These days are the age of unreason. Nobody listens to reason anymore, and everybody hates one who seems infatuated with logic. It is either we love or hate something or somebody, and discussions about merits can only bring about slashing arguments and scathing retorts.

Nobody engages in discourse anymore. All that we do is argue. Have we forgotten what our elders used to tell us, “arguments give off no light, only heat?”

Yes, we maim and kill with our words. Whenever we run out of reasons or alibis, we let loose our mean words. We attack the person, we focus on the weaknesses and personal warts of those we argue with, hoping that it would perhaps mask our own weaknesses and insecurities.

We commit murder, with our words.

Google’s Worry #1: Bing

Google’s big boss Eric Schmidt admitted recently he’s not afraid of Facebook. He does not lose sleep over Apple. What causes him headaches then?

It’s Bing.

Bing, Microsoft’s Web search engine, overtook Yahoo in August to become the second largest search engine in the United States. Schmidt’s confession has confirmed Bing’s emergence as a serious contender in the online search market.

It’s either Bing is doing a good job or Schmidt has a low level of pain tolerance. After all, Google still has about 65% of all Internet searches in August, according to data from Nielsen.

Stuxnet Stuns

Cybersecurity experts in the U.S. are studying the Stuxnet computer worm. So far, they have had no success in learning who created the malware or what is it made for. Some experts believe that the worm is designed to attack a nuclear facility in Iran.

Found moving about in the shadows on Siemens systems in India, Pakista, and Indonesia, the malware incidence rate seems highest in Iran. Stuxnet is found in power facilities, as well as in water purification and chemical plants.

Designed to infiltrate a facility’s control network and then destroy it, Stuxnet seems tailored for Siemens supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems that are usually used to manage water supplies, power plants, and other industrial facilities.

10-to-the-one-hundredth

Google announced recently the winners of the Internet search giant’s “Project 10-to-the-one-hundredth” world-changing ideas contest. Launched two years ago, the project has awarded $10 million to four nonprofit groups and a business startup to help finance their respective social development projects.

The nonprofit Khan Academy, for example, will get two million dollars to expand its free online library of education videos. The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences will also get two million dollars to open more centers to help promote graduate-level math and science studies in Africa.
This corner, however, is sorry to inform you, dear readers, that no organization from the Philippines is among the contest winners.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.