Web Forum: Internet news

Sep 18 2009 by Andrew Jackson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A NEW campaign called 10:10 is hoping to bring about a 10% reduction in Britain’s carbon emissions next year.

It can only be done if people rally round to support it, which you can do online at www.1010uk.org. Doing your bit isn’t all that arduous – take fewer flights, eat less meat, don’t buy so much stuff, don’t waste so much stuff. A lot of it’s just common sense. But if everyone can do a little the combined effect could be dramatic.

WHAT THE INTERNET KNOWS ABOUT YOU

GO to www.whattheinternetknowsaboutyou.com and you might get a bit of a shock. The site uses very simple trick called ‘history sniffing’. The history in question is your browsing history – the list of websites you’ve been to – which is automatically stored on your computer and updated all the time. This site ‘sniffs out’ what’s there and displays a list of sites it knows you’ve looked at. Why? To make a point really – that your web browsing is never as private and secure as you think it might be.

SEE YOU IN IKEA HEIGHTS

IF you wanted to make your own soap opera and had some friends willing to be the actors but couldn’t afford to build your own sets, where would you do the filming? In Ikea, obviously. One group of funny Californian thespians did just that using Ikea’s ready-made bedrooms, kitchens and office spaces as film locations for their hilarious spoof ‘Ikea Heights’. So far, four episodes have been shot and the store still doesn’t know a thing about it. Watch the show at www.ikeaheights.com.

BROWSING AROUND... EARLY COMPUTERS

CHARLES Babbage and the Difference Engine

www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/onlinestuff/stories/babbage.aspx

A Difference Engine built with Lego

acarol.woz.org

Read the story of the Manchester Mark 1, aka Baby

www.computer50.org

Run a ‘Baby’ simulator on your desktop

davidsharp.com/baby

CSIRAC, Australia’s first computer

www.csse.unimelb.edu.au/dept/about/csirac

The story of Konrad Zuse, creator of the Z1 computer

www.epemag.com/zuse