BRUCEB NEWS
The Best New Music Of 2020
Spotify released the personalized Wrapped 2020 playlist a few days ago. I was a bit surprised to discover that my fave-rave most-played song in 2020 was the sound of soothing ocean waves. It turns out that Spotify’s algorithms get the teensiest bit confused if you...
MORE URBAN LEGENDS
Time for our annual reminder that most e-mail warnings of bad things are false, ranging from the intentionally harmful to benign urban myths. An e-mail message is circulating...
DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Microsoft has put together a rich source of information about digital photography on this page. It includes a fair amount of advertising for Microsoft products and partners, but...
NEW LOOK FOR HOTMAIL
Hotmail got an overhaul yesterday, including a new interface that resembles Microsoft Outlook 2003. Theoretically the junk mail filter keeps improving, grouping and viewing of...
SPAMMERS HAPPY WITH FEDERAL LAW
As you watch Congress and the President congratulate each other over the new federal anti-spam legislation, keep in mind that the spammers are thrilled with the new law. Here's...
MASTER & SLAVE
I'm a fan of politically correct speech. I think it's important to avoid using expressions that perpetuate stereotypes, even if it's reasonably clear that the words are meant...
YAHOO AND PRIVACY
Here's a good description of why Yahoo just sent out millions of notices about its "privacy policy." "One time Pac-Bell (now under SBC name umbrella) users were promised...
WONDERFUL WORLD
The Guardian reports that a media watchdog group is investigating a new ad from Intel showing mountaineers on Mt. Everest accessing the Internet using a Centrino wireless...
CAMERA PHONES
Here's an article about cell phones with cameras, which are the fastest-growing consumer technology ever, according to a recent study. Eighty million camera phones have been sold...
WHAT TO DO IF YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION GOES DOWN
As we grow more dependent on the Net, it's important to have contingency plans. Here's a useful collection of tips and tricks in case your Internet connection goes down.
MICROSOFT VS. GOOGLE
Microsoft has begun testing a news service to aggregate headlines from a variety of publications. The new service, MSN Newsbot, is currently targeted at the UK and three European...
WEB BROWSER HIJACKING
I just ran into a browser hijacking that wasn't repaired by AdAware. "LuckySearch" came up as the browser home page and default search engine every time the system rebooted, even...
MSN SEARCH
If you use MSN’s web search for “linux windows,” it returns sixteen web pages with both those words on them. Try it! If you use Google for the same search, it returns almost nine...
GRAPHICS PROGRAMS
I wrote up some notes about programs for editing and organizing images on this page - comparing Adobe Photoshop Elements with Microsoft Digital Image Pro. Fascinating, insightful...
STRANGE PICTURES
Internet site of the day - somebody with too much free time making really strange pictures of animals.
FREE WINDOWS DOODADS
Microsoft has free "Winter Fun Packs" available for download. Greeting card templates, screen savers, effects for Movie Maker 2, visualizations for Media Player 9. Whee.