Mousetrap Technology - Times Online - WBLG

Not so geeky after all

How's this for feel-good news? Research shows that the internet actually helps cultivate social interaction in "real life". According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project - and contrary to popular belief - the web and e-mail actually expand and strengthen the social ties that people maintain in the real world.

Cyberspace "past its sell-by date"

William Gibson says the term "cyberspace" has past its sell-by date. Given that he invented the term in his 1984 sci-fi novel Neuromancer, he would seem well placed to make the call. "The prob­lem is that everything has become an aspect of, well, cyberspace," he explains. According to Wired, "the internet feels less like an alternate world that we 'go to' and more like just another layer of life."

Fair enough. But in that case, Mr Gibson, what should we call the online realm? "If I had that word, it would be the title of my next book," he says.

Will Google launch a music service?

Times Online has the latest on the mounting speculation that Google is poised to battle Apple's dominance in the online music market by buying Napster, the one-time illegal music website.

Go Google, jump that shark

So much for China’s super-sophisticated “Great Firewall” and Google’s legendary technical nous. It turns out, according to a news.com.com report, that last week Google’s Chinese filtering system didn’t stop all that it was supposed to (Wikipedia’s entry on Falun Gong got through) and blocked some things it shouldn’t have (the sex in Essex was enough to get the poor old Essex Chronicle blacklisted).

It’s enough, especially after the poor reception met by the Google Pack, to make you wonder if Google has, finally, jumped the shark.

Countdown to Blackworm

The clock is ticking on a dangerous computer virus programmed to delete millions of Word files stored on PCs when it reaches the end of its countdown on Friday, Times Online reports.

Once again, Microsoft's near-ubiquitous Windows software is the target. The Blackworm virus, which has also been named Blackmal, Nyxem, MyWife and Tearec, has been designed to delete Word, Powerpoint and Excel documents, among others. The question, however, is whether it will stop at mindless vandalism or whether there is another, hidden motive.

Tom Baker at your fingertips

Those who hoped that the advance of Little Britain had been arrested by series three’s lukewarm critical reception may be disappointed by this: Tom Baker, the show’s sonorous narrator, will soon be the new voice of text messaging.

Yes, text messaging does have a voice. If, for some reason, you want to send a text to a BT landline (and more than 1.4 million people do just that each week, according to BT), the recipient will hear it read by an automated voice. From Tuesday, that voice will be Tom Baker’s.

Google: don't be too evil

"Oh, the irony," writes Danny Sullivan at SearchEngineWatch. "Less than a week after we hear that Google is ready to fight the US Government in part to defend its users, now comes news that Google will cave into the Chinese government's demands for its new Google China web site."

Many bloggers are unhappy about the decision. In fact Google has managed to unite right-wing anti-communists with left-wing anti-capitalists, who think the company is putting profits before human rights.

Opera CEO on song in Davos

From one blog to another... technophiles may be interested in learning that Jon S von Tetzchner, the CEO and co-founder of Opera Software, the browser people, has been blogging for Times Online ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. Jon (pictured getting his feet wet) is in Davos, mingling with the great and good who traditionally flock to the event, to campaign for universal internet access to be made a reality. We'll be catching up with him later on this week, to see how he gets on. 

Death to the Crackberry?

I had no idea that the company behind the BlackBerry handheld e-mail device was in so much trouble. But the Supreme Court has refused to review a patent infringement lawsuit/injunction which threatens to shut down the entire BlackBerry service - a huge blow to the three million or so permanently wired yuppies who give more attention to their little blue machines than they do their spouses or children (that's why it's known as the Crackberry). Apparently the maker of the BlackBerry, Research in Motion (RIM) of Canada, is being sued by another company, NTP, which claims the iconic device infringes 11 of its patents. According to analysts, RIM could be looking at the wrong end of a $750 million settlement. RIM says it will fight the injunction, but, just in case, it has developed new software that can "maintain the operation" of its little blue boxes.

The spy rock: data from a stone

Q is facing a challenge to his authority. Like everything else, James Bond’s gadgetmaster has been superseded by the internet, which offers high-tech espionage and counter-espionage equipment to anyone with a web connection.

So British agents may not be the only ones using wireless-enabled boulders to transfer information from secret agents to their controllers. "Cameras can be hidden in anything where space allows," according to the marketing material of K9 Electronics. "The same is true with our range of FM transmitters and UHF transmitters."

Spam: four days and counting

On January 24, junk e-mail will be a thing of the past. Or so you would have thought, listening to a speech made by Bill Gates on that date in 2004. "Two years from now, spam will be solved," he told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

A quick glance at the Times Online e-mail account suggests that Mr Gates may not be infallible after all. Instead of sitting here writing this, my inbox suggests that I could be enjoying all sorts of cheap prescription drugs while making millions from the world’s ex-dictators. Each needs a trusted accomplice to launder his loot, and each has decided that only I am up to the job.

