Apple’s biggest contribution to the technology world has been its ability to bring order to chaos. The iTunes music service is the best example of this: before iTunes, the world of music downloads was the Wild West. There were outlaws, like Napster and its rivals, who ran clunky attempts [Keep reading]
Once upon a time, Labor Day was a chance to take a break, and to honor those who fought to create the proper work-life balance. Sounds like a fairy tale now. For many Americans, Monday was just another day to labor — if not at an office or factory, through [Keep reading]
Rusty and I had just a fantastic time at Progressive Field this week. For Rusty, there was Puppypalooza, including a chance to walk across the field just minutes before a Royals-Indians game. They wouldn’t let him on the grass…at least this time. But he did make plenty of friends. The [Keep reading]
Yes, Virginia, people do care about their privacy. Pew research released this week showed than fully 86 percent of U.S. adults had done something to try to protect their privacy…and 1 out of 5 had suffered either a social media or e-mail account hijacking. I discussed the study on various [Keep reading]
In the movie Sneakers, which I consider the best hacker film every made, Robert Redford leads a band of criminal geeks who are chasing a madman named Cosmo. Unlike traditional villians, Cosmo isn’t trying to steal a nuclear bomb or extort the world by threatening to release a deadly virus. [Keep reading]
Home webcams designed to keep your family safe may in fact put them at risk, suggests a settlement filed by the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday against a video camera servurity company. In some cases, cameras designed to check in on children were instead used by computer hackers across the [Keep reading]
The latest evidence that social media shaming isn’t what it used to be arrived this weekend, when a disgruntled British Airways flyer felt compelled to pay for a “promoted Tweet” to complain about his lost bags. Even with the extra Twitter prominence, lost bag victim Hasan Syed still didn’t get satisfaction [Keep reading]
1. Create a “disposable” e-mail account that you use to sign up with various websites. It’ll keep your main e-mail account “cleaner,” and prevent firms from tracking you across sites. 2. Create a fake persona, complete with birthday and phone number, that you can use to sign up for grocery [Keep reading]
The arrival of Labor Day is like the playing of “Last Dance,” at a wedding. What, it’s over already? But we just started dancing… Endings are hard, and always sneak up us, but they must be marked. Consider this my farewell to readers of MSNBC’s Red Tape Chronicles…and the announcement [Keep reading]
How much longer can cable and other pay TV providers charge us $100 per month for….we’re not so sure? Storm clouds are gathering in the form of a new wave of new competition, and it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of corporations. Consumers are now perfectly comfortable watching TV [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan