Category: Op-Ed

On Monday, Facebook announced the launch of a platform that will set in motion a process that will catastrophically terminate the world as we know it. Known by the end-user as the rather demure 'Messages', and internally as Project Titan, it is only those that look toward the future that know its true name: Skynet. The future can be defined as a flow of time that has the potential to become ...

I'm stoked about Firefox 4; I think many of us are. It's a beautiful browser, and with the addition of Tab Candy (now "Panorama"), it's even cooler. Whenever Mozilla release a new version of Firefox, add-ons break. It's become routine, so nobody's overly worked up about it by now. The Mozilla add-ons site is littered with yesteryear's great extensions, including such crowd pleasers as Hit-a-Hint, ...

What the Zuk is a (very) occasional feature, in which I review software that I have been using for many years, and which is instrumental for my work. These are the first tools I install on every new system, the reliable work-horse applications I turn to for every need. In every installment I will try to explain what makes this particular program special, and why I find it so vital for my ...

What the Zuk is a (very) occasional feature, in which I review software that I have been using for many years, and which is instrumental for my work. These are the first tools I install on every new system, the reliable work-horse applications I turn to for every need. In every installment I will try to explain what makes this particular program special, and why I find it so vital for my ...

KeePass is an awesome password management utility. In fact, "awesome" is an understatement. It has transformed my computing experience and made my online life significantly more secure. I run KeePass and enter my obscenely long pass phrase multiple times every day; I trust KeePass so much that I don't even know the passwords to most websites I frequent. This includes some really important ...

Firefox is doing a lot of usability-related work recently. And really, it now sports a fairly usable UI. It's kind of sluggish at times, but it is my browser of choice, mainly for political reasons. But one thing never fails to piss me off ... why does the Find function have to be so bad? Many people use large monitors these days (and often, more than one). This means that we often have a large ...

Fonts Live is a service which lets you embed beautiful fonts right on your Web page. They have a catalog of 200 fonts, and they are all quite lovely. Does the idea ring a bell? Maybe it's because Google has a very similar service which is totally free! This is something that really astounds me. How can you offer a service for such rates and expect to make money, when a behemoth like Google is ...

Acronis is a fairly trusted name in the world of system utilities. Such trust is not easily gained, and should not be abused. This is all the more reason why I am so disappointed with Acronis Drive Monitor. I downloaded it, hoping for an easy utility to tell me whether or not my drive was failing. Before letting me download this "free" tool, Acronis wanted my full name, country and email address. ...

If you've read my review of WriteMonkey, you know how much I love this simple-looking, yet very powerful, full-screen editor. In fact, I use WriteMonkey for all of my Download Squad posts. I find it much easier to focus when I have just my text in front of me, in monospaced font, with no distracting chrome. I guess you can imagine the disappointment I felt when WriteMonkey stopped working for me ...

New Scientist is running a story this morning about immortality -- not the physiological, philosopher's stone variety, though: digital immortality. What if, rather than dying, you could live on... inside a computer? Physically we might die, but if an accurate representation of our brain and all of its associated memories can be recreated inside a digital computer, stored in digital memory, can ...

On paper, Ubuntu Netbook Edition looks great. I mean, what's not to like? It's got a sexy launcher, a lean and mean footprint, fast boot times, ... and it's free! So, I decided to take the plunge. I didn't use a virtual machine to just "review it," though. I actually took an old Acer Aspire 1650 laptop -- which was running XP -- and switched it to Ubuntu Netbook Edition. Installation was a ...

Okay, so four CS majors get together and say, "hey, why don't we create something that is like Facebook, but with no privacy concerns?" Two weeks later, they've raised over $100K in pledges. This could either be hyped-up vaporware (as my DLS colleague Matthew Rogers believes), or it could be something truly great. To see why, and how, it can all work out for the best, continue reading after the ...

Jason Clarke did it first, and now I feel the time has come for me to say goodbye to Facebook. For me, it started getting creepy when I kept getting status updates from people who are not even my friends, and who have no idea they're broadcasting their status to "friends of friends". Sure, you can control that through the privacy settings. But how many people actually know all 170 privacy ...

Don't get me wrong. I don't hate Symantec by any stretch. In fact, I rather like Norton Antivirus 2010 -- it's their second really solid effort in a row after a string of releases I was less than enthusiastic about. What I don't like, however, is their free Security Scan. digg_url = 'http://digg.com/security/Why_does_Security_Scan_behave_like_the_malware_I_remove'; Why? Because it behaves ...

In an act of corporate insanity that reminds me of military behavior as described in Catch 22, Sony BMG removed the videos from Beyonce's official YouTube channel for "copyright infringement." It is her channel, and she is their artist. This is awesome! I mean, talk about caring for your musicians! Way to go, BMG! This is just one example of the heights of madness that copyright "protection" ...