Monitortan

Microsoft went to the fashionable Spanish city to reveal its upcoming plans for the Xbox 360. The stuff sounds pretty good too: A real-time strategy version of Halo, an exclusive Xbox 360 version of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, and more.

They're plainly trying to suck all the oxygen out of the room before Sony and Nintendo launch their new game boxes. Somehow, I can't see Nintendo being hurt too much--the company's loyal fans will turn out no matter what, and the Wii is both cheap and deeply cool. But Sony's PlayStation 3 may be in just as much trouble as the rumor mill suggests. We shall see.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 03:24 PM | Permalink

Voodoo PC, that is. Hewlett-Packard is acquiring the company, which competes with Dell's Alienware brand in the high-end gaming PC space.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 03:19 PM | Permalink

The US looks to build some big ol' ray guns to blast enemy satellites. Well, the Chinese seem to be doing much the same thing, so it looks like the arms race is on.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 03:14 PM | Permalink

I been getting a good deal of late. I might just try a few of these tips.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 03:12 PM | Permalink

IBM Corp. embraces a new open approach to filing high-tech patents, in an effort to single-handedly force reform of America's clunky intellectual property laws.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 08:15 PM | Permalink

The Chinese are firing lasers at US spy satellites to blind their sensors. No law against it, I spose, but it's not good news.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 05:24 PM | Permalink

Executives of the embattled computer company get an earful from angry congressfolk. Some involved in the scandal take the Fifth. That doesn't bode well...

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 05:20 PM | Permalink

Then you've got a problem. As does Seth Finkelstein.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 05:13 PM | Permalink

I'm blogging today from the MIT Emerging Technology conference.

Of course you care.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 02:49 PM | Permalink

The company said it'll have quad-core chips for sale before the year's out, long before archrival AMD.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 02:47 PM | Permalink

Remember when data security company Symantec warned that Apple Macintosh computers would soon become a prime target for spyware peddlers?

Well, never mind.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 02:42 PM | Permalink

Movie director Peter Jackson will go Bungie-jumping, in a bid to help Microsoft with its most popular videogaming franchise.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 04:51 PM | Permalink

Intel says it's working on a processor with not two, not four, not eight, but 80 processing cores on a single chip.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 04:47 PM | Permalink

Even if your hard drive crashes, you can often save its data--if you know how.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 01:13 PM | Permalink

A report claims that the Bush administration has stifled a scientific report claiming that global warming may be causing an increase in the number and intensity of hurricanes.

So, are we safer if we don't know?

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 05:07 PM | Permalink

Check out these cool homeland security tech tips. There are some smart ideas on how to prepare for a major disaster.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 03:34 PM | Permalink

The NFL's greatest running back, Shaun Alexander, appears on the cover of the popular football videogame Madden 2007. And you know what happens to athletes whose pictures adorn the Madden box? Bad things, man. Bad things.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 11:24 AM | Permalink

Americans love our computers, but we don't want to study computer science.

Go figure.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 11:17 AM | Permalink

Business Week suggests that its purchase by Dell Inc. has damaged the image of elite computer maker Alienware.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 11:07 AM | Permalink

Remember that report of a Lenovo laptop catching fire last week? There was no word on whether it was another defective Sony battery. Until now....

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 09:35 PM | Permalink

AT&T is moving some of its call center jobs out of India and back to the US. I guess the cost savings didn't make up for the dissatisfied customers.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 09:30 PM | Permalink

Get your mind out of the gutter and pay attention. The airline had told owners of Apple and Dell laptops not to bring them aboard because of fears the batteries would catch fire. Now, Virgin is backing off, a little.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 09:23 PM | Permalink

I wrote a piece for the Globe awhile back about an MIT prof who's working on a capacitor that could power electric cars and recharge in just a few minutes. He told me that others have had the same idea.

I guess so.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 09:18 PM | Permalink

And it looks like they'll be made of silicon too. That should make them easier to manufacture.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 09:12 PM | Permalink

Helmets that measure the force of tackles. Ingestible chips that track players' body temperatures and warn of possible heatstroke. Software to help coaches pick winning plays.

