General
Are they telling it straight on the Internet?
That human beings can be irrational, foolish, or perverse is not news; just pick up any history book. But, ever hopeful for some light in the world, I keep looking for reasoned discussion of computer issues. There at least (I tell myself ) is a group of people who are trained in critical analysis and [...]
Internet dangers- is Windows at fault?
A previous post related problems that botnets are causing Internet users. How did these botnets get created? The proximate answer is that it is because Windows (particularly older versions) has so many security holes that it is easily infected in any number of ways. Among those pointing a finger at Windows is Steven Vaughan-Nichols, who [...]
Walter Mossberg discusses his column
As I have mentioned a number of times, Walter Mossberg’s consumer electronics column in the Wall Street Journal is one of the industry’s most influential. On July 19, Mossberg was interviewed about his column and other activities on C-SPAN and you can watch the interview here. Note that this is a fairly lengthy interview.
How to improve your typing
The keyboard is a major way of interacting with computers but, if my typing skills are at all indicative, many of us could use some improvement in our typing. Of Zen and Computing points out a site called TypingWeb that could help you improve your keyboard skills:
Have you been meaning to learn how to type, [...]
Time Warner dumping AOL
The spin-off of AOL from Time Warner previously indicated is about to happen. This will mark the end of a deal that was the apogee of dot-com folly. Details are at All Things Digital.
Princeton laptop orchestra
I hadn’t realized it but right here where I live there is a very unusual orchestra. It is called the Princeton Laptop Orchestra and has 30 members. Each musician performs with a laptop and custom designed hemispherical speaker. It was founded in 2005 and was the first of its kind although it has inspired the [...]
Information eruption
As mentioned in a previous post today, the Internet is full of overwhelming amounts of information. Not only on the Internet but also in other venues, information is spewing forth in ever increasing quantities. As the Wall Street Journal reports in The Exploding Digital Universe, someone is trying to measure all those bits:
“Like the physical [...]
Archeology gets inadvertent help from eBay
Ars Technica reports how eBay has made stealing antiquities less profitable:
By any reasonable analysis, eBay should have been a nightmare for archaeologists, allowing looted goods a new outlet, one that eliminated any cloak-and-dagger aspects of the illicit trade in antiquities by allowing the trade to flourish in plain sight, hidden by the anonymity of users’ [...]
AOL to be spun off
The rise and fall of AOL will doubtless provide material for business school students for a long time. In 2000, the then-dominant Internet service provider basically took over the large media company Time Warner in a deal of huge proportions. Then, in a dizzying decline, AOL rapidly fell into step-child status. Now, Time Warner wants [...]
Oracle buys Sun Microsystems
Having been jilted by IBM, Sun Microsystems went looking for another suitor and found Oracle. ZDNet reports:
Oracle said Monday that it will buy Sun Microsystems for $9.50 a share in cash, or about $5.6 billion excluding debt, in a deal that plunges Larry Ellison & Co. into the hardware market. The company added that the [...]
The state of the news media
The reports keep coming in- print journalism is in dire straits. You can read all about it in the report of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. At CNET, Charles Cooper summarizes the report:
The 180,000-word report by he Project for Excellence in Journalism comes against a backdrop of newspaper closings and staff reductions around [...]