death

Our review of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard last Thursday lauded its lovely interface innovations but withheld judgment about the operating system's speed until we could put it through its paces.

Tests returned from CNET Labs on Saturday show that Leopard didn't perform noticeably faster than Mac OS 10.4.6 Tiger. (See the chart in CNET's review of Tiger.). Because Leopard's improved speeds of between 1 percent and 3 percent fall within the 5 percent margin of error, it's fair to call Leopard and Tiger even.

Lab tests explored Leopard's boot time, … Read more

I had a great dinner tonight with the Openbravo management team in Barcelona. As we walked up La Rambla from a decadent pre-dinner "meal" of lava-like hot chocolate, we headed into the parking garage to get our car.

The door to the parking payment machine was open as we got into the garage. The computer had malfunctioned and the parking attendant was rebooting it. I got there just in time to notice the operating system (used city-wide) that was causing this parking attendant grief:

Windows.

One can't even park anymore without getting the Blue Screen of Death.… Read more

A worker at a circuit board factory in Redwood City, Calif., was found dead in a waist-high vat of sulfuric acid over the weekend.

Even more disturbing, the man's body was discovered by his father.

If this hadn't been reported by respectable news agencies, it would have "urban myth" or "bad mafia movie" written all over it.

The news, however, was reported early Sunday by the San Mateo Daily Journal and later expanded by the San Jose Mercury News.

According to the Mercury News, Fernando Jimenez Gonzalez, 18, was working at the Coastal Circuits … Read more

The main competitor to Logitech's famed G5 gaming mouse, Razer's DeathAdder boasts better axial accuracy and greater customizability--differences which you may enjoy discovering in splendid detail over at sister site CNET Reviews. Please note, this mouse is made for right-handers, so lefties may have an issue with the thumb buttons. Check out the full review for information on system compatibility before you buy.

Not an avid gamer myself, I can only point out that the mouse sports an intimidating reptilian name and a neat glowing blue tri-snake-ular logo. Allow me to quote from colleague Rich Brown, who provides … Read more

Not all of us are NRA card-carrying members at Crave, but we do appreciate the art of self-defense--especially at a distance. Yet we fully acknowledge the impracticalities of toting around certain Tasers and other non-lethal weapons, the sight of which could make some people feel a tad uncomfortable especially on the subway or other confined public spaces.

One solution comes from a site called SecuritySafetySpy.com--whose slogan is "Because it's a jungle out there"--in the form of a stun gun that looks like a harmless mobile phone. The "Immobilizer" could be as menacing … Read more

Even those of us at Crave who aren't huge gamers discovered long ago that we would lust after just about any design to come out of Razer's equipment labs. And though it's difficult to get us worked up over a mouse these days, but the company has managed to accomplish that too, once again.

Razer just outfitted its ambidextrous "Diamondback" gaming mouse with a 3G infrared sensor, a technology that was first embedded in its "DeathAdder" model. Available next month for $60, the 1800-dpi Diamondback will be available in "Frost Blue," &… Read more

It's that time of year again, and I'm saving up strength for the Harry Potter marathon that will begin shortly. Yes, I am a Harry Potter freak. My mom got me into the books several years ago - she forced me to listen to The Sorceror's Stone on a drive from Salt Lake City to Palo Alto during law school. That was all it took.

I've since read each of the books three times: once for personal enjoyment and once to Scout and Isaac. I'll be reading them again to Greta and Lily in a … Read more

Tomorrow night, legions of Harry Potter fans will be gathering at bookstores all across the world to pick up the final installment of the series. If you haven't already preordered it on Amazon, or hunted down the digitally photographed pages of the leaked copy--tsk, tsk--your best bet is to exercise patience, or give in and pick it up with the throngs of other fans at one of the midnight release parties.

But where do you find ones worth going to? Short of browsing your local paper's A&E section, there are some handy tools online for … Read more

While I'm sure you have all heard about the tragic murder-suicide in which professional wrestler Chris Benoit slaughtered his wife and son before killing himself, an assortment of strange details surrounding the matter have begun to percolate up through the internet and major news media outlets. The most recent development involves a Wikipedia contributer who posted about the death of Benoit's wife several hours before the crime was discovered. While it appears that this was nothing more than wiki vandalism married to an unfortunate coincidence, it is just one of several which leave me wondering where the real world and fake wrestling come together.

During a June 11th WWE telecast Vince McMahon, the company's CEO, was "murdered" in a fiery limo explosion. A press release was issued announcing his death, and the television franchise geared up for a series of tributes to remember the fallen star. Of course, McMahon was very much alive and several wrestling fans were upset by the manufactured memorials. At the time, Wade Keller at the PWTorch suggested that in order, "to get the Mr. McMahon Death storyline over, script-breaking, character-breaking shows dedicated to Owen Hart and Eddie Guerrero after they died are being reenacted, emulated, exploited. That is what is wrong. It's beyond insensitive. It's shameful."

… Read more