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Webitz - Checking out the Web from an amateur's point of view
There are several websites such as Amazon, Booklending.com and Lendle.com where you can download books for free to read on your Kindle or phone.
But a different kind of online writing has recently begun to surface, according to 'Ruby Pseudo'. Several young people have begun writing books on Facebook, by using the 'notes' application. (The "what's on your mind" part of Facebook has a limited number of characters, rather like Twitter, but other sections of the site are much freer in how much you can write at a time.)
'Keisha The Sket' began life as a text novel (similar to those produced in Japan) - hence its rather peculiar use of the English language, at least for a novel.
For example: " 'Yeh so wot u on?' Ramel allerted me. He was 1 peng boi dt i had been chatin 2 4 tym. "
There are several others listed on Ruby Psuedo's site. You may have a little trouble checking them out, depending on your particular access to Facebook.
The first Mac-specific malware/virus threat, Mac Defender, turned up just a couple of weeks ago, causing havoc for a number of Mac users.
But it's now reported that Apple's call centre tech support have been told not to help remove Mac Defender because they are "not supposed to help customers remove malware from their computer".
That's customer service for you. Or maybe it should have another name...
Seemingly in the agreement Mac users have with AppleCare, it states that customer service isn't supposed to help with malware. Fortunately, a number of the customer service people have actually helped. Good on them!
Which is just as well, as even though Apple doesn't think the threat is anything to write home about, the number of people falling for the malware is increasing. This may be because the malware appears to be professionally made (unlike those malwares that can't spell English properly and don't seem to understand grammar), and because Mac users have thought they were immune to malware.
Well, maybe that used to be the case...
Chromebook is going to be the first laptop/computer controlled from the cloud. All your information will be stored away from the computer itself, and if you wreck your machine in some way, nothing will be lost.
The first question I ask is whether this will work here in New Zealand, where broadband is still quite slow in some parts of the country - for instance, where I live, I can watch a video at normal speed during the daytime, but in the evenings, it will just load and load and I have to leave it and do something else before I can watch it. Which puts paid to catching up on tv programmes I've missed when they were shown.
The second question is like the first: if everything is cloud-based, will my machine really boot up in 8 seconds? It seems a bit unlikely - although I'd be willing to give it a try if someone wants to pass along their new Chromebook for me to have a go on...!
Security is supposed to be top of the line - you can read the details here - but we all know if doesn't take long for some hacker or hoaxer or violator to get in and muck things up. And if everything is in the cloud (a place of no fixed abode, I guess?) then how is the cloud itself protected...
Is there actually such a thing as a cloud? (Reminder: find out exactly what 'the cloud' means..!)
The Chromebook page talks about the 'sandbox' - this seems to be the new in-word. I've seen it used in relation to businesses recently (in fact, one newish business was called The Sandbox). With the sandbox approach things are isolated from each other so that an infection won't affect other parts of the system. Sounds great.
But it gets better: if the sandbox does get infected, then on the next boot-up everything is cleaned before you've even got started, by something called 'Verified Boot.'
I can see great advantages in the reassurances Google is giving us in regard to Chromebook. Of course, as one writer points out, you're also giving everything over to Google, which may be a distinct advantage for them.
Well, time will tell. No doubt the first users of Chromebook will be letting us know quickly whether there are any problems. Roll on June 15th.
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330 Posts dating from January 2007
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