Browsing: James Francis

I have been learning a lot about death lately. Not in some tragic fashion, but as a hobby. Well, not really a hobby — that is something you take an active interest in. More like a book, only without any

This past week I did what was previously unthinkable – I bought an iPhone. It was no small journey to get to this point, but the past several months in particular have forced my hand. Android, once the operating system I adored, has turned into that colleague you are not sure you can trust anymore

Ah, the good old days. Those lovely summer afternoons where one could scoff at George Lucas and the merchandising monstrosity he turned Star Wars into. I might as well be blunt about this: much as I like the Star Wars films and

The fallout of the Ashley Madison breach continues. Extortion, even suicides, are being linked to the data dump, which revealed a lot of personal information about the site’s users. It’s an interesting case

Companies changing names is not usually worthy of front-page headlines. But when Google does it, the entire world sits up and takes notice. Of course, it didn’t really change its name. It simply added a new story to its skyscraper, only this one is at the ground

Dear Flash, I never thought this day would come. For many years I have been one of your most ardent supporters and unabashed suitors. Maybe it betrays my age a little, but we have walked a long road together. At first, when I met you, we didn’t

I love the cloud. To me it is a great solution to a problem that has been dogging computer users for decades: what to do with all the data? Raise your hand if you have lost a bunch of personal data because of a hard drive crash. Now keep it there if you can

Sent that e-mail you shouldn’t have? Good news! Gmail has introduced an “unsend” feature. For a 30-second window after sending that bad idea to the wrong person, you can “unfire” the gun. Somehow I don’t see this

No, this is not morphing into a sports column. In fact, I’m not much of a sports fan at all, lacking both the fervour of a fan and the attention span needed to keep up. Sign me up for a bout of mixed martial arts, which even at the champion level doesn’t last

I’m a security-conscious guy, user of antivirus software and sensible passwords. I still remember my first virus infection, something called Pong or Ping Pong. It spawned bouncing balls all over my CGA screen. For the longest time we thought it was