BRUCEB NEWS
The Claude Crisis: AI And The Presumption Of Regularity
It’s Anti-AI week! Protests and petitions and boycotts and resignations , oh my. OpenAI (ChatGPT) is the villain. Anthropic (Claude) is the hero, topping the download charts after a burst of headlines about AI and the Pentagon and are you kidding me,…
XMAS FRUSTRATION FOLLOWUP
The Linksys WMLS11B Wireless Music System has been boxed up and returned after a few more fruitless hours of testing. The replacement is the Netgear MP101 Wireless Digital Music…
SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM
It’s not your imagination – the volume of spam is constantly rising and the spammers continue to find new ways to get through the filters. Here’s an article…
XMAS FRUSTRATIONS – ANECDOTE 2
The Linksys WMLS11B Wireless Music System fit my needs perfectly. I have an existing wireless network and a large music library on one computer; I wanted to play that music in…
XMAS FRUSTRATIONS – ANECDOTE 1
Products are appearing on the market faster than we can understand them – and manufacturers are moving so quickly that the products are too often half-baked, or not…
DIGITAL CAMERAS
Lots of you own digital cameras or will get them for Xmas. Each camera will come with proprietary software to unload photos from the camera and handle simple editing –…
MPAA TO SUE MOVIE DOWNLOADERS
The MPAA announced last month that it would follow the example of the RIAA and sue individual movie file-swappers. Here’s an article about their announcement, a few days…
MORE TOOLS FOR DESKTOP SEARCHES
Microsoft unveiled the MSN Toolbar Suite on Monday, its new free program for searching Outlook folders and the contents of your My Documents folder. This follows shortly after…
CELL PHONES AND THE “DO NOT CALL” LIST
The last few months have been slow for e-mail hoaxes. DId you get any of the messages last week about registering your cell phone numbers with the national “Do Not…
HP DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT CENTER z545
HP has introduced a device for the living room that comes closer to a vision of the future than anything else on the market. The HP Digital Entertainment Center z545 ($1,999) is…
MICROSOFT INTRODUCES BLOGGING TOOL
“Blogging” has been named the “word of the year” by Merriam Webster. Blogs are online tools designed to allow easy sharing of opinions and information,…
SECURITY PATCHES FOR MACS
I’m sure this will get lots of attention in the paper tomorrow as a gesture of fairness, given all the criticism of Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer lately. But hey,…
THE GADGET EXPLOSION
We’re entering the golden age of gadgets. Walking the aisles at Best Buy is an eye-opening experience – there’s already an overwhelming range of choices,…
SPYWARE – A CAUTIONARY TALE
A columnist for the Los Angeles Times wrote the story of his experiences when his computer was hijacked by adware and spyware. It’s a good summary of the pervasiveness of…
KAZAA/SKYPE & ADWARE
As I noted a couple of days ago, Kazaa has released of a new version of its software bundled with Skype for Internet telephony. Don’t do it! They’ve gone completely…
GOTOMYPC
Remote access to an office computer is becoming a top priority for many people. Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 includes remote access options that are rich and satisfying;…