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By Paul McNamara

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Another pair of deadline-extending dodges: 07/02/09; An item here last week about the Web site Corrupted-Files.com had one reader reaching deep into the memory bank for similar tale that also deserves sharing.
How headline writers create news: 06/18/09; You have to hand it to the tabloid headline writers at the New York Post: They know nothing if not how to turn the tiniest spark into a five-alarm conflagration.
Reading the fine print … so you don't have to: 06/11/09; Next time a major Web site such as Facebook, Google or eBay changes their seldom-read terms of service, a new project from the Electronic Frontier Foundation will be there to chronicle the alterations and highlight them for all to see.
5 'marketing opportunities' hospitals are missing: 05/29/09; Doctors Twittering from the operating room is yesterday's news. "Brain Surgery Cam"? Now that one got my attention while reading the May 24 edition of The New York Times.
Google ran out of bandwidth? … Google?: 05/14/09; For a while there a few days ago it sure seemed to some as though the Google Chrome browser development team had proven again that no matter how much bandwidth is made available, someone, somewhere, for some reason, is going to need or want more.
Meet Francis, a failed phishe: 05/07/09; The subject line alone was enough to unmask this criminal mastermind: "This message it is confidential." This message it is really not from the IRS.
Street View-style voyeurism stretches skyward: 04/30/09; Arrive at the Gigapixel Photography Web site and you'll see a gorgeous photo of a dozen condominium towers stretched across the Vancouver skyline, yachts docked in the foreground, dusk bathing the scene in a rich blue hue.
Politicians need their own slice of the 'Net: 04/23/09; On the surface, Washington attorney Matt Sanderson would appear to be pitching a tough sell: special protection online for politicians and would-be politicians. However, because the villains here are predatory criminals and cybersquatters, it should be easy enough for all but the anarchists to see that he has point.
Fact-checking the fact-checkers: 04/16/09; What's your first thought when someone spreads an e-mail around the office claiming that Oprah is giving away a million bucks or that your penny-pinching state will no longer send out reminders about driver's license renewals?
Workplace surfing hounds have a new hero: 04/09/09; Surfing the Internet for fun while at work actually increases employee productivity, insists Dr. Brent Coker, a researcher at the University of Melbourne's Department of Management and Shirking.
The FCC teaches me a lesson: Don't complain: 04/02/09; Six months ago I filed a complaint online with the FCC about mistreatment suffered by my family at the hands of a run-amok Verizon robo-call system. I recently received a response from the agency via snail-mail … which given that a half-year had elapsed since my complaint, could conceivably have been delivered by an actual snail.
Tweeting with a celebrity 'sparks kitchen fire': 03/23/09; It was only a matter of time before this Twitter madness leapt from merely hypnotizing the masses and bastardizing the language to causing real-world mayhem for those (like me) caught in its seductive clutches.
Google's new 'Tip Jar' offers small change: 03/12/09; The notion is to harness that ballyhooed wisdom of the Internet crowds in order to help us all save money in our everyday lives.
Keeping the government's prying eyes at bay: 03/09/09; The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) last week took the wraps off a new Web site that is designed to help you keep the government from taking the wraps off your personal communications and stored data.
40% of geeks surveyed really work … how little?: 02/26/09; I had been meaning to write about this Slashdot poll, but other work kept getting in the way. As you'll see from the survey results, not everyone can claim that excuse … at least not with a straight face:
Social networks all over the map on reliability: 02/23/09; That Twitter had more downtime last year (84 hours) than any of 15 social network sites measured by an uptime monitoring service should surprise no one: The site's "fail whale" is so famous it was just featured in the New York Times.
Girl's 22,795 messages nothing to celebrate: 02/16/09; This story about a 12-year-old Indiana girl is quickly becoming a cliché … and not a flattering one in terms of what it says about our society. This girl, you see, is one of those texting prodigies -- a Mozart who's all thumbs; the type our always-on culture has not only come to produce but to celebrate.
Google execs on trial in Italy over a video: 02/09/09; Read that headline again because it boggles the mind (mine, at least): Italian prosecutors have placed four Google executives on criminal trial over their roles -- which were non-existent -- in the posting of a video that depicted the taunting of a disabled child.
College student wins free-speech spat, but . . .: 01/29/09; News arrived this week via the Electronic Frontier Foundation that Michigan State University had dropped disciplinary action against a student who had been accused of spamming and network abuse because she sent e-mail about a controversial campus matter to 391 faculty members.
Trojan takes 'Office Space' approach to stealing: 01/22/09; Russian security vendor Kaspersky Lab last week began sounding the alarm about an overseas mobile-phone scam that smacks of the movie "Office Space" and may portend future dangers for global users.
Twitter limits searches on site … why?: 01/16/09; Two Twitter questions have been nagging at me: Why on Earth would Twitter limit the number of searches a user may conduct -- a typical, relatively new user, such as me, not some piggy third-party app or bot?
2009's 25 geekiest 25th anniversaries: 01/09/09; The year 1984 provided a boatload of technological achievement and geeky infamy. The media will revisit them one by one over the next 12 months, but here they are today, neatly alphabetized.
Readers get their turn to opine: 12/18/08; It's been a long time since we've done this, so let's take a moment to lighten the mail sack, which this time of year does double duty, what with Christmas around the corner.
Forget about getting a Kindle for Christmas: 12/04/08; Forget about getting a Kindle for Christmas, unless your special gift giver happens to be an early shopper -- a very early shopper.
Taking aim at popcorn-popping viral marketers: 11/25/08; The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus said in a press release: "Advertising claims made in the context of viral videos produced to build interest in a product are subject to the same standards of truth and accuracy as advertisements published in traditional media."