Cyberia

By Sameen Amer

…AND STILL FALLING

News-e-land

- Spam: 30 years and counting

It's been thirty years since Gary Thuerk – who has the dubious honour of being the world's first spammer – a marketing manager for Digital Equipment Corp. sent a sales e-mail to 393 users on Arpanet on May 3, 1978. The number of spam messages has since risen to around 100 billion per day, as the problem continues to be a nuisance for Internet users and costs companies and users billions of dollars annually.

- Microsoft abandons Yahoo! bid (woohoo!!)

After an initial takeover offer, followed by speculation, meetings, talks, discussions, and then some more speculation (including the possibility of a hostile takeover), Microsoft has withdrawn its 42.3 billion dollar bid to buy Yahoo Inc. Microsoft was willing to pay $33 per share, while Yahoo's board demanded at least $37 per share, nearly double of Yahoo's stock price of $19.18 at the time Microsoft first made its bid (around three months ago).

QOTM for May

Blogging: constructive or narcissistic?

Email Us your answers by the 25th of May at cyberia_for_us@yahoo.com. And if you're emailing me on the 25th of May, don't forgot to send birthday wishes! *cough cough*

Question of the month

The first thing that comes to your mind when you read the word "computer" is...?

Arslan Hussain: When I think of the word computer, the first thing that strikes me is that it is an object which computes all the thing and values and the second thing that immediately comes to mind is that it is a device by which all the quarrels and disputes can be easily solved.

Farisa Sadaf: Computer, hmm…my best friend! The universe of human mind enclosed in an electronic media. When I had never seen a computer but had heard a lot about it, I was very impressed with this invention. It was, at the start, like a dream.

Then, with the Internet facility, I found a vast universe of entertainment and information just through the window of my LCD. I never ever get bore in its company. Whenever I use it, I really get more and more astounded with its new applications. In short, I think about the human mind that made it, and the Great Allah who enclosed the universe in a human mind, and the computer is just its minor proof.

On The Web

Twitter

www.twitter.com

Twitter is a micro-blogging service that helps you stay connected with friends, family, and co-workers through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: what are you doing? With Twitter, you can communicate with your friends and always know what they're doing. The site also allows you to set "quiet times" if you want, so that you're not interrupted. Twitter puts you in control and aims to be the "modern antidote to information overload".

Line Rider

www.linerider.com

Every once in a while, you come across a website that is so absurdly useless that it leads to an equally absurd conversation with a friend. Here's a sample:

me: i'm trying to figure out how line rider works

friend: er, what is line rider?

me: well, you draw a line, and a tiny rider on a sled slides down it

friend: lol, where is it?

me: linerider.com

me: ah, it works :D

me: awww, the tiny person is falling

me: and falling and falling

me: and still falling :S

me: and ...

me: never mind

friend: haha!

(five minutes later)

friend: lol, nice game. addictive.

(ten minutes later)

friend: u've got me addicted to line rider

friend: i love making the guy fall! :D

Yes. We're cool like that.

(And for those of you who still don't get it, Line Rider is a flash game where the player draws lines that act as ramps and hills for a small rider on a sled. Very silly. And very addictive.)