CYBERIA

On The Web

Nova

www.nova.org.au

We live in a fascinating universe that’s full of things to be curious about, but it’s often hard to find information that’s both accurate and interesting and reliably covers the topic of your choosing. That’s where Nova comes in. Managed by the Australian Academy of Science, the website aims to “provide jargon-free, accessible information covering the breadth of scientific disciplines”. This dynamic and interactive portal explores topical science and is updated to reflect the latest knowledge. Their content includes easy-to-understand explanations along with infographics, photographs, videos, animations, and interactive elements. If you’re curious about technology, space and time, medicine, or the environment, then Nova will definitely interest you. Visit the website and discover what it would really be like to live on Mars, find out how healthy food can help prevent cancer, see why the threat of coral bleaching is rising with warming oceans, learn how nanotechnology is changing our lives, and delve into a plethora of information about the subjects of your choice.

 Slither

www.slither.io

The Internet has provided us with a never-ending supply of timewasters, and a recent addition to this category is Slither.io, a multiplayer browser game that is similar to the classic Snake game. Players control a snake-reminiscent avatar which they move around to eat multicoloured pallets to grow in size. If the snake’s head runs into another snake, the player loses the game. The ultimate objective is to grow the longest snake on the server; the longer your avatar is, the higher you rank on the leader board. So if you’d like to waste lots and lots of time, head over to this website, compete with millions of players around the world and try to become the longest snake of the day.

 

News-e-land

• Google Street View plan rejected by India: Google’s plans to map the streets of India for the company’s Google Street View - which provides panoramic views of locations around the world - have been rejected by the country citing security concerns. The service has previously also caused privacy concerns in other countries, including Australia, Germany, Canada and the Czech Republic.
• Twitter relaxes character limit: Twitter has announced that it is changing the way its 140 character limit applies towards the text of tweets. A post on the company blog (blog.twitter.com) says that @names in replies and media attachments (like photos, GIFs, videos, and polls) will no longer count towards the character tally. Users will also be able to retweet their own tweets, and messages that begin with a username will reach all followers. Meanwhile, the microblogging service has been forced to lock various users’ accounts requiring a reset of their passwords after purported log-in details of millions of accounts were posted for sale on the dark web.
• Larry Page developing flying car: Google founder Larry Page has been backing two flying-car startups, Zee.Aero (which launched in 2010) and Kitty Hawk (which began operations in 2015). Zee.Aero has been working on the concept of a small electric plane that can take off and land vertically like a car and “developing a revolutionary new form of transportation”.

 

Defined

Namewaster

A namewaster is a user who creates an account on a website and then abandons it, thereby occupying a username and making it unavailable to other people. A namewaster usually registers simple or cool usernames and then doesn’t log into the account.