Author Archives: jeremy

Virus Grounds French Fighters

By | November 22, 2011

Here’s more evidence of how vulnerable armed forces are to software attacks, intended or not. The French navy’s fighter jets “were unable to download their flight plans after databases were infected by a Microsoft virus they had already been warned about several months beforehand,” according to the Telegraph: However, the French navy admitted that during… Read More »

Scan a Bed Time Story for Me, Daddy

By | November 22, 2011

This is up there among the lamest products of the year: a scanner that will convert a book to speech. Well actually, it sounds quite good. I’d imagined a device that could flip the pages over while you sit back nursing a Scotch. When everything’s done the scanner converts the text to “high quality speech… Read More »

The Failure of the Open Field

By | November 22, 2011

It’s great that Apple has created a new platform with the iPhone and the App Store. But it’s also a ripping indictment of the personal computer industry—and cellphone industry—thus far. And not to be too nice to Apple: The beautiful stuff we’re seeing with the iPhone is mainly about pastime—not about productivity (or creativity.) Here’s… Read More »

Radio Australia Topics, Feb 6 2009

By | November 22, 2011

What I talked about on the Radio Australia Breakfast Club today: Everyone, it seems, is writing an iPhone app. Including a Singaporean 9-year old. Not surprising since half a billion apps have been downloaded since the app store went live six months ago. iPhone apps get security conscious: Bank Info lures the thief with juicy… Read More »

Beware the SMS Premium Number Scam

By | November 22, 2011

An Indian phone company is warning users against a variation on the premium rate phone scam, whereby users are contacted by email or mail and asked to call a number to confirm winning a prize. The number is a premium number—either local or international—and the user has to sit through several expensive minutes of canned… Read More »