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Check out the rumors that E3, the huge computer game trade show in Los Angeles, may be on the verge of annihilation.
Wow. Who'd have thunk? But apparently, lots of companies say E3 has just gotten to be too expensive.
UPDATE: The rumors were off a little...but not by much. E3 is about to get downsized in a major way.
Ah well...I'll miss the annual Sony party. And of course, the booth babes. But I'll get over it.
Your favorite NASCAR driver may well warm up for each week's race by playing a computer game.
Gamers, artists and scientists flock to Boston for SIGGRAPH, the world's biggest computer graphics convention.
Here's my curtain-raiser on the big event.
In addition, I'll be blogging about the conference throughout the week.
The guy who gave us Monster.com thinks what the world needs now is a really good Web portal for people 50 and up.
The fighter plane that made Tom Cruise a star has just been officially retired.
An executive with the chipmaker tries to help us make sense of AMD's decision to buy graphics company ATI.
The company's renaissance could be just beginning, according to one pundit who says we could soon see a surge in sales of the Mac.
Here's a cool new way to fight Internet fraud--by identifying machines used by crooks, and permanently branding them with The Mark of Cain!
Well, actually it's a bit of software that marks the machine as having been used by crooks. From then on, websites using this new service will refuse to do business with that machine ever again.
But what if the user wipes his hard drive and reinstalls Windows? Won't that get rid of the brand? The article doesn't say. Hmmm...this might not work.
Then again, Microsoft and some other companies use a "fingerprinting" system that records the serial numbers from key computer components like the hard drive. Why not use a system based on this principle? Even if you wipe the software, the serial numbers of the hardware will remain unchanged. Maybe that's the best way to nail the crooks.
You know how most companies let you try their beta software for free? Not Microsoft--at least, not when it comes to their upcoming Office 2007. If you want to download the beta and give it a try, it'll cost ya.
Hey, it's an election year. What do you expect?
Still, this new law to ban minors from accessing websites like MySpace at public libraries is a new low in nuttiness. What, exactly, is the point?
Getting re-elected, that's the point.
Sheesh.
Here's a good Washington Post story about the company's recent string of curious business deals, including its purchase of movie rights to a novel. How strange is that?
Here's an utterly marvelous article in which Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols explains with superb lucidity what Microsoft could learn from studying the open source software movement. It's first-rate stuff. I wish I'd written it, but I doubt I'm bright enough.
Hmmm...it seems that Mr. Vaughan-Nichols has also written an earlier piece on what Linux could learn from Microsoft. I better read that one too. I can certainly think of a few things, like consistent user interfaces...but Vaughan-Nichols has no doubt beaten me to it.
What is it with those Dell laptops? Seems another one's gone and caught fire.
And they say Apple's laptops run hot...
This story sure seems to say so. Then again, this story says different.
Don't misunderstand. I've always liked the idea of a truly international body overseeing Internet standards. But last year's proposal to put it under the control of the UN filled me then--and now--with undisguised horror. An international body made up of nations with democratically-elected and stable governments can be made to work, and actually strikes me as a good idea. But countries like China, Saudi Arabia and the like should have precisely nothing to say about the future of the Internet.
The company that makes the file-swapping software will pay $115 million to settle copyright lawsuits and vow to sin no more.
You've heard of inflight refueling, of course. But now the US Air Force is working on a way to rearm planes in midair, to avoid having to obtain landing rights in countries like, say, France.
The Bay State's biggest computer tech company is facing ferocious challenges from IBM, Hewlett-Packard, NetApp and pretty much everybody else who can bolt two hard drives together...
Well, not literally. But the world's second most populous country has decided not to participate in Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child plan.
This actually happened some weeks ago, and I'm only just learning of it through Slashdot.
As a Dutch drug-addict-turned-therapist has learned, there are a lot of videogame addicts out there.
Ah, you seely Americans! Once again, we French have outfoxed you. While you peedle along weez your puny 1.5 megabyte Internet connections, we in France are beginning to deploy true broadband! Oui, mon ami! We weel provad up to 2.5 GIGABYTES to peoples' homes! Try and beat zat weeth your Meekey Mouse Intairnet services!
You do not believe me? Go to Slashdot and see for yourself, seely American person!
The memory chip company Corsair is living up to its piratical name with a new feature on its website. With a touch of a button, everything on the site is rendered into pirate-speak.
Wonder if these guys know about it?
...with an ultra-cool device from Nextel that lets you watch the race within the race, even as you're surrounded by 100,000 screaming race fans.
Here's the best excuse yet for weighing too much: Scientists say they can turn stem cells from fat into new muscle tissue--like heart muscle, for instance.
Pass the ice cream and cake!
A few good ideas on how to keep your computer cool in the summertime. Me, I vote for turning the durn thing off...
Would you watch a TV special on the next edition of the venerable NFL game Madden? Oh, I almost forgot--it'll cost you $20 to watch.
