Brandon Dimmel

The days of Tickle Me Elmo might be long over, but the holiday rush for that must-have toy remains an annual phenomenon. In fact, for the last two Decembers one device has been at the top of most kids' (and heck, parents') Christmas list: the ... Nintendo Wii. Now, it seems at least one retailer is taking serious advantage of that demand. In a recent investigation, Ars Technica revealed retail outlet Slackers' 'scalping' of Nintendo's cute little console. According to employees, the owner of the store took his orders of the Wii -- so desperately sought this Christmas -- and placed them on eBay ... (view more)

There are some conflicting reports this Christmas on which high definition movie format is best to put your buck behind. After Toshiba's HD-DVD dominated most of 2006, 2007 has belonged to Sony's Blu-ray, which efficiently locked up most movie ... studios. Unfortunately for Sony, at least one major studio switch has changed the momentum heading into 2008. Back in the spring of this year, it looked fairly certain that Blu-ray was going to bump HD-DVD off the road en route to a stunning next-gen victory. With its hardware tucked under the hood of every Sony PlayStation 3 and Blockbuster announcing ... (view more)

Think you're safe using a cell phone behind the wheel? Maybe; clearly there are enough people out there employing such tactics that at least a few have become experts at balancing rush hour traffic and plans for dinner and/or a movie. Unfortunately ... for British drivers, not even especially refined multitasking skills will save them from a hefty fine and even jail time, if caught. According to reports from across the pond, drivers caught talking on a cell phone could face both 24 months in prison and a fine as steep as five thousand pounds. That's over $10,000 American dollars, more than what ... (view more)

I remember one Christmas in grade seven. I completely ruined any surprise my parents may have planned that year by sneaking into their closet and unwrapping all of my gifts before carefully replacing the tape and shelving them just as they had first ... appeared. Had my parents known, they would have been ticked. It looks as if Apple doesn't like it when people ruin their surprises, either. Last week the popular iPod and iPhone maker completed a string of lawsuits meant to close down ThinkSecret.com, a site run by Harvard senior Nicholas M Ciarelli. As you might infer from my anecdote and the ... (view more)

Think just because a company can throw around a big 'ol brand name it means their web business is always protected by an iron curtain? Think again. According to reports from Reuters, advertisements placed by Google on a number of web pages have been ... hijacked by Trojan software. Reuters' source on this one is Romanian antivirus group BitDefender, who allege that Google's ads are being steered by text from a much different provider. What that means is that a specific program is directing queries for Google to a tertiary rogue server, which replaces the big G's ads with marketing from a third ... (view more)

The Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) aren't the only bloodhounds sniffing out piracy on the continent. A major Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) raid recently led to the ... confiscation of thousands of DVDs, plus the arrest of eight Montreal residents. According to reports from CTV, police in the Quebec city were able to seize thousands of DVDs and about 200 'burners' in a pair of raids now being referred to collectively as "Operation Copyright". Although the piracy ring's headquarters were firmly entrenched in jazz and ... (view more)

Scared about holiday spam and spyware messages? Although it's some ways off, Symantec is now just a few weeks away from shipping a test edition of its next significant update to the Norton 360 security/backup formula. The finished product is ... expected to wrap up early this spring, shipping by the time March wraps up. So, what's under the hood of this new Norton 360 (for now dubbed 'version 2.0)? Preventative measures against Internet hackers and identity thieves A "Smart Firewall" that reportedly uses behavior-based methods to weed out incoming threats New software that can be used to back up ... (view more)

Updates are supposed to help us, aren't they? Not always. In this case, a recent security update from Microsoft has completely blocked a number of users from accessing the web with the company's own browser, Internet Explorer. For those who are ... reading this in Explorer after downloading update MS07-069, consider yourselves lucky. The bulletin was released December 11th, and since that time users have been flooding Microsoft's support forums with complaints that they can no longer regularly connect to the Internet. In some cases, the browser shuts down about 50-60% of the time, displaying an ... (view more)

Now that Facebook has secured Microsoft with a lucrative advertising agreement, there's reason to believe the social networking site is ready to do some serious business. One pesky Canadian company hoping to hack the page recently found out just how ... serious that business really is. According to reports, Facebook recently filed a lawsuit against a Canadian company that attempted to hack Facebook's servers. Given the content of the company's page -- it displays explicit adult images -- there's reason to believe the Canadians hoped to splash the social site with a plethora of nudies. It's a case ... (view more)

Not so long ago they invested heavily in social networking magnet Facebook for the advertising payoff. Now, Microsoft has turned its attention to CNBC.com, nabbing rights to display contextual ads in the United States for the immensely popular news ... site. Although exact details of the deal are not available at this time, Microsoft and CNBC are acknowledging that the Redmond-based software giant will take over most of the banner and text advertisements for the page. Jon Tinter, general manager of Microsoft's strategy and business development, is in fact comparing the deal to Microsoft's ... (view more)