Same ol.

It was blisteringly hot yesterday, as it has been recently but today we have a true respite. It's 23C in the flat and about 18C outside. Not too bad.

I had a good chat with Kate, one of my two evening students. We went over that day's car/driving stupidity, politics, etc. I wish the other student had made more of an effort to join in but she rarely talks unless I really prompt her to.

Moving on ...I expect better than filth like this from Deutsche Welle.

1. Oooh, they use cookies! Isn't that naughty?! ...So 1999. Cookies are actually the unique ID that is referenced next.
   
2. Oooh, they record your IP, a "a series of numbers that uniquely identifies the connecting device." Umm, no it doesn't. It's not unique, most of them are shared between hundreds or thousands of customers per "unique IP". Those that aren't are often recycled (DHCP).
3. This is really about some German dork's worries about Google's planned acquisition of Doubleclick, a company so shitty that, as the article says, reaches up to 85% of the internet population due to the plethoric spew of their crappy advertising.

"Paradoxically, Google prides itself on the same transparent philosophy that critics say it is lacking," says the article. What BS.

I challenge anyone to go to Yahoo or any other crappy search engine and see if you can find the following:

1. A blog talking about all of these concerns and more.
   
2. A privacy policy that's actually readable and very clear about what information they're gathering.
3. When Yahoo, Microsoft or anyone else will destroy the record(s) of your visit. Google will do it anywhere between 18-24 months.

Trusting Yahoo or Microsoft - HAH! - to be more open or forthcoming about what and how they do what they do is sheer stupidity. As the article says, Yahoo and Microsoft do the same damn things as Google does e.g.: collecting data about your visit which web servers do by default anyway - and using that to figure out how to better their services.

It's trendy to carefully inspect a horse-as-a-present in the mouth but that doesn't mean it isn't stupid. If there's a better search engine out there ...wait, no, there isn't.

Well that's about it. As usual I need to take my bath and hit the road pretty soon. English to be taught and so on.

Oh last thing. There was a crappy article by the NY Times about traveling to Krakow. Their copy editor or fact-checker must be on holiday too or suddenly the money in my US account is worth a LOT more since they claim the exchange rate is nearly 1 USD to 9 PLN.

That article is stupid because: Wow, someone found all the trendy places. Yes, please, I want to be deafended by the same crappy music at every place I visit. Also, can I stay in an overpriced hotel or sleep over a drunk college student in a hostel and pay $50/night for that? What, you've got a list of those very places?! Great. I think Val was paying about $33/night for a single room, single bed with shared bathroom and it was right on Florianska for god's sakes. Do some research, NY Times!

At least the article was positive although it did note upon the pervasive hand-wringing church and church-goers who bemoan the drunk British people here. Funny enough, there is an advert - everywhere - about three of Krakow's cultural icons sitting on a bench in the Rynek with massive hangovers. There's been an outcry about this cause it sends a bad image to all of the drunk pensioners, students, politicians and frankly everyone. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt, folks.