University of Maryland professor Kent Norman predicts that some 10 percent of the gadgets and electronic toys received will fall victim to "computer rage" -- the taking out of frustrations on computers and gadgets. To save the gadgets you want, Norman recommends that you destroy older, obsolete gadgets instead -- and offers step-by-step video instructions for how to do that. (He also conducts an ongoing survey on computer rage.) Here comes the video.
Taiwanese Idea For Bugging Cell Phones Now In America
I told you in September, 2001, about a company in Taiwan that sold modified cell phones for wives to spy on their cheating husbands. The way it worked is that the wife could call a special number, which would activate the spy feature. The phone's built-in microphone would pick up any nearby sound. Now you can buy one that works here in the U.S. It's the perfect holiday gift for the loved one you don't trust. (props to Engadget)
A Japanese company called Kokuyo Co. has announced a shredder that not only shreds paper like a conventional device, but CDs and floppy disks as well. The shredder has two slots: one for paper and floppies and another for CDs. It can destroy 3,000 floppies and 5,000 CDs before it's wrecked. Initially, the shredder will be sold only in Japan.
When I was the editor of Windows Magazine in the 1990s, WIRED Magazine arrogantly poo-poo'd the computer magazines of the day, and wouldn't lower themselves to actually testing products. WIRED was an ideas magazine, the main idea of which was that the Internet, computers and robots would transform our lives beyond recognition, etc. Well, they've finally buckled and launched a magazine based entirely around hands-on testing of gadgets. Interestingly, the whole concept is a test to see if people (and advertisers) will jump on it. And they're also testing the idea of posting a PDF version of this test magazine about product testing. It's called -- what else? -- TEST.
Fraunhofer Institute eggheads have invented a projector small enough to fit into a cell phone. The project uses a laser to zap your PowerPoint presentation one line at a time (but at very high speed). They're working on a version that's built on a chip the size of a sugar cube.
Gadget Watches While You're Away (And Calls If There's Trouble)
Siemens is working on an all-purpose sensor gadget that uses its microphone, infrared sensor, temperature sensor, and acceleration sensor to monitor what's going on. If anything "happens" (defined by user-configurable settings), it shoots you an SMS message and tells you about it.
China Bans Game that Features Independent Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan
Champion Soccer Manager 2004, a downloadable sports game for PCs, takes place in a world where Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Tibet aren't crushed under the heel of communist China, and therefore Beijing has banned the game. I wonder if future IBM PCs will be able to play the game?
Japan's telecom giant NTT DoCoMo is demonstrating an Internet-controlled fragrance generator in a Tokyo gadget store. The device has 36 smells, including sandalwood and basil. The company is showing the prototype as a trial balloon. If they get enormous interest, which they won't, they plan to develop a consumer version.
When you search on Google, are you getting an offer to search on a site called "RedZip" as your top result? If so, you've got a "malware" program running on your system that fudges the results of your Google searches. If you've got RedZip on your machine, let me know!
Just Because You're Paranoid, Doesn't Mean They're Not Out To Get You
Hackers, crackers, viruses, malicious worms, phishing attacks, online scams, spam, and spyware -- feeling like you're under siege? If not, you should. The problem is bad. Very bad. And it's going to get worse. Much worse.
Google is blocking the creation of Google Groups that use the term "blogger," presumably because they feel they own the word. It must be true because I read it on the Internet.
