Internet porn is good for you
No--really. New scientific research proves it. Trust me. Or not.
« September 2006 | Main | November 2006 »
No--really. New scientific research proves it. Trust me. Or not.
Those Diet-Coke-and Mentos guys are going to get paid for their hyper-popular videos. Good idea. Offering pay for the hottest vids could result in some brilliantly creative stuff. Money tends to make people more creative, don'tcha know...
Censor the Internet? China? Never! How dare you accuse us of such a thing?
Extreme Tech bemoans the sorry state of Linux gaming.
Half man, half robot. All cool!
They're rolling out a new line of hard drives that encrypts absolutely everything. Period. No questions asked. You need to enter a password just to boot up. And nobody, but nobody, will be able to read your data but you--not even Seagate.
This could be deeply bad news for the CIA and the cops. Most crooks, spies and terrorists still don't encrypt their data. What'll happen when their computer does it for them, no questions asked.
In their determination to put a stop to software piracy, the folks at Microsoft have designed Vista to inhibit upgrades to your computer. Windows XP already attaches itself to a particular set of hardware, but it does allow the owner to make a good many upgrades, like a new motherboard, hard drive or video card.
But Vista will allow only one major upgrade to your computer. After that, if you make a major change the machine won't boot any more unless you contact Microsoft and persuade them you're not a thief.
Apparently it won't be too difficult to satisfy Microsoft and get your software reactivated. Still, I'm thinking I'll just stick to XP. Better yet, I'll just go Linux. This Microsoft anti-piracy crapola is getting to be more trouble than it's worth.
Actually, we need more power plant workers. Seems a whole lot of them are soon going to retire and nobody knows where the next generation will come from...
Faulty Internet information led cops to raid an innocent person's home looking for downloaded kiddie porn. For some bizarre reason, basketball star Shaquille O'Neal was one of the raiders.
The acquisition of RSA, a leading data security company, raised a lot of eyebrows. Why would data storage leader EMC do that?
I'm actually a fan of Sting's pop music. But how dare he make such a shipwreck of the songs of Elizabethan composer John Dowland? Just because you've got a few platinum disks under your belt doesn't mean you can get away with anything you please...
No, it's not a technology story. But I've loved John Dowland's music since high school. I've heard many a recording of his songs. So when I stumbled across a review copy of Sting's new album, I took a chance and gave it a listen. Ah well...won't get fooled again.
If you want to get fooled, go right ahead...
...for making millions of defective laptop batteries.
Up for a little schadenfreude? Then check out the computer industry's biggest flops, flubs and blunders...ever!
Read and enjoy!
It seems there's a lilttle gay action in the controversial new game Bully. Anti-gaming activist Jack Thompson has complained about it in an e-mail he sent me, but I suspect this won't be nearly enough to justify a Mature rating for the game.
By the way, here's what I wrote about Bully.
Well, well, well...some banks issuing those "contactless" credit cards that you just wave past the card reader have been using defective security practices. That means that bad guys could steal data from the cards without even touching them.
It seems there are ways to prevent this, and many card issuers use them. But others don't. Smart move, guys.
Looks like Microsoft wants to start making chips too--perhaps for a future Xbox.
This report claims that Nvidia, the graphics chip maker is about to enter the X86 processor market, in a bid to keep up with AMD's acquisition of graphics chipmaker ATI.
...against Skype, the free Internet phone calling service. The Jordanian government hates it, not because it's non-Islamic, but because it ravages the revenues of the state-owned telephone company.
An online meeting meant to mollify rival software makers didn't go exactly according to plan...
Peachy!
The movie to be based on the marvelous Xbox game has been scrapped.
But wait...
Perhaps it's not quite dead yet!
Or it soon may be, now that American and British scientists have created a prototype invisibility cloak that makes solid objects disappear.
With booming iPod sales and a nice uptick in purchases of Mac computers, you might think there's no reason for Apple to throw in the towel. But analysts at Gartner say otherwise. They think it's time for Apple to stop manufacturing computers and focus entirely on making great software--always the company's strong suit.
With rival chipmaker Intel on a tear, investors are wondering if AMD's heralded surge is finally starting to peter out...
They don't just censor the Internet. China is still cracking down--hard--on Christians who just want to pray in peace.
Let's all pray for them. Yes, you too.
I've been wild about the online data backup service from the first time I tried it. And I'm not alone.
Frankly, if you've got computer data you're desperate to preserve, you'd be crazy not to pay $50 a year for a Carbonite subscription.
British spam blacklist Spamhaus reverses its earlier decision and dives into a US federal lawsuit aimed at shutting them down. A top Chicago law firm will represent Spamhaus pro bono. This could get juicy.
I gotta have my Internet. Me, and a lot of other folks.
A new poll shows that quite a few computer buyers may purchase their next desktop or laptop machine from Apple Computer.
Suddenly, Indian "body shops" famed for bringing foreign workers into the US are starting to export well-educated Americans to jobs in India.
