Why Google Wave can be bad for freedom of speech

I'm really excited about Google Wave and can't wait to see how it will work in every day life. But one aspect of it is a bit worrying.

I don't know if you have read 1984. In that book the government is constantly rewriting the past publications (books, newspapers, etc.), so they always seem like perfect predictions at their time proving to the government is always right.

In Google Wave waves are stored on the server and clients are immediately updated when a Wave is modified. Suppose a news organization switches to Google Wave from traditional websites. If it happens then they can constantly tweak their publications, suppress unwanted thoughts from their articles if they prove to be controversial, etc. It would be a true 1984 world: the readers would always see fixed articles and they could not tell if it was the original article or a modified version.

Sure, a Wave has a version history, but it may require special privileges to access and it could even be modified.

Wave is a wonderful tool, but I wonder what such a world look like where the government mandated using Google Wave, so it can constantly tweak its propaganda.

A Great Windows Disk Usage Analyzer

WinDirStat is a great little utility. It helped me quickly find 22GB of leftover files on my disk. I recommend it.

The ugly duckling of Google Chrome turns into a beautiful princess OS

Interesting and very good news for Linux, since it will run on a Linux kernel, so Google will surely do some improving on Linux too which is good for the community.

End of an era: Gmail is not beta anymore

Hell froze over.

How to get a new IP address

Sometimes you want a new IP address. For example, if you are especially naughty and want to download too much stuff from Rapidshare then it blocks you if you are over your limit.

Don't despair! If you're on an ADSL connection then you can easily get a new IP address by disconnecting and reconnecting. Provided your ISP is set up this way, but it probably is. Try it.

Route planning for dummies

At this site even grandmas can get driving directions. Just point and click.

Provided there is a route between the cities. :)

Change desktop background color

It's pretty easy actually: right click on the desktop, select Properties from the menu, select the Appearance tab of the dialog and there push the Advanced button.

In the Advanced settings dialog you can change the color of any part of your desktop. Enjoy.