Epic packaging fail from HP.  Just imagine if they shipped, you know, actual hardware.  Would a single 1U blade be delivered via forklift and armed escort?

It would be disingenuous of me to say I hate lawyers; I'm married to one after all. But shit like this, involving a class-action suit against Creative Labs over the advertised capacity of their MP3 players, convinces me that some lawyers deserve to be shot in the face:

According to the settlement agreement, the lead plaintiffs, who filed their ( Read more... )

The adventures of a company called Psystar, which is offering Mac clones computers with Mac OS X preinstalled for $399, continue to heat up the tech blogs.  Gizmodo is mostly convinced they're a scam:

Not only does the Miami Chamber of Commerce and BBB not know anything about any company named Psystar (confirmed by reader Travis through his ( Read more... )

Anybody else having trouble with Firefox lately?

It seemed to start after the 2.0.0.12 update, but I can't be sure it was directly related to that; it could be in combination with some other update to Windows or another program.  But it crashes.  A lot.

It seems to happen randomly, but I notice it most frequently when scrolling through a Web page ( Read more... )

Geek nostalgia of the day:

10 Worst PC Keyboards of All Time

There are some doozies on this list, but most discouraging is that Commodore made the list three times.  And I'm not even sure the C64 belongs here.  True, it did not have a well-designed keyboard, but it was certainly usable by a touch-typist, which can't be said for any other entrant ( Read more... )

Glad to see that the House of Lords is focusing on the most pressing issues facing its nation: the thickness of sandwich bread.  Vector: Hit & Run.

Marc Andreessen checks in on new developments in artificial intelligence, including Microsoft's erstwhile "Santa-bot":

The idea was that you would add "northpole@live.com" to your kid's MSN Messenger ( Read more... )

Last blogger sent to Gitmo (link courtesy msginnyo), please turn out the lights.  I'd probably get waterboarded for my last five entries alone.  Granted, this only establishes a committee to explore methods by which "violent radicalization" may be identified and flushed out, so the only real cost of this bill might be another waste of your tax dollars.  ( Read more... )

Damn.  I was positively giddy when I saw the headline on Slashdot:

Man Hacks 911 System, Sends SWAT on Bogus Raid

Now HERE'S a revolutionary! I thought.  But I was disappointed after reading the story:

Officers apprehended and cuffed the resident and his wife, identified as Stacy B. It was moments later they learned the call was false, said Lt. ( Read more... )

Damn it, say it ain't so.  I like Dell-we own two of their laptops-but their high-end performance systems (the XPS line) have been somewhat underwhelming.  Of course, that may be precisely why they're interested in Alienware; Dell has an exclusive deal with Intel, while Alienware builds systems with both Intel and AMD processors.  And most gaming ( Read more... )

I've spent the past few evenings cleaning up and tuning my computers, using this very helpful page as a guide.  It's amazing just how much maintenance Windows XP requires to keep it running reasonably well.  It has always been my experience that systems like Linux and BSD have required more hands-on maintenance, while rewarding you with a much more ( Read more... )