June 6, 2002

By JOHN BIGGS

In February, Jennifer Pazdan thought that her computer was possessed.

Ms. Pazdan, 21, who graduated last month from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, recalls downloading the popular music-file-sharing programs Morpheus and KaZaA as well as an addictive video game called Snood. Almost immediately her computer started acting strangely. Small windows with ads started popping up on her desktop. Her normally speedy computer took more than 10 minutes to perform simple tasks, and software that she didn’t know she had began causing her Internet browser to crash, forcing her to shut down her computer repeatedly.

She found out later that the programs she had intentionally installed carried a payload of smaller software programs, with names like Bonzi Buddy and Gator, aimed at serving advertisements and tracking her Internet use.
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NYTIMES – As the ranks of weekend digital camera buffs swell, entry-level cameras are gaining features once found only in expensive S.L.R. film cameras and professional-quality …Consider the Panasonic DMC-FZ30, which is at the top end of the company’s Lumix line.

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Portable computers are handy but here’s a gizmo likely to appeal to real geeks: A server so small it can fit in a pocket.

Realm Systems has developed the smallest Linux server at 1.6 ounces. It’s the size of a PDA and can be plugged into the USB (Universal Serial Bus) port of any computer.

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NY TIMES – Much as routers handle the flow of data in homes, the Plantronics Pulsar 590 headphones are routers for the ears.

The Pulsar 590 uses wireless Bluetooth technology to connect to any Bluetooth-enabled phone or an iPod or other media player with a standard headphone jack.

If your media player doesn’t have Bluetooth built in, you can use the included adapter to stream your audio over the air to the headphones. This lets you stash your player in a bag and still listen to your music.

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I live in Brooklyn, NY and write about technology, security, gadget, gear, wristwatches, and the Internet. After spending four years as an IT programmer, I switched gears and became a full-time journalist. My work has appeared in the New York Times, Laptop, PC Upgrade, Surge, Gizmodo, Men’s Health, InSync, Linux Journal, Popular Science, InSync, and I’ve written a book called Black Hat: Misfits, Criminals, and Scammers in the Internet Age.

I am currently Gadgets Editor of TechCrunch and I supervise the BWL family of blogs, SlushPile.net, WristWatchReview.com, and MacMiniGear.com.

You can reach me at john at bigwidelogic dot com or Tweet me at @johnbiggs.

New York/Brooklyn, September 11, 2001 – Today, at about 9:15, the #4 train I was riding into Manhattan stopped at the Fulton Street Station, directly below the WTC, and didn’t open its doors. People stood up to get out, but there was announcement about an accident and that we would proceed to the Brooklyn Bridge, a few blocks away. A woman on the train said she saw that the WTC was on fire.
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