The NYPL Digital Gallery

Vasco just shared this with me:

• Open Firefox 1.x
• Type in blog to the line where you usually enter the URL
• Type return and wonder

What happens? After a while, Firefox redirects to Blogger.com. Try this with various other words like sport, basketball or computer (I like this one) or world. Your result will vary with the language settings of your browser.

If you compare this with the result list of a google search, you end up with the same top results. So, when typing in a word to the URL entry field of your Firefox, it’s pretty much the same, as if you press on „I feel lucky“ on Google.com for that word.

I don’t feel that comfortable with this feature and reminds me a little of this incident, where the german Firefox was redirecting through an affiliate when using the builtin eBay search: Firefox: eBay-Suche mit Umleitung (german)

When something is meant to be free (as in free speech), I don’t want such things happen without my permission.

Update: Kiesows shows how to deactivate this behaviour: Enter „about:config“, hit enter and search for „keyword“. Rhere you can disable it or change it to a real google search.

Ein cooles Spielzeug und so vielfältig: da es die IR Codes aufzeichnet, kann man nicht nur einfach wahllos durch die Kanäle zappen lassen, sondern auch die Lautstärke ändern, Videotext einschalten, etc..

Da das Gerät auch ohne eigene zutun weiterarbeitet bis die Batterie leer ist, ist für eine Menge Spaß gesorgt :-)

Simply brilliant and funny. Some excerpts:

7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don’t believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you’re not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you’re not grown up enough to handle a gun.

15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us crazy.

Whoever needs this code, can take it. I will not change my iTunes Account just to get this song.