Go Ask Alice

There's been speculation and talk about artificial intelligence. Can we teach computers to think? Will humankind slip into a virtual world and displace human contact? If so, what damage will occur within the human psyche?

My daughter made me aware of ALICE, an artificial intelligence which resides on the web. You can go ask Alice questions and conduct a reasonable chat with her. Later, come back and tell CTCN readers about your Alice experience.

Better Fonts For You

I love fonts.

Occasionally, you need to express yourself in something other than Times New Roman or Arial.

There's quite a few free font sites on the web, but most are cumbersome and filled with pop up ads. So, I get excited when I find a user friendly font site. Better Fonts fits the bill with over 10,000 easy to get get fonts and no pop up ads.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Track Me Not For Firefox Users

For those of you who use the Mozilla Firefox browser (if you don't, you should consider it), here's an interesting add on which obfuscates your searches on the major search engines. With the recent AOL dump of search engine search information, privacy concerns have, once again, become a major concern.

The add on, Track Me Not, helps deter profiling and data-profiling of your activities. When search data gets in the hands of the wrong people, who knows what can happen. No one wants to find out, do they?

Frankly, it's nobody's business.

Time Magazine's 50 Coolest Websites

Time Magazine has put together a list of 50 coolest websites from six different categories.

I've looked over a number of the sites listed and found a gold mine of interesting fun stuff. Give Wolfgang's Vault a spin and for the shop-a-holics, you must head over to Mighty Goods.


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Imminent Worm Attack: Experts Warn Of 'The Big One'

As the spotlight on a dangerous Windows vulnerability grows brighter by the hour, security analysts Thursday said that it's not hype driving the alarms, but genuine fear that a major worm attack is just days away. This is no drill. Thursday's deepening concern was fueled by several releases of new exploit code.

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Bob Dylan On My Space; No Way!

Our favorite Hibbing, MN troubador, Bob Dylan, now has his own My Space account. Look at some those friends he's added, Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Denver, and Sly and the Family Stone. I doubt that Vaughan or Denver will be making any blog posts though.

I'm getting quite a few chuckles while reading the "friend" comments. I'm thinking a handful of people have lost touch with reality and don't realize this is simply an unhip record company hawking product.

I can hear the conversation, "Hey dudes, Bob Dylan added me as a friend!"

Survey Finds Most Bloggers Are Young Whippersnappers

Under the age-of-30 novice story tellers comprise the majority of bloggers says the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

According to Pew, most write about personal experiences and life. Politics and entertainment are popular topics, too.

Survey results mentioned nothing about buck toothed fish, crows, sauerkraut, the Dodge-A-Deer 500, Cletus Reese, Mary Stockum, UFO's, Mayor Cassingham, kooky holidays or century old Coshocton news articles as popular topics. I guess CTCN is out of touch with the blogosphere.

Time To Act For Net Neutrality

In the past, readers of CTCN have gotten a taste of net neutrality and why it's important to each and every one of us. Here's a video that explains net neutrality. And don't think these corporations won't mess with your internet, they already have.

If that's not enough to get you to act, read this bit of crapola from Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska.
His answer sounds like a doddering old fool trying to decipher lobbyist doubletalk. Worse yet, these elected officials don't know jack about the Internet, yet they're affecting legislation for the benefit of the corporations.

You can sign the petition and find information to contact your senator.