If you like the idea, drop me a line. I'd like to meet somebody that hardcore about Madden.
Well, no. But the online company's profits aren't flowing quite as fast as expected...
Use your phone's web browser and Google to get real-time traffic reports. Just don't wrap yourself around a lamppost while you're at it.
The blog Ars Technica offers interesting and informed speculation on the AMD acquisition of ATI.
Ah, m'sieu, eet eez so sad. Ze open-source office software called OpenOffice is much to be preferred over ze products of ze evil Microsoft. And yet...alas! Eet seems zat OpenOffice ees eensecure! Zut alors!
Over the weekend, a private eye attending a hacker convention in New York City was busted by the FBI. It appears he's been charged with obstruction of justice and witness tampering, as a result of his efforts to track down a federal informant for one of his clients. The client was charged with laundering money for dope dealers.
Nasty story.
A Penn State computer scientist says the era of ever-faster processor speeds is over. Faster chips run too hot and use too much power.
The CEO of one of the world's leading Internet gambling sites is busted as he changes planes inside the US. His business is theoretically illegal here, though it's perfectly acceptable in most of the world.
The digital movie camera goes Hollywood. But is it ready for its closeup?
So AMD pays $5.4 billion for graphics chipmaker ATI.
Why? It puts AMD into an entirely new business, at a time when I'd have thought the company would concentrate on maintaining its recent competitive successes against Intel.
Meanwhile, Intel is bailing from its distracting foray into communications chips to focus on its core processor business.
What does AMD know that I don't? Plenty. But they'll still have to show me something before I'll regard this as a shrewd move...
I mentioned Microsoft's announcement that it's opening up all the secrets of its Windows software.
Now a Fortune magazine columnist says that this commendable openness could mark the beginning of the end for the world's largest software company.
...to all those podcasts? Six percent of Internet users, according to this survey. I guess that includes me, because I've listened to one or two. But who on earth has time to do so on a regular basis? Life is too bloody short. Unless you've got a long commute to work--which, thank God, I don't--it seems like a mighty waste of time to me.
Blog-reading is a very different matter, of course. I can read through several blogs in 15 minutes or so. Makes more sense than sitting around listening to people drone on about...whatever.
The creator of Mystery Science Theater 3000 has found a clever new way to make fun of Hollyeood's cheesiest creations--the podcast. You rent or buy a movie, then download the podcast, and listen to snarky commentary while the movie plays. Sounds like fun.
Looks like biometric systems like fingerprint scanners are the next big target for the bad guys. Think these systems can't be spoofed? Think again.
The company's cute laptops are gobbling up market share. Heck, now that the touchpads have been programmed to permit right-clicking, even I might buy one.
A new Google search service helps people with vision disabilities find easy-to-use websites.
Cool idea.
Remember when we bought Internet access by hours per month? A Washington DC firm wants to use a similar approach to get penny-pinching dial-up Internet users to switch to broadband.
Microsoft has done seen the light! The company has set forth some pretty sensible corporate principles that will allow rival software companies full access to all the capabilities of Windows.
Now if they'd only do the same for Microsoft Office...
I can't help it. Yahoo is going to sell it for a rather stiff $1.99. But the song will come in "pure" MP3 format, with no digital rights management software. That means I can play it on any music player and copy it to any computer. Period.
It's such a cool thing to do, I've got to buy the song, whatever I think of Jessica Simpson's talents.
Earnings tanked at chipmaker Intel. No wonder they rushed to roll out their new chip line. The company hasn't looked this shaky in many a year.
Did you see those recent stories predicting a bad quarter for Apple Computer?
You know that antivirus software on your computer? The software that protects your machine from evil intruders? The software that lets you surf the Internet in safety?
Those little widget programs are popping up everywhere these days. Microsoft is adding them to Vista; Apple already offers them in Mac OS X; PC users can download a program from Yahoo that puts widgets on their machines. And you can get them by installing the Google Desktop or Opera, the free web browser from Norway.
Which brings us to this--a new tool from Opera that supposedly lets anybody create new widgets without having to learn how to program.
Sounds like just the thing for ignoramii like me...
...as India stifles a bunch of major blog sites, for reasons unknown.
We'd expect this sort of thing from China. But...India? Why?
The chip wars heat up. Intel is hitting hard with new chips that are apparently much better than the current generation from Advanced Micro Devices. But AMD has plans of its own...
Microsoft's upcoming operating system really has only one important selling point--improved security. So what if Vista really isn't very secure at all? What if it's actually worse than Windows XP?
The mind reels...
...to keep Intel Corp.'s Israeli scientists from developing new computer chips. They just move their computers down to the bomb shelters and keep on going.
Meanwhile, about the only scientific innovation ever to come from the Islamist fanatics is the use of rat poison on bomb shrapnel, to increase the chances of victims bleeding to death.
Guess whose side I'm on?
