e

Summers are famous for slow news cycles so I had some time recently to shop online at KlearGear.com.

A competitor to better-known ThinkGeek, KlearGear sells nerd-themed apparel, gadgets, toys and computer accessories. I learned about the e-commerce site at a new favorite gadget blog, ChipChick.com.

During my visit, a single thought flashed in my mind: "Devil stay behind me. I could drop plenty in this Web store."

Who wouldn't want to rain some rubber-band hurt on cubicle mates with a rapid fire rubber-band gun? Repel unwanted co-workers with a computer-controlled, foam-missile launcher.

I laughed out … Read more

Etsy, the two-year-old "eBay gone indie," has sold its millionth item, according to Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, one of the New York City start-up's investors. The company now stands at 42 employees and 300,000 registered users (both buyers, sellers, and those who dabble in both),

Click here for our video tour of Etsy Labs, the real-world space that the company opened in February.

As a side note, I'm going to give myself a pat on the back, because I guess that octopus-shaped necklace I bought from Etsy last week helped push 'em over … Read more

Forgive me if this isn't some major news flash, but let's document it for posterity anyway: University of California computer scientists have recently shown it's possible to carry out a bevy of hacks on electronic voting machines currently certified for use in the Golden State.

In reports released late last week, the researchers chronicle their five-week endeavor, at the request of California Secretary of State Debra Bowen, to exploit examine machines made by Hart InterCivic, Sequoia Voting Systems and Diebold. The same models are also in use in many other states, according to a database compiled by the Election Reform Information Project. … Read more

My biggest concern was the keyboard. Having used the Prada phone, I expected the worst. Surprisingly, the iPhone keyboard starts to feel comfortable fairly quickly. Within a few days, I went from typing two out of every three letters incorrectly down to just one in five wrong. That gives hope.

E-mail, though, is another story, making me long for my BlackBerry. Sure, Yahoo allegedly provides the same RIM-type push mail. But it's simply not as quick or easy to knock out a sentence or two on the iPhone.

More annoyingly, it appears there is no way to delete all … Read more

It was inevitable that someone would try to capitalize on the interest in the $100 XO laptop from the One Laptop per Child project. I'm sure we all remember the brief craze for free PCs in 1999, where a cheap PC was given away with a relatively expensive or ad-sponsored Internet service agreement. When I started hearing about the $100 laptop, I expected it would spur a resurgence in such deals.

So when I checked out Zonbu, a Silicon Valley company offering a $99 Linux-based PC, I wasn't surprised to discover there's a service agreement involved there … Read more

Nothing, actually. But I think this is pretty funny nonetheless.

As we've all heard over and over and over again by our faithful news media, troubled actress Lindsay Lohan was arrested on Tuesday night for driving under the influence, driving with a suspended license, and cocaine possession. (Last we heard, she said the coke wasn't hers.) Another day, another celebrity party-girl drug bust--same old, same old. But for those of us who went to the E3 Media and Business Summit in Santa Monica earlier this month, this one was particularly funny because the intersection where Lohan was arrested--Main … Read more

MySpace has quadrupled its estimated number of registered sex offenders posting profiles on the site, from its May estimate of 7,000 to a current tally of 29,000. The pages of identified offenders have been deleted. What does this news mean for parents? How do we assess risk and keep it in perspective, and what best practices should be implemented on family, corporate and societal levels to keep kids safe?… Read more

If eBay's 50 percent growth this last fiscal quarter is any indication, online auctions are still a favorite way to shuffle goods and pocket extra change. Power sellers--those eBay auctioneers who sell and gross high volumes--have gained the edge by applying their business savvy and possibly using one of the many auction software options from CNET Download.com. One popular program is AlienFiles, a listings creator and editor that supports multimedia files and helps manage your sale items.

There's plenty here for power buyers, too. Check out eBay Auction Sniper and AutoSearch, for instance, which automatically bids on … Read more

After hinting heavily about an upcoming "Big Idea" contest, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Webby Awards founder Tiffany Shlain, and the folks at Geek Squad and IdeaFestival released details Monday.

The contest aims to generate a number of ideas that will address social, economic and environmental concerns. The winners will attend the IdeaFestival in Kentucky, which draws participants from a number of fields, ranging from the arts, music, entertainment, medicine and the media to discuss solutions around similar issues.

"You get to hear different points of view, from people with different backgrounds and that's where you come … Read more