Human beings have many aces up their sleeves compared to other living species on Earth. In terms of our physical properties we seem to strike just the right balance of capabilities. Our weaknesses are typically compensated for by certain advantages in a very smooth and complementary manner. We are an evolutionary proof that the strongest, fastest or biggest aren’t necessarily the best. We’re neither the strongest, nor the fastest, nor the biggest, yet we manage to accomplish more than any other species on the planet. It could be said that Read More

I’m going to do the unthinkable. I am going to actually defend the practice that many consider “anti-competitive”, the practice of so called “vendor lock-in” often employed by technology companies such as Apple and Microsoft. In a nutshell the practice of lock-in involves building pieces of technology that work only in certain predefined circumstances and interoperates with only a selection of other technology. A typical example are proprietary file formats which are designed to work only with the software sold by the same company that created the file format. The Read More

The US Government on Friday nonchalantly shut down the entire multi-million dollar business, arrested its founder, and expropriated millions of dollars worth of property. The business in question wasn’t even located in the US, but in New Zealand. MegaUpload was, of course, accused of piracy, but whatever the charge this is a clear cut case of administering punishment before trial, or being assumed “guilty until proven innocent”. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that this government would be doing such a thing at a time when indefinite detainment of even Read More

Consumer Electronics Show is one of the biggest technology shows on the planet. It is like christmas after christmas for techies as they get to see and try the latest and greatest gadgets, some of which could be months before their actual release to market. On top of that the show happens in Las Vegas providing attendees with an opportunity for a great post-show nightlife. In a nutshell CES 2012 was mainly about ultrabooks, yet more tablets, yet more smartphones, and the emergence of incredibly thin 55-inch (or bigger) OLED Read More

There is a house in my neighborhood whose roof is completely covered by solar panels, and is owned by someone who is apparently selling them. Just yesterday I noticed they brought up a huge new surface in their yard covered with solar panels, as if trying to tell the passerby’s (of which there are many) that the time for solar energy has come. There are more than a few good arguments for making solar energy the primary new energy source. The sun is a fundamental source of energy in our Read More

There’s a whole slew of new memory technologies coming up, all of which could be on the market within just three years, and all of which promise tremendous improvements in speed, capacity, and power efficiency. Those of us tech savvy enough to at least know we have DDR3 memory in our machines might expect DDR4 to be the next generation of memory, running at even greater speeds, and perhaps supporting even greater capacities. But as it turns out DDR4 is just one of the runner ups for the future of Read More

How quickly do things change when it comes to HP this year. Just earlier this year they were talking about emulating Apple’s strategy of end-to-end control of both software and hardware where webOS would be HP’s equivalent of iOS. Fast forward to now and under the guidance of the new CEO they are giving it up to the open source community, hoping other device makers pick it up and use it. The reaction of the technology press has varied from proclaiming this as the beginning of the end for webOS Read More

I was on multiple occasions tempted to get an IPTV service with its convenient access to a number of always available TV channels from FOX Life to Discovery Channel to CNBC, yet every time I ended up wondering what would be the point as I reminded myself of all the stuff I get without a monthly subscription using software like Boxee on my PC. First off, the sheer amount of great video content now available from various exclusively Internet based media companies like Revision3 which I can watch on demand Read More

There is a growing number of people who recognize and reject the rigidity of modern society. They see it treating human beings as machines that run a prewritten program, and individuals themselves treating their lives in that manner as well. This is seen as a relic of the industrial revolution which brought about the idea that everything can be structured into a machine-like efficient process, even human lives. So we have this well known, well worn path. Kindergarten, school, college, getting a job, getting married, staying in shape, advancing up Read More

Apple's iPhone may still be the king in the growing smartphone market, but Android based phones have a lot to offer including perhaps a few things that may make iPhone users somewhat envious. Here is a selection of fun and useful Android apps. Some are just extremely useful, and others could be very fun, but all of them demonstrate just how capable and entertaining an Android smartphone can be. I've also included QR code images so you can get an app instantly by just scanning it with an app like Read More