgrim’s own list yelded two new interesting blogs I didn’t previously read. I wonder about what that means…
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SpamArchive is an interesting initiative to create a database of spam that can be used to test anti-spam tools. They will accept submissions and contributions of existing spam databases to create a "quality" collection with the widest possible range. I believe this is a great way to help in the implementation of effective tools to deal with spam.
Although some are predicting the end of e-mail because of spam, I have observed most people I know which receive large amounts of bogus messages are usually willing to ignore them since e-mail is a tool too useful to be dispensed with.
Also, new tools may yet prove themselves at least sufficiently effective to reduce spam to a minimum allowing the continuity of e-mail as we know it. People can learn to create their own defenses to spam in the form of whitelists, tagging at the servers, and other techniques that can be used in conjunction to block almost all possible spam. Spammers will try to catch on, but I believe a strong community of anti-spam tool developers may be just what we need to win this fight.
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This is one of the funniest Flash animations I have ever seen! Although most Flash animations are boring, this one is pretty cool.
Yet another huge IE security hole found. This time, a malicious web page could even reformat a visitor’s hard drive. Interestingly enough, people kept saying this would happen some day, but few believed it.
As of November 1, IE had at least 31 serious unpatched holes. One more, now.
I will just keep using Mozilla.
(via Cris Dias)
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Yet another unholy use of the Google API. GooglePeople takes a “who is” question and tries to find the answer.
However, it seems they became victims of their own success: “Sorry. We’ve reached the daily query quota for our Google license key. Try back in a little while.”
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Note to self: Avoid participating in any discussion relating Microsoft vs. Anything Else, even between friends. Most of those discussion degenerate to an exchange of ad hominem and non sequitur arguments, and other logical fallacies like those. I really hate when that happens.
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Living without Microsoft is a site “for anyone who wishes to explore realistic alternatives to Microsoft”.
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I don’t know how old it is, but it is very funny: Kimble, Special Agent.
Finished reading Lord of the Flies last week, the book which won William Golding a Nobel Prize in 1983.
Its story is well know, about a group of schoolboys who are plane-wrecked on a deserted island without adults to watch over them. It is a simple plot but Gold uses it to make a deep and thought-provoking analysis of the human character and the relationships between man and society.
Golding is a master writer, and this book shows his mastery. The island descriptions, the development of the characters, and the general flow of the narrative make for a pleasant reading. Also, his use of symbols in the story requires more of the reader than a simple story would. The ending, although apparently anticlimactic, fits well with the book premise.
Overall, recommended reading.
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Watched 15 minutes. Although the movie was released in 2001, and featured Robert de Niro, it didn’t catch my interest until yesterday.
The movie starts like many action movies and I prepared myself to two hours of thoughtless entertainment. Two foreigners arrive at the USA and commit a violent murder. A homicide detective and a fire marshal must stop them. So far, the usual Hollywoodian stuff. But the movie takes off in a totally different direction when the criminals realize they can use use loopholes in the laws, the power of the media, and American culture to get away with their crimes.
Using heavy irony and black humor, the movie entertains and provokes the viewer well beyond its last minute (during the credits the director makes a final tirade) with a powerful social satire which is too uncomfortably close to reality
In short, a good movie worth the time I spent seeing it.
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