Posted 09/30/08 at 01:24:41 PM by Mark Edward Soper

Cnet.UK's Crave blog decided to dig around in the Internet history attic recently and bring us what it calls the "50 Most Significant Moments of Internet History." Before you click the link (at the end of this article), let's try a little quiz to see what you know about your favorite time-waster/research tool:

1. Which of these building blocks of the Internet predate the first Super Bowl? A. WWW B. GIF image C. Arpanet
2. Which came first? A. Apache B. Mosaic C. RSS
3. How old is the MP3 file format? A. Old enough to drink (21). B. Old enough to be in college (19). C. Old enough to get a driver's license (16).
4. Which search site was originally known as "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web"? A. Yahoo! B. AltaVista C. Google

Hit the jump for the answers.

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Internet, geek quiz, history, Crave, Cnet

Posted 07/30/08 at 02:51:45 PM by Paul Lilly

Believe it or not, your browser might know more about you than even your spouse. Whether you use Firefox, Internet Explorer, or any of the several alternative browsers, a peek in your browsing history reveals what games you're playing, where you shop, what you shop for, where you booked your upcoming vacation, and it even knows what turns you on. But up until now, your browser had no way of knowing whether you're a male for female. Not anymore.

Mike Nolet, CTO and co-founder of AppNexus, has devised a nifty little algorthm that analyzes your browser's history and then predicts your gender probability. The code comes from a modified version of Paul Cook's Social History javascript, and with a little bit of tweaking, Nolet has made it capable of predicting whether you're a male or female. But just how accurate is it? After quickly analyzing the sites I had recently visited (it works much faster on Firefox than IE), the likelihood of my being male came back 100 percent. Save for this one Halloween party in college, that's pretty damn accurate. And eerie. Are there really no women who dig shopping at Newegg, throwing down cards at Pokerstars, and drooling over Kawasaki's 2008 sport bike lineup?

Try it out for yourself and post your results below.

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windows, Software, browser, JavaScript, history, gender

Posted 06/25/08 at 03:55:46 PM by Mark Edward Soper

Dig the past? Wondering what your grandparents' generation was up to? Like free photos? Flickr's The Commons is the place for you! Now, the Smithsonian is getting into the act by joining The Commons, an online collection of copyright-free photos from a variety of institutions, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Library of Congress, and the Powerhouse Museum. Learn how you can explore the past - and share what you know about it.

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flickr, photo sharing, The Commons, history, Smithsonian Instution