tips and tricks

How to measure a website’s IQ?
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The creator of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee, has made an odd request: for a kind of rating system to help people distinguish sites that can be trusted to tell the truth, and those that can’t.
Berners-Lee was speaking at the launch of the World Wide Web Foundation, which aims to ensure that everyone in the world benefits as the web evolves.
In his speech he referred to the way fears that the LHC could destroy the world spread like wildfire online. As the BBC puts it, he explained that “there needed to be new systems that would give websites a label for trustworthiness once they had been proved reliable sources.”
He went on to say that he didn’t think “a simple number like an IQ rating” is a good idea: “I’d be interested in different organisations labelling websites in different ways”. Whatever process is used to hand out the labels, it sounds like a bad idea to me.
Berners-Lee himself directed us towards some of the its biggest problems:
“On the web the thinking of cults can spread very rapidly and suddenly a cult which was 12 people who had some deep personal issues suddenly find a formula which is very believable…A sort of conspiracy theory of sorts and which you can imagine spreading to thousands of people and being deeply damaging.”
There are plenty of arguments online already about whether Scientology is a cult. I find it unlikely anyone will be keen to step in and label sites on either side as not to be trusted. Others might reasonably argue that all religions – whether established or not – should come with a warning message.
As for wading in to put a stop to conspiracy theories, I can’t image anything their proponents could benefit from more.
Berners-Lee also mentioned the system would help people find out the real science behind, for example, the LHC’s risks. You might think handing out rating for sites about science would be easier, with publishers of peer-reviewed science, for example, receiving a top rating without problems.
But there will be papers in the archives of any journal that have been entirely superseded. And a whole lot more that present results that are valid, but can be misleading to some readers. Web licences to ensure that people only read sites they can handle are the next logical step.
Fortunately it’s much more likely that the whole idea will quietly be forgotten, which will at least prevent Berners-Lee receiving one of the first “potentially misleading” badges for thinking it up in the first place.
Let’s hope the World Wide Web Foundation and its laudable goals have a rosier future.
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Categories: News, Tips & Tricks Tags: net, New, web, website
Laptop Battery Saving Tips
July 25th, 2008 Amy 4 comments
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The following describes how to extend the battery life using Power Management and/or your computers power saving feature. These are some tips especially for the Sony VAIO Laptop users because each laptop has different functions and options to save up battery. Check out these top 5 power management tips for increasing battery life.
1. Decrease LCD brightnessSelect a lower LCD brightness level for the setup item, LCD Brightness, of VAIO Power Management. The smaller the level number is, the darker the LCD turns and the longer the battery lasts.Select an LCD brightness level among from Level 9 ( light) to Level 1 (dark). When No Change is selected both for Plugged in and Running on batteries, note that changing the power supply source does not affect the LCD brightness. You can change the LCD brightness, for example, with the keyboard of your computer. For more information, see the manual of your computer. On some models of the computer, Adaptive is additionally available for selection. When Adaptive is selected, the ambient luminance is measured for automatic adjustment of the LCD brightness.2. Use the power saving featureSelect VAIO Maximum Battery or VAIO Ultimate Battery in the Power schemes drop-down list on the Power Schemes tab. The selected power scheme option is displayed for Power Scheme on the Power Schemes tab. VAIO Ultimate Battery may not be available for selection, depending on the model of your computer. Provided for reducing power consumption by lowering the operation clock of the video chip. Select On or Off. Selecting On reduces power consumption.3. Save power when not using your computerWhen you temporarily leave your desk, place your computer on Standby. Standby refers to placing your computer in power saving mode while retaining the current work state. To place your computer on Standby, click Start, Power Options, and then Standby.When you are not using your computer for a while, place your computer into Hibernate. Hibernate refers to shutting down your computer after saving the current work state into the hard disk. To place your computer into Hibernate, press and hold the Fn key and press the F12 key.To use the battery longer, place your computer on Standby as often as possible. When you are not using your computer for a while, place your computer into Hibernate; and when you are not using it for the time being, shut down your computer.You can recover the previous work state of your computer faster when your computer is in Hibernate than when it is shut down. If your computer is on Standby, it takes a much shorter time to recover the work state as compared with recovery from Hibernate.4. Disconnect unused peripheral device.Unplug the connector of unused peripheral devices from your computer. Select Enable, Disable, or No Change to specify power management of the Memory Stick slot. Selecting Disable disables the Memory Stick slot but reduces power consumption of your computer. When No Change is selected both for Plugged in and Running on batteries, note that changing the power supply source does not affect the power management of the Memory Stick slot.