Technology

Sometimes technology makes a profound change in how something is done and once in a while a story comes along that doesn’t get much (if any) attention. This story about GPS controlled air drop tests conducted by the US Army and US Air Force is one of them. It may not seem like a […]

If you’re not familiar with youtube.com, you’re missing a real treat. Thousands of videos are uploaded by people and shared for your viewing pleasure. Some aren’t so great, and some are plain stupid, but there are some real gems. I’ve gotten to see some music videos that I haven’t seen in years.
But now the […]

Looking through Google News this morning a couple of articles about Google jumped out at me. When you’re the top dog, everyone wants to take a bite - and it seems there are some hungry people out there. The first one was about a Belgian company filing a lawsuit over search terms offered by Google […]

The RFID tag is coming! As they become common and soon will become part of our lives (whether we like it or not I might add) this article shows that there are a lot of questions and concerns that still need to be addressed. The scenario in the story should be a real eye opener […]

Romance blossoms on the Internet, but there is still public concern about the safety of online dating. There is now broad public awareness of the online dating world, and the Internet users who are actively seeking dates have found a variety of ways to pursue their romantic interests online. The Pew Internet Project just […]

As the pace of modernization accelerates around the globe, so too has computer usage and access to the internet. The latest Pew Global Attitudes poll found substantially more people using a computer and going online now than in 2002. And it is not just the young who are increasing their use of technology; in many […]

The Pew Internet & American Life Project issued a press release today describing how the internet improves Americans’ capacity to maintain their social networks and how they gain a big payoff when they use the internet to activate those networks to solicit help. The report is based on two surveys and finds that the internet […]

As I’ve stated here before, I love music. I could live without TV, but without music? Never! But the music industry itself is in a sad state of affairs right now. The RIAA just a few days ago issued another 754 subpoenas against file sharers. Sony has found itself in hot water with the public […]

Remember the movie Minority Report, where criminals are caught and arrested before they actually commit a crime? Now it seems that science and technology may be catching up with the fiction. In this case it seems that a software program predicted that a crime would happen between a certain time in a certain location, and […]

Updating the Google Library entry of last week, the Google Watch.org has obtained a copy of Google’s agreement with the University of Michigan and posted it on the Internet. Start reading the saga here, and for the actual agreement, follow links here. The mystery is, of course, if the entire agreement is so confidential, […]

Wired News: Do You Speak Tech?
Those of us not afraid to call ourselves geeks have long been proud of our command of “geek-speak”. We knew the difference between ROM and RAM. We understood why a 32 bit application wouldn’t run on a 16 bit system.
But these days the acronyms are flying […]

Google
Those people at Google never stop coming up with new ways to explore the World Wide Web. Now in beta, Google Suggest.
It’s sort of like the familiar Google search, with one weird little twist.

Yesterday at the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, Matt Webb, one of the authors of Mind Hacks, which I wrote about in my writing/writers’ blog Writer’s Edge last month, told me that whenever his book is mentioned on the blog Boing Boing, there’s a measurable spike in sales at Amazon. That’s “buzz” in action, electronic […]

If you wander about the Internet long enough, connections appear, sometimes answers to questions. Last fall I wondered about what Google is going to do with all the databases and information it collects on all the users of its various businesses. Also noted was addition of a sort of ‘zine to Google’s social […]

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has just released a report and a commentary about the internet’s role in the 2004 election. The report is based on a post-election survey and documents how and why the internet became an essential part of American politics in 2004. Fully 75 million Americans - 37% of the […]

About his current, and possibly last, play, The Gods Are Pounding My Head, a.k.a. Lumberjack Messiah, Richard Foreman says, “…I see within us all (myself included) the replacement of complex inner density with a new kind of self-evolving under the pressure of information overload and the technology of the “instantly available.” A new self that […]

Geeky afficionados of the magazine Popular Mechanics will appreciate a new publication from O’Reilly Media. Make is more fun than a basket of kittens! And I haven’t even tried to make anything myself yet. Just reading about the projects and viewing the colorful layouts was a treat. You won’t find the magazine’s […]

I have friends who swear by their TiVos. “You’ll never watch TV the same again,” they say. And frankly, I’ve been jealous of those friends. Well, I’m jealous no longer.
No, I didn’t get a TiVo. I built a MythTV. I’m still not quite done with it, but I absolutely love what I’ve got.

Today’s Parade magazine, a weekly tabloid carried by many U.S. Sunday newspapers, ran an article by writer Norman Mailer. He suggests that eliminating TV ads will alleviate declining literacy rates in the U.S. His focus is the concentration it takes to read; his thesis, TV commercials not only make children fat, but also teach them […]

Within Google Groups you can find an amazing 20 years of Usenet archives. That’s more than 800 million messages, dating back to 1981. Google calls it “the most complete collection of Usenet articles ever assembled and a fascinating first-hand historical account.” The page listed above has links to some historic posts, such as […]