April 29, 2005

Spyware makers finally feeling the pain

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is sueing Intermix Media Inc., a company that owns a few websites that give away free screen savers and wallpaper (bundled with malware of course). Finally some consequence for these bastages!!

"Intermix does not promote or condone spyware, and remains committed to putting this legacy issue behind it as soon as practicable," Intermix corporate counsel Christopher Lipp said in a statement.

........Right.


Reuters story

Self Charging Flashlights!?

Well kinda, this is one of those great "on paper" ideas that apparently did not work out here. If you haven't heard of them, they work similar to battery-less watches (that are very expensive). The unit gets charged through kenetic energy: When the light is shaken, a super magnet passes through a coil generating a small (apparently too small) electrical charge. The Gadgeteer's review of one of these charge-by-shaking torches can be summed up pretty easily "mucho effort, no pay-off".

Dutch Pass iPod Tax


Slashdot.org has a post saying taht the Netherlands will pass a law dictating a tax on all mp3 players sold in a few months. The tax is
3.28 euros or $4.30 US PER Gigabyte, which is alot of money for a 60g Ipod.

PalmOS apps on Pocket PCs

Saw this on the Daily Gadget, apparently any program that runs on PalmOS will now run on Pocket PC for $30 thanks to StyleTap.com.
Alot of people are making the switch to PocketPC because of the lack of good palm devices among other reasons. This may encourage alot more. Of course myself I think I'll stick with my ultimate PDA the Sony Clie TH55 until ultra portable PCs (the small tablet-laptop hybrids) become affordable (and extremely fast).

About the Author


Ben Prentice is a student (yes i'm the one writing this, let me have my 3rd person fun) at Mass Bay Community College in Framingham, MA. Currently He's trying to figure out what direction he wants to go in life, a teacher, computer science major, or master of the languages, or some strange combination.

An avid techy and gadgeteer, Ben is always trying to stay on top of the coolest new technologies, and toys that are or will be available. At any time you'll find ben with his pda(with still and video recording wifi, and mp3s..) cell phone (LGvx4500) and watch all synchronized to atomic time.

Also a huge music lover, he's always trying to expand his musical horizons, with new music to listen to, and other realms of being a muscician to explore. Currently teaching himself how to sing, he hopes to get back to guitar soon.

Google MAPS +Satellite Photography!

Okay, let me bring you up to speed: First there was Keyhole a very cool 3d environment which you can zoom in and out in realtime and view sattelite photography mapped onto a 3d globe. This program is so cool! Then there was java-based google maps (still in beta, but highly usable), a free service that blew Mapquest OUT OF THE WATER. Now that Google has aquired keyhole, theyre offering sattelite-photography right along-side their mapping service. The only thing that I've noticed so far is that the two don't really line up too well (if you know Boston you can tell in this image)


(Image Photoshoped to include both map/sattelite at the same time)

Google Maps- (click on the "Satellite" button in the upper right)

Just the beginning

Hello world!
And now for something completely different! Ack it didn't work, that was completely un-original, oh well. I'm here, finally I've joined the revolution of information. I am now officially a blogger. I really don't know why, or what will end up here (aside from a little tech-gadget news). But surely I'll give it a shot, and try to keep things interesting. Peace all...