It appears that scientists at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology proved recently that you can't travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. That discovery, howled many popular publications, means time travel is impossible. "Impossible," however, is a very powerful word. Has th...

Here's What's Wrong With Video Conferencing

November 25, 2011

I've been covering video conferencing (now often called "telepresence") products since the late 80s and saw my first offering in the mid-60s as a child at Disneyland. Over the years, product wave after product wave has come to market with the promise of the next big thing in telecommunications only...

Taking It to the Cybercrooks: Q&A With Security Guru Mikko Hypponen, Part 2

November 25, 2011

Mikko Hypponen has spent the past 20-plus years studying malicious software, including everything from "Brain" -- the first PC virus, dating back to 1986 -- all the way up to Stuxnet and today's most sophisticated global malware. He's widely considered one of the world's foremost experts on informat...

Taking It to the Cybercrooks: Q&A With Security Guru Mikko Hypponen, Part 1

November 24, 2011

It was once the case that computer viruses and other malicious software were written primarily by hobbyist hackers. Their motivations, for the most part, were simply bragging rights and the respect of their peers -- desirable rewards, to be sure, but certainly not the sole focus of any career. The r...

The School of Gaming

September 5, 2011

Ludology or narratology? These are the two generally accepted approaches to thinking about games. Though not incompatible, these two branches of knowledge nonetheless contend for pre-eminence among video game designer priorities. The first emphasizes play, the second story. In literary theory, ...

Does the Netbook Stand a Chance?

February 21, 2011

Trends have always come and gone, but when it comes to all-things-tech, the speed of change is faster than an Internet minute. It isn't that tech users are all that fickle; it's that the environment around them is constantly changing. Take the "smartphones vs. laptops war" for example. It isn't that...

Weird Earthly Life-Form Means Rethinking the Hunt for ET

February 21, 2011

With a much-anticipated NASA announcement Thursday, "The Devil in the Dark" is no longer the name of actor William Shatner's favorite original "Star Trek" episode, about a man-eating subterranean monster made ofcells based on silicon rather than carbon. Rather, it's a newly discovered bacteria that ...

Mobile Computing's Cloudy Forecast

November 25, 2010

Many a techie is looking at the cloud and seeing the shape of the future -- but that shape is often starkly defined by the data center, leaving little room for visions of mobile. Yet the cloud will undoubtedly shape-shift mobile devices in fascinating and often unexpected ways. "The cloud is the per...

The Mobile App Developer's Precarious Path

September 4, 2010

With the rise of connected devices, mobile app developers are now center stage -- but juggling all the operating systems and form factors is an increasingly difficult act to perform. The challenge is to deliver a crowd-pleasing moneymaker without tearing the tent down. "The fragmentation of the app ...

Think Your Browsing's Private? Think Again

January 1, 2010

Being on the Internet is like living in a village: Everyone knows who you are and all the details of your private life -- except that on the Internet, it's not just people you may have known all your life who know a lot about you; it's complete and utter strangers. It's not just that those strangers...

Technology to Give Eyesight to the Blind

December 31, 2009

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed technology that could help fight blindness. It's aimed at the millions of people impacted by two of the major causes of blindness: age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. The MIT project is one of several that use a physical ...

Wither PC Gaming?

December 25, 2009

Gamers are often devided into two categories: those who play on consoles and those who play on PCs. A console gamer will drop few hundred dollars for Sony's PS3, Microsoft's Xbox 360, or Nintendo's Wii, but a PC gamer who wants to purchase a desktop or laptop optimized for gaming could pay thousand...

Gen. Wesley Clark (ret.) on the High-Stakes Struggle for Cybersecurity

December 24, 2009

In wanting to give peace a chance, the Dalai Lama and John Lennon don't have much company; fighting and causing trouble seem to be the preference of most of the world. The conflicts in the Middle East and Afghanistan, to name the most prominent, are taking their toll on human life and limb. However,...

Q&A With ISF President Howard Schmidt

December 22, 2009

The Information Security Forum may bill itself as the world's leading independent authority on IT security, but the companies and agencies that its members work for are finding themselves more dependent than ever on its computer security expertise. Current trends that are expanding access to network...

The Internet's Destruction of Critical Thinking

November 26, 2009

Like Alice's Restaurant in the Arlo Guthrie song, the Internet lets you get anything you want -- from views on politics or science and technology or religion to recipes and gossip. Oh, and of course, news. However, few people do more than skim the surface -- and as they do with newspapers, most peop...

See More Articles

How do you primarily follow the FIFA World Cup?

TV broadcast
Streaming apps
Social media
Radio
I'm not following the World Cup

Loading ...

Unable to open file!