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Letter: Tales of the unexpected

Published 2 May 1998

From Malcolm Haddon, Australian Maritime College

I enjoyed your tale of the person who was named and shamed by “nanny”
software while looking for sites on X-ray crystallography
(Feedback, 28 March).
The Web is full of such traps.

While working at the University of Sydney last year, I was looking for
information on mathematical software called LaTex (pronounced LaaTek). The
search engine found quite a lot about it, but it also turned up a few sites
dedicated to fans of rubber garments.

The time it took me to understand what was going on is a good example of
expectations determining what one sees. So I understand how easy it is to call
up an “adult-only” site in a perfectly innocent, if somewhat naive, fashion.

Tasmania

Issue no. 2132 published 2 May 1998

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