The Case of the Crashed Phone Call

David Solomon, my coauthor for the Windows Internals books, was recently in the middle of an important VOIP call on Skype when the audio suddenly garbled. A second later the system blue screened. He called back after the reboot, but a half hour later the person on the other seemed to stop talking mid-word and the system crashed again. The conversation was essentially over anyway, and since he’d… Continue reading

What iPhone Apps are Hot in Japan?

Have you ever wondered what iPhone apps are hot in Japan? If you’re attending this year’s MacWorld conference in San Francisco, you’ll have a chance to find out. There, Nobuyuki Hayashi, a Japanese Mac and iPhone tech journalist and blogger, is hosting an event called “Japan iPhone Apps: State of the Market,” which will be held on Wednesday, Jan 7th. If you can’t make the event… Continue reading

Kakuteru: A Blogging and Lifestreaming Mashup (+Invites)

What do you get when you combine blogging and lifestreaming? You get Kakuteru, a semantic blogging mashup with funny name. The service imports your activity streams from FriendFeed and combines them with longer articles you write yourself. After you set up your Kakuteru site, its URL can then be hidden behind a domain name of your choosing so it appears as if it’s your own blog. … Continue reading

"Downloading Is Wrong" Trojan Blocks Access to BitTorrent Sites [BitTorrent]

BitTorrent weblog TorrentFreak reports on a new piece of malware with a strange bent: If it infects your computer, this trojan will prevent you from accessing popular BitTorrent sites The Pirate Bay and Mininova. It does so by modifying the hosts file on your computer. We’ve shown you how to use the power of the hosts file for good by banning time-wasting web sites

On Gmail’s Success

Paul Buchheit, the ex-Googler who created Gmail, remembers how difficult was to convince people that Gmail has the potential to become successful.We starting working on Gmail in August (or September?) 2001. For a long time, almost everyone disliked it. Some people used it anyway because of the search, but they had endless complaints. Quite a few people thought that we should kill the project, or perhaps “reboot” it as… Continue reading

Access 1,000,000 quotes in your browser at QuotesDaddy

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Whether you’re writing a speech, searching for something witty to add to your email sig, or just looking for a little inspiration, QuotesDaddy’s massive database is a good place to look. With over 1,000,000 quotes categorized and tagged, it’s easy to navigate and

"Altruistic" Trojan blocks Piratebay and Mininova access

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A new trojan once again underscores the importance of exercising caution when downloading. Disguised as a keygen, Troj/Qhost-AC is one of the strangest pieces of malware I’ve seen.The trojan doesn’t appear to be particularly malicious. Its mission: to prevent you from downloading torrents from PirateBay and Mininova, keep you… Continue reading

Mattel’s Mind Flex teaches kids fake telepathy

Add one more contender to the list of mind control games vying for our attention this year alongside NeuroSky and Emotiv. Set to debut this week at CES, Mattel’s Mind Flex requires players to concentrate really hard in order to power a fan that’ll float a ball through the hoops. Sure, it’s not nearly as complex as what the… Continue reading

Android-powered Kogan Agora meets Mr. Blurrycam on way to CES debut

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Okay, yes, we were mad skeptical that the Agora would ever see the light of day, and you know what? This is one situation where we’re absolutely delighted to be proven wrong. Kogan’s homegrown Android handset just got pictured… Continue reading

Man-Made Stars to Create Thermonuclear Reactions: Not as Scary as the Large Hadron Collider [Stars]

To further the advancement of fusion energy, national security, and a leadership in basic science and technology, the National Ignition Facility is attempting to create thermonuclear reactions by producing their own man-made star.

Located in Livermore, California, the ten story facility—which is also the size of about 3 football fields strung together—houses the world’s largest laser, consisting of 192 laser beams made of hydrogen… Continue reading