Memo to the Swiss: keep making the chocolate

So farewell then, trusty wristwatch, invented by the Swiss in 1896 and made popular during the First World War (the British Army worked out that attacks were more effective when everyone fired their weapon at the same time). Reports reach Mousetrap HQ that sales of wristwatches to US teenagers and young adults slumped by 10 per cent during 2005, because everyone is now using their mobile phones, PDAs and, yes, their iPods, to tell the time. You can read all about it in Friday's Times (or online). Alas, I am one of the consumers who has given up his self-winding TAG Heuer (self-winding meaning it stops every time I take it off) for the clock on my phone. But even that's not perfect. On New Year's Eve, my friends and I counted down to midnight using our phones. At the crucial moment, we discovered they were out of synch by up to four minutes, resulting in premature snogs, black eyes, spilled drinks, and much confusion.

We'll keep the TV on next year.

How to control the grey goo

Does “nanotechnology need "nano-scale regulation”?

And while we're on the topic, do you wonder how the news that “anyone who purchased clear sunscreen or wore stain-resistant pants during the holidays was probably enjoying the benefits of commercialised nanotechnology” will go down with Britain's sometime vocal anti-grey goo lobby?

Talk is cheap, but not free

And so Tesco joins the growing crowd of companies lining up to bury the traditional telephone network. Some have said that its web-based phone service, launched today, will bring internet telephony out of the techie sub-culture and into the mainstream.

That seems unlikely: its offering just isn’t attractive enough to wean people off their tried-and-trusted BT lines. Many calls will cost less than the traditional alternatives, but they won’t be free.

iMac: Lost in translation?

After experiencing inappropriate feelings of tenderness for my Apple PowerBook G4, I have been contemplating replacing my clunky old grease-stained, virus-infected PC with a shiny new Intel-powered iMac. I'm now having second thoughts after reading The Wall Street Journal's side-by-side test of the new iMac with the old one (powered by an IBM PowerPC processor). According to the Journal, "nearly all existing third-party software for the Mac, including major programs like Microsoft Office, will have to be rewritten to run on the Intel processor". This process will take months, and I'm sure there will be glitches for some time after the rewriting is complete. In the meantime, Apple has pre-loaded the Intel-powered iMac with translator software as a temporary solution. The Journal says it works well, but probably cancels out the noticeable improvements in speed. Nevertheless, the Journal recommends the new iMac to readers (in the US, the price of the Intel-powered model is the same as the old one). Personally, I think I'll wait.

Trapped in a Media Bubble, or just skiving?

Back in the Middle Ages when I was a student at Hull University, skipping lectures (or snoozing through them in a booze-induced daze) meant having to borrow a friend's notes, complete with cigarette burns and coffee stains. Often, my mate's doodles made more sense than the randomly highlighted text.

These days, students have it easier, according to the Los Angeles Times. It reports today that professors at UC Berkeley allow students to visit a website where they can watch digital videos of lectures, listen to audio commentaries, or, even better, download transcripts. The result? Attendance at lectures has dropped to 10 per cent.

"I disagree with everything you say..."

Here's a ethical dilemma/can of worms for you...

Today, Times Online reports that anti-fascist organisations have attacked Google for including material produced by the far-right British National Party (BNP) on its online news service.

That's the same BNP that the Standards Board for England ruled could be described as a “Nazi” organisation. The ruling followed a complaint to the local government watchdog from the BNP against a Liberal Democrat councillor who told a public meeting: “Nazis are not welcome in our town.”

So what's Google doing, giving it a platform alongside organisations such as Reuters?

Firefox for Macs

Just a snippet on the new generation of Intel Macs - and the race to get compatible software for them out on the market. Firefox, the free web browser, will be made available for users of Apple's recently released Intel-powered computers in March, the charity behind the software has said. The move will put it into competition with Apple's own Safari browser.

Thinking outside the box

Hard to believe, but it’s gone. Blown away. Smashed to smithereens.

That’s right: 0.62 seconds has been carved off the world record for solving the Rubik’s Cube.

Britons spend their way up the league table

Three months after Germany narrowly beat Britain in the online shopping stakes, the UK appears to have retaken the title. In October, a report suggested that only Germans made more online purchases than Britons, but the European Interactive Advertising Agency says UK internet shoppers made more purchases and spent more money online in 2005 than residents of any other European country.

Britons spent an average of £875 on 12 items, compared with Germans, who spent £405 on ten items and the French, who spent £254 on six items. Danes were the second-biggest online spenders, splashing out £734 on nine items.

Is that an iPod in your pocket ...?

iPod sceptics have always said that Apple’s music player is little more than a fashion statement. Now Levi is setting out to prove them right. The clothing company will soon begin making jeans designed to accommodate the wearer’s iPod.

The RedWire DLX jeans incorporate a docking cradle within a pocket and a remote control that lets users change the track or volume without removing the iPod. They also promise to conceal any bulges, which may or may not be a selling point.

An arm and a leg for an Apple

OK, the Apple backlash starts here. Perhaps.

