Technology

It’s likely that at least as many of you will read this column online as on paper. So, what’s keeping you from reading your copy of “War and Peace” or the latest bestselling crime thriller in digital format rather than in paper and ink format?

Have you vacuumed your computer lately?

Yes, I said vacuumed.

Better question: have you cracked open your computer case lately and taken a look at what’s inside?

Like many technology writers this week, I’ve had to take some deep consideration of how I’d deal with the subject of the iPhone.

"tricia, what is this box hooked up to my computer?” my father asked me this week, in the typical all-lowercase e-mail he started sending me after I informed him some years ago that uppercase typing in e-mail was equivalent to shouting.

I bowled a 229 game last Sunday. Pins were flying, and I managed six consecutive strikes. And I haven’t picked up a bowling ball since kindergarten.

The buzz from tech-heads over last week’s Consumer Electronics Show was easily drowned out by the enthusiastic sighs over Apple’s new iPhone – the long anticipated cell phone/iPod hybrid that CEO Steve Jobs announced at the company’s annual unveiling of new products.

Ah, the days after Christmas, when all good gift cards go back to the store for a belated spree of shopping goodness and all bad gifts are hoped to do likewise.

So it’s about time that I write my Christmas technology column for this year. Now, I usually do a list on ideas on what I might get my co-workers for Christmas, but this year I’ve decided to break the norm. This year I’ll be writing about what I want for Christmas.

To many of you, this acronym has no meaning. But to some of us, it is a large form of entertainment. MMORPG stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. Basically a bunch of people from all over the world start up a game on their computers or game consoles and log into a whole new world.

In what has become a growing trend for towns, fire departments and other organizations locally and nationally, the Selbyville Volunteer Fire Company recently launched a seemingly all-inclusive Web site.

Nearly 75 percent of Americans — or more than 204 million people — have access to the Internet, according to a 2004 report from Nielson/Netratings. Just a year prior, 181 million Americans were Internet users. That means there’s been a 15 percent increase in one year.

It’s become a tool of convenience. People use the Internet to buy shoes, check the scores of sports games, book plane flights and even compare hotels without leaving their homes.

i•Pod•er•ize
To furnish one’s iPod with accessories.
To wear or select accessories for one’s iPod according to the latest fashions.

I have seen the future, and it’s in a tiny little white box with little white wires sticking out of it.

Ah, yes — the increasingly ubiquitous iPod.

OK — mine is actually black, and it’s in a green aluminum case that manages to look almost as slick as the original design. But that’s beside the point — at least for the moment.

Sony PSP. PlayStation Portable. Most of you know about this pretty slick portable gaming system, but for those of you who haven’t tried it yet, it’s one of the coolest gadgets I’ve tried in a while. It’s more than just a portable video game console.
It connects to your wireless network to provide you with Internet browsing (a little awkward, but it works).