history

Google is listening.

As Marguerite Reardon and Tom Krazit reported on May 14 in CNET's Signal Strength blog, the search giant has swept up wireless-network addresses, along with other data its Street View vehicles have been collecting on their unprecedented world tour.

Google or some other company may have already plotted the location of your home or office wireless network, but you can make it more difficult for the next nosy megacorporation--or a neighbor or passing stranger--to discover your hot spot by disabling its Service Set Identifier (SSID).

By default, wireless access points transmit their presence to let wireless … Read more

Well, we thought we were testing DD Thought Tickler, but, after installing the program, we found what we'd gotten was Thought Retriever, which, according to the publisher, is "another application that's built on Dynamic Draw..." Wait, what's Dynamic Draw? For software designed to reduce confusion, not increase it, it was a bad start. Regardless of which program this is, it did nothing to organize our thoughts or increase our productivity.

The Thought Retriever interface features a gridlike panel with vague commands along the top, bottom, and sides. Not knowing where to start, we consulted the … Read more

It's not often that a technology product, even a successful one, enters the language as a verb. Some of us google, but nobody iPhones, Excels, or HDMIs.

But by remaining influential over a history that now spans 20 years, Photoshop software has achieved a place in the English language. Over its two decades, it grew from a single black-and-white image-editing package to a multi-product franchise, a starring member of Adobe Systems' Creative Suite line, and, of course, a verb.

At a National Association of Photoshop Professionals event Thursday in San Francisco, Photoshop's movers and shakers will gather to … Read more

We spent quite a bit of time with MyLastSearch, and for the life of us, we just can't figure it out. We understand what it's supposed to do; the publisher's description clearly states that it "scans the cache and history files of your Web browser" and returns a list of previous queries made with search engines. Though it does perform this task--to some extent--we couldn't figure out why anyone would use this utility instead of searching within the browser itself.

The program's interface is plain and fairly intuitive by virtue of the fact … Read more

There has been a lot of commentary following last week's New York Times op-ed by Dick Brass, a former Microsoft executive who claims that the company is bogged down by process and infighting, and has hence lost its ability to innovate.

One of the most interesting follow-ups comes from Groklaw, which dug up some e-mails placed into the public record a few years ago during an antitrust case against Microsoft. (These materials have been a treasure trove of interesting and sometimes-embarrassing internal communications, including then-Windows chief Jim Allchin's 2004 admission that he would have bought a Mac over … Read more

There are several excellent bookmark-syncing extensions for Firefox, but Weave is the first major effort designed by Mozilla. The newest version of Weave is out of beta and supports more than just bookmark sync. It also supports syncing open tabs, history, passwords, preferences, and Firefox 3's advanced Location Bar data.

The add-on lives in your tools menu, in your Options menu, and in a Status Bar icon. From clicking on any of them, you can check your syncing log, create a user account and password, and toggle sync settings. The default is to sync all, but choosing the customization … Read more

There are several excellent bookmark-syncing extensions for Firefox, but Weave is the first one designed by Mozilla. As you might expect from the company that produces Firefox itself, the appeal of Weave is that it synchronizes more than just bookmarks, and also supports syncing open tabs, history, passwords, preferences, and Firefox 3's advanced Location Bar data.

The add-on lives in your Tools menu and in your Options menu. From there you can check your syncing log, create a user account and password, and toggle sync settings. The default is to sync all. But in practice, Weave has had a … Read more

WINDSOR, U.K.--How opportune.

Just as I arrived as a transplant to England for a spell, Google added tours of 20 National Trust historic sites to Google Maps Street View.

I've long been a proponent of virtual tourism over the Internet, whether for planning an actual visit or just exploring other places virtually, so I'm happy about Google's partnership with the National Trust. The organization takes care of many historic sites in the United Kingdom, including assorted stately homes, the prehistoric stone circle at Avebury, and Lindisfarne Castle, where I was assaulted by territorial terns as a boy.

Google said 20 National Trust sites are now on Street View, and the National Trust said that more are coming, including a personal favorite, the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. The tours let virtual visitors click linearly through the sites--a plodding and limited way to explore compared with roaming freely around the actual sites, but still good enough to be useful. … Read more

Porsche wants to remind drivers that its cars are built for performance. Here's a racing retrospective featuring the German-made automobiles. For more information on the Porsche legacy in auto racing check out the Porsche Museum. The museum celebrates its first anniversary this month.