Isn't technology grand?

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 12:50 PM | Permalink

You Americans hev too long hed an unseemly amount of eenfluence ovair ze French Intairnait. Now your AOL has finally sold its French operation to a local firm. Let ze liberation begeen!

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 11:18 AM | Permalink

This time it's a Lenovo, at Los Angeles International Airport. But the company won't say whether the battery was made by Sony.

So let's all guess, shall we?

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 10:55 AM | Permalink

If Facebook is worth a billion, maybe YouTube is worth, oh, say, $1.5 billion?

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 02:20 PM | Permalink

GigaOM sends word of a new Internet startup that'll offer free stock market trades. Yep. Not $10 a trade, but free.

Wow. This could be big. Really big.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 02:07 PM | Permalink

Hurd knew as much as Dunn, according to this fascinating story from the Washington Post (may require registration; try bugmenot.com if you want to sneak in legally).

So why is Dunn the only one out of a job?

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 02:02 PM | Permalink

The boola-boola schoola in New Haven is the latest to announce it will give away much of its course material on the Internet

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 11:01 AM | Permalink

The social networking site may sell itself to the search engine company for $1 billion.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 10:59 AM | Permalink

Ever find an application running on your computer, and have no idea what it is or what it does? This happens a lot to Windows users. All too often it happens because our machines are infected with spyware. But often the mysterious program is perfectly benign. We just don't know that it is, and we don't know how to find out.

Well, here's how. Just type the name of the program into this very useful database of over a billion Windows programs and device drivers.

This I can use.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 06:29 PM | Permalink

Social sites find God. Or He finds them. Or something.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 01:13 PM | Permalink

These tech firms want no part of a "net neutrality" law.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 01:09 PM | Permalink

Here are a bunch of programs you can load onto one of those USB keyring drives and run on any old PC. And here are more of the same.

Neat.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 01:04 PM | Permalink

Did the Bush administration pressure climate scientists to downplay evidence of global warming? A report from Salon says it sure looks that way.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 12:59 PM | Permalink

You say you want a machine that boots up instantly, and can store data by the terabyte?

Just you wait.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 12:56 PM | Permalink

It seems Apple has noticed all the problems people are having with iTunes 7. The company is suggesting a few fixes.

Here's my suggestion, Apple. Next time, get the software right before you release it. You wanna start looking like Microsoft?

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 12:54 PM | Permalink

The search company warns that its online ad sales are slowing down.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 12:51 PM | Permalink

Go ahead, you foolish American--laugh! Even eef zis story is true, and ze lovely mademoiselles of la belle France have grown a little plump, zey ahr steel Frenchwomen, mais non?

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 10:34 AM | Permalink

The company's spy scandal doesn't seem to have hurt its rep with the military. Hewlett-Packard just landed a 10-year $5 billion deal to supply computer gear to the Army.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 03:14 PM | Permalink

Nothing to do with tech. But if you love actor/comedian/singer Dean Martin, this site'll make you think you've gone to heaven. And if you don't love Dean Martin...you will.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 02:12 PM | Permalink

Those zany guys at MIT! What will they think of next?

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 12:36 PM | Permalink

I knew that those Diebold voting machines were insecure, but this is ridiculous.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 12:31 PM | Permalink

Now it seems that Hewlett-Packard attempted to spy on a journalist's e-mail habits. But even if this is true, this can often be done in a manner that's perfectly legal. Here's how.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 12:21 PM | Permalink

Amid reports that Dell's recall of Sony-made laptop batteries could cost it a quarter-billion dollars, another laptop maker, Toshiba, recalls a big batch of Sony-powered laptops.

Sony's making itself a lot of enemies these days...

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 12:04 PM | Permalink

You guessed it---it's International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Need I say arrrr?

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 12:01 PM | Permalink

This purports to be a way to retrieve the Microsoft CD keys from your computer, in case you've lost them. That could be useful...

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 11:26 AM | Permalink

Intel builds a chip that uses laser light instead of electrons. That could change things.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 10:17 AM | Permalink

A Seagate-eye view of the future of bulk data storage.

