Beyond Binary

It's an unimaginably sad story.

Megan Meier, a 13-year-old girl who has struggled with issues of self-esteem and depression, is greeted on MySpace by an older boy. He strikes up a flirtation with her over a series of weeks. Then, inexplicably, he starts sending accusatory messages, then nasty ones.

Megan, crushed by the turn of events, takes her own life.

Further twisting the tragedy is the fact that the boy wasn't a boy at all. Rather, he was the creation of adults, including the mother of one of Megan's friends, a girl with whom she had a … Read more

Windows hardware makers will get an extra week next spring to work on their products. Microsoft said Thursday that it is shifting the timing of its WinHEC conference--practically a spring ritual--to the fall.

The conference will be held next year at a West Coast location, but Microsoft didn't say which one. (Can Hawaii please be considered West Coast?)

"We rescheduled WinHEC for the fall in response to industry feedback," Microsoft said in an e-mail. The company promised that the event will offer "Microsoft vision for Windows and the future of PC computing" along with the … Read more

Livescribe said Thursday that it will launch its digital pen at January's Demo trade show, with plans to ship the product "soon after."

The company, which unveiled its digital pen plans in May, had hoped to ship the product for this holiday season, but was forced to delay its plans, as first noted by CNET News.com back in August.

Livescribe is one of a handful of companies hoping there is still some ink in the well when it comes to the notion of pen computing.

Hoping to keep the buzz going until the product itself is … Read more

Microsoft is hoping that with some of Vista's wrinkles ironed out, customers will start noticing more of the advantages the year-old operating system has over its predecessor.

In an interview Wednesday morning, Corporate Vice President Mike Nash acknowledged that the initial experience for many consumers was a frustrating one as they found their old software might not work right or that their hardware lacked the proper driver.

But, he insists, the situation is much better now. Not only are the hardware drivers out there, they are readily available.

"You don't have to go on a scavenger hunt,&… Read more

Microsoft said late Tuesday that it has signed a patent-swap deal with Kyocera Mita, the latest in a string of such announcements. Like many of those arrangements, Kyocera is getting protection for its use of Linux in various products.

Microsoft is also getting the right to use Kyocera Mita's patents in products like Windows and Office. The two companies did not announce the financial terms for the deal.

Other recent deals by Microsoft include agreements with TurboLinux, Linspire, Xandros, Samsung, LG, and Fuji Xerox.

Hanukkah came early at my house Sunday.

After an unspectacular debut in the office Friday, I added Guitar Hero 3 to my holiday wish list. Luckily, my partner, AJ, obliged and got me the Wii game Sunday. After putting the virtual guitar together, I was off and strumming.

The embarrassment of getting repeatedly booed off the stage was fresh in my mind as I unpacked the guitar and set to practicing. Luckily, things came more easily in the privacy of my home and, with only a couple of tries, I managed to complete both "Slow Ride" and "… Read more

Microsoft plans to release a trio of updates for Windows Vista this week, a move the company said should help ease some of the top complaints leveled against the operating system.

The patches, expected to be issued Tuesday, address core issues like performance, reliability, and stability of the nearly year-old operating system.

One update aims to improve battery life on mobile devices, boost stability of wireless connections, and improve the operating system's response time following a period of inactivity.

A second patch deals with the operating system's interactions with USB ports, in particular when systems wake from sleep … Read more

Under a new program announced Friday, large companies that sell refurbished PCs can get a brand spanking new copy of Windows to put on the machines--provided they pay Microsoft for the privilege.

The initiative, which provides refurbishers with a special version of Windows XP, could help save more machines from heading to the landfill. In many cases, though, it means Microsoft will be getting paid twice for putting Windows on the same PC.

That's because, to properly resell a refurbished PC using its original copy of Windows, Microsoft requires that resellers have either the "certificate of authenticity" … Read more

Although computerized telephone systems have gotten much better at recognizing what we say, they still have to ask way too many questions.

You know the drill: endless menus, enter every piece of personal information. Contrast that with the Internet, where entering an account number or frequent-flier number brings up a ton of personalized information. Well, phone systems are on the brink of adding the same capabilities.

American Airlines is going live with a service that lets customers opt in to a "remember me" feature. When they call the airline, the system recognizes who they are, brings up their … Read more