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Redditor Vidzilla composed a story about the end of the world using the internet: website screenshots, photographs, social networking, generators, and news sites -you know, the way internet surfers get their information. The saga begins on January 1, 2012 and ends on the 14th (redditors who followed the story had to wait for each installment). You should click on each day in order, and enlarge the images to follow the progress, but beware that the images become increasingly graphic and may be disturbing to some people. There are also some links in the images for further reading. Each day’s reddit link also has a discussion in the comments. Link -via Metafilter
If you are reading this at work, then you may actually be boosting your productivity. At least that is what one study claims. I think a group of researchers was just looking for a way to surf the web and have a good excuse when their boss catches them. What is your take on it? Are you more productive in an office environment that isn’t constantly monitoring your computer activity?
“Browsing the Internet serves an important restorative function,” according to a report from the National University of Singapore.
So-called cyberloafing can refresh workers mentally after long periods of work, researchers said at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management in San Antonio this week.
Surfing the Web is even better for productivity than talking or texting with friends or sending personal emails, the study found.
And smart bosses would stop snooping, researchers said: Excessive Internet monitoring and surveillance only makes employees do it more, they said.
Matthew Inman at The Oatmeal reports on the current State of the Web. Not only does he have new developments, sales and mergers, new products, websites, and software, but he also gives us his opinions on all of it. The big story is, of course, the ups and downs of social networking sites. Some text is NSFW. Link -via The Daily What
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Have you ever wondered what your photos would look like if you and your friend’s faces were replaced with kitten faces? Probably not, but now you will know if you go to this link and upload your photo. You could spend whole minutes doing this yourself in Photoshop, but now you can do it with one click of a button.
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In theory this sounds like a great idea. Post an idea and you get an idea back. Freedom of the exchange of information, that’s what the internet is for right? However I could see this posing some problems when someone’s brilliant million dollar idea gets posted on TheIdeaSwap.com.
The Idea Swap lets you take those ideas you got that really didn’t come to any use, and exchange them with actual ideas from other people.
With this web toy (also known as a Javascript bookmarklet), you can turn any website into your own game of Asteroids. Drag the script to your toolbar, then activate it to begin shooting stuff on the page. You can see how I vaporized our Neatobot! Not that I would ever advocate doing that, but I needed an example, you see. Click your mouse to turn it off, and refresh the page to get whatever you destroyed back in place. Link -via Gorilla Mask
Comments Off Join us and our friends Wil Wheaton and vlogbrothers John and Hank Green and help protect net neutrality.
Step 1) Get educated by watching this video:
Step 2) Go to SaveTheInternet.com and take action!
(Via Phampants)
Writer Evan Ratliff pondered the same question while writing an article for Wired magazine about people who for various reasons had tried to start over with completely new lives . A few months later he found himself a willing volunteer to find out firsthand what the experience entailed. With a 24 hour head start, $2000 cash stuffed in his belt and a fake office to set up in Las Vegas he drove his Honda Civic across the Bay bridge, then out of California in a bid to disappear entirely. Leaving behind family, a girlfriend, and any semblance of a normal life for a month while assuming an entirely new identity.
The magazine periodically published clues and made accessible to their online community all the information a private investigator might be privy to, as well as placing a $5000 bounty on Evan’s head. His travels took him across the country a few times, his disguises changed almost daily and online groups spontaneously emerged to track and document his every move. Amateurs and professionals from coast to coast took to the chase disseminating all the details they could uncover, staking out airports and bars, even trying to glean details from acquaintances as varied as his cat sitter.
In the end it wasn’t nearly what Evan had expected when he began.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by renderanything.
The people who are making decisions about the internet are, fundamentally, deciding the access of all future generations to come. Forget Afghanistan and Iraq; these are the theaters of war where democracy will live or die. SherWeb has an overview of the most contentious battles over who controls the web.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
It was 40 years ago today, September 2, 1969 that scientists connected two computers at UCLA with a 15-foot cable and the machines were able to communicate with each other. The test data was meaningless, but the breakthrough eventually led to the formation of the internet, but there were plenty of other milestones. Which date is the birthday of the internet?
September 2, 1969: First time two computers communicated with each other.
Oct 29, 1969: Message sent from computer to computer in different locations.
1971: The first email was sent.
Jan 1, 1983: ARPANET adopted the standard TCP/IP protocol.
March 1989: Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web.
April 22, 1993: Mosaic became the first web browser.
Which date should we designate as the birthday of the internet? Link -via Buzzfeed
(image credit: Flickr user lemonfridge)
