Random

You can no more choose your neighbors than you can choose your family members.

Sometimes they are people for whom you have contempt -- or even worse. However, it's not always easy to explain to them just how much you dislike them.

There are protocols to go through. And then there's the problem of having to look them in the face and say what you really think.

So an increasing trend seems to be to give your Wi-Fi network a name that carries a message.

In a breathtakingly revelatory piece, the BBC unveils some of the Wi-Fi names … Read more

I know that many have barely ceased to practice their formation routines, after the release of Microsoft's first Surface ad.

"Should we crunk with it or tango?" is a very reasonable question after this foray into Gleeful territory.

However, today Microsoft has posted another, more stationary ad to its YouTube page, so that you can become more intimate with its great multi-colored hope.

"Welcome to Surface," it begins. "Surface is yours."

Perhaps it will be. It will be hard to choose a color that will match my prison uniform, but I will work … Read more

I feel sure that the number of corporate hours lost to workers sitting and watching YouTube videos has a severe effect on GDP.

I would, therefore, like to contribute to that.

Here is a video, which Cult of Mac saw on Reddit, that shows the unexpected consequences of becoming a little too committed to Apple's software.… Read more

I am not sure that texting drivers can ever be stopped.

They use sneaky methods. They try to keep the phone below dashboard level. Or they merely prop their cell phone on their steering wheel and multitask.

Texting is just too important, isn't it? You have dinners to plan, children's pickups to organize, and friends to constantly tell about your latest amorous pursuit.

And yet Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is not giving up. He has dedicated $550,000 to a new method of spotting motorized texters, a method that governments have used since before John Le Carre began writing: yes, spies.… Read more

How much of a song and dance can Microsoft make about its products these days?

More than can fit on your Zune. (You still have your Zune, right?)

I am grateful to the Verge for locating the first, infinitely anticipated, TV spot for Redmond's new Surface -- which debuts tonight during Monday Night Football.

This ad stands (and dances) proud. For it declares that Surface is less of a product and more of a movement.

Now some movements are good and some can be painful. This is one could be both.

For this movement involves everyone grabbing their Surface … Read more

The law and Facebook have one thing in common: they are both repositories of large emotions.

Sometimes, though, they don't always work in tandem.

Word reaches me from Texas of a troubled happening after a court case in Mesquite. (The inhabitants are not called Mesquitos. Or are they?)

As CBS Houston tells it, the local police are up in arms after 30-year-old Melissa Welthall allegedly posted and spread photos of an undercover cop on Facebook.

Why would someone do that? This is a question so often asked before receiving a bafflingly human answer.

In this case, police say that … Read more

As you struggle through your life, you're just happy when your toilet flushes, your shoes don't wear out, and your phone works. You don't imagine for a moment that the companies behind these products aren't merely thinking commercially, but existentially.

You don't imagine that they're not just trying to sell you a product -- they're actually trying to lift your spirits. They're trying to make you forget loneliness, despair, and even death.

Please, I am not playing the fool. I am not even impersonating Dr. Sanjay Gupta. For a copy of a plan belonging to Softbank … Read more

It's hard to love all the world's cyclists.

It isn't so much that they're sometimes sanctimonious about the environment. It's that too many bathe in the self-righteousness of the Ferrari driver, so much so that stop signs and red lights don't exist in their exalted firmament, especially when they're wearing headphones.

My tears go on sit-down strike, therefore, at the plight of 24-year-old Daniel Greer.

Greer confessed to riding through three red lights in Brooklyn, his headphones firmly in his ears.

He was stopped by police and given four tickets. However, he is … Read more

I've become a bit of a worrier of late.

Not because I worry about the coming election, Windows 8, or things that seem to move in my fridge.

No, it's the idea that with man proving he can leap in from outer space, outer-spaceans might try to do the same.

I am sure that our government will want to reassure us. I know that President Obama has told NASA to call him the minute aliens land.

But how can we possibly defend against outerworld beings? We don't seem terribly good at defeating inter-world ones.

Thankfully, I bring … Read more