Talk

Anyone who uses a computer on a regular basis has been faced with a 404 error message. This irritating little obstacle to our research or fun-search activities can be a bit of an irritation for most of us. The 404 error message commonly appears when we request a URL that the server does not have. […]

Large numbers of Internet users hold such strong views about their online communities that they compare the value of their online world to their real-world communities, according to the sixth annual survey of the impact of the Internet conducted by the USC-Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future.
Among a broad range of findings about rapidly-evolving […]

Some things just bug me. Sometimes I write them down!
For example - What is it that makes the concept of putting stuff into the overhead bins on airplanes so freakin’ complicated? People just don’t seem to get it, despite the repeated intercom begging performed by the flight attendants to put rollaways in wheels first, wheels […]

I want to address a question I’ve been asked a lot lately…
“Why have my credit scores gone down since I last checked them even though I’ve made all my payments on time?”
First let me tell you that the only way your credit scores can go down is if information appearing on your credit reports changes.
Your […]

Amanda Rusich writes:
Net Neutrality may be today’s hot tech topic, but as you know, it’s much more than a buzz word. It is today’s premier policy issue that encompasses the very future of the Internet, which, we can say without exaggeration, may in itself contain the future of social, cultural, and political discourse in the […]

I first discovered Battlestar Galactica (the “new” series, that is) early this year while traveling on airplanes for business. I watched every episode on my iPod (both on planes and on my TV), rather than on the SciFi Channel on TV. It’s a great show, really. As a kid I liked the original “classic” series, […]

Here’s a question that’s relevant to the debate over AOL’s system of charging for “certified e-mail,” and Hotmail’s system of requiring a $2,000 “fee” to get out of junk mail Hell: is it legal for a mail provider to label mail as “spam” or “junk mail” if they know (or could easily verify) that it’s […]

On Monday, I did a Google search of the 25 most recent online editorials about Net Neutrality (using Google News, doing a search for “net neutrality” and searching only for editorials), and the 25 most recent blog posts about it on blogsearch.google.com that argued a position on it.
Of the editorials, 68% of them (17) were […]

Audio books have been around for a long time, and they have also been online almost as long as online has been online. The audio books make it easy to hear the condensed version, often by the books author, in audio. This isn’t the only variety of audio books online, though it does encapsulate many […]

Peacefire is now offering $10 to anyone who installs the Circumventor software on their home PC and shares out the URL for others to use, and leaves it up for at least a week. As far as I know this is the first time the publisher of any anti-censorship software has done this. It may […]

I recently booked a vacation on Travelocity. I have had a profile on the site for years. When I book a trip, I research various travel sites and most of the time, I end up booking on Travelocity because I usually get better deals and/or the other site(s) that offer somewhat better deals are sites […]

I’ve needed some time to decompress from Gnomedex 6.0, but just like the previous conferences from the past two years, it was a ton of fun, inspiring, and over way too soon. It’s a particularly great event for me because I’m able to actually talk to all of my technology peers in one location and […]

Microsoft may just get its arse handed to it on a plate by the European Union according to BBC News. It was reported six months ago that Microsoft had complied with the rulings in filing plans and reports, so it would seem that the reason the EU is coming down on Microsoft so harshly is […]

Now, this is a great idea. Heard about it today on Startup Nation (which is a great radio show and podcast, by the way):
VocationVacations allows people to test-drive their dream job completely risk-free. A VocationVacation isn’t job-shadowing, and it isn’t a fantasy camp. Instead, “Vocationers” work one-on-one with a credentialed mentor to see what […]

Reporters working in the L.A. Times have informed me that Internet access in their newsrooms is filtered, although we haven’t determined what program they’re using. In the L.A. bureau, reporters can’t access sites like Playboy.com and are also blocked from accessing Peacefire.org, and I had to give a reporter the address of a Circumventor site […]

Global Positioning System - GPS - devices have become everyday items to many of us as their cost has fallen.
Why would you want such a system, though?
These devices communicate with geo-stationary satellites, which tell the device exactly where on Earth it is. Very useful.
GPS devices are now so miniaturized that they can be worn on […]

As hard as it is to believe, I’ve been a part of Lockergnome for almost three years now, and I’ve written well over 1,000 original articles for the Windows Fanatics newsletter. I can’t express how thankful I am to be a part of this company, and those of you that have followed my daily comments […]

You may have heard about the Deleting Online Predators Act proposed by Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), which would require schools that receive federal funds to block access to social networking sites like MySpace. Some reporters have written to me about it, so here are the answers to some common questions I’ve been getting.
First, based […]

Curt Hopkins writes:
Some years back, my father and I started a nonprofit group called the National Combat Tape Archive. The idea is that we would gather, digitize, and store recordings made in combat areas by members of the United States military, as well as people associated with the military. This began after I listened to […]

My husband is an electrical engineer like I am. He is a much better electrical engineer, in part because he still has a memory.
His father has been ill and has let his Toyota Prius sit for a while. Six weeks or so. So my husband went over to take him for a ride in the […]