It's the year 2010. Microsoft owns Yahoo and has just changed the name of Flickr to Microsoft Flickr Live Photo-Sharing Service for Digital Camera Enthusiasts. The service is still free, but Windows Vista users will have to validate their copy of Vis...
As well as the usual antivirus, anti-spyware and firewall protection, AVG 8.0 -- the upcoming Internet security suite from AVG -- aims to make browsing the Internet secure. If it works, it may even protect users from themselves. (I know, it sounds fa...
The Merriam-Webster Online dictionary defines slavery as "submission to a dominating influence," while Wikipedia notes that "slaves -- are ... compelled to perform labour or services." I mention these definitions because I believe we have become ensl...
In the first column of this year, I discussed computer security outlook and hopes for 2008. I forecast more of the same that we saw in 2007: more spam, more malware, more bad guys basically owning the Internet and our connected computers. I don't see...
My wife and some friends have started an apparel business and, of course, I got roped in as cheap labor to do the IT stuff. I've discussed in this column some of the adventures my involvement has occasioned, but none have been so frustrating, so labo...
Radiohead recently rocked the music industry by making its latest album downloadable for free, or more accurately, for "whatever fans wanted to pay." The band was lauded for ushering in a new business model that disintermediated record companies and ...
At the start of the Christmas shopping season 20 years ago the National Science Foundation announced that a group consisting of Michigan's Merit Network, IBM and MCI had won a contract to develop and deploy the T-1 NSFNET. This network led directly t...
When it comes to the "next big thing", I'm usually pretty skeptical. (It's from all those years I've spent trying to get gear to work as advertised.) But in 2008, we will see some long-promised technologies - like the connected home, truly smart "sma...
One of the biggest telecom events in 2008 is slated to occur just six weeks from now. Starting on January 24, both telcos and Internet companies will be able to place their bids on blocks of the 700-MHz spectrum, which are scheduled to be vacated by ...
The only way the corporations that formed the Blog Council on Monday could have further incensed the blogging community would be to have placed the word "Official" in its name.
After an excruciatingly drawn-out development process, Microsoft's Office Live Workspaces -- the company's attempt to marry Microsoft Office to the emerging Web services "cloud" -- is finally upon us.
Or maybe, like the late great Evel Knievel, it tried to jump the Snake River Canyon but suffered an equipment failure halfway over. Either way, I'm over Facebook.
Ultimately this laptop has achieved everything I would hope for in a laptop for work, while fitting that into a form factor and weight that is remarkable.