Category: Internet

# Hashtag TURNS 13

The humble # hashtag has completed 13 on the twitter in August. An average of 125 million hashtags are tweeted each day. In fact the makers of Twitter had not even added the hashtag feature as it was thought it to be too nerdy for common people.

Hashtag was used earlier in c-language in the file header to include external file often present in the library. For example there is a library of files called header files which are readymade pieces of software to be used in the present program.

It was the users who discovered that tweeting a term with # as prefix makes the term a clickable link. This way, not only does the post get categorised under a certain topic, it also becomes searchable. 

Clicking the tag shows users all the tweets containing the tag, making it easier to follow a discussion. In tech parlance, such public tagging is called “folksonomy” which is defined as “a user-generated system of classifying and organizing online content into different categories by the use of metadata such as electronic tags such as hashtag”

Tumucumaque

Tumucumaque was the codename, Firexfox’s version 4 beta was been given. Actually, it is world’s largest tropical forest park. It is situated in Brazil in Amazon rain forests. It has been not been inhabited by humans. There are birds and animals which are exclusive to it only and are found no where else around the world.

In area it is even bigger than Belgium. It is adjacent to Guiana Amazonian park. Mozilla foundation is partnering with WWF in its efforts to conserve the National Park. The Amazon is a region of superlatives. It spans the borders of eight countries and one overseas territory, is the world’s largest river basin and the source of one-fifth of all free flowing fresh water on Earth. Its rain forests are the planet’s largest and most luxuriant, and home to—amazingly—one in ten known species on Earth.

Tumucumaque is the world’s largest tropical forest park and protects more than 9.5 million acres. While many of the forested areas of the Amazon are under threat from mining, deforestation, agriculture and illegal wildlife trade, Tumucumaque has become a sanctuary for iconic species like macaws, white-bellied caique parrots, harpy eagles, giant anteaters as well as the Amazonian cats: jaguars and pumas. It’s one of our world’s most important natural commons, where diversity flourishes and resilience abounds: just like the Mozilla community strives for every day when building a better web—our digital commons

The above description is partially from the introductory page about Firefox version 4 being named Tumucumaque. Mozilla foundation is doing praiseworthy work in providing free the better robust internet browser and other products. I have been using it since the day it was launched although for the first time had to use internet explorer for downloading it. Below are some pictures of fauna there.

I wish a very happy future for Mozilla foundation. There is a link about this.

World Wide Web: Some interesting facts

Internet has become a part of our lives. Technology is making exponential progress. Messages, pictures and documents can be send to any part of the world in seconds. Paperless transactions of money can be done within minutes. We can get in touch with our friends and others live through internet.

The World Wide Web or WWW as it is popularly referred was conceived in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN. It was invented to share documents among the scientific community across the globe using hyperlinks. And now it has reached the common man and there are at present about 4 billion people across the globe use internet.

Tim Berners-Lee

First website went online at CERN in 1991. Since at that time Tim Berners-Lee and his colleagues had browsers, few people in the world are aware. Today there are about 1.9 billion websites.

The term “Surfing the net” was coined by Jean Armour Polly a librarian in the university of Minnesota Wilson library in March 1992.

First email was sent by computer engineer Ray Tomlinson in 1971 from one computer to another sitting right next to it at Cambridge Massachusetts but through a network of computers.

First image was uploaded by Tim Berners-Lee on to internet in 1992. Photo was of a parody pop band “Les Horribles Cernettes“.

Internet is not WWW alone. It is much bigger and WWW, email and internet telephony are some of its parts.

Trolls !! Origin of the Term

Today, hardly there will be someone who is on the Internet and not using any social media platforms like twitter, Facebook and YouTube. And almost everyone using social media must be familiar with the term “Troll”.

There are people who intentionally attack others online by posting offensive comments, totally unrelated comments, pictures and memes to deviate attention, distract, demoralise. These are called Trolls and what they do is called “Trolling”.

The victims, when they see their beliefs or convictions invaded get provoked and react with helplessness and anger. The more the person tries to defend himself more they are harassed. What is more is thin some social media platforms comments can be anonymous meaning it is even not possible to know the Troll.

