Posted on Jun 25, 2001, Source: Baltimore City Paper
As Microsoft-bashing has turned into a favorite sport of journalists everywhere, it's a bit disheartening to see online pioneer Steve Gibson needlessly indulge in it as well.
Posted on Jun 19, 2001, Source: Baltimore City Paper
The once-legendary online lode of cynical commentary Suck.com has gone on hiatus for business reasons. How ironic for an indie zine that claimed it was above the industry hubbub it so mocked.
If Marvin Minsky, the godfather of artificial intelligence (AI) research, fails to get his computers to act like humans the way he promised, he'll take humanity down with him.
Posted on May 15, 2001, Source: Baltimore City Paper
Like revelers too drunk to suss the party is over and the booze has been returned to the cabinet, New Economy magazines are diligently ignoring what time it is now.
Posted on May 1, 2001, Source: Baltimore City Paper
Pimpwar traffics in some of the worst gender and racial typecasting possible. Yet, despite the online game's bad-ass signifying, Pimpwar is essentially a numbers game. To win, you have to have the correct ratio of hos to thugs.
Posted on Apr 17, 2001, Source: Baltimore City Paper
Anyone in your office ever copied a software program without properly licensing it? If so, you may be the next victim of a software raid, complete with US Marshalls and steep fines.
Posted on Apr 3, 2001, Source: Baltimore City Paper
I know a woman who disciplines her children with PowerPoint briefing charts. What's amazing here is how effectively these presentations articulate what a smoothly family unit should be like. This is odd because PowerPoint is usually used to not communicate ideas.
Posted on Mar 27, 2001, Source: Baltimore City Paper
The National Security Agency -- America's premier espionage agency -- is taking an interest in Linux, the open source operating system. Programmers around the world are afraid the agency will use LINUX to spy.
Posted on Mar 20, 2001, Source: Baltimore City Paper
When Nike came up with an online service where you can have your name or a favorite saying stitched on the side of a pair of sneakers, Jonah Peretti asked for the word "sweatshop."
Posted on Mar 6, 2001, Source: Baltimore City Paper
"I love the idea of online grocery shopping because I hate actual grocery shopping. I won't lose sleep over not squeezing the fruit, or checking to see if the dead fish's eyes are clear. Still, I do have a few minor issues with Peapod, my online grocer."
Posted on Feb 27, 2001, Source: Baltimore City Paper
File-sharing services such as Napster threaten to shift control of entertainment and information to consumers. That sounds vague, to be sure, but it's difficult to convey how deeply subversive something like Napster really is.
Posted on Feb 12, 2001, Source: Baltimore City Paper
People magazine makes a mint bringing the rich and famous down to our level, enlightening us on Celine Dion's new baby or Helen Hunt's New York apartment. But if you want the inside skinny on how celebrities succumb to that greatest equalizer of all, the place to start is the Web.
Posted on Jan 30, 2001, Source: Baltimore City Paper
With the dotcom economy so pathetic, is it any wonder that IT -- the as-yet-undivulged invention that will supposedly "sweep over the world and change lives, cities, and ways of thinking" -- was one of the big tech stories these last few weeks?
Posted on Jan 23, 2001, Source: Baltimore City Paper
The idea of using simple real-world words as Web addresses initially seems appealing, just like having ice cream for every meal -- until you start figuring out the consequences.
Posted on Jan 5, 2001, Source: Baltimore City Paper
We need a new "God game" for the New Economy, where players instead of controling empires and natural resources, players use multinational corporations to capture as much "human mindshare" as possible.
Posted on Dec 19, 2000, Source: Baltimore City Paper
When Stephen King pulled the plug on his online serial The Plant, was it really because he was shortchanged by a cheapskate Internet audience? Or did he finally realize how people's ingrained book-buying and reading habits were?
Posted on Nov 29, 2000, Source: Baltimore City Paper
Would you let a ratings-desperate TV network slingshot you 250 miles straight up out of the atmosphere to live on an unsafe Russian space station? If you win the reality show NBC is brewing up for a future season, you'll get your chance.
Posted on Nov 14, 2000, Source: Baltimore City Paper
Hard-working computer geeks know nothing delivers bursts of instant energy with such caloric efficiency better than sweetened cereal. Cyberpunk Joab Jackson gives his review of the best and worst cereals ever to grace the late-night lips of malnourished programmers.
Posted on Jul 18, 2000, Source: Baltimore City Paper
If a proposed law banning Web sites that discuss methamphetamines passes, we'll have to trust the DEA for information about drugs. Do you really want to put your trust in some law that had to be snuck through the legislative process, secretly, like a drug shipment crossing the border in the middle of the night?
Online privacy is becoming a hot issue these days, with people worrying about what information their computers betray about them. But when the web standards body W3C decided to create a framework to help Internet users protect their privacy, it stumbled into a heap of controversy.
Posted on Jun 29, 2000, Source: Baltimore City Paper
New media is already saturated with advertisement. Now spots are cropping up in some of the most bizarre cyber settings. How far are new media buyers willing to go to make a sell?
Posted on May 30, 2000, Source: Baltimore City Paper
How safe is the corrective eye surgery? A growing number of critics argue that the supposedly simple laser procedure isn't worth the potentially disasterous side effects.
Posted on May 17, 2000, Source: Baltimore City Paper
When the grand book of computer history is written, the story of Microsoft -- the greatest software company of the 20th century -- will be that of a giant struck down by its own arrogant hand.
Posted on Apr 1, 2000, Source: Baltimore City Paper
Napster, an increasingly popular Internet program that allows users to download free songs, could very well spell the end of the music industry. At least, it would if every fan had a computer and a fast Internet connection. (And with the money they'd save by using Napster and not buying $16 CDs, they'd be able to afford the hardware.) Musician's reaction to Napster reveals what shamelessly greedy individuals they truly are.
Posted on Apr 1, 2000, Source: Baltimore City Paper
"Forget about a giant-ass meteor rocketing down on us, or flesh-slurping aliens, or the four horsemen riding hard over the hills. Bill Joy, co-founder and chief scientist of Sun Microsystems, warns that tiny robotic machines, built on a molecular level and designed to go forth and multiply on their own, will be our downfall."
Posted on Apr 1, 2000, Source: Baltimore City Paper
"I used to laugh at those fools caught up in the expensive cycle of buying faster computers just to run bigger programs. But now I understand. Now I, too, am addicted to fast, bigger, smarter technologies."
Posted on Apr 1, 2000, Source: Baltimore City Paper
Fox's recent Multi-Millionaire debacle reminded me of an even more dubious contest run on the Web -- the Faelan's Sweetheart Contest -- which ended with multiple counts of criminal conspiracy to commit sex abuse.
