Archive for the 'Foolishness' Category

This is my brain on tech

  Today of course is the first day of the Apple World Wide Developers Conference — another Steve Jobs love fest during which he gets trots out the latest life-altering technology for his fanboys to drool over. But before I get into that, I want to talk about yesterday’s New York Times Web site, which [...]

The 10 Dumbest Tech Moves of 2009

What do Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and AT&T all have in common? They’re all winners of Cringely’s awards for bringing low comedy to high tech.

Insult a Thai Monarch, Spend 10 Years in the Pokey

It appears the Thai people take this whole royals thing rather seriously. Thirty-four-year-old Suwicha Thakho, a former oil field worker, just got sentenced to 10 years in prison for posting photoshopped pictures of Thailand’s beloved King Bhumibol Adulyadej and his family on his blog. It seems he violated Thailand’s lese majeste laws, which bestow severe [...]

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right

New Orleans has Mardi Gras, San Francisco has Halloween, and for those of us who spend too many of our waking hours on the Net, the biggest party of the year happens on April Fools Day. Infoworld certainly did its part to add to the foolishness. It’s always a treat to see how ticked off [...]

Twitter Added to Federal Emergency Response Network

Obama administration seeks to expand e911 service to mobile Web by Dan Tynan In a milestone that marks Twitter’s evolution from a tool for self-obsessed 20-somethings into a vital part of our nation’s telecommunications infrastructure, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has announced it is adding the micro blog to the national emergency response network. Beginning [...]

Bill Gates Arrested on Microsoft Campus

Company declines to press charges, claims it was ‘just a big misunderstanding’ By Dan Tynan Billionaire Bill Gates was briefly detained after attempting to break into offices at Microsoft’s worldwide headquarters late last night. The Microsoft co-founder retired from his position as Chairman last July, but maintains an office on the sprawling Redmond campus. According [...]

Tech Firms Slash Perks and Freebies

The drive to save money in tough economic climate means no more free lunches – even at Google By Dan Tynan Belt tightening has hit Silicon Valley in a big way. Intel has instituted a salary freeze from the CEO’s office on down. Cisco is no longer footing the bill for its employees’ home broadband [...]

Conficker worm ends life as we know it; film at 11

Yes the Worm of the Century has struck — and our lives will never be the same. Right?

Meet ‘Garbo’: The anti-social network

Like many people, Randy Hallet is fed up with the Facebooking of the planet. Unlike most, he’s decided to do something about it. The 30-something Webpreneur has created what he calls “the anti-social network.” Hallet declined to speak by phone, though he did agree to an interview via Twitter. He tweeted: “I’m fed up with [...]

Microsoft = Prison?

So I’m searching the Net and for reasons I can no longer remember, I type “Prison.org” into Firefox. Up comes a Russian language site. I click the “English” language button, and the site resolves into the following — the home page for the Moscow Center for Prison Reform. But check out what page Firefox thinks [...]

Embarrassing Photo #10: Then We Ordered Another Bottle of Tequila, and When I Woke Up One of My Kidneys Was Missing

It was a vacation she’d probably rather forget. When Janet Dudley-Eshbach, president of Salisbury University in Maryland, created an album of her family’s trip to Mexico on Facebook in October 2007, she didn’t expect a local TV station to broadcast the photos to the world, or to have a Wikipedia entry covering the mini-scandal. The [...]

Embarrassing Photo #11: Yesterday, Spring Break; Tomorrow, Prison Break

What’s a Halloween costume cost? For college junior Joshua Lipton, it was two years of his life. In October 2006, the Bryant University student was charged with drunk driving after causing a three-car crash that left one Providence woman in critical condition. Two weeks later he showed up for a Halloween party dressed as “Jail [...]

Embarrassing Photo #8: No Nudes is Good Nudes

Here are two quick rules of thumb. If you’re going to teach art to high schoolers, try not to post nude photos of yourself online. And if you must teach art and pose in the nude, don’t do it in Texas. Tamara Hoover found this out the hard way in May 2006, when she was [...]

Embarrassing Photo #7: Where There’s Smoke, There’s Ire

Sometimes posting a photo of someone else is enough to get you in trouble. In March 2005 Central High student Eliazar Velasquez snapped shots of principal Elaine Almagno having a smoke on school grounds and posted them to his Web site. He then distributed flyers throughout the Providence-based school, urging students to visit the site. [...]

Embarrassing Photo #6: Moronic at Any Speed

Quick, what’s more stupid–driving 140 mph or filming yourself while driving 140 mph? How about filming yourself driving 140 mph and then posting the evidence on YouTube? That was only the tip of the dunce-berg for 23-year-old Andrew Kellett of Leeds, England. He posted more than 80 videos of himself driving recklessly, stealing gasoline, using [...]

Embarrassing Photo #5: Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum

What do you do with a drunken pirate? Throw her in the brig–or, if you’re Millersville University, deny her a teaching degree. That’s what happened to Stacey Snyder, a then-27-year-old student teacher who posted a self portrait to her MySpace page under the caption "drunk pirate," even though it was not clear from the photo [...]

Embarrassing Photo #4: Vending machine leads tennis teen, 40 – love

British tennis phenoms Naomi Broady and David Rice are no longer feeling the love from the UK’s Lawn Tennis Association. The LTA nixed its sponsorship of the teens in October 2007 after discovering photos of Broady and Rice on social networking site Bebo showing them drunk, getting intimate with condom dispensers in public restrooms, and [...]

Embarrassing Photo #1 – Hey Kevin, Tinker Belle wants her outfit back

It’s bad enough to dress up like you’re about to slip a dollar under some toothless child’s pillow. But former intern Kevin Colvin made it much worse by asking his boss at Anglo Irish Bank if he could take time off for a “family emergency in New York,” then flitting off to a Halloween party [...]

Facebook and the Illusion of Intimacy

by Dan Tynan When word got out that my wife and I were splitting up, I received several emails from long-time friends who knew us back when we were both skinny–err, dating. “I am a little heartbroken about your current relationship status,” wrote one. “What’s with the single status? Are you guys splitsky? That’s so [...]

Breaking News: Google Buys Facebook

$25 billion deal combines two Web powerhouses by Dan Tynan In a move that stunned Silicon Valley watchers, Google announced it is purchasing popular social network Facebook in a cash and stock deal valued at $25 billion. Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg held a hastily arranged press conference where they outlined the [...]