Technically Incorrect

Thursday and Friday saw the last two days of evidence given by David Heiss, the German man accused of murdering fellow Advance Wars gamer Matthew Pyke in Nottingham, England.

In those last two days of evidence, Heiss was confronted with accusations that Pyke had cowered as his assailant stabbed him 86 times.

Heiss denied suggestions by the prosecution that he had chased Pyke down a corridor.

However, when asked by the prosecutor why he had run after Pyke, Heiss replied: "We had crossed the line that nobody should cross and I was so afraid he would call the police … Read more

The governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has, allegedly, not been immune from smoking pot (see "Pumping Iron," circa 1977).

I have a feeling he may have even inhaled. Indeed, he was quoted in a 2007 edition of GQ as saying of marijuana: "That's not a drug. It's a leaf."

So, one has to consider the implications of the governor's declaration this week that the state should look at the idea of legalizing pot. The implications for the tech industry, that is.

You see, the tech industry, which has its heart--and, frankly, quite a … Read more

If any of you have ever studied sociology, you'll know that it largely consists of making stuff up about society and pretending that you've discovered an astonishing truth.

This might be at least the acorn for an oak of explanation as to why an Irish sociology student named Shane Fitzgerald decided to make up a quote and slip it into a Wikipedia entry.

Fitzgerald chose the Wikipedia entry of recently deceased French composer Maurice Jarre, who wrote the music for films such as "Doctor Zhivago," "Dead Poets Society," and "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.&… Read more

I understand that not everyone loves soccer.

However, Wednesday saw one of the most important events in the annual soccer calendar--the UEFA Champions League semifinal between Chelsea and Barcelona.

Barcelona prevailed with an excellent goal in the very dying seconds. Which, unfortunately, has resulted in many Chelsea fans turning to Facebook and other media in order to suggest that the Norwegian referee, Tom Henning Ovrebo, should be doing some dying too.

In their somewhat warped view, he refused to award four penalties to Chelsea. And he should, therefore, suffer the consequences.

Here is a sample from just one of the … Read more

David Heiss, the alleged killer of online war gamer Matthew Pyke, told a court Wednesday that he was frustrated at being blocked from Warcentral.com, the Advance Wars online forum run by victim Matthew Pyke and his girlfriend Joanna Witton.

Heiss is accused of flying from his home in Germany to Nottingham in the U.K. and murdering Pyke, who died from 86 stab wounds.

The court heard Tuesday that Pyke had tried to write the killer's name on his computer with his own blood.

Heiss was allegedly obsessed with Witton. In a conversation with another member of Warcentral.… Read more

On Monday, I wrote about the very difficult issues surrounding the presence of Holocaust denial groups on Facebook.

Questions were raised by Brian Cuban, Mark Cuban's brother and attorney, as to whether the existence of such groups contravenes Facebook's terms of service.

I had a detailed e-mail Q&A Wednesday with Facebook's spokesman, Barry Schnitt.

I'm publishing it here in full, as Facebook is honest enough to admit that the company itself is still battling with some of these difficult questions.

I first asked him whether he felt Facebook had replied to Cuban's questions:… Read more

Matthew Pyke and his girlfriend, Joanna Witton, of Nottingham, U.K., met David Heiss, from Limburg, Germany, on their Advance Wars online gaming forum.

Heiss now stands accused of murdering Pyke, a computer science student at Nottingham Trent University, after making several surprise trips from Germany to visit Pyke and his girlfriend and allegedly becoming obsessed with Witton.

Jurors were presented on Tuesday with images of Pyke's computer, on the side of which he was said to have written the first three letters of Heiss' name in his own blood as he lay dying from 86 stab wounds to … Read more

You need a peculiar set of half-formed, skinny fingers to text on an iPhone.

And you need a peculiar set of strangely formed cranial connections to send and receive 303,398 texts on it in one month.

However, this is the claim of Crystal Wiski, a teen from Antelope in California's Sacramento County.

Her mother, Jackie, bought her the iPhone a month ago and young Crystal took to it like a duck to quacking.

Crystal told local NBC station KSBW: "I get cramps."

She then got the urge to explain the simplicity of her need to text … Read more

Still somewhere between perplexed and apoplectic after Apple had rejected the new Nine Inch Nails iPhone app update, the band's frontman, Trent Reznor, expressed himself very clearly on NIN's blog forum.

Neatly emphasizing his point with a quite liberal use of the kinds of words that Apple appears to find uncomfortable, Reznor compared Apple's attitude with that of, startlingly, Wal-Mart Stores:

"And while we're at it, I'll voice the same issue I had with Wal-Mart years ago, which is a matter of consistency and hypocrisy. Wal-Mart went on a rampage years ago insisting all … Read more