Random

There's a certain imaginative depth in the relationship between the wealthy and the Web.

Zach Braff, David Fincher, and Kristen Bell are merely three of the star-kissed who have learned how to take back and tried to get money from their fans on Kickstarter.

Kendrick Perkins, meanwhile, also decided that the personal touch might help him out of a tiny bind.

The center for the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder wanted to sell his bulldog. But not for him stooping to eBay or Craigslist. Those would be a long, long distance for Perkins to stoop.

Instead, as the terriers of Deadspin report, … Read more

Sometimes my CNET handlers like to challenge me. Or perhaps they're sending me a discreet message.

Today, for example, one of my knowing leash-pullers sent me details of an app he thought might interest me.

I took one look and wondered what he might have meant, for this was not something I would ever Pinterest.

You see, I now have set indelibly in my mind that there exists an app called STD Triage.… Read more

As one who has been dumped by Skype, registered mail, Pinot poured on bald head, head-butt, intermediary, and sudden marriage to another, I wondered what could possibly remain.

Then I read Katy Perry's plaintive revelation that the very humorous star of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," Russell Brand, had allegedly told her to forget their marriage by text.

I had heard that this might be a method employed in middle school to end what wasn't meant to be.

However, I wasn't aware that those designated as adults might also believe this was appropriate etiquette. … Read more

Apple spent the previous days trying to restate its values and show that it is a company of principle, not one of fad or glut.

Some think the WWDC presentation was no revolution. Others believe it offered some sturdy indications of the right sort of obstinacy and of a consistency of design perspective.

In an attempt to reinforce that thought, Apple released a video (embedded below) that expressed its simple intentions -- not to confuse abundance with choice, for example.

I am grateful to The Loop for spotting that a wag who might have been positively moved by these thoughts … Read more

There has long been a tendency for some media to publish all the news that's fit to be found out through any means possible.

One of those means is the hacking of voice mails. Indeed, News Corp. has settled hundreds of claims from famous people and those temporarily in the news for reasons that might be as sad as they might be trifling.

Now a woman who stood in for Angelina Jolie in dangerous times (but not in sex scenes with Brad Pitt in "Mr. and Mrs. Smith") says that her voice mails were allegedly hacked too.… Read more

There's nothing worse than a senseless death.

Not that any death makes sense, of course. But it's easier to accept someone dying of sheer old age than a 16-year-old being crushed in a car because she was texting Polly about the dimples on Charlie's cheeks.

This week, advertising's loudest are meeting at the Cannes Advertising Festival. One campaign doing absurdly well is an absurdist effort from Australia that tries to stop people doing stupid things around trains.

Called "Dumb Ways to Die," it takes the silliness of how people die around trains and raises … Read more

There's a quaint concept that seemingly every technology company dismisses as outdated.

It's called opting in.

Should you not be familiar with it, it's the notion that you ought to choose before, say, all the people in your address book are contacted by a company they've never heard of.

And wouldn't it be lovely to have a choice over whether your kids should have their irises scanned, as they get on their school bus?

The parents of around 750 kids in several Florida schools never got that choice -- because of what might be politely … Read more

Everyone has an opinion about the revelations that government agencies may be tracking us.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak believes that America is becoming like Russia.

Some, though, feel comfortable with the idea that government may be offering surveillance for own own good. Or do they?

An answer given by Miss Alabama during the Miss USA pageant on Sunday night fully expressed how pretzel-ish the thinking has to be around our personal safety and security.

Asked by actress Wendie Malick whether NSA surveillance is an invasion of privacy or a necessity, Mary Margaret McCord offered a sure-minded reply.

She said: "… Read more

As the passions and justifications swirl around the revelations concerning the NSA, the rest of the world sits and wonders.

Is only the U.S. involved? Or might, perhaps, every government on Earth be rather keen to use all technological methods to protect its interests?

What do ordinary Americans think (apparently, we don't mind too much)?

But, more importantly, what does Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak think?

It so happens that Latin American tech site FayerWayer happened upon Woz as he sat at San Francisco airport.

So often known to be obliging and spontaneous, Woz offered his thoughts. Essentially, he … Read more