Congress Ready to Tackle Tech Issues in 2006

From PC World: The U.S. Congress will face a broad range of technology-related issues, including communications law reform and data-privacy issues, when it returns to work in 2006. The possibility of a data-breach notification law and a broadband-focused revamp of a decade-old telecommunications law made headlines in 2005, but tech vendors and trade groups are …

10 Greatest Gadget Ideas of the Year

From the New York Times: On New Year’s Eve, don’t be surprised to witness more heartfelt celebrating than usual; 2005 was not a year noted for its tidings of good cheer, and plenty of people will be happy to see it go. Still, there were inspiring and gratifying success stories if you knew where to …

Worst Tech Moments 2005

From Wired News: It was the year corporate and university data spills just kept coming, and the Supreme Court decided technology companies can be held responsible for the bad behavior of their users. Big firms lined up to help repressive governments; governments helped themselves to private phone calls and e-mail. A medical miracle transformed, overnight, …

Grandma, let me play that video game!

From CNN: A 69-year-old grandmother has become the heroine of young video-game fans and the star of a Web log created by her grandson. Barbara St. Hilaire plays video games 10 hours a day and spends a good part of her Social Security check on games. St. Hilaire thinks the blog and media attention she’s …

Microsoft Digital Image Suite Plus Review – Digital Photography Tip of the Week

I recently had the opportunity to review Microsoft Digital Image Suite Plus. This is Microsoft’s digital image editing product, digital image library and Pinnacle System’s Studio 10. The image editor provides advanced image editing capabilites including curves support, channel controls for high quality black and white images and support for Canon and Nikon RAW images. …

Fiddling With Format While DVD’s Burn

From the New York Times: The war for control of the next-generation DVD is approaching a critical juncture: next week in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show, companies championing the two competing high-definition DVD standards – Blu-ray and HD-DVD – will unveil their lineups of new players and movie titles. There are growing signs, …

Best Tech Moments of 2005

From Wired News: In the tech world, 2005 was a period of bold ideas and exciting breakthroughs — shadowed, at times, by devastating reversals. New software apps changed the way we looked at the world, while hardware got smaller, faster and more fun. On the net, blogs provided many of the most dramatic moments, sometimes …

Microsoft Quits MSNBC TV, but Web Partnership Remains

From the New York Times: Ending a partnership that soured long ago, Microsoft and NBC announced yesterday that they would dissolve their joint ownership of the cable news channel MSNBC, with NBC taking control. NBC has completed a deal to assume majority control of the channel immediately, with an 82 percent stake, and it will …

Googleites Gripe About Sloppy Service

From eWeek: Michele Neylon was once very happy with Urchin Software Corp., which provides a service to analyze Web site traffic. But ever since search giant Google Inc. bought Urchin in March, he’s changed his tune. His problem is with Google’s customer service. “If you choose to deal with Urchin in the Google era, you …

New (to me) digital camera

My father-in-law enjoys taking pictures. He jumped on the digital bandwagon years ago with one of the first main-stream 1 megapixel digital cameras Kodak sold. Every 1-2 years he gets a new one (always Kodak), and I benefit because I get his old one. I have to admit that I’ve never purchased a digital camera …