Light Start – All the shareware, Twitter algorithms, Chinese Opera, and WhatsApp emoji
Brett Venter
Doomed to repeat – Time-travel to Windows 3.1 with The Internet Archive
If you’re young enough to not remember Windows 3.1 (or MS-DOS), then we have to explain something to you. The operating system arrived in a box. A box with about 25 to 30 (it’s been a while) discs, each of which had a capacity of 1.44MB. There was also an oversized floppy disc version which we’re never going to speak about again. These discs had to be inserted, in order, while they were installed and installation would take an entire damn day, because nobody knew how Windows worked except Bill Gates. And if a disc was corrupt or some goon at the factory put the wrong sticker on the wrong disc, you were in for a very, very bad time. The reason we’re explaining all this? Because people have it easy these days. So take some time out to see what we had, back in 1994 (in South Africa), with The Internet Archive’s Windows 3.x Showcase. Without the pain-in-the-ass installation hassles. Know your history and all that.
Twitter has started rolling out opt-in (so far) algorithmic timelines
Twitter users just about lost their minds recently with the announcement of an algorithmic out-of-order Twitter feed. They said the changes wouldn’t be happening soon. So… um… yeah, that’s actually happening. Now. The rollout is taking place, with users having the option to “Show me the best tweets first” in their settings. The opt-in nature of the feature is, unfortunately, temporary. If you don’t decide to see what it does when it’s available to you, it’ll eventually be turned on by default and Twitter will just tell you that they’re going to be switching you to an algorithmic feed. Because that’s not going to upset anybody at all, is it?
You remember Opera, don’t you? The web browser so many of us used before smartphones were a thing, back when mobile data was even more expensive than it is now. Yes, that’s actually a thing. Opera is still around but it might be changing quite soon. A Chinese consortium, made up of Kunlun Tech and Qihoo 360 — with the backing of two different investment firms — have offered to buy out Opera to the tune of $1.2 billion. They’re making the offer in Norwegian Kroner but most of you are more familiar with the Dollar, since it’s been beating up the Rand and taking its money on a daily basis of late. Opera have been looking for a buyer since last year and it seems that they might just take this offer. We would too, in their position. The only question is: What would Opera look like afterwards?
WhatsApp on Android is about to get more emotional on you
February is always an emotional time, for a whole lot of reasons. You have a date, you don’t have a date, you got the bill from December… there’s a lot going on. WhatsApp on Android is giving you a chance to better express yourself, with a new batch of emoji rolling out for its users. First noticed by Android Police, users will have a lot more smileys, hugs, and inverted icons to play with. And before you get too mean, yes, we know that iOS 9.1 users have had these for a while now. Don’t run it in.
