technics

Microsoft Monocles? Redmond to make its own Google Glass?

The world is moving very quickly.

And where it's moving very quickly to is a place where we'll all look quite ridiculous and talk seemingly to ourselves as we walk down the street.

This is the heaven envisioned by Google, with its fascinating Google Glass. Yes, the glasses that make people look like no one's idea of a dinner date on the subway.

Many questions have emerged since these glasses invaded the public gaze. "Should one ban people wearing them while driving?" was one question. "How will Newt Gingrich look when wearing them?" … Read more

NFL star tweets North Korea should bomb New England

North Korea appears currently to be banging the (conun)drum for world instability.

Its apparent enmity to all things American has recently been pierced by such luminaries as Google's Eric Schmidt and the slightly noodly Dennis Rodman.

You might be tickled or troubled by the fact that today, North Korea's Twitter and Flickr accounts were mercilessly invaded by Anonymous.

My emotions, on the other hand, have been moved by the fact that an NFL star is encouraging Kim Jong-un's missiles to be targeted at New England.

There is no known additional antipathy on behalf of North Korea'… Read more

Google's engineers aren't the highest paid (but make more than Apple's)

It's in the nature of humanity to keep up with the Jones family.

It's in the nature of capitalist humanity to get ahead of the Jones family so that the Jones family looks askance and defeated.

With this in mind, I have accidentally landed upon a survey which purports to reveal which software engineers are the highest paid.

I thank Business Insider for poring over the figures collated by Glassdoor, figures that might surprise some.

I had imagined, along with most of the world, that Google's engineers were the very best and therefore the highest paid.

These … Read more

Could this yellow blinking eye be Zuckerberg's first Web site?

Some religions worship relics.

Bones of saints and artifacts of old emerge seemingly from nowhere, with no one ever truly knowing how real they might be.

I therefore bare my skepticism with moves not dissimilar to those in a Haka dance on hearing that Mark Zuckerberg's first ever Web site might have been unearthed.

My inconsistent reading of Motherboard today offered the startling information that Zuckerberg's first site might have included a blinking yellow dinosaur eye.

It seems that someone posted to Hacker News that the Facebook CEO's first masterwork was still available on Angelfire.

It's … Read more

Family Guy's Stewie makes Google Chrome lovable

If you want your browser to become astoundingly popular, one idea might be to employ the services of a 1-year-old who once rather liked the idea of killing his mother.

Please, I have the evidence.

For the latest, very fetching campaign for Google Chrome appears to be humongously popular among those who spend their days on the Web forwarding viruses.

Indeed, Ad Age reports that its little chart, prepared in conjunction with Visible Measures, shows that the Google Chrome campaign is the most popular viral entity of the last week.

The Stewie ad has proved, perhaps unsurprisingly, to be the … Read more

Teen suspended for YOLO tweet mocking high school test

Schools aren't always the best listeners.

Sometimes they make kids do things that the kids don't want to do. And when the kids complain, the school just gets annoyed.

This might be the picture in the case of Kyron Birdine, a junior at Arlington High School in Texas.

"It didn't benefit my personal life at all," Birdine explained to San Antonio's KENS Channel 5.

No, he wasn't talking about school. He was just talking about one little test that his school forced him to take.

You see, he was graduating under a testing … Read more

Dropped cell phone on tracks and a train is coming? So what?

Have you thought about it?

Some morning when your cell phone slips from your hand, as you're waiting for the 7:37 train? What if that Galaxy of yours fell onto the tracks? What would you do? Would you leap down and get it? Would the swooshing sound of an oncoming train put you off? Or is your cell phone just far too important, far too much a part of you?

I ask all of these questions because of this footage from Brazil.

Thank you, Geekologie, for bringing it to my eyes and making me wonder about the true … Read more

What men really want: the choice of six engagement rings

I am told that buying an engagement ring is even more stressful than mustering the gumption to propose.

Choosing the right ring is an expression of who you are and what you feel. It can leave you a wreck, feeling like you should check into a halfway house for spiritual guidance.

An enterprising online jewelry brand called Ocappi would like to give you a chance of survival, an opportunity to finally impress your lover beyond standing next to her at a party and grinning like a stuffed fish.

Ocappi will send six rings of your choice to your home, so … Read more

The weirdly minimalist trailer for 'Funny Or Die' Steve Jobs movie

Steve Jobs was always a fine salesman.

The people at Funny Or Die involved in making "iSteve" -- a movie of his life -- are similarly inventive.

I was breathlessly sent a link this morning to the teaser trailer for this movie. It promised: "The trailer for iSteve, Funny or Die's Steve Jobs movie with Justin Long is finally here."

That, it is. But it's quite a minimalist trailer.

There are few real, well, pictures.

There are words, however.

"Genius left unchecked can lead to ruin," says someone.

"You gotta ride … Read more

Shopping is therapy, say more than half Americans

A decent shrink costs at least $100 an hour.

A decent pair of shoes can cost you the same and they last a lot longer. They understand you better too.

Surely, therefore, we shouldn't be surprised that more than half of all Americans admit that if they want to feel better, shopping is their chosen Xanax.

With just a click or two, you can be clicking your heels and forgetting the awful lover who told you that this was surely forever before becoming surly last night.

I have on my screen the results of a survey performed by TNS … Read more