Technically Incorrect

Would anyone ever sit through a 30-minute ad for the iPad?

Wednesday, quite a few people did. One whole episode of the critically acclaimed ABC show "Modern Family" was dedicated to the deep and desperate desire associated with becoming one of the first to own the magic and revolutionary item that launches before your hangover disappears on Saturday morning.

In the show, the rather cool dad, who I believe is called Phil, is desperate to get an iPad for his birthday. In the great tradition of the sitcom dramatic arc, the script suggests he will be deeply disappointed. … Read more

Google has finally chosen to be socially conscious.

Oh, of course I'm kidding. Just like those deeply witty Googlies who have reportedly decided to make an April Fool's jape out of jail.

Fast Company appears to have accessed an April 1 amusement, in which the repression-averse company claims it will make jails a better experience for the masses. Which presumably includes mass murderers.

The idea is Google Jail for Communities. And, in the reported words of the company for whom doing evil would constitute doing time for life, this experiment comprises an attempt to bring the finest aspects … Read more

If you had a one-ton boat for which you no longer had any use, what would you do?

Would you give it to a former lover, the one who sailed off with your heart, your favorite books, and your Social Security number? Or would you offer it to some charity, in the hope that they would come to pick it up in a very large truck?

For some reason, a man in Santa Rosa County, Fla., chose none of these routes. Instead, according to the Pensacola News Journal, he dumped the boat in a subdivision that didn't yet enjoy … Read more

It is not April Fool's Day. But perhaps there are folks at Amazon.com for whom, given that they work so hard, every day is April 1.

Or perhaps not.

The story that I wish to relate, as told by Will Collier, one of the world's more original bloggers, is that he ordered a computer part via Amazon. It did not arrive.

Now Amazon tends to be one of the finer online retailers when it comes to customer service, so Collier thought that one quick call to a customer service rep would surely locate his errant part.

Might … Read more

I happen to have become somewhat familiar with the campus at the University of Texas. It's a long and somewhat unbelievable story of how that came to pass, but it involves business, pleasure, and dinner at a restaurant called Vespaio.

I have, therefore, several times enjoyed the rather intimate rooms at the Mansion at Judges Hill, just on the campus outskirts. From my window, I have seen and heard drunken, hairy people, all dressed in brown, offering their most interesting and harmonious proclamations about the state of Texas, the world and their personal future, as they returned to their … Read more

If you are preparing to spend a long night parked in some freezing, wet sleeping bag just to be one of the first to own an iPad, there is something you might want to be on the lookout for: Steve Wozniak jumping in line.

I say this firstly because the Apple co-founder has been tainted with rumors of line-skipping more adroit than his dancing. More than once, I am sad to say.

And he has now confirmed to Newsweek that he has ordered three of the new thighPads, two for himself and one for a mysterious friend.

The accusations of … Read more

It must be a relief to many that our petty indiscretions, those that appear online and seem to haunt us daily, will soon become so normal as to be irrelevant.

It must be a particular relief to Nick Levasseur, a Democratic New Hampshire state representative, who, according the Huffington Post, used Facebook to offer his rather strong views on anime. Reports failed to record why Levasseur is so pained by the rather beautiful Japanese style of animation.

However, he is reported to have written on his Facebook page these rather difficult words: "Anime is a prime example of why … Read more

Do people ever meet for coffee intending to just, well, drink coffee? Of course not. So the tech world, aka the whole world, trembled with titillated tension at the mere idea that Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Google CEO Eric Schmidt sat across from each other in some sort of upscale shopping mall and shot the breeze.

Indeed, it was interesting that they chose to sit in the breeze, as surely both would have known that this would make them a little more visible to nerdy passers-by with cameras on their phones and the world's new-found lack of privacy … Read more

There's always something bracing when a pillar of the Web decides it should advertise itself on TV.

So there I was the other night, bathing in the fantasy of reality television--was it "Dancing with the Stars"? was it "American Idol?"--when music from what I presumed could only be a new iPad ad yanked me by my ears and demanded attention.

There was the indie music. There was the whimsical air of a summer's evening watching Shakespeare in the park. So I looked up and saw that the visuals were channeling Peter Gabriel from … Read more