Welcome!
If you're looking for straight talk about technology, you've knocked on the right door. This site is an extension of my work as a reporter, editor and technology columnist at The Baltimore Sun for more than three decades.
I've designed this site to be simple and readable, not fancy. In other words, geezer-friendly. Links to some of the latest tech headlines are below. For my biased and cheerfully unbalanced commentary on those headlines, check the TheTechGeezer blog. Or, click a button at the left to browse the hodgepodge of misinformation and disinformation I've assembled over the years. You may even find a useful nugget of advice. And I'm always happy to hear from you directly. Just post a message here. Enjoy.
Breaking News
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Take a message: A year or so back, I noticed a
change in our cell phone bill. We weren't using anywhere near
the number of voice minutes we were paying for -- but we were
suddenly over the limit on text messages. Like most of our cell
phone usage, this was driven by our younger son, whose cell
phone, for some reason we can't fathom, is still on our plan
even though he's been out of the house and working on his own
for several years now.
Maybe we're just afraid to cut the cord, as it were. Okay, bad
joke. The point of this is that young people are making fewer
phone calls and sending a lot more text messages. In fact, in
the last quarter of 2007, the number of text messages exceeded
the number of phone calls for the first time. There are two good
reasons for this change. First, it's a lot easier to send text
messages with the full QWERTY keyboards showing up on a lot of
Smart Phones these days. Second, kids realize that it takes a
lot less time to send a "Meet 4 lunch" message than it does to
call a friend and wade through five minutes of meaningless
pleasantries -- or leave voice mail and wait for a callback that
happens the minute you're on another line -- than it does to
type out a few characters and get a message back when your
correspondent has time to do it.
Read the New York Times report here.
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Whoopee! Another
browser. Call me a stick-in-the-mud, but how many
browsers do I really need? I already have Internet Explorer,
Firefox and Safari on my desktop. I downloaded Opera a while
back but never installed it because I didn't really see any need
for it. Most of the time I just use IE because it's there and
rarely gives me any problems.
My
wife prefers Firefox. Safari was fun to use for a while but
showed too many quirks. Now Google thinks it's time for yet
another browser, and it surprised the world with its addition to
the category this week. Known as
Chrome, it's the search giant's attempt to de-browserize
the browser -- or at least turn it into a minimalist tool with a
single window for entering URLs or search terms. After playing
with it for a couple of hours I can say that it's very
fast (it uses the Safari browser engine), does a good
job of putting your most frequently visited pages at your
fingertips and does a rotten job of getting you back to your
home page (mine is a homemade menu of important sites).
Since it was both new and a surprise (not to mention a Beta
release, which means a work in progress), nobody has had a
really good chance to look a it. But the
Associated Press review by Peter Svensson is a good starting
point. Or you can try it downloading it yourself by visiting
www.google.com/chrome/.
The new browser is Windows-only at this point, but Google says
Mac and Linux versions will eventually be available.
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Now that's a crime! Considering how serious the
potential problem is, federal, state and local governments have
been notoriously lax about responding to reports of
vulnerabilities in the alleged "security" of electronic voting
machines. I guess Elections just aren't important enough to get
them excited.
But
a Boston judge knew a real threat when he saw one: he imposed a
10-day gag order on a bunch of MIT students who figured out a
theoretical way to hack the local transit authority's
CharlieCard electronic fare system (Yup, it's named after
"Charlie on the MTA"). The kids said they weren't trying
to make money or cheat the system -- only to demonstrate a
cool hack and alert authorities that something was seriously
amiss.
Eventually, the judge lifted the gag order after the agency
admitted out loud that its security was porous. This wasn't
exactly great publicity when the authority was trying to push
through big-time raises for its execs. From local and tech media
reports.
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Blues for Blu-ray? Although it lost of
battle over high-definition DVDs to Sony's Blu-ray format,
Toshiba isn't giving up. Instead of producing its own Blu-ray
sets under license, it's releasing a new, traditional DVD player
designed to produce a far better picture from standard DVDs. And
it's priced at half the cost of a Blu-ray player. The AP
reports. (August 18)
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Cheap megaphone: If you have a political
message to get out but don't have much money for TV advertising,
a new service will match your homemade video ad with empty space
in a cable network's local schedule for as little as $6. The New
York Time's Naomi Cohen reports.
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Field hockey at 3 a.m.: Just in case you don't want
to wait 12 hours for prime time -- or you really want to
watch Angola and Germany duke it out on the basketball court, NBC is running 3,600
(count 'em) hours of Olympics coverage, most of it live online.
Nick Jesdanun, the Internet writer for the Associated Press,
reviews NBC's Olympic site
and says it does a remarkable job -- with a few glitches. My
favorite offbeat stream so far: from the Equestrian category,
the show-jumping finals.
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Girl or Gadget: This could be fun, or just
another sign that the apocalypse is nigh. A "reality" show that
asks contestants whether they're rather spend a weekend with a
hot babe or new iPod. From CNet's Leslie Katz.
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Didn't
Claude Rains Do This in 1933? Real,
honest-to-goodness scientists report in real,
honest-to-goodness scientific journals, that it just might be possible to make
objects vanish. Will the next Space Shuttle have a cloaking
device to hide it from the Klingons? Read it in The Christian Science Monitor.
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On the Internet, everyone knows you're a dog: This
is definitely another sign of the apocalypse. Doggyspace.com
gives owners a chance to network with like minded folks.
Remember this famous cartoon? From
The Associated Press.
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In the bag: Good news for travelers. Feds say
they'll relax rules requiring travelers to remove laptop
computers from carrying bags -- as long as the bags are designed to keep the computer on
display. Bag makers are rushing new models to market. Wonder if they'll do the same thing for feet. From
The Baltimore Sun.
- My favorite is the beer-glass-on-the-bar game: Apple iPhone and iPod touch users downloaded more 60 million mini-programs from the Apple App Store in its first 30 days, the company says. Even though lots of Apps are free, customers have spent $30 million on programs that aren't, according to CEO-for-Life Steve Jobs. Jobs also confirms a remote "kill" switch that lets Apple disable apps it doesn't like. Was that Big Brother Steve? From TechNewsWorld.
Disclaimer
Now that I have time to work on this site, it will always be a work in progress. In a few weeks, as I bring features over from my original site and create news ones, all the links should be up and working. I ask for your patience till then. Feel free to leave me a message anytime.
Note: This site contains forward-looking statements, as well as sideways, backward, upward and downward-looking statements that may or may not include information that is confidential, useful, truthful or even particularly fascinating. If the reader of this disclaimer is or is not the intended recipient, any use, distribution or extension of third-party references to this page, or disclosure of all or any part of its content to any other person, is strictly encouraged. If you have arrived at this page in error, we won't hold it against you. Although this Web site contains lots of advice, some of it is highly suspect and the Webmaster disclaims all responsibility for the use of misuse thereof. In no case should any news or information acquired herein here be used in any manner that would cause you ruin a perfectly good computer, or bring yourself to the attention of the FBI, CIA, IBEW, NSA, DIA, DHS, DHSS, SEC, FEC, CPSC, AFT, ASPCA, NCAA, AFSCME, DEA,FDA, USPIS, USAID, USAMRID, FEMA, FDIC, IOC, CFTC, CDC, ADL, NCTE, CWA or AFL-CIO. Any resemblance between the material on this site and hard fact is strictly coincidental. And if you've read this far into the fine print, you really need to get a life.