• Bill Thompson blasts me in BBC article.
  • Ask.com will erase your history from their servers on request.
  • Woman busted for murder based on searches done on Google regarding murder!
  • Office 2007 SP1 released early.
  • Human evolution increasing at a faster not slower rate.
  • Honda has two robots that talk to each other. Considered creepy.
  • Mobile gaming going to hit $6 billion by 2011.
  • MSFT going after Chinese gangs in SE Asia.

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  1. Jägermeister says:

    Honda has two robots that talk to each other.

    I thought the John C. Dvorak and Sebastian Rupley robots at Cranky Geeks had already done this for years…

  2. TIHZ_HO says:

    #1 Ooooooooooo 😆

    MS going after Chinese software pirates? LOL! Yeah right! Just how serious is China and MS in this regard? Not very from what I can see in Shanghai.

    Just the other night I saw a police car with flashers on parked in front of a supermarket (Lotus Center in Pudong) and next to the police car on the footpath was a street vendor selling pirate DVDs and software. What were the police doing? Eating dinner from street vendor next to the DVD vendor. I need to take my camera with me when I go out.

    HP operated Laptop shop XiuJiaHui shopping center in Shanghai sold me a laptop a few months ago with OEM Linux and offered to have their service centre install a pirate copy of WinXP because they didn’t have the legal English version and they said no one buys the legal versions anyway. So I let them to see if they would and they did and while that was being done the HP service tech asked if I wanted any other software while I was there and suggested Office 2003.

    I eventually returned it for another better laptop with OEM Chinese Vista which I dumped for my legal version English WinXP.

    I am still waiting for HP to get me a English Vista re-installation disc for my HP…they say its not available only the Chinese version is and US HP says nothing. John some help please?

    Cheers

  3. GregA says:

    [Message deleted – See Comment Guidelines. – ed.]

  4. TIHZ_HO says:

    #3 Sort of off topic is it not?

    I’ll bite, what 6 new stores, CompUSA?

    Cheerio

  5. Mike Voice says:

    Part of me thinks we can’t be evolving faster, because we keep throwing roadblocks in the way of “survival of the fittest”.

    but, the last few hundred years have exposed humans to more “change” than happened in the previous 1000 years – so I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that the increased rate of change has triggered an increased rate of adaption.

  6. Jim says:

    John, while your criticism has some valid points, you and a lot of others don’t offer up significant alternatives.
    The vision and mission statements of these folks involves the countries being able to pay for these laptops, not just being GIVEN them. That forces the countries to have some involvement in the education of their people.

    Announcing disagreement without any substantive debate and alternatives is a useless column. If you don’t like the mechanisms, what would you do to help educate those hundreds of millions of kids? Keeping in mind YOUR vision of education probably is nothing like THEIRS. Helping them with laptop systems allows them to build their own teaching mechanisms WITHOUT REQUIRING PAPER AND BOOKS AS INVESTMENTS.

    I seem to recall you are for paperless offices, why wouldn’t you be for paperless schools?

    I have no way to say whether their push will get results or have any substantive benefits, but AT LEAST THEY ARE TRYING SOMETHING.

    It is very easy to criticize the people on the ship that’s moving out to sea from the comfy chairs on dry land.

    If you have ideas, then use your bully-pulpit to promote them. Otherwise, I’d have to say shut up and let others succeed.

  7. Jim says:

    #7 it’s so helpful that you know which people want and “doesn’t want” to be helped. Perhaps you should join the major charity organizations and give them your great wisdom.

    Cynicism gets you less than nothing. Idealism at least attempts something, and you can then learn from the failures and successes.

    So would you rather be a sleeping cynic or a wide-awake idealist?

  8. Glenn E. says:

    Robots that talk to each other? If they can get them to review movies, they might be able to take over for Ebert and Roeper (or Roeper and cohost) someday. “We give ‘Rocky 10’ two lugbolts down.”

    Microsoft must have seen “PotC: At World’s End”, and though, “yeah, it’s possible to get the better of chinese pirates.” But they ain’t Capt. Jack Sparrow, by a long shot.

    “Human evolution increasing at a faster rate” Something else to blame on Global Warming?

    2011 will mark the highest number of traffic accidents. As people drive into each other, while playing mobile games. As if conversing and texting was distracting enough.

    The OLPC project assumes much, without any proof that it will work as touted. More than likely it will simply result in the spread of propaganda and consumerism. And not very much pure education. Once these things are out there. What’s to stop their creator from selling off ad space to the highest bidder? Not that these children will be able to afford any high ticket items. But politicos could misuse OLPCs, to promote their agendas. That may already be part of the deal, with each nation’s leaders.

  9. JaguarDriver says:

    #3 GA – Sounds more like an insecurity thing about having a small penis.

  10. Those are probably fembots if all they do is chat, I want to see robot sex!

    #11

    It’s because of people like you that Hugo Chavez managed to convince the poor to vote for him.


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