Gearfuse

It might have taken them nearly a decade to do so, but the most popular knowledge hub on the net, Wikipedia, has finally launched their official mobile optimized site.

The newly launched mobile adaptation is supposed to be optimized for all “fully-featured” smartphones, including the Palm Pre, iPhone, Kindle and Android platforms. So far both English and German are supported, but there are more to come. I’ve heard that visiting Wikipedia on the Palm Pre automatically redirects you to the mobile site. Doing so on the iPhone does not, at least yet.

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Sometimes our lives become controlled by what we do online. This rings true for many of you I’m sure and especially myself. You have Facebook with its constant addiction, Twitter, Tumblr, Wikipedia and Google. Thousands of services keep us connected, but have you ever wondered how they’re all interconnected? This Web Trend map from The Information Architects resembles a subway map showcasing how each service is relevant to one another.
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Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin may be working the whole naughty librarian vibe, but she’s apparently having a little bit of trouble with the internet. After John McCain revealed that he had chosen the Alaskan governor as his running mate, editors discovered that several new users had spent hours leading up to the announcement making 30 flattering edits to Palin’s Wikipedia entry. While some Wikipedians gave the pro-Palin editors awards for their work, many others made accusations of internet sock-puppetry. Editing on Palin’s page has since been restricted.

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Hand me a pencil, ’cause I’m about to turn it into a 1983 Cutlass Sierra, baby. At least that’s what macho-man MacGuyver would do. Thanks to the retarded world of Wikipedia, we now have a staggering list of accomplishments from everyone’s favorite TV star. I’m partially fond of this one:

When near a deadly laser grid, MacGyver lights a pack of cigarettes to make the lasers visible. He then smashes a pair of binoculars, removing a prism to deflect a laser beam back to the emitter, destroying it.

At least he never whipped out his dong and turned it into a speedboat.

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I still love reading books. No matter how much is available for me to peruse online, there is something about reading off of a binded volume that never gets old. The only problem is that sometimes I find myself trying to copy and paste certain words and phrases, only to discover that my fingers don’t come with that feature (yet.)

Dixau allows you to scan text from print and transfer the said print to your computer, automatically linked with relevant information using Google and Wikipedia references. You can grab your own for $90 for some really simple Wikipedia entry editions. — Andrew Dobrow

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It appears that no matter where you live, you can be sure that the government is wasting time on your dollar. For example–a Japanese bureaucrat was reprimanded recently for neglecting his duties so that he could contribute 260 modifications to the Japanese-language Wikipedia entry on Gundam.

Apparently, the problem is not confined to one man and his love for gigantic anime robots–the agriculture ministry also reprimanded five other bureaucrats who made a total of 408 entries on Wikipedia since 2003 on subjects related to movies, typographical mistakes in billboard signs and local politics. In response, the ministry has disabled access to the site for all of it’s workers. “The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam,” ministry official Tsutomu Shimomura noted.–Sean Fallon

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