...and I didn't need a computer to predict it. But it looks like the Hollywood elite are trying to develop computer software that'll predict which movies will be hits and which will flop.
Here's an idea--just make good movies, with intelligent scripts and solid acting, with reasonable budgets and a minimum of unnecessary special effects nonsense. I'll bet you'll do just fine.
Pretty bloody awful, according to CNet's list of the worst tech to emerge in the third quarter of 2006.
The venerable Reuters wire service has set up a bureau to cover news happening in the virtual world of Second Life. It's the first time a real-world media organization has assigned a reporter to a digital gamespace. All well and good, but is there any real news happening there? I mean, news that the rest of us would care about?
McDonalds in Japan gave away 10,000 MP3 music players. Too bad all of them were infected with spyware that could steal the users' passwords and other sensitive goodies.
When the inventor of a popular Linux filesystem is accused of murdering his wife, the number 2 Linux distributor decides it's time for a change.
The New York Times takes note of Internet services where people pay a small fee to trade their used DVDs, CDs videogames and books. It's a great idea--another of those "why didn't I think of it?" deals.
...about Microsoft's upcoming music player Zune. Frankly, I don't blame him.
During the last tech boom, George Gilder was one of the grandest prophets of the Internet. His prognostications were dead right--until they weren't. And suddenly Gilder was broke and scorned by his one-time fans.
Me, I still think he's smart as a whip. And in the latest Wired, he's whipping out his vision of a future in which cheap electricity will be just as important for companies like Google as cheap bandwidth.
Seems our friend Gadhafi rather likes the idea.
Meanwhile, the major music and TV companies that have been threatening to sue YouTube and other online video sites for copyright violations are now singing a different tune--and with good reason.
...but not very easily, if you use Google. The company's video search feature is lame, compared to rivals like PodZinger and Blinkx. Now that Google is buying YouTube, it had better get its act together.
A whole buncha high-tech chieftains are getting caught up in the federal stock options probe--and losing their jobs.
Either way, the deal went down.
"Sweet Child O' Mine," "Free Bird," and a host of other rock and roll classics will be among the tunes you can play in the next edition of Harmonix' delightful music game, Guitar Hero II.
The video search engine does a deal with Microsoft. Well-earned success for a rather cool service.
Just a couple months ago, gasoline cost over $3 a gallon and American carmakers couldn't give away big pickup trucks and SUVs. But now that pricee have fallen back to the $2 range, the Cars.com website says that online shoppers are again hunting for gas-guzzlers.
Samsung is dealing in 32-gigabyte flash memory modules that are designed as a replacement for notebook computer hard drives. The folks at Tom's Hardware got hold of one, and they're mighty impressed.
Recorded music superstore Tower Records is being liquidated. I expect it's got something to do with Internet music distribution--legal and illegal.
Well, well, well...
Lots of people thought Microsoft was ultimately behind SCO's effort to sue Linux vendor IBM into the ground. Looks like lots of people were right.
The North Koreans are coming! The Chinese are here!
Those ancient, obsolete computer games we grew up with seem to be as popular as ever...
Tetris, anyone?
The maker of networking hardware may be rich, but apparently wants to be famous as well. So Cisco will be spending about $100 million to tout its brand name, not just to geeks but also to consumers.
Yes, sir, the next time I need a new asychronous transfer mode switch or an Infiniband host channel adapter, I'll think of Cisco first!
Wanna meet some hot babes? You might want to spend more time playing online computer games...
Wired's story about Ray Ozzie's ascendancy at Microsoft contains nothing new. But it's a good refresher on the company's problems, and a peek at what the inventor of Lotus Notes plans to do about them.
PC World offers a sneak peek at the new and improved Google Groups. Matter of fact, they even throw in a link to the genuine article.
Thanks, guys!
Looks like the world's top chipmaker better start hiring more lawyers. A lot more. (Fluency in French preferred.)
I know it's not a tech story. I just don't care. This is wild.
Courtesy of Elinor Mills' blog at CNet, here's a link to SearchMash, an interesting new search site under development by Google.
Not as impressive as Ask.com, but interesting...
Perhaps literally. It's a wonder James Dyson's new design for a bathroom hand dryer doesn't take a fellow's skin off.
And you can help. Just get the latest Christmas catalog from upscale retailer Nieman-Marcus. For $1.7 million, you and five of your best buddies can purchase a trip into outerrrrrr...space!
The former Hewlett-Packard chairman personally provided investigators with the phone numbers of Business Week reporters, to help them find out who was leaking corporate info to the press.
Nothing illegal about that. But the investigators used those numbers in possibly illegal ways.
New Jersey slaps a tax on music downloads.
Sony will bite the bullet and launch its own major recall of defective laptop batteries.
About time the company took full responsibility for this disaster.
A British supermarket chain is throwing down on Microsoft by selling cut-rate office and antivirus software.
Can Wal-Mart be far behind?
A lot of enviro-types are wringing their hands about this. Me, I think it's cool. I like Americans, and am happy to see a lot more of 'e