July 04, 2002 -
Shoot 'Em Up and Join the Army
- By Noah Shachtman,
WiredNews, Perhaps you've
been too busy playing video
games to notice there's a war on
terror going on. If so, the U.S.
Army would like to have a word
with you. The Army is an elite,
well-oiled force, constantly
engaged in daring missions, and
always fighting on the side of
right. Soldiers get to play with
cool guns, and no one ever gets
hurt that bad...
July 03, 2002 -
File-Trading Furor Heats Up
- By Brad King, WiredNews,
In 1991, Willie Nelson's
picture splashed across
newspapers as government
representatives emptied his
house, preparing for an auction
that would help him settle a $9
million tax bill. Nelson forgot
to do some addition around
April, so the Internal Revenue
Service came calling with a
boatload of press behind in
tow...
July 01,
2002 -
Meet the cyborgs next door
- By Erick Schonfeld, Special
to ZDNet, COMMENTARY--When
members of a Florida family
implanted tiny, scannable ID
chips under their skin recently
to drum up publicity for a
struggling technology startup
called Applied Digital
Solutions, they were hailed as
"the first cyborg family."
Applied Digital's technology --
designed for applications like
helping wayward Alzheimer's
patients -- is supposed to make
keeping track of people as easy
as keeping track of cans of
soup. Each of the company's
chips stores a number that can
be cross-referenced to a
database containing more
information, such as a person's
name, address, and medical
condition. Applied Digital even
plans to one day include a GPS
locator in the chip...
July 01,
2002 -
Harriet the Online Book Reviewer
- By Kendra Mayfield, Wired
News, Not many people have
heard of Harriet Klausner. But
chances are that anyone who
frequents Amazon.com has read
her work. "I like to hit the
largest audience I possibly can
and Amazon is the largest site,"
said Klausner, Amazon's most
prolific reviewer. "The online
experience has more readers to
get reviews and it's more
accessible." While online
reviewers like Klausner aren't
nearly as well known as Oprah,
they may still wield significant
influence in the publishing
world...
July
15, 2002 -
No Bells, No Whistles: Just Games - By Brad
King, WiredNews, BERKELEY, California -- You're
walking down a wooded pathway. Trees block the
sunlight but offer little shelter from the heat. There
are no sounds, other than your breathing. Dilapidated
houses sit several yards to your left. A concrete car
path is to your right. Ahead, there is a brown,
two-story house with a gated front door. This is
Skotos. That's the description game players would get
if they were playing a game made by Skotos, a small
game development house in the heart of Berkeley. There
would be no splashy graphics, no stereophonic sounds.
It's retro-grade game play with text-only
descriptions...
July 07, 2002 -
File swappers expose themselves
- By Steven Musil, Special to
ZDNet News, Users of the
popular file-swapping program
Kazaa frequently expose personal
data to other network users by
mislabeling the files that can
be shared, according to research
released by HP Labs. The
research, which was published
Wednesday on Hewlett-Packard's
Web site, found that a
significant percentage of Kazaa
users have accidentally or
unknowingly designated private
files to be shared with everyone
who has access to the popular
Kazaa network...
