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Updated at 1:45 p.m. PT December 19: I have heard from an AT&T spokesperson, who has offered me the following comment: "We are crediting the family's entire bill." AT&T will be giving me further details. I will update further then.

Updated at 8:47 a.m. PT December 21: AT&T tells me that its Customer Care is now in touch with Pte. Rivera and says that this is a rare and unfortunate occurrence that should have been handled differently.

I cannot imagine too many U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan … Read more

This is the time of year when you try to calculate how little time you can spend buying things for people who are trying to spend as little time as possible buying things for you.

Online shopping has helped hugely in this regard. You can show your closest friends and family how much you love them without leaving your bed.

However, there are so many choices that one can become addled.

So let me lift your burden and toss it into space. For the perfect Xmas gift is here. Yes, Computer Engineer Barbie.

Perhaps you had assumed Barbie was, at … Read more

If you were a UPS employee, would you be tempted, just occasionally, to open packages? Perhaps, out of curiosity? Or because they didn't smell quite right? Or because they did?

This difficult question arises because of the story of Richard Lynch from Grass Valley, Calif.

Lynch told ABC News 10 that he used UPS to ship a laptop for repairs. The laptop reportedly disappeared en route, the box allegedly arriving with just sheets and soda cans inside.

Keen to prove his notion that someone at UPS has thieved his laptop, Lynch reportedly rigged another package and took it to … Read more

Just when you thought it was safe to enter an airplane, along comes some professor to tell you that it may not be quite so.

For it seems that, despite the entrance of body scanners and their piercing gaze on every last element of your junk (reference embedded for those who missed it), these machines might not be foolproof.

According to Fox News, two professors at the University of California, San Francisco--Leon Kaufman and Joseph W. Carlson--have released a learned document that suggests it might be depressingly simple to fool a body scanner.

"It is very likely that a … Read more

The world can never have enough guns--at least not if they embody exciting new ways to destroy people and things that look wonderful in movies. So here is a weapon that seems to be the sheer personification of gun fun.

It is being tested by the U.S. Navy, and it seems to have some pulsating technical features. It doesn't rely on an explosive charge to propel a bullet toward a bad guy. Instead, Fox News informs me, it expels bullets along parallel rails. The bullets, thanks to the cheery push of an electromagnetic current, spring out at speeds … Read more

Until today, I was unaware that engineers at Apple enjoyed spare time.

However, somehow Andrew Carol, one of Apple's software engineers, decided that it was about time he eased back from designing the computer of the future and thought a little about re-creating a computer of the past.

The Antikythera Mechanism, is, allegedly, the oldest version of a scientific computer. The Greeks, who used to be so clever that they never endured too much of a financial crisis, built it around 100 B.C.

Somehow, it disappeared into history's cracks, until it was unearthed from a shipwreck in … Read more

Sometimes, the comparison just isn't apples to apples.

A rare Apple-1 recently sold for $215,000. However, a rare, transparent Mac SE couldn't even get $25,000 slipped into its garter.

Which inevitably leads one to an examination of the word "rare."

There were, allegedly, around 200 Apple-1s created. There were, equally allegedly, only 10 transparent Mac SEs.

And yet, in bidding that closed on Saturday, a transparent Mac SE failed to attract one bid of the $25,000 minimum on eBay.

The seller, who says he worked in Apple R&D in the 1980s, … Read more

Every leader enjoys moments of revelation.

In the case of Chinese Politburo Standing Committee member Li Changchun, it seems that his came the moment he googled himself and discovered that some people might not appreciate him as he would have wished.

A New York Times report intimates that WikiLeaks cables reveal that Li was rather taken aback that he could put his own name in that helpful Google search box and, within a mere breath-length, up would pop entries that were not uniformly supportive of his politics or being.

The cables reportedly go on to suggest that once Li further … Read more

You have, perhaps, occasionally had your ear bitten off over the phone. However, fewer are the people who have experienced their phone actually exploding into their ear, causing bleeding and a strange sensation of surprise.

However, such is the claim being made by one Aron Embry of Cedar Hills, Texas, who told Fox4 in Dallas Fort-Worth that his two-day-old Motorola Droid 2 blew up on him without reason as he was getting into his car.

His description to Fox4 offers an atmosphere redolent of David Cronenberg: "I heard a pop. I didn't feel any pain initially. I pulled the phone down. I felt something dripping. I realized that it was probably was blood."

Embry reports that the horror deepened when he went back into his house. "As I got into the bathroom and once I got to the mirror and saw it, it was only then I kinda looked at my phone and noticed the screen had appeared to burst outward," he said. … Read more