Entries for September 2006

Thumbs are getting smarts–thumb drives, that is. The little drives that plug into a computer's USB port are everywhere, offering portable storage that's small enough to fit on a key ring. They're also plunging in price, with 1-gigabyte models going for less than $30.

I love my rabbit ears. There is something endearingly retro, if not so attractive, about an old-fashioned antenna on top of a TV. Especially if it's there to get cutting-edge, digital broadcasts with DVD-quality video and surround sound. All through a $20 set of rabbit ears.

Within days last spring, the wives of Michael Edelson and Brad Weber each asked if they knew whether their kids had MySpace profiles. They didn't, which seemed a bad thing. And it seemed a business opportunity. So the longtime friends, already running another tech venture, launched BeNetSafe to monitor MySpace profiles.

There seems something seamy about surveillance software--something seedy about a product widely publicized as a tool for jealous spouses. So it’s notable that the makers of Spector Pro www.spectorsoft.com surveillance software are trying to clean up its image a bit.

It's fun, and maybe even useful, to surf the Web in a moving car. That's possible now with cell companies offering high-speed networks in hundreds of cities. Across one of those metro areas, the cell systems can make wireless surfing feel as fast as home broadband. But don't be fooled into thinking this is a flashy superhighway that goes both ways.