Web Week

Troubled pearl of the Pacific:

The Government may be sending police and troops to help sort out the Solomons but at www.solomons.com you'd swear there wasn't a problem as it bills the place as "the South Pacific as you have always dreamed it" for travellers "with a passion for adventure and exploration". The island Government's Ministry of Commerce is still touting for business www.commerce.gov.sb while the radio station www.sibconline.com.sb demands money before you can read the day's news. Travel guide Lonely Planet is more realistic www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/pacific/solomon_islands.

Net safety tips:

On Saturday, July 12, there are two free sessions at the Netsafe II conference held at the Aotea Centre in Auckland. The two sessions have six presentations, including Caught in the Web - Addiction, offending or love at first bite, by John McCarthy and Kathryn Barribal, The NetSafe Parent Standard - What every parent needs to know and Mobile phone safety issues, by John Carr.


The Listener is back:

The Listener magazine is back onlinewith a clean-looking web site that contains some copy from its weekly edition.

Same-sex parents:

Following the debate here about a Government bill that would recognise same-sex parents, there was another lively moral parenthood debate in Britain this week. It came after a newspaper revealed that a lesbian is to give birth to one of the first babies conceived in Britain using sperm provided by an internet donor service.

That site is appropriately entitled www.mannotincluded.com.

Star Wars goes online:

Star Wars is now a massive multiplayer online game called Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided. You can - for a fee - join other fans throughout the world. You explore the universe during a period of galactic conflict between Imperial forces and the Rebels fighting to restore the republic.

Apple debacle:

Is Apple's PowerMac G5 really the fastest personal computer in the world? Steve Jobs thinks so but since his announcement of the new machine last week many have raised doubts about the accuracy of Apple's benchmarks. More on the debacle at www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1136018,00.asp or apple.slashdot.org/apple/03/06/24/2154256.shtml?tid=126&tid=181

Pop-up Window blocker:

Search engine Google's new handy toolbar toolbar.google.com/index-beta.php promises to try to block those annoying pop-up windows. A beta version, it may still have bugs.

www.netsafe.org.nz/conferences/conferences_default.asp

listener.co.nz

starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com