Nastic Gryzunova. Seine. Issue 64

Russian Magazine / Net-culture / Seine www.russ.ru/netcult/nevod/20000301.html

Seine. Issue 64 Nastic Gryzunova Publication date: March 1, 2000 Review of current online events and publications

To date, there have been some strange plots that make me quite happy, but they are all of the optional type. This is information that you can easily do without. Consoling myself with the thought that, strictly speaking, you can do without any information, I nevertheless present it.

Congratulations on spring, by the way. I just can't believe it.

Either mail or sex

On February 24, Tim Richardson from The Register, with a feigned seriousness (generally characteristic of this publication), reported on the latest research conducted by the British Institute of Management. The results of the study showed, among other things, that excessive e-mail reduces sexual activity. In any case, constantly reading email ranks tenth in the hierarchy of reasons why modern British businessmen experience stress. As you might guess, a stressful situation affects not only the quality of work of delayed businessmen, but also their personal lives. Half of the respondents have reduced potency; In addition, they all get tired easily and sleep poorly.

Richardson makes a reasonable point that the study's authors focus heavily on stress caused by too much mail; however, they ignore the stress that comes from receiving too little or no email—even spam. Personally, I have not met maniacs who read absolutely all the letters (all mailings, all digests, all announcements) that they receive (and to which they themselves, by the way, of their own free will, subscribed) - with the exception of myself, but I too began to lose ground. A day when fewer than thirty letters arrive is an impossible fairy tale; less than fifty - you can live; about a hundred is a normal working day. In our business, the main thing is to be able to configure email filters.

The Archbishop's Network Nightmares

If there is one person in the world who has taken seriously, quite literally, the results of the recent InterSurvey study led by Norman Nye, it is the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey. In any case, speaking last week in Liverpool, he made a big point about the fact that the Internet can disconnect people and make them feel alone. In addition, the archbishop expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the Internet, while providing extensive opportunities to access information for some, plays the role of an isolating factor for those who do not have access to the Internet. For the archbishop, the online community looks like " a nightmare in which hordes of disconnected souls stare blankly at flickering screens ."

It’s funny, by the way, that he was more affected by the conclusions of the Stanford study regarding the real and potential loneliness of users than, say, by the obvious fact of the existence of pornographic sites on the Internet. It would seem that for a clergyman this last circumstance should be decisive, just as it became decisive in determining the attitude towards the Internet of, say, Muslims, ultra-Orthodox Jews and the Russian Orthodox Church.

They offended Bangkok again

Microsoft had to make an official apology to Thailand. For the second time in five years, Microsoft insulted the capital of this otherwise worthy state by calling it a center of prostitution. This feature was published in the Encarta Encylopedia Deluxe 2000 version (Bangkok was spared in the standard version). The encyclopedia has been sold in Bangkok since October 1999, but Microsoft only recently noticed that it had offended the entire city: some activists from Thailand contacted the corporation with an indignant letter. The online encyclopedia's entry on Bangkok was immediately corrected; CD buyers in Thailand will have to wait for the next version. However, they should not have much hope for justice: in an encyclopedia released back in 1995, Microsoft described Bangkok in the same way; then there were also howls of indignation, and the article was changed. In 2000, everything happened again. Apparently, the person who wrote the corresponding article is still extremely impressed by this particular aspect of Bangkok life.

Killer ordering service

We are already accustomed to manuals on the manufacture of explosive devices published on the Internet (I have not seen any; however, I have never really looked for them; it is believed that there are many such publications; let’s take it on faith). And some unidentified Koreans, for example, offer online hiring of killers in three countries. Very nice - finally something new.

South Korean police discovered the corresponding site on the Tripod server (try now to find its unique location). The site is in Korean, everything is very businesslike, killers are offered in South Korea, Japan and the USA: “ We will do whatever our clients want... if you want, we can kill .” The South Korean police were smart enough to admit that all this was moderately witty jokes. For some reason, the police considered the site’s creators to be smart people - citing the fact that the wonderful project was hosted not on the server of its creator’s provider, but on Tripod. It doesn't take much for police to consider someone smart. Now the police are afraid that the noise surrounding its discovery will scare off the site's creators and they will never be found. However, they will most likely never be found in any case.

News in brief