Brandon Dimmel

Discovering that the brand new laptop you've purchased has only a trial edition of Microsoft Word is a bummer. Discovering that Microsoft Works, the cookie-cutter full-version alternative, will feature advertisements in the future only compounds the ... frustration. Announced last Wednesday, Microsoft's new initiative to bombard poor Works users with ads will first run in a test program. There's no concrete date for the new and exciting Works SE 9, although Melissa Stern, a senior Microsoft product manager, says customers can expect to find it on new computers within the next few months. So, why ... (view more)

Just when it seemed like the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) goons had weeded out most avenues for the illegal downloading of music, a recent British survey has revealed that it's still fairly easy for a user to acquire black market ... tunes. The report, compiled by London, England based Entertainment Media Research (EMR), is a stinging slam against the current format of most legal downloading sites. EMR finds that, for a number of critical reasons, the CD platform is not being effectively eclipsed by legal digital music distribution. (Source: iafrica.com ) The main problem? Legal ... (view more)

The most powerful and in most cases rich people in the United States are becoming lavish targets for online phishers. Emails disguised as reports from the Better Business Bureau, Internal Revenue Service, and random look-a-like business partners are ... fooling corporate executives, and it's costing them big. We can't blame the boss entirely, however. This most recent phishing campaign is a well-designed one, perhaps because of its well-respected and lucrative intended audience. The emails, typically packed with malware, carry few of the red flags associated with most phishing outbreaks of this ... (view more)

Call it inevitable. As Facebook continues to take over the computer screens of bored cubicle dwellers and exhausted college students, the site has become the target of investigation at Oxford university in England. (Source: upi.com ) For those ... familiar with Facebook, it's entirely understandable that the site could be used for investigating one's activities, relationships, or general personality. Many of these details are listed on a user's page, under windows for events, groups, or simple banter between friends. Unfortunately, the administration at Oxford university, according to a few, have ... (view more)

Microsoft recently boasted that its Windows Vista operating system, software that has been called into question a thousand times over by our Bill Lindner , has crossed the 60 million sales plateau. Even more impressive may be future estimates by the ... company, who foresee more Windows PCs in the world than cars by the end of fiscal 2008. Such a bold, and to some degree irrelevant statement could only be made by CEO Steve Ballmer. He made the mind-blowing analysis very appropriately during a recent "analyst day" in Redmond. Microsoft has continued to parade a list of achievements for its ... (view more)

A few months ago, Microsoft's attempt to multiply its presence on the web was planned through an acquisition of competitor Yahoo. That never panned out, but in its wake now arises what could be an ever more effective plot: partnership with Digg. For ... those who are unaware of Digg, it's a news aggregator where actual users vote on the most "diggable" articles on the web. Any Internet writer, including yours truly, knows a story's clicks can explode if just a few hundred Digg users recommend it to their peers. Thus, for both web publishers and readers, Digg is an enormously influential resource ... (view more)

Here's a new and yet very odd tech threat: the particles emitted by your office printer. According to an Australian research team associated with the Queensland University of Technology, these tiny airborne particles, which waft outwards from laser ... printers, can cause health problems including: respiratory issues cardiovascular irritation various types of cancer Unfortunately, researchers remain uncertain exactly what chemicals within the particles directly affect the human body. However, they have some vital tips for ensuring the long-term health of workers who consistently use laser ... (view more)

According to Microsoft, the company has now leaped from 40 million sales of Windows Vista (reported a few months ago), to an even more impressive 60 million. For the record, that's a tally of 20 million units sold since mid-May, alone. Word of the ... jump came last Thursday, during Microsoft's annual meeting with financial analysts. The message was delivered by proud papa Kevin Turner, the company's COO. Turner's boasting is intended to steer the media away from reports that Vista is selling poorly, perhaps as a result of some stinging criticism. (Source: rcpmag.com ) It's also an important ... (view more)

It seems the practice of Internet "flaming", or aggressively attacking another in the digital world, has now quite literally burned a Texas man. According to reports, a Virgina resident was so disgusted with a representation of him as a "nerd" that ... he drove more than 1,300 miles to Waco, Texas (how appropriate) in order to burn down the trailer of the man responsible. The Internet side of this "flaming" episode dates to 2005, when haunted house owner and Texas resident John Anderson, 59, began posting artwork outlining his political views on a Facebook-esque picture-sharing site. Although it' ... (view more)

Drive drunk, and you'll lose your license, your job, or maybe even your life. However, it seems there's (quite unbelievably) more tolerance for getting behind the "wheel" of a billion dollar NASA rocket while under the influence. According to ... various reports released last week, astronauts were allowed by NASA to fly despite being considerably intoxicated. Although details are sketchy at best (no one seems to know when the incidents occurred, on what space craft, or who the astronauts were), it's another black eye for American space flight not long after the much-publicized attempted assault ... (view more)