Advertisement
Dublin: 9 °C Tuesday 19 March, 2024
Peshkova via Shutterstock
Week in Web

Weird Wide Web: the week in online oddities

The internet’s best offerings in social media, tech, science and weird news.

WELCOME TO THE Weird Wide Web – where we take a look at some of the internet’s best offerings in social media, tech, science and weird news.

Death of the password

Earlier this year, Wired senior editor Mat Honan woke up to find his entire digital life had been destroyed by hackers. Although his Apple, Gmail and Twitter passwords were all robust, composed of between seven and 19 characters, they were – like the most passwords – ‘daisychained’.

All they actually wanted was Honan’s three-letter Twitter handle (@mat) but to delay him from retrieving it, they wiped every one of his Apple devices – iPhone, iPad and Macbook – deleting all his messages, documents, and every photograph he had of his 18-month-old daughter. Once a familiar sequence is identified, it’s only a matter of time until your password to everything from Facebook to you bank account is cracked, Honan says.

Now he asks if that, in an increasingly digitised world, is it time to kill the password?

Image: mkabakov via Shutterstock

Finally – your guide to the ultimate Facebook profile pic

Your long search is over: Buzzfeed have collated the best information available to humanity regarding Facebook profile pictures. They’ve been very fair – so whether you’re a man or a woman, prepare to strike envy into the hearts of everyone, everywhere.

Ersler Dmitry via Shutterstock

How to deal with sycophantic Twitter followers

As part of a much-needed guide to negotiating the potential pitfalls of modern communicationKatie Heaney of Buzzfeed gives the best advice ever – EVER – to a person wondering how to deal with a particularly sycophantic follower on Twitter:

OK, here’s the deal, straight up: The Internet is the most annoying thing I can think of. What’s everyone doing? What are we talking about? What are these words we’re making up? Why is there more than one My Little Pony fetishist, and why are we making it easier for them to connect with each other? Have you ever tried explaining to your mom what a subreddit is? She won’t get it because it literally does not matter in any way, and she has shit to do. The Internet is very helpful and important and it is the future (fine, the present), but it is also the actual worst. And I say that with love, but also with hate. Everything about it is going to bother you at least half the time. This you must accept.

Try to argue with this. You will not be able to do so.

SMIZE!

What?

Top class: Trya can create a halo of light around her head with the power of her smize. Can you? (AP Photos/Chris Pizzello)

If you want to “have the fiercest photos of all your friends” (aka “look like a deranged alien”) then why not download the Smize Yourself! app by the Tyra Banks Company?

Animatronic extravaganza

Check out the flippin’ awe-inspiring animatronic showreel by the Gustav Hoegen.

(Subtext: Prometheus was brilliant. Don’t say otherwise. The end.)

Uploaded by 

Your Voice
Readers Comments
4
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.