“I don’t use bookmarks, I use Google,” says a colleague. And he’s not alone:
why bother with huge bookmark files that become so bloated that accessing them
can make your computer unstable? The hyper-efficient search system developed at
Stanford University by Google’s founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, has become
so adept at hitting the right pages in an instant that bookmarks (or
“favourites” if you’re an Explorer user) become an option rather than a
necessity. Find out how it works at www.google.com/technology/index.html
The sheer power of today’s search engines calls into question the need for
a magazine column that points you to websites when a keyword will give you a
quick tour of the sites that matter. So this is to be the last of New
Scientist’s Netropolitan columns—but we will continue to run our
“site of the day” feature at www.newscientist.com/weblinks, where you will
still be able to find reviews of all the best science and technology sites.
On the subject of last words, the Web has plenty to say. We’re pretty taken
by the unattributed “Honey, get me a fork, the darn toaster’s jammed!”, at
www.ai.mit.edu/extra/topten/old/97list49.html. An exhaustive list of last words
can be found, listed alphabetically by their utterer, at
www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/6537.
Asked for some final words of wisdom, hotel chain boss
Conrad Hilton is said to have uttered the immortal words: “Leave the shower
curtain on the inside of the tub.” Wise words, indeed—and something we can
all learn from.
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You can find some fun last words at
www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/3456/h_famous_ lastwords.html.
Offerings include: “I’ll get a world record for this”, “So, you’re a cannibal!”
and “He’s probably just hibernating”. Grumpy old
Karl Marx (www.mapping.com/words.html) had no time for such nonsense: “Go on,
get out. Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough,” he said. Er…that’s
it.
