Tid-Bytes 

                                                                            

Japanese E-tea.   Many Japanese use a unique and unobtrusive way to monitor their elderly parents these days.  Since tea-time is a daily ritual for mature Japanese, usually taken at 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM, an inventor there developed a Wi-Fi teakettle.  When the kettle is tilted, a signal is sent over the wireless home network to their adult child’s cell phone, letting them know that everything is as it should be. Domo arigato, Mr. Teapot-o.

Maybe I’m Amazed, but Paul McCartney’s music is now legally available for download. In the ever present past, only pirated versions of his silly love songs were to be had.  And you diehard Beatles fans should also feel glad all over because it won’t be long now. Paul says the arrangements to make the rest of their music available for download are “virtually settled.”  With a little luck you’ll soon be able to listen to the Fab Four any time at all, eight days a week, without feeling guilty, so let it be.

No Boots For You!  The Pentagon took two seemingly conflicting actions concerning the use of their military network and the Internet recently.  First, they blocked access from their network to YouTube, MySpace, and eleven other sites that soldiers had been using to communicate with family and friends at home.  Second, they created a YouTube “boots on the ground” channel showing videos of what life is like for U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The irony, of course, is that the soldiers there can’t view the channel on the military network.

One Search to Bring Them All, one search to find them.  Google’s Universal Search takes the work out of finding different types of content for any search term. Previously one would have had to perform separate searches to retrieve, say, web site links and images for the same term.  Google now returns web sites, images, video, news, and more from a single search. Links at the top of the results page allow you to switch instantly from one type of content to another.

You Want Identity Theft With That?  Fries weren’t the only thing customers were getting with their orders at a Hamburger Hamlet restaurant recently. Workers at the eatery noticed that one of the waitresses was making quick trips to the rest room while in possession of customer’s credit cards.  She is accused of using a “wedge,” a small device used to swipe (pull through) credit cards and record their information. Apparently she was only a small fry though, as the device was provided to her by an unidentified man who used the data to make thousands of dollars worth of unauthorized purchases before disappearing. She supposedly only got $10 per swipe.  So, where’s the beef  (thief)?

Written by Steve Lucas

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