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Trinity Site: First atomic bomb detonation still resonates

WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE -- I recently watched footage of the detonation of the first atomic bomb at Trinity Site in 1945. A black and white mushroom cloud built up in slow motion. Chills and prickles crawled up my spine.

Visiting Trinity Site One week later, I visit ground zero, where a device called "The Gadget" was strapped into a 100-foot-tall steel tower and set off. Two more nuclear explosions took place over Japan after that successful test, harbingers of the end of World War II.

This all happened a long time before I was born, but I feel a strange sadness as I stand here on a hazy spring day in the middle of the Jornada del Muerto, a desert basin full of scrub and pronghorn antelope. That name translates to "day's journey of the dead." … Read more

Nerdy New Mexico: Voyage through the Land of Engeekment

Yes, New Mexico is one of the 50 states. No, it's not just a big desert. Yes, it's the birthplace of the atomic bomb. No, our cacti don't have surrender arms (that's Arizona). Yes, Microsoft was founded here.

Over the next two weeks, I'm going to cram all my gadgets into a Prius (unfortunately, the DeSoto is in need of radiator repair) and run around the Land of Enchantment, soaking up all the geeky sights I can find.… Read more

IE10 in Windows 8: Can pinned Web sites truly replace Favorites?

Internet Explorer users accustomed to working with Favorites will find life a bit different in the new Windows 8 Metro version of the browser.

The desktop flavor of IE10 still lets you create Favorites to manage your Web sites, but the Metro edition does away with such legacy options. Instead, you're given the option of pinning often-used Web sites, as described in a new Microsoft blog. Pinning a site places a tile for it on both the Metro Start screen and in the browser when you click in the address bar.

That process sounds convenient in theory. No more … Read more

France criminalizes citizens who visit terrorist and hate Web sites

A 32-hour standoff between a French SWAT team and 23-year-old Mohamed Merah -- who was wanted for killing three French paratroopers, three Jewish schoolchildren, and a rabbi -- ended today with a dramatic firefight and the death of Merah who claimed to be affiliated with al-Qaeda, according to the Associated Press.

Shortly after the confrontation, Reuters reports, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced he was making it illegal for citizens to visit Web sites that encourage terrorism or hate crimes.

"From now on, any person who habitually consults Web sites that advocate terrorism or that call for hatred and violence … Read more

Three free services for creating instant Web sites

One of the fastest ways to share multiple documents with a lot of people is to convert the related files into a mini-Web site. Free site-creation services do all the heavy lifting.

Insta-site services range from the no-muss, no-fuss Page-o-rama to the business-focused features of Google Sites. If you can do without advanced features, Weebly's drag-and-drop approach to page design lets you create a fairly sophisticated mini-site in just minutes.

With Google Sites and Weebly, you paste text and images into prefab page templates. As you create new pages, site-navigation links are generated automatically. Page-o-rama is merely an online … Read more

Mozilla contemplates nuking McAfee

The SiteAdvisor add-on for Firefox evaluates search results to let you know how safe a site is to visit before you go there, but one Mozilla engineer says that it drags down Firefox and causes huge memory leaks.

(Update: McAfee announced a fix for later next week, and Mozilla acknowledged it. See below.)

It's just the kind of problem that Mozilla doesn't want to be dealing with as it finds itself knee-deep in an ambitious development plan and surrounded by ever-tougher competition.

Mozilla engineer Nicholas Nethercote wrote a blog post early today in which he recommended that Firefox … Read more

Google: We'll pay you to track the Web sites you visit

Psst...Wanna earn 25 bucks? Here's an offer from the folks at Google.

The search giant is promising up to $25 in Amazon gift cards if you let it track the Web sites you visit and how you use them. Through a new project known as Screenwise, you install a browser extension that monitors every site you check out.

Google's stated goal is to find out how everyday people use the Internet in an attempt to help it improve its own products and services.

Those of you not shy about sharing your Web sites can score a $5 … Read more

Feds seize illegal sports-streaming sites

Just a few days short of Super Bowl Sunday, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced today it had seized 307 Web sites that either live-streamed sports or sold fake NFL paraphernalia.

The federal agents also arrested a Michigan man on criminal copyright infringement charges who allegedly operated nine of the streaming sites.

"While most people are focusing on whether the Patriots or Giants will win on Sunday, we at ICE have our sights on a different type of victory: defeating the international counterfeiting rings that illegally profit off of this event, the NFL, its players and sports … Read more

Scion.com gets a new coat of paint

I've had a sort of love/hate relationship with the tech in Scion's vehicles, but I've always had a definitively hate/hate relationship with the automaker's Web site. The latter of those two relationships changes for the better today with a relaunch and redesign of the Scion.com domain.

The new site ditches the dark color scheme and Flash animations in favor of a light and airy design that loads quickly. The new Scion.com seems to put the vehicles at the forefront of the browsing experience, making it easier for users to find what they'… Read more