BRUCEB NEWS
Power And Cruelty In George Orwell’s America
Power Eric Lutz / Vanity Fair, April 3, 2020 Tierney Sneed / Talking Points Memo, May 13, 2020 Yahoo News, May 13, 2020 George Orwell on power: “Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not...
DICTIONARIES
The Press Democrat just did a feature about the abbreviations invented for text messaging – they’re becoming second nature to many kids, and teachers are seeing them turn up in...
CHEAP COMPUTERS
Look for cheap Emachines and Compaq Presarios in the stores for your Christmas shopping pleasure. They’ll each have systems at various price points - $399, $499, $599, $750 –...
VIDEO ON DEMAND IS HERE TODAY
The New York Times has an article today with an intriguing premise: the world of video on demand is here, and it’s being delivered by . . . the Post Office. DVDs hold digital...
NEW VERSION OF KAZAA
Kazaa introduced a new version of its file sharing software today. It should be available at download.com. I don’t have any information yet about any spyware included in this...
NEW HP PRINTERS
Hewlett Packard has a line of color printers for business – including “business Deskjets” that don’t turn up often at the neighborhood stores. They feature faster speeds and...
HOTMAIL SPAM FILTER
It’s not just your imagination – Hotmail accounts get far more spam than any other mail service through any other ISP. Microsoft has finally signed a deal that might cut down on...
DIGITAL IMAGES
For consumers, the world of graphics software breaks down roughly into two categories: Photo editing programs – for working with images from your scanner or digital camera....
HOW COMPUTER MANUFACTURERS SURVIVE
Here’s an article about rumors that Gateway is receiving unsolicited takeover bids. Gateway’s public stance is that it has no interest in being acquired, but there’s no way to...
ON SALE
Costco has been carrying Sylvania conventional and flat screen monitors for a while now – and they’re perfectly good, in my experience. Today, though, the 17” monitors in stock...
MAC OS X – THE MANDATORY UPGRADE
Apple has a problem – its users aren’t flocking to the new operating system, OS X, as fast as Apple needs. So Apple came up with a plan to fix their problem. Guesses, anyone?...
RECORD INDUSTRY AND SLUMPING SALES
Dan Bricklin is an old-timer in the computer industry – among other things, he developed VisiCalc, the granddaddy of the spreadsheets. He’s done a lengthy statistical analysis of...
INSTANT MESSAGING IN THE DOLDRUMS
At one time it appeared that instant messaging would be standardized and as a result would become a mainstream tool, widely adopted by businesses and as common as e-mail. Then it...
SERVICE PACKS
Now that Windows XP Service Pack 1 is out the door, almost everybody should be installing one of the recent updates. Although the service packs fix a slew of bugs, their primary...
PRIVACY POLICIES
Nobody reads privacy policies. If you’re like me, you assume that a web site’s reference to a “privacy policy” must mean something good. Here’s an ominous reminder that we must...
NEW MICROSOFT HARDWARE
Microsoft is rolling out a completely new lineup of mice and keyboards. Here’s the Microsoft press release. The lineup includes new wireless equipment, plus a smaller mouse sized...