For a start, it turns out everybody hates the name "MacBook Pro". Second, how come we Brits get to pay £250 more for one of the new Apple laptops than our American cousins?

The core of the Apple problem

When Steve Jobs speaks, the web listens. And true enough, the buzz surrounding the launch of two new Apple computers last night has dominated debate by bloggers today.

Hardly a Page turner

So there we have it. The speech from Larry Page, Google's co-founder, widely tipped to reveal something as dynamic and extraordinary as the $200 PC, ended up delivering something far more fundamental: charging consumers for accessing online content.

The reason that a company which launched its shares less than 18 months ago at $85 a piece and which is now to trading those stocks at approaching $600 is because it continues to launch new products and services. Page's speech late of Friday at the CES conference in Las Vegas continued that trend.

Viva Las Vegas?

When you bring an act into this town, you want to bring it heavy. Don't waste any time with cheap shucks and misdemeanors. Go straight for the jugular.

Thus wrote Hunter S Thompson. His impressions of Las Vegas reinforced many views of it as a city whose only reason for existence is to provide a gambling outlet in the desert of Nevada for the good people of California, and a not inconsiderable guaranteed income for some of the more notorious citizens in Chicago, Florida and New York.

But then along came the Consumer Electronics Show, one of those teccie trade shows that are, truly, essential and which provides a detailed insight to developments in television, computers, music and gaming that could define our lives for the rest of this decade. Or, as The Times's Chris Ayres put it, "Today in Las Vegas, 130,000 people will decide your future."  

Haven't they heard of Tesco?

The great Brussels sprout controversy deepens. Times Online has received an e-mail making sensational claims about the origins of the eBay sprout auction frenzy.

"I would like to set the record straight about these eBay Brussels sprouts," it begins, referring to a number of unwanted Christmas meals up for sale on the online auction site. One roast dinner with all the trimmings, including "party hat, cracker and party popper" has attracted a bid of £7,600 with a day and a half left to run. Half the money will go to charity and the other half to fund college for the seller’s partner.

Microsoft patches up security flaw

Microsoft has released a patch for the flaw in its operating systems that allowed hackers to install spyware on a PC without forcing the user to download an infected file. Malicious software writers have been quick to exploit the vulnerability, which meant that computers could be infected when users viewed an infected image on a website or in an e-mail. The patch is available here.

The fault was discovered on December 28, but Microsoft initially said it would not be able to shore up the gap in its defences until January 10. The early release of the security patch has been praised by antivirus companies. "Everybody was hoping they would get the patch out before a major attack would start," Mikko Hypponen, the chief research officer at F-Secure, wrote on the company’s weblog. "Now it looks like they succeeded in doing just that."

E-Ink and digital publishing

Developments in flexible electronic print are making advertising on food packaging a tasty proposition, but they are also bringing the concept of the truly digital newspaper a step closer.

E-paper products are already upon us. Whether they're interactive facsimilies of printed titles, such as the e-paper editions of The Times and The Sunday Times, or bespoke, Flash-driven titles such as Into The Storm and Phamous 69, e-editions make an attractive alternative to flat HTML pages and traditional print media. Foldable screen technology would make them even more attractive, especially to advertisers seeking to reach the crucial commuter market.

Google and the budget PC: will they or won't they?

Google breaks its silence on the stories floating around this morning that suggest the internet search company is preparing to pile into the budget PC market with a £115 machine that you'll probably be able to pick up from Asda. "We have many PC partners who serve their markets exceedingly well and we see no need to enter that market; we would rather partner with great companies," it tells Times Online.

To quote a fellow journalist, displaying all the jaundiced brio expected from the humble British hack: "So, it's got to be true then".

Fuku bukuro!

I spoke too soon in my last blog entry. The Panasonic centre was a treat but the new year sale at Bic Camera in Yurakucho was, oh, so much better.

They have a truly wonderful tradition in Japan on the first shopping day of the new year called "fuku bukuro", which translates neatly as "lucky sack". Basically, all the stores stuff a bag full of goods, seal it from view and sell it for significantly less than half the value of the things inside. So the ladies queue overnight in the cold to grab armfuls of fuku bukuros from the glitzy department stores, and the poddies head for the Ginza Apple store with much the same thing in mind. I head for Bic Camera and the enticing bags of high-tech goods ranged outside its portico.

Seasonal geekery

For pure, unfettered geekiness Tokyo is the place to spend the festive season. Oh sure, Akihabara is great for shopping, but if you like your tech with an exclusive edge, where else, I ask you, could you pick up the phone to the world's biggest consumer electronics company, demand that they break off from their festive preparations to show you their most exciting new toys and be told "would this afternoon suit?"

Cut to the strange and remote reclaimed island (read massive earthquake hazzard) of Odaiba and the Panasonic Technology Centre. The vast building is arranged somewhat like those laboratories where they study infectious diseases, and my guide was ready to take me to the technological equivalent of the Ebola room.