Digital Zen

The Case for Precaution in the Use of Cell Phones — Analysis of Recent Studies

Bill — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:29:46 +0000

I’ve been following this issue casually for some years. Because of the short time this technology has been in use, definitive conclusions are not yet available. Prudent consideration of the information in this article, and understanding of the simple precautions recommended, would seem to be reasonable. Electromagnetic fields generated by cell phones should be [...]

People for Sale

Bill — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:42:28 +0000

Most people imagine that slavery died in the 19th century. Since 1810,more than a dozen international conventions banning the slave tradehave been signed. Yet today there are more slaves than at any time inhuman history.People for Sale

The Three Most Under-utilized Keyboard Shortcuts

Bill — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:29:45 +0000

I use these things all the time, but some folks might not know all of them. Unfortunately, Ian thought of writing about them first, so I have to give him the honors: The Three Most Under-utilized Keyboard Shortcuts | Gizmo’s Tech Support Alert

Zoho Press Release

Bill — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:10:27 +0000

I received the following from Zoho this morning. We hear a lot about Google, and it’s nice to see the competition doing well. We are delighted that Swisscom (incumbent telco in Switzerland) has chosen Zoho for a six month pilot for its Zoho Business Suite which is now available on their Software-as-a-Service portal Teamnet. Zoho and Swisscom [...]

War Crimes

Bill — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 00:22:50 +0000

The Mahablog brings us a conversation between Rachel Maddow and Jonathan Turley, an expert on Constitutional law, about the possibility that members of the Bush administration could be prosecuted as war criminals by an international court of law.The Mahablog » War Crimes

Zone Alarm Free Edition Conflicts With New Microsoft Update

Bill — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:49:23 +0000

According to my buddy Steve Bass, over at PCWorld.Com, the latest MS update to correct the DNS vulnerability keeps folks using ZA Free Edition from accessing the Internet after reboot. If you have any friends using Zone Alarm’s free firewall along with Windows Auto Update, it might be nice to give them a call (they won’t [...]

The New Era

Bill — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:55:47 +0000

It isn’t exactly pretty — and certainly isn’t tidy — but peace really does appear to be breaking out in the Middle East. CrackerBoy

FOX News Doctors NY Times Photos

Bill — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:11:51 +0000

I suppose FOX News’ lack of integrity will come as a surprise to no one else, but it still occasionally surprises me — not the lack of it, as much as the poor job of demonstrating it. It’s not even good ’shopping. Apparently they have no more respect for themselves or their viewers [...]

Note to Phone Manufacturers

Bill — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:23:49 +0000

I want a phone with no external buttons. If you have to put external buttons on it, at least recess the bloody things! Perhaps two: one to shut the alarm clock off, and one to snooze it. The same two could answer the speakerphone and reject it. Other than that, forget [...]

What’s so wrong with a pregnancy pact?

Bill — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 01:42:09 +0000

A former teen mom rings in with commentary about the teen pregnancy pact… June 27, 2008 | In 1992, the closest thing my daughter had to a father was my best friend, Alice Moore. Alice and I met as 15-year-old debate partners in Boise, Idaho. When we were both 18, we moved 3,000 miles across the [...]

Marsh Pink

Bill — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 15:18:24 +0000

Pentax K10D50 mm1/90 @ f6.7ISO 100

ICANN moves toward completely opening top-level domains

Bill — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:32:10 +0000

Tim Conneally at BetaNews discusses the ramifications of ICANNs proposal to release a flood of top-level domains. Looks like an ICANN of worms to me — in short, causing a great deal more trouble than it’s worth. Some things just need to be done slowly, with careful thought, and only as needed. [...]

Gates Says G’Bye to Microsoft

Bill — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:05:17 +0000

Billy G. heads out the door, and pundits wonder: will there be any real changes or will the 800-lb. gorilla continue to lose weight? As the company prepares for Gates’ departure this Friday, a host of analysts and tech experts waxed practical and philosophical about the future of Microsoft and the legacy of the man behind [...]

Dalton Trumbo and American Evil

Bill — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:17:54 +0000

Andrew O’Hehir’s blog in Salon examines Peter Askins’ new film “Trumbo,” about the life of the most famous of the blacklisted filmmakers in the ’50’s witch hunts, along with the lessons the three generations since can take from the history of censorship and political gagging of Americans. If the Hollywood blacklist and the entire Red Scare [...]

Symbian to become open source

Bill — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:00:47 +0000

Nokia Throws Open Mobile Software The Finnish company announced a plan to buy the 52.1% of shares it doesn’t already own in London-based Symbian, the leading maker of operating system software for advanced mobile phones. In an industry-shifting move, Nokia will merge the company with parts of its own organization and then create an open-source foundation [...]

Exabytes? Zettabytes?

Bill — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:49:06 +0000

According to Cisco Systems, visual networking will drive a nearly exponential growth in IP traffic between now and 2012. IP traffic to ‘double’ every two years - vnunet.com In related news, Hughes Network systems has announced satellite broadband delivering download speeds of up to 3 Mbps. SpeedGuide.net News :: Hughes Breaks Satellite Speed Barrier

Scenes from the birth of the computer

Bill — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:22:33 +0000

Historian George Dyson tells stories from the birth of the modern computer — from its 16th-century origins to the hilarious notebooks of some early computer engineers. Listen for the story of the very first artificial life — stored on a deck of IBM punchcards and ready to come alive again. Watch this talk on [...]

Field Guide to Firefox 3

Bill — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:08:52 +0000

Firefox 3 launched today — Download Day — and it’s time to upgrade to the best browser ever, IMNSHO. Your opinion, of course, may vary — but it doesn’t make you right. :p You can download it here. Do it today and help Mozilla set a 1-day download record that will be [...]

Tech Companies Join to Stop Email Addiction

Bill — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:19:12 +0000

Email and other communications technologies are supposed to make us more productive. But has the pendulum swung so far that these tools are now a productivity drain? Many large tech companies are worried that it has. That’s why IBM, Intel, Google, Microsoft and more than a dozen other companies and academic institutions have come together to [...]

First processor to top 1 Teraflop

Bill — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:29:30 +0000

AMD’s FireStream 9250: first processor to top 1 Teraflop - Engadget AMD’s second generation FireStream 9250 just broke the single-precision teraflop barrier at the International Supercomputing Conference in Germany.

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