[Geeks Are Sexy] Technology News

Blu-Ray vs. DVD: The New Format War?

By Patrick Biz
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
With HD DVD now buried six feet under and all major Hollywood studios onboard in the Blu-ray camp, the stars are aligned for next-generation format sales to finally take off. Surprisingly, prices aren’t falling, and customers still aren’t buying.
The War Has Just Begun
Don’t laugh, Blu-ray vs. DVD is really THE new [...]

Xobni: Email Made Easier Than Ever

By JR Raphael
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
Fellow Outlook users, prepare to revolutionize your email experience.
Allow me to introduce you to my new best friend and personal assistant, Xobni (pronounced ZOB-nee, and spelled like a backwards inbox). He and I just met this morning, but we’ve really hit it off.
Xobni is a powerful little tool [...]

Having your laptop searched at the US border - legal or intrusive?

By Mark O’Neill

Boing Boing has highlighted an interesting page on the Electronic Frontier Foundation website which talks about a recent court ruling - United States v. Arnold - which essentially allows US border guards to search your laptop or other digital devices without legal restraint if you try to enter the United States.

This has got a lot of civil liberties groups up in arms (or as South Park likes to put it, “rabble! rabble! rabble!”), as obviously the contents of your laptop are private. You could have sensitive business information on there. For example, what if you’re a lawyer and you have confidential client information that you can’t reveal to a third party? Or on a personal level, perhaps embarrassing stuff like kinky porn which technically may be legal under the US constitution to own and look at but obviously you don’t want a border guard finding it on your computer? You might even have something REALLY downright embarrassing and reputation destroying like some Britney Spears music from iTunes.

So are there any legal ways or crafty dodges to get around this obvious violation to your privacy and civil liberties? Plus is this court ruling right? Could it be open to an appeal?

Cell Phone Payment: A Cash Machine in your Pocket

By JR Raphael
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
We’ve all been there. You’re waiting in line when suddenly you reach for your back pocket…and realize your wallet isn’t there. Well, good news, fellow geeks: The days of needing cash or even a credit card to pay for purchases are almost behind us. The cell phone is gaining new power [...]

10 Must-Read Books for Geeks - Part I

By Patrick Biz
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
In this two-post series, I will share my thoughts and recommendations on what I consider to be great books for the geek nation. I have paid attention to cover a wide variety of topics that fall into one large common category: technology. These must-read books can all be purchased online from [...]

Gmail & Outlook Synchronization Service launched

By Mark O’Neill
Mr William Gates is probably cursing in his Cheerios at the moment. A company called Cemaphore Systems has announced the launch of a new product that will allow Gmail users to completely do away with their Microsoft Exchange servers and run Microsoft Outlook directly from Google servers instead.
Called Mailshadow for [...]

Service Review: Professional Drive Recovery Service

Losing a hard drive full of data is certainly a stressful affair. Not only will you likely go through the five clinical stages of grief, but then you’ll have to figure out exactly how you will continue on after this traumatic event. Can you actually recover any data from the drive? How bad is it? [...]

Novell versus Microsoft: A never-ending story

When I read yesterday that the United States Supreme Court has decided to reopen an old Novell vs. Microsoft case dating back to 2004, I couldn’t help but think back to what has happened between the two companies in the 20 last years.
If you weren’t following the news back then, here’s what went down: Four [...]

Got computer trouble? Call in the Geek Squad!

By Mark O’Neill
I’ve just been reading an interesting article in the British Daily Telegraph about the Geek Squad which has just spread from the US over to the UK. It seems that for premium prices they are doing a booming trade in fixing people’s computers and gadgets. The top requests [...]

Bill Gates Dethroned As World’s Richest Man

After 15 years in a row of being the world’s richest man, Bill Gates finally had to step down from the podium and take the 3rd place. But please, don’t start sending donations to Mr. Gates yet, his fortune is still evaluated at over $58 billion.
The new world’s richest man is Gates’ friend and investment [...]