We are losing our privacy slowly every day and not because of the government or big business. We are losing our privacy because we, as individuals, are the ones eroding it.
“… the truth is that for a great many people, the permanent memory bank of the Web increasingly means there are no second chances — no opportunities to escape a scarlet letter in your digital past. Now the worst thing you’ve done is often the first thing everyone knows about you.”
Amusingly called the Bloom Box, this fuel-cell component is promised to boost power – not bass – independent of the central grid (where you get your electricity from). Think of it as “cold-fusion-in-a-box” as it’s literally a stack of ceramic plates separated by cheap metal alloy plates.
A small stack of these plates are said to power a small home, depending on the energy demand of course. Bloom Energy founder K.R. Sridhar calls the invention the “plug-and-play future of electricity”.
The ‘box’ inhales methane, other hydrocarbons and oxygen. The box of plates are heated up to 1,000′C. Filter dead air out. Result is electricity!
After 8 years of planning, Willy Wonka opened the doors to 60 Minutes to show the world they mean business. The only complaints so far by pundits (not users) have been cost, size and ROI, which were the same complaints about computers 50 years ago. In new markets, of course everything starts off as expensive.
Ouch! This Winnipegger got thrown out by his love because of some sultry text messages he didn’t even send; his phone sent them.
This must be like when your phone dials someone while it’s in your pocket. Note to new phone owners, especially those with Virgin Mobile, remove your pre-defined text messages. Also, this says a lot about what market Virgin Mobile is targeting: booty call?
Earlier today, Steve Jobs announced the new Apple toy of the year, the tablet-like iPad.
It might look like an iPhone on steroids, but it’s actually a mini-laptop.
It’s nearly the same screen size as a MacBook (the iPad screen is 9.5″ x 7.5″ while the MacBook screen is 9″ x 13″), one third the weight, and one half the thickness. The last stat is key because what makes the iPad a mini-lapto is that the iPad has the keyboard and monitor in the same space.
Similar to the iPhone, you can type via a QWERTY touchscreen keyboard but of course the keyboard is bigger, and Apple is offering accessories that will allow you to dock the iPad with an Apple keyboard in case all that touching is too much for you.
You can surf the Internet, watch movies or TV shows (Netflix anyone?), listen to music, play with photos and play iPhone games. Because of the iPhone network already in play, iPad users will have access to over 140,000 apps (and growing). The only downside is that it doesn’t come with flash.
Anyone who already owns an iPhone, will easily know how to use this device and that’s what Steve Jobs says will work for sales. For e-book readers, this device may be tempting because not only does it do more than most tablet PCs, but Apple is going live with their own “iBookstore” offering a place for publishers to sell their e-wares, just like it does for musicians (on record labels) and for iPhone game developers. Jobs says that they already have five of the largest book publishers on board already.
