Wi-Fi is mushrooming - 120 million users

At least that’s how many wireless chipsets are expected to be sold by year’s end. And it’s all happened in six years, according to new data released by In-Stat and the Wi-Fi Alliance, making the technology a staple of computer networking and a powerful presence in millions of homes and businesses. With a 64% average yearly growth rate, it’s now in 90% of all notebooks sold today.
That said, there are still some lingering security issues, as municipalities around the country and even entire counties rush to make WI-Fi coverage ubiqutous.

Phone headsets sure are convenient

I may look part robot with a hands-free Bluetooth headset blinking behind a my left ear but I’m slowly getting hooked on these miniature devices. Here’s my Free Press column from today:  MIKE WENDLAND: U.S. is all ears for headsets.

Driver distraction from texting kills cyclist

Lemme get this straight: Some lamebrained kid is driving and decides to send a text message on his mobile. He looks away from the road and veers into a bicyclist and kills him. And authorities see this only as a misdemeanor?  Teen in Crash May Have Been Text Messaging.

Aother worm warning

A variant of W32/Sober.gen@MM, W32/Sober@MM!M681 is another mass-mailing worm hiding inside a spam email attachment making its way around the net this weekend. When run, the virus displays a fake error message, infects the host computer then sends itself to stolen email addresses.
Here’s some info from the folks at McAfee:
What should I look for? FROM: Varies
SUBJECT: Examples: Registration Confirmation; Paris Hilton Nicole Richie; hi, ive a new mail address
BODY: Example: hey its me, my old address dont work at time. i dont know why?! in the last days ive got some mails. i’ think thaz your mails but im not sure! How do I know if I’ve been infected?
Fake error message (”Error in packed Header”) displayed. Outgoing messages as noted above.
Note: Receiving an email alert stating that the virus came from your email address is not necessarily an indication you are infected. Mass-mailing viruses often forge (or “spoof”) the from address.
What can I do? Keep your anti-virus protection current.

Christmas images free for Mac users

Here’s a nice gift from the folks at Belight Software for mac users.  Free Christmas Image Collection for Your Mailing and Publishing Needs.

Online shoppers slowing sites

Looks like shopping malls aren’t the only busy places this Black Friday. Online shopping sites are getting lots of traffic, too. The BestBuy site was unavailable a couple of times today when I tried. Same with CompUSA. Online shoppers looking for availablity and price comparisons are causing slowdowns on others.

Thanksgiving 2005

Every year since the turn of the century, I’ve been writing a Thanksgiving blog post about the things and people I’m thankful for. As I do so again this year, I’m amazed how many are still on the list. There’s lots of newcomers, too.
Anyway, here’s what I’m especialy thankful for on Thanksgiving 2005:
The season’s first snow. The turkey my wife awoke early this morning to cook. My family and friends who will gather here this afternoon to eat it. My church, my friends, my dog, my work, my health, most of all my God - who makes all things new and possible.
Tech things I’m thankful for: My Motion Computing Tablet PC, my Mac G5, My iMac. my new Dell XPS, the Treo 650 smarthphone, Microsoft’s One Note, SpamSieve, Final Cut Pro, the BlackBerry, BlueTooth, Airport Extreme and Airport Express, the video-enabled iPod, the iPod nano, flash USB drives, XM and Sirius satellite radio, Comcast high speed Internet and On-Demand digital TV, AIM and Microsoft Messenger, Constant Contact, Laridian Bible software, iTunes, iPhoto, RSS and XML, NetNewsWire, FireFox, Safari, PayPal, ADThosting, SixApart, Outlook, iSync, Entourage.
Tech People I’m thankful for: Steve Colyer, Andrew Walsh, Beth Boling, Larry Larsen, David Blomquist, Dale Parry, Ron Recinto, AJ Hartley, Bill Carver, Terry White, Tony Robinson, Heather Newman, Matt Friedman, Michelle Gilbert, Eric Kushner, Al Tompkins, Bill Mitchell, Sree Sreenivasan, David Shedding, Raphael Seth, Terrence Berg, Adriaan Tijsseling, Kim Culhan, Michael Mauer, Elin Spahr, Phil Bertolini, Mark Gilman, Steven Leon, Mike Sante, Tom Walsh, Lee Rainie, Daniel Cherrin, Brooke Tomlinson, Greg Kohler, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Matt Roush, Larry Eiler, Ben and Mena Trott, Rich Homberg, Russ White, Matthew Prince, Michael Tsai, Keri Walker, Ryan Huschka, Chris Comes, Martin Winston, Seth Dimbert, Eric Callis, Glenn Reynolds, Dan Gillmor, Hiawatha Bray, Gary Price, Julio Ojeda-Zapata, Ray Cavaliere, ToeKnee, RedfordPhyl, Mr. Attitude, Dean Esmay, Debbie Wolfe, Chris Adams, Penny Duckham and every member of my Technofolks advisory group.

Cingular’s EDGE wireless network

I’ve been testing out a new BlackBerry 8700 from Cingular and have toted it around with other phones running on the Verizon and Sprint networks in some pretty out of the way places over the past few weeks. I have been much impressed by the reliability of connections to the high speed Cingular EDGE network. Across much of central Florida and into Southwestern Georgia and even up to northern Michigan for a weekend duck hunting trip (thet’e me in camo checking my e-mail during a lull in the action - click image to enlarge), the Cingular connections was almost always accessible. Not so for Verizon and Sprint in the rural areas.

Steve Jobs spoof

Have you heard about Apple CEO Steve Job’s latest appearance on Saturday Night Live? They’ve posted a video of it over at PhuseBox.  Steve Jobs SNL Sketch.

Pimp your laptop

The same kind of ultra-sharp, bold paint jobs that customize fine rides are being applied to the drab gray and silver laptop computers toted around by road warriors whose companies are affixing their corporate logos to the machines. Check out my column in today’s Freep. MIKE WENDLAND: Make your laptop special.

Computer furniture woes

I never thought finding and buying the right computer furniture would be so difficult. I’m moving my main home office into a 12-by-12 room and would like to wrap two walls with a multi-workstation furniture arrangement that will let me set up three seperate computer areas with room between for printers and peripherals and testing the gizmos and gadgets I need to evaluate.
I spent five hours yesterday visiting all of the big office supply chain stores in the Detroit area - Office Depot, Office Max and Staples. There were a couple of configurations that would work but none were in stock and finding help from the barely-out-of-the-teenage-years store help was impossible. “Ah… that’s special order,” they’d typically say when I chased someone down with questions, or, “you need to talk to Eugenia on that and she’s off today,” or “you need to order through the catalog.” Then they rushed back to the pencil aisles.
I also visited the Ferndale clearance center for the national Cort furniture company that rents furniture and sells out of contract items. Again, there was no help. The lone woman working with customers had a backlog of people and, though pleasant and apologetic, was too busy to asist. The office furniture they had on display looked pretty beat up and battered anyway.
Then I went to the huge Art Van furniture center in Warren, but everything they had was too bulky and ornate.
This morning I spent another two hours online shopping a slew of other outlets. They were either way too high end for me or what they offered would have cost a fortune to ship.
Surely, there’s a solution out there someplace. Ideas, readers?

Windows version of iSync

I’m setting up a new Dell XPS 400 system I just bought to use for testing out Windows and PC apps. But one feature I have on my Macs that is sorely missed is an iSync-like function that would let me keep Outlook info - calendar, tasks, contacts - synced with my Taplet PC and my desktop Dell via the Internet like iSync does through Mac.com. There must be some equivalent service for PCs… isn’t there?

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