BBC News: social networking sites monitored

Would the government ask Royal Mail to keep track of the recipient of each letter or postcard that I send? More press reports on monitoring of the internet ... thanks to Patrick for spotting this one.

Oldest English words identified?

There's been a flurry of reporting about this research at the University of Reading. Is this bad science, bad journalism or just a bad press release? Here are the links to:

1. University of Reading press release

2. Article in Nature (2007)

3. Language log coverage

4. BBC News coverage and interview on the Today programme

One thing it shows is how difficult it is to explain what we do in the corpus-based study of language. It should not be about whether I like the latest word that has been included in the Oxford English Dictionary, as I've been asked before!!

Can and should ISPs block child abuse websites?

Plenty of comments on Rory Cellan-Jones' blog post about this topic with strong views on both sides.

The truth about recycling

I spotted this interesting article on recycling in the Guardian this week.

European working time directive 2012

Just spotted this note on Alan's blog about the end of the UK university if the 48 hour working maximum is applied. Of course I'm reading this on a Sunday evening :-)

If you use Google Reader to read blogs, have a look at the trends section and it'll tell you what time of day and what day of the week you read blog posts. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of blogs I read on a Sunday evening between 4pm and 11pm!!

Today is Safer Internet Day

As reported by BBC News and elsewhere. For the main site, visit the InSafe homepage.

Why is it "Safer" and not "Safe"?

Windows to Mac tips part 3: switching between apps

If you're used to alt-tab on Windows, then you can use cmd-tab on MacOSX to switch between applications. Note that Windows switches between all open windows for each application, whereas the Mac only switches between applications. If you wish to switch between windows within one application then you need cmd-backquote (cmd-`) although I've found that this doesn't work in all apps.

There are more MacOSX keyboard shortcuts on the Apple support site.