And an interesting, not-entirely-upbeat essay on the first half-century.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 11:14 PM | Permalink

The music and movie industries just keep trying to invent new ways to prevent people from making pirate copies of their products. Fine with me, except everything they devise also makes it harder for law abiding folk to make legitimate copies for personal use.

But that hasn't stopped the entertainment moguls. Now they're planning to try embedding RFID chips in the disks.

Hey, it might work.

Chortle.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 11:09 PM | Permalink

My upgraded edition of Apple's music player program always crashes during shutdown, but runs fine the rest of the time. But it seems that many usershave had worse luck than mine.

Looks like they let this one out of the garage a wee bit early, yes?

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 11:05 PM | Permalink

The big Hollywood studios aren't embracing the Blu-Ray format for high-def DVD disks. Instead, they're lining up behind the HD-DVD alternative. And that could mean disaster for Sony, which is putting Blu-Ray in its PlayStation 3 game machine. Indeed, this is the main reason the machine will cost about $600.

Sony's PlayStation 2 was a gamble too. It incorporated standard DVD at a time when hardly anyone had the technology. That time, the gamble worked, and the PS2 helped DVD movies replace videotapes. But this time, there are two contending standards. By picking Blu-Ray, Sony made a huge bet that it can ill afford to lose. But it might just lose anyhow.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 10:55 PM | Permalink

The Brits are famously fond of putting closed circuit TV cameras in public places, to deter crime. Now they're adding loudspeakers, so cops can shout warnings at litterbugs and graffiti vandals.

Useful? Possibly. Creepy? Certainly.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 10:41 PM | Permalink

Meet...the Mythbusters!

It's a wonder they're still alive...

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 10:45 PM | Permalink

A blogger and intellectual property activist claims that Microsoft's upcoming Zune music player can't play the songs people have already purchased from a variety of music download services like Rhapsody. These songs use Microsoft digital rights management software to prevent piracy, and Microsoft either can't or won't "crack" that software to allow users to play the songs on their new music players.

If correct, this is one heck of a screw-up, and another reminder of the dark side of digital rights management.

I begin to wonder if the music industry and everybody else wouldn't be better served by saying the heck with it. Just sell the music in unrestricted form, and trust the customers not to abuse the privilege.

Hey, it could work...

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 10:38 PM | Permalink

This excellent Business Week story about Apple Computer's master product designer Jonathan Ive is the must-read piece of the day.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 10:26 PM | Permalink

Experts say that if someone launched a major attack to bring down the Internet, we wouldn't know what to do.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 12:45 PM | Permalink

They're not playing games any more. It's all about the Benjamins.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 12:41 PM | Permalink

One of the world's leading antispam blacklists is hit with an $11.7 million legal judgment. But UK based Spamhaus is responding with a shrug.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 12:33 PM | Permalink

Princeton University scientists show that it's easy to program those computerized voting machines to steal elections.

No surprise to me, or to any serious and knowledgeable computer user. I have no use for the paranoid babblers who say digital voting was used to steal the 2004 election. But they're sure right about the fundamental absurdity of using these machines. How do we know what they're doing? How do we know they don't arrive at the polling station already programmed to cheat? Without some secondary system to act as a double-check one would be a fool to trust one of these gadgets.

In Quincy, Mass, where I live, you vote by marking a paper ballot with a black felt-tipped pen. It's easy and reliable, and you've got the paper ballots on hand if there's any doubt about the accuracy of the count. I've yet to hear a sensible reason why this system should be replaced by a heap of microchips.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 03:09 PM | Permalink

Microsoft drops a few details about its upcoming portable music player, designed to challenge the mighty Apple iPod.

I hope the product is better than its name.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 02:57 PM | Permalink

That's right--the wonderful free operating system now comes in a Christian version.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 02:54 PM | Permalink

A software glitch makes the vaunted two-wheeled people movers fall over. So Segway is recalling them. Every last one.

Sigh.

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 11:16 AM | Permalink

Nintendo's new game box debuts in mid-November at a price of $250.

Outstanding!

Posted by Hiawatha Bray at 11:11 AM | Permalink