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Changer, Jaka Zeleznikar
02.12.05
Changer, Firefox dysfunctionalities.
If chaos is a required element, deeply rooted in huge systems as the net, it is at the same time the enemy number one for new software pieces and components, that tries to bring the user a more simple and effective interaction. But this conflict is a fictitious one, because the electronic information's chaos management is not a problem that one can solve with mere technology (as it's proved by bugs in OS, security software, anti-spam and anti-virus filters, etc. etc.). Changer by Jaka Zeleznikar is a plug-in for Firefox, the promising free browser that frees the users from the messy Microsoft proprietary monopoly. But instead of refining the certainty of results, Changer breaks up the content (texts and pictures) and structural (links) foundations of the visited pages. It inserts a toolbar that can change symbols. sentences and pictures on the original layout, including link to some unpredictable websites and deleting cookies and chronology without notice. This works reminds the early net art experiments with the browser, till the subsequent evolutions, as in GoodWorld. Nevertheless this software let the power user, that uses Firefox, to face the network data instability and their chaotic manipulability.