BRUCEB NEWS
Ambient Computing: Buzzwords That Are Changing Your World
(Sonoma County fires: we have evacuated to a safe place and our house is not threatened. All of our thoughts and best wishes go out to those in danger or suffering losses.) Hey Google . . . What time is my flight today? How long will it take to drive to Oakland...
OFFICE XP FEATURES
Microsoft Office XP struck me initially as a minor upgrade from Office 2000, but I keep running across new features that are changing my mind. WORD Word 2002 has a feature called...
WEB SITE OF THE DAY
Several years ago somebody was asleep at the switch. The official White House site is www.whitehouse.gov, which is fine and right. But similar names were grabbed by third...
AUDIOGALAXY AND SPYWARE
"Spyware" is a new term that describes little programs that report on your web surfing to third parties - usually without your knowledge. They typically arrive on your system as...
SECURITY UPDATE
Microsoft pledged to focus on security last week in an edict from Bill Gates that might be PR fluff - but not necessarily. Gates has a keen sense of when Microsoft has to turn...
GATEWAY SALES PLUMMET
Gateway continues to fall apart. Steep drop in fourth-quarter sales, another 15% cut in work force, more store closures. The future looks very dim. Interestingly, EMachines is...
NETSCAPE vs. MICROSOFT
The media played up the lawsuit Netscape filed against Microsoft a couple of days ago. The allegation is that Microsoft damaged Netscape by preventing the Netscape browser from...
INACTIVE HOTMAIL ACCOUNTS WILL BE DROPPED
Microsoft is going to start enforcing its policy of deleting Hotmail accounts if they're not used at least once every thirty days. If you have a Hotmail account for convenience,...
POLITICS: ENRON AND WHITEWATER
I thought this was a particularly good discussion of the unfolding Enron scandal, well worth keeping in mind as the various players stake out their positions on the front page...
THE NEWS IS OR ISN’T AMBIGUOUS
On Saturday, the Washington Post reported that America Online was in negotiations to buy Linux manufacturer Red Hat - leading to lots of talking heads speculating about the...
LATEST NEWS IN THE COPYRIGHT WARS
The recording industry is gearing up to sneak copy-protected CDs into the marketplace - audio CDs that would play normally in conventional CD players, but that would prevent you...
SALE ON BLANK CDRS
If you need to stock up on blank 80-minute CDRs, Amazon has spindles of 50 Fuji CDRs for $14.99, with free shipping. Good deal!
WHY DSL STILL SUCKS
DSL is in terrible shape. Many people have persistent problems - lines disconnect or go down, tech support is poor or nonexistent, orders are handled slowly. Here's a good...
HOME ENTERTAINMENT HUBS
The home entertainment devices that will be hot next Christmas are taking shape. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show, a new company demonstrated the MoxiMedia Center, which...
WALLACE AND GROMIT COMING TO THE WEB
Twelve one-minute films featuring Wallace and Gromit will be available for download this autumn, according to this article. This is the first new Wallace and Gromit material...
FLAT PANEL MONITOR PRICES ON THE RISE
According to this article, prices for flat panel LCD monitors were in free fall last year because of an oversupply of glass. The factories have caught up, demand is skyrocketing...