misses

U.S. National Archives offers reward for missing hard drive

The U.S. National Archives on Wednesday said it is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of a missing hard drive that contains personal information of former Clinton administration staff and visitors.

The small portable hard drive was being kept as a backup, the National Archives explained in a question-and-answer document (PDF) on its Web site. It held copies of about 113 four-millimeter tape cartridges of "snapshots" of hard-drive contents of employees who left the Executive Office of the President.

Because the staff maintained White House entry information and electronic address books, the … Read more

Is Apple behind the laptop curve?

As we all know, Microsoft has been running its Laptop Hunters series of ads knocking Apple for the high price of its laptops and the features you get for the money. Our laptop editor, Dan Ackerman, regularly gives high marks to Apple's wares, and the company's 13-inch MacBook sits at the top of our Best 5 laptops list. In short, we're pretty happy with what Apple has to offer. But as good as its laptops are, Windows-based PCs do have a few leading-edge features not found in MacBooks.

Here's the list we came up with:

Blu-ray: … Read more

Miss that syncing feeling? App gives the iPhone two-way syncing

Mark/Space recently announced the availability of The Missing Sync for iPhone 2.0, the latest version of its data-synchronization software for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It retails for $40, but it's a free upgrade for registered users of the first release.

The Missing Sync enables iPhone and iPod Touch users to synchronize Mac-based data that neither of these can devices ordinarily synchronize with, including notes, documents, and tasks. Conversely, the software also lets you log your mobile device's text messages and call history on a Mac. A "Migration Assistant" feature even allows you to … Read more

Check your spellling

Despite its name, letter-grade scoring, and nostalgic background of college-ruled paper, Dictionary.com insists Miss Spell's Class is aimed at their core demographic of high school and university students, and business professionals. The application is straightforward and holds some appeal, we'll give it that. In one short session, typically under a minute, you quickly decide which of the 20 words in the round are spelled correctly or incorrectly. Points are knocked off for inaccuracy, with 10 seconds for each error added to your total time. If it takes you forty seconds to go through the list, but you … Read more

Dictionary.com's iPhone game tests ur spelling

Since launching its Dictionary.com app for iPhone and iPod Touch in early April, the folks over at Dictionary.com have been plotting other iPhone applications that use the tools they've got: grammatical, orthographic, synonymic authority. And while they're at it, maybe duplicate the numerical success of their reference app, which has floated among the iTunes Top 10 since its launch, and which hit more than a million downloads within the first three weeks.

The conduit of such lofty ambitions is Miss Spell's Class, a 99-cent app that despite its name, letter-grade scoring, and nostalgic background of college-ruled paper, Dictionary.com insists is aimed at their core demographic of high school and university students, and business professionals.

The app is straightforward. You quickly decide which of the 20 words in the round are spelled correctly or incorrectly. Points are knocked off for inaccuracy, and added to your total time. If it takes you 40 seconds to go through the list, but you get two wrong, your score spikes up to 60 seconds, a B. So save the pokiness for reviewing your score and for kicking yourself for casual errors.

The game is cute all right, and a test to the ego in the way that SATs and other standardized tests are--taunting in their simplicity, and debasing when you miss a word you ought to know. At least you're not alone--the misspellings that are your object to spot are siphoned straight from the top 5,000 botched words entered into Dictionary.com at a rate of 2 million typos and flubs per month.

Still, there are a few light raps of the ruler we'd make. In a test game, 'consiencious' was paired with 'consensus', rather than with 'conscientious'. Apart from that, we're not quite convinced the game will make us more intelligent, until Dictionary.com slips in definitions, and perhaps the pronunciation guide from the free Dictionary.com iPhone app. Miss Spell's Class is also a bit one-dimensional. Although this game title is just the beginning, we'd like to see it instilled with different skill levels and playing modes, where you might actively spell a word, not just passively review it, or quickly choose the right configuration from a handful of choices. There should be different skins to pull in the grade-school youngsters, old fogeys, and tweens who are too cool for school, and competitions over Wi-Fi.… Read more

The 404 326: Where we have a casual encounter with Jasmine France

Jasmine France joins The 404 today. Just a little warning: she had just flown into New York City on the red-eye from San Francisco and is pretty loopy for part of the show. But she does give us the 411 on the best MP3 player and headphones to get.

Jasmine dishes the dirt on Justin as an intern years ago. Let's just say dry cleaning, coffee, foot rubs, and walking her dog were part of his daily routine. Oh, how far he has come.

We talk a bit about how popular "casual encounters" has become on Craigslist. It's even bigger than Match.com, eHarmony, or even Yahoo! Personals. Jasmine tells us about her "missed connections" story. It gets juicy. Find your subway crush here.

Also, we discuss a bit 'bout how piracy is ruining the PSP. Justin doesn't really care; Jeff gets upset; and Wilson's fourth cousin is selling pirated games back home in Zhong Guo. Speaking of China, for about five minutes too long, Wilson exposés on Jackie Chan's recent comments in the press. This is why we don't discuss anything with any seriousness.

Finally, it's "Earf Day"...we think that's how it's spelled. Anyway, as part of our effort to be friendly to the environment, CNET TV is launching The Green Show, starring Mark Licea. That's right! MTI has his own show now. Check it out and send us your comments at greenshow [at] cnet [dot] com.

Episode 325 Download today's podcast |  Subscribe in iTunes |  Subscribe in RSS… Read more

Nearly 70 computers missing from Los Alamos nuclear lab

U.S. officials are investigating the disappearance of 67 computers from the Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab in New Mexico, according to a nonprofit group that exposes government misconduct.

Of the missing computers, 13 were lost or stolen in the past year, including 3 taken from a scientist's home last month. A BlackBerry belonging to another worker was lost in a "sensitive foreign country," according to an internal Los Alamos Lab e-mail posted online by the Project On Government Oversight.

The group also posted a letter from the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration rebuking the … Read more

Digital photography's missing manual

New York Times tech columnist and camera critic David Pogue attempts to take the mystery out of digital photography in O'Reilly Media's new release, David Pogue's Digital Photography: The Missing Manual.

In fairly concise, jargon-free terms, Pogue works to explain shooting, editing, and organizing pictures, and distributing them to your audience.

"These days, digital photography *is* photography. But even the cheapest pocket camera has over 100 features, half of which are never decently explained anywhere. I mean, come on, read the photo magazines: 'Boost the ISO to 1,600, dial up the aperture, or change the … Read more

The 404 149: Where you can call us now for your free reading

After one of our listeners calls us out on our truly awful Jamaican impression, we try, try, try again--unsuccessfully. It doesn't work out so well, and we slowly start to sound like a Jamaican extradited from Ireland. Anyway...today's episode finally reveals the secret pre-show juice that powers the enthusiasm we bring you everyday: crunk juice! And, by crunk juice we mean orange juice! All this segues into our first story, where we lay the smackdown on 50 Cent for getting a little trigger happy south of the border. Jeff decides to change 50's name to "… Read more