I don't think you'll see flash memory replacing hard drives anytime soon. But the research firm In-Stat thinks basic laptops will make the switch in the next half-decade or so.
The heck with social networking sites! it's time for social bookmarking. Anyway, these guys hope so.
The big Hollywood studios plan to let people download movies and burn them to DVD. They're using digital rights management software that'll prevent the burning of multiple copies.
I've never purchased a DVD burner; never had any need for one. Till now...
Wooden USB thumb drives...hand carved!
…and auto sports will never be the same.
At yesterday’s NASCAR Busch New England 200, the nice lady from Sprint Nextel practically shoved her company’s FanView device into my hands. “You’ve got to try this!” she chirped, or words to that effect.
One auto race later, I see what she meant.
I attended a couple of races in September 2004, and found the experience fascinating. I hung out on pit road, reveling in the technical complexities involved in keeping the rides running and getting them back on track in under 20 seconds.
But down on pit road, it’s hard to see the actual race. You’re right at ground level, and can only see the cars when they whiz past the main grandstand and the pits. The rest of the time, they’re out of view, and you’re stuck with looking over your shoulder at a huge DiamondVision type screen on the opposite side of the track. The screen’s so far from the pits that it’s pretty hard to see much. And so you’re often left guessing about who’s passing whom, or which car spun out on turn three.
Enter FanView. Problem solved.
Sprint Nextel, which of course is lead sponsor of NASCAR’s premier league, the Nextel cup, has created a remarkable sporting gadget. The company claims it’s based on their “4G” cellular phone technology, more advanced than anything offered by their rivals. Plainly I need to read up on 4G because I’m amazed by what this thing can do.
Switch it on, and you get a live TV feed of the race, similar to what the folks at home are seeing., with cameras focusing on the most ferocious position battles on the track. That means that you can see the aspects of the race that really count, no matter where you are at the racetrack. Despite its small screen, the FanView’s color video image is amazingly good. There’s the occasional dose of digital static, but hardly enough to matter. Nextel’s found a way to beam broadcast-quality TV into this lovely little box.
For audio, FanView pipes in the MRN Radio coverage of the race. Those guys do first-rate play-by-play work to keep you focused on the overall state of the contest. And you can actually hear what they’re saying. Somebody at Kangaroo.TV, the company that built the FanView hardware, has obviously attended a few NASCAR races, and noticed that they’re hellishly noisy. Even many fans wear those earmuffs you see on airport baggage handlers. FanView’s headphones work much the same way, surrounding your ears and deadening the noise so you can hear the radio broadcasts. Besides, the bright yellow headsets look kinda cool, like you’re a member of a racing team.
Once you get used to the basic features of FanView, you can really have some fun. Nextel has video feeds from five of the cars in the race. At the touch of a button, you can see a live driver’s eye view of the race from each of those cars. You can also dial into every driver’s radio frequency and listen in on the messages between the driver and his manager—fascinating chatter about whether to take two or four tires at the next pit stop, or warnings from the spotter that another car is moving in to pass.
Want to read race statistics? Who’s lead for the most laps or made the fastest run around the course? Just push the right buttons and you’ve got the information.
It’s amazing stuff, available for rental at NASCAR tracks for $50 a race or $70 a weekend. And there’s no reason to restrict its use to motor racing. This gadget would also be a hit with football fans. I’m not so sure about baseball or basketball, though.
In any case, FanView is one of the more impressive pieces of digital gear I’ve seen this year.
Jack Bauer, that is. The ultra-ruthless secret agent of the Fox TV series 24 has been recruited to warn young people about the risk of predators using popular social networking sites like MySpace--which just happens to be owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., the same conglomerate that owns Fox.
Even Jack Bauer has to jump when Murdoch speaks. Especially when it's for a good cause.
(Hat tip to Ars Technica.)
Just days after EMC Corp. said it will spend $2.1 billion to buy data security company RSA, we find that the bad guys have figured out a way to defeat RSA's two-factor authentication system.
The Space Shuttle has disengaged from the International Space Station and a visual inspection indicates that all is well for a return to Earth on Monday.
I still don't think the thing is safe. Let's pray that I'm wrong, as usual...
I'm at the NASCAR race in Loudon, NH this weekend. Working on a story, and having a rather good time as well. Did a quick interview with Elliott Sadler, about his videogaming habit; planning to chat in a few minutes with Martin Truex Jr.
I tried to do the same story back in 2004, but wasn't able to hook up with the drivers. Had a great time, though. So of course, I've been looking for a chance to come back. Once again, I'm enchanted with the sounds, sights and smells of auto racing. I think I'm becoming a fan. Think I'll blog more about it later...
Somebody at UPS figured out that it takes more fuel for a delivery truck to turn left than to turn right. So what is UPS doing? Remapping their delivery routes to avoid left turns, that's what.
Just goes to show: There are millions of ways to save energy.