BRUCEB NEWS
Location Tracking: They Know Where You Are
You carry a beacon twenty-four hours a day that broadcasts your location. We are being tracked wherever we go by dozens of companies, mostly unregulated. It is an unparalleled surveillance system, but it wasn't created by sinister forces in an authoritarian...
COMPUTER RECYCLING
In addition to Hewlett Packard's computer recycling service (see news item on May 29), the Press Democrat just published an article about a local company doing recycling....
ONLINE STREAMING MUSIC
If you've got a broadband connection (DSL or cable) and you want to listen to some music, don't overlook AOL Time Warner's Spinner.com and Microsoft's MSN Music. Both allow you...
NAPSTER ALTERNATIVES
Now that Napster has gone, other services are slowly coming up to speed for file sharing. It's a slow process - the record companies have successfully created an atmosphere of...
MICROSOFT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR HOTMAIL SPAM
Oh, this is a nasty one. According to this article, Microsoft sends information about its Hotmail subscribers - email address, city, and state - to InfoSpace, an Internet white...
MICROSOFT’S PLAN TO SELL OFFICE XP
If you've been reading the tech news, you've seen references to a controversy about "Product Activation" in Microsoft Office XP, and more controversy over a new licensing scheme...
WINDOWS XP INTRODUCTION
Windows XP is four months away, but it will make such a big splash that you should be coming up to speed on it now. This seventeen-page analysis of XP covers everything from...
MICROSOFT PASSPORT
More and more online merchants are signing up to accept payments through Microsoft's Passport system. It's an important part of Microsoft's long-term goal to take over the...
THE COPYRIGHT POLICE ARE WATCHING
The conventional wisdom has been that the record companies would target services like Napster with threats and lawsuits, but they would never attack individuals - for practical...
CDR BACKUP
As more people get CD recorders, it makes sense to use them for backups. There's a number of ways to do that, but many of you should consider investing in a backup program that...
SATELLITE UPDATE
I've had the Pegasus/DirecPC satellite for about ten days. Right after it was installed, the entire two-way DirecPC system went down for about three days, which created a poor...
AOL TIME WARNER LIVING DOWN TO EXPECTATIONS
When the AOL TIme Warner merger was being evaluated, one important issue concerned "open access" to the new company's cable systems. If AOL Time Warner refused to let anyone else...
R.I.P. NETSCAPE BROWSER
According to this article, Netscape will essentially get out of the browser business soon. Its web site will be turned into an Internet media hub to showcase Time Warner artists...
WEB BLACKOUT AFFECTS E-MAIL
I had trouble sending some e-mail during the last few days - messages were being returned as undeliverable, but it was hard to understand why. A couple of other people have...
SHRINKING INTERNET
The Internet is turning into just another broadcast medium - a limited number of channels controlled by big companies, designed to maximize revenues to copyright holders and...
SATELLITE UPDATE – HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE
The dish is on the roof. Consumer-class two-way satellite service from Pegasus Communications. Equipment was delivered about three days after I placed the order, and the...