Social networking

Think of the worst thing you have ever swallowed. Haggis, perhaps? Maybe pig's ear? Arguments you have swallowed don't count.

You see, I want to get you into the appropriate mood for the story of Florin Necula. Necula seems to have gotten himself into a bothersome situation with the upstanding members of our Secret Service.

According to the Smoking Gun, they thought he might have been involved in an ingenious, if somewhat illegal, technological exercise, whereby he and several co-defendants used card readers to gain magnetic-strip information from cards that had been inserted into ATM machines.

The agents arrested him and took him to a Secret Service office in Brooklyn. U.S District Court filings allege that peculiar things ensued there. The most peculiar involved one of the pieces of evidence--a Kingston flash drive.

Agent Joseph Borger (no relation to Lucretia) said that Necula "grabbed Subject Flash Drive 2, which had been on his person at the time of his arrest, and swallowed."

I have never swallowed a flash drive. I imagine it to be worse than swallowing, say, a sock. At least the sock would go soft, whereas the flash drive would surely scratch the epiglotis.

Once you've swallowed it, however, I imagine your insides don't make like a happy pinball machine. In Necula's case, the flash drive seems to have become the camel that was unable to pass through the eye of a needle. … Read more

A man is caught red-handed by his blue-bodied wife.

He is in bed with another woman. His wife is not happy. His wife, in fact, begins to assault him. She slaps him, as he and his other woman try to escape.

Is this a scene from "Fatal Attraction"? Is this, perhaps, a cinematic homage to two Oscar-nominated movies, "It's Complicated" and "Avatar"?

No, it is merely a commercial for AshleyMadison.com, the site that helps married people hook up with, well, other married people. AshleyMadison claims to have 4.5 million members and … Read more

I have to fly to the hallowed depths of Texas in a couple of days in order to be at the marriage of the noted musician and Web designing guru Parker Todd Brooks to someone far smarter.

So I have immediate knowledge of how seriously people still take these wedding things. These are the occasions where hope triumphs over experience, if only for a day.

My neural ecosystem is, therefore, filled with a searing anguish on hearing about the Boston 411 Bridal & Home Show 2010. It's not that brides will be forced to mud-wrestle each other for a … Read more

This post will have no Tiger Woods jokes.

Tiger Woods has a serious problem. And there is absolutely no reason to encourage cheap laughter just because of an astonishing new iPhone app that makes it easier for you to cheat on your spouse, offer heinously regrettable insults, or employ a hitman--all without worrying that your texts will betray your true self.

So this app is called TigerText. So what? I am sure the golfer's deep and troubling recent past did not enter into the creators' heads when they named this ingenious little technological concoction.

TigerText, you see, erases your texts. It makes them go away. It makes them disappear like the midriff of a magician's assistant. What is so beautiful is that not only do your texts disappear from your own phone records, they also vamoose from the phone of your unfortunate recipient.

You can even decide when they vamoose. After a minute. Or, if you are fond of self-torture, after any time period up to 30 days.

Tiger Text demo from Jason Evans on Vimeo.

This concept seems brilliant on so many levels that my vast and excited arms cannot embrace all of these levels simultaneously.

I am sure you, too, sometimes send texts that you would dearly love to take back. You liken your boss, your lover, or your chiropodist to some human orifice or dubious sexual practice. You allow your fingers to work slightly ahead of your editing skills. Suddenly, words that don't reflect your true, kind, thoughtful self, wing their way across 3G until they stir up emotions in 3D. … Read more

We are in a recession. Perhaps it's even a depression. But it's really not that bad. You see, someone, somewhere just spent $41,300 on a Nintendo game.

Is Stadium Events a great Nintendo game? I suspect not many people really know. Because not many people have ever played it. Not many copies were ever produced. Just after it was launched, Nintendo ordered a recall.

It could be that there are only around 200 copies floating around the world. It could be that there are only 20.

Which undoubtedly moved someone to pay such a substantial amount of … Read more

Google is using a tool to help people locate friends and loved ones who might have been affected by Saturday's 8.8.-magnitude earthquake in Chile.

Google Person Finder allows users to search for information about people by name or leave information about people in both English and Spanish. As of Sunday morning, the page said it contained 22,900 records. However, the page cautions users that all data input would be viewable and usable by all and that the company plays no role in verifying the information. Google had set up a similar Person Finder tool after Haiti'… Read more

The Defense Department has made its peace with social media.

Long skittish about forums such as Facebook and Twitter, the U.S. Department of Defense says that it is now OK with social-networking services and other interactive Web 2.0 applications. A memorandum released Friday makes it official policy that the agency's nonclassified network will be configured to provide access to Internet-based capabilities across all Defense components, including the various combat branches.

That's not to say that the Pentagon is embracing all of the free-wheeling nature of blogs, tweets, and online video. Soldiers, sailors, and airmen will still … Read more

"This kid looks like they're editing their MySpace page."

So declares an assistant principal at Intermediate School 339 in the Bronx borough of New York, a "former technology coach" (PDF) named Dan Ackerman (but not to be confused with CNET's Dan Ackerman). You might imagine that he's wandering around a classroom looking over kids' shoulders as they fiddle about on their laptops. You might imagine, then, that storks deliver milk as well as babies.

This remarkable 2009 footage from the PBS show "Frontline," promoted on its site earlier this month and … Read more

NEW YORK--The music industry is in a major state of crisis and some up and coming acts are reluctant to dirty their hands with social networking.

Some new artists signing at both major and indie labels are telling execs there that they'll make music, but don't expect them to do Facebook or Twitter. The labels are saying back that the days when performers--even mega-superstar performers--can keep fans at arms length are over.

"I was shocked to find out how many twentysomethings aren't interested in social networking," said Cameo Carlson, a former iTunes executive who is … Read more