Some Trolls do this for amusement. There are others who work on behalf of political parties and do the trolling of the rival leaders. For this they use the comments section of the post. Thus they begin what are called Flame Wars.

Where does the word Troll come from?

In the Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore, dating about 1610, A Troll is a class of beings who dwell away from the common people in isolated places like rocks, caves, and mountains. They are dangerous to the human beings and harassed the passersby. Troll in the mythology means an ugly Giant.

Smartphone Security

Smartphones have become in an indispensable accessory for the modern day life. It can perform so many tasks in addition to the original functions of making calls and SMS. Now it can make photos and videos , financial transactions, browse the internet, mail. In contrast to the personal computer, mobile phones do most of these chores using Apps. It also holds the personal information of the owner.

Hackers can send you malicious code hidden inside the innocuous looking videos or email and acquire the complete access to the private sensitive information. It happened recently and victim was not none other than the Jeff Bezos. A malware was sent to him hidden in a video message in Whatsapp allegedly by Saudi Arabian prince Mohammed bin Salman. Hackers were able to break into his phone and copied his sensitive information for blackmail.

Some suggestions about keeping the mobile info safe:

1. Keep system’s OS upto date.

2. Caution when opening videos or documents from unknown persons.

3. Install antivirus

4. Download apps only from app store

5. Backup data regularly

Internet Data is Mind Boggling

Scale of data generated and used is astronomical in the internet. It becomes fruitless to figure out this on yearly, monthly even day basis. The scale is so mammoth that even 1 minute data will send your head spinning.

What happens in 1 minute on internet 

  1. Facebook: 9,00,000 logins
  2. Whatsapp: 16 million text messages sent
  3. YouTube: 4.1 million videos viewed
  4. Google Play Store: 34200 app downloaded
  5. Instagram: 46200 posts updated
  6. Twitter: 452000 tweets
  7. Tinderbox: 990000 swipes
  8. Emails sent: 156 millions
  9. Spotify: 40000 hrs listened
  10. Amazon Echo: 50 devices shipped
  11. Linkedin: 120 new accounts opened
  12. GIFs sent via Messenger: 15000
  13. Snapchat: 1.8 million snaps created
  14. Spent online: $751522
  15. Netflix: 70017 hours watched
  16. Google: 3.5 million search queries.

Geek Vocabulary for Breakups 

Social websites and apps for online chat have taken the world by storm. Technological advances in providing the internet on the mobile phones have enabled the people to be in touch all the time. Sometimes it is even not possible to avoid this connection.

People express their feelings and display their achievements to the world on the social sites. They post photos and selfies and update their statuses continuously. Many people have met through these social websites, had got married and many have been cheated.

People these days are always in haste and hence a distinct lingo is developing for texting. A whole new vocabulary has also born and is rapidly expanding.

When there are breakups among the people especially the celebrities in the West, then go through avoidance, showing the “i don’t care” attitude. Here are some geek terms connected to this breakup phase.

PHUBBING

The term is concatenation of Phone and snubbing. When you’re in the company of your other half and they spend most of their time on the phone. New research suggests that 22.6% say it causes conflict and 36.6% say it has made them feel depressed.

GHOSTING

The ultimate silent treatment When your partner ignores you completely and inexplicably cuts off all contact with you and becomes totally hidden.

SLOW FADE

If your partner wants to avoid an awkward conversation, they’ll slowly start avoiding you. Not as severe as ghosting, they will dramatically cut down calls and texts. And don’t expect more than a few words when they do respond to your SMS messages.

REVENGE BODY

When one of the partners especially the female, channelises her frustration energy and go to gym and tones are body. This is to make the ex partner to repent and look for himself what he has lost by breaking up.

CONSCIOUS UNCOUPLING

A good old-fashioned breakup in which two famous people announce in the press their breakup. This is the classic mode to tell the world as if world is caring for such useless news.

HEARTBREAK COACH

Capitalizing on the fads of rich, some people have become coaches to guide their lives and help the rich to visualise the dream partner.

There is this Social Slang website which gives the information about the whole lingo prevailing on the social media.

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