Archive

PrivateEye can help keep prying eyes at bay

The Digital Age has given us many wonderful things, among them a bountiful, fresh crop of 21st-century oxymorons ("wireless tethering," "visual voicemail," "Microsoft Works," etc.).


Time for states to fund a total recall of our ears

Listen up -- it's the Digital Age, and our ears are letting us down at every turn. Take a good look -- if it wasn't for eons of social conditioning, we'd all run screaming to the cosmetic surgeon to get both strudel-shaped tumors removed.


N. Korea's future leader counts me as a 'friend'

In 2006, while navigating then-juggernaut MySpace.com, this Digital Slob tripped over the journalistic "get" of a lifetime -- a survey-style interview with someone purporting to be a high-ranking general in the North Korean military.


Puffy requests royalties for bulldog on YouTube

Dear Digital Slob: I'm writing you about a very serious matter -- the exploitation of my canine brethren on popular Web sites like YouTube.


With Dropbox, no need to dress for success

Have you ever needed to be in two places at once? Me neither. Typically, we Digital Slobs plot out our lazy lives with such precise, judo-like avoidance skills, we're barely tolerated in one place, let alone "needed" in two.


Mrs. Murphy presented far better show-and-tell

Imagine if aliens, who've been monitoring our radio and TV transmissions since the '50s, landed on Earth and asked you to take them to our leader. After breaking the news to them that he isn't Regis Philbin, you all decide to share the long cab ride to D.C.


New smart phones give older models new luster

Amid two major unveilings, aficionados worldwide are now standing around water coolers debating the merits of the new Palm Pre versus the iPhone 3.0.


Big Brother aside, avoid messing with machines

Good intentions or not, nobody likes a back-seat driver. Nothing offends our independent natures faster than someone stepping on our toes -- a visiting relative who grabs the TV remote like it's his own, a grandmother who glares at every grain of salt we add to the pasta sauce, or an artificial intelligence in space calibrating our every move for our own good.


Personal tech only gets more maddening in 2018

Traveling with my buddy in his time machine to the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show to give readers a first look at beyond-the-cutting-edge consumer products is not without its petty annoyances. For one, we keep bumping into Mr. Spock.


Graduation ceremonies mo' bettah in digital age

Commencement season is upon us, and for Digital Slobs that usually means one of two things: 1) Nothing. 2) Secretly nothing -- but we have to go, anyway.