Archived posts
Creepy virtual Japanese lady takes over internet
I find it really interesting that all of a sudden the entire internet discovered and blew a gasget over cubo.cc (i.e. MotionPortrait), which has been floating around on various sites since August, 2007. Stranger still that MotionPortrait, Inc., who develops the eponymous Flash app, apparently hasn’t spent much time in the last six months or [...]
Amusing Live Search result for Engadget
Certainly no one can ping Microsoft’s Live Search for weighting down anything fruit-related.
H&R Block’s TaxCut is a scam
Did you know that when you pay money for H&R Block’s TaxCut software you’re only able to use it for one filing season, despite its built-in ability to download the latest forms and recognize the latest regulations for federal and state filing laws? I sure didn’t — and H&R Block doesn’t make that clear anywhere [...]
Philippe Starck: “design is dead”
It kind of bums me out to hear Philippe Starck proclaim the death of design, even if it is merely sour grapes from a master designer whose time seems to have passed. No wonder he seems so bitter: “But the thing one needs most, he added, was the ‘ability to love’.” Indeed. But maybe I [...]
CNET layoffs aren’t foreboding
As you might’ve read, yesterday CNET (internally) announced 120 layoffs across the board, including some well-respected tech writers you may have read. Naturally this is a pretty big bummer (and any CNET eds looking for a gig, feel free to hit me up!), but it’s also important to realize that, strangely enough, CNET isn’t really [...]
Profiled in Wired, on G4 tonight
I don’t have a ton of time to get into the storied history of Wired’s year-and-a-half-in-coming profile of Engadget vs Gizmodo, but suffice it to say they spent the better part of five pages taking the typical, obvious angle (ZOMG IT’S LIKE A FRAT WAR WITH GADGET BLOGS LOL), missing the real story right under [...]
Sony rebounds on crapware removal fee
No doubt about it, the Fresh Start program Sony rolled out this week (which proposes that customers pay Sony money to remove the crapware Sony installs on new PCs) absolutely exemplifies everything wrong with the computer industry today. Now, to be fair, it’s easy to imagine the pudgy corporate bureaucracy that probably gave birth to [...]
Leopard 10.5.2: external USB drive crashes Finder, possible fix
Yeah, I’ve been contending with Leopard / 10.5.2 since certain external USB drives began crashing Finder endlessly (until they’re yanked and Finder springs back to life). Using the Console app, I traced the issue back to this core error message from com.apple.launchd: com.apple.finder Exited abnormally: Bus error. I happened upon a solution that seems to [...]
The real reason fanboys hate tech reporters
Farhad Manjoo had me at “On hot-button issues — the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the Mac-PC divide — we’re quick to see bias in even the most objective news.” He’s penned a solid read about that pestering bit which really ought not be as prevalent as it actually is in the wonderful field of writing about [...]
Security geeks: should I be worried about software HP has reporters install?
I’ve been meaning to pose this question for a while, here’s the setup: HP, like most companies, pre-briefs members of the press on upcoming announcements. Naturally this is all under embargo / NDA / pinky-swear — so even discussing this stuff unlikely to win me any brownie points, but oh well — and the last [...]
Co-founder of 
