Buzzblog

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In addition to my editing duties, I have written Buzzblog since January, 2006. Feel free to e-mail me at buzz@nww.com.

It’s now easier to check if that used smartphone you might buy is stolen

If you’re intent on buying a used phone – and don’t want to buy a hot one – you now have a new tool that will allow you to be reasonably confident that devide hasn’t been reported stolen.

IT work gets The Onion treatment

Is it possible that a writer at The Onion has previously toiled as a network engineer … or systems administrator?

‘Found a leaky ethernet port’

As a regular reader of Reddit’s section devoted to system administration, I have come to understand that subject lines such as “Found a leaky ethernet port” do no always mean what one might assume they mean.

Majority of U.S. households now cellphone-only, government says

For the first time in history, U.S. households with landlines – such as mine -- are now in the minority, according to survey numbers from a federal government report released this morning.

Amazon bestows free Prime memberships on townspeople who need them not at all

Free is free and it’s probable that even the well-to-do of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass., would rather have a free year’s worth of Amazon Prime – retail: $99 per year – than not have a year’s worth of free Amazon Prime.

Apple fanboys cited as Merriam-Webster herds ‘sheeple’ into dictionary

“Wake up!” the good folks a Merriam-Webster just tweeted. “Sheeple is in the dictionary now.”

Would Verizon really publish my unlisted landline number?

If I cancel Verizon's extortionary $5.25-a-month privacy-protection "service," will the carrier really punish me by publishing my landline number – unlisted now for 10 years – against my will and even if I first ask politely that they...

MIT selling 8 million coveted IPv4 addresses; Amazon a buyer

MIT is selling half of its 16 million valuable IPv4 addresses – an increasingly scarce stash it has held since the birth of the Internet. While details of the sale have not been made public, at least some of those addresses have...

Twitter’s porn problem is ‘trending’

News that former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez reportedly had committed suicide sent the murderer’s name to the top of Twitter’s “trending” list. Porn purveyors followed.

It’s ‘It,’ as in the movie, not IT, as in ‘eye-tee’

“I keep seeing posts and advertisements for the movie IT. Every time, I think of it as I-T and have to reread it. … Is it just me?” ... No, it's not.

‘Find My iPhone’ foils pickpocket who swiped 100 devices: police

You might think that a pickpocket skilled enough to steal 100 cellphones, pictured above, would also be savvy enough to know that at least the iPhones in that haul carry a means to foil his caper.

Cyber-sleuth boots 15 cheaters from today’s Boston Marathon

Here in Hopkinton, Mass., this morning, 15 fewer runners – cheaters, actually -- are gathering for the start of the Boston Marathon than would have otherwise, thanks to the cyber-sleuthing efforts of an Ohio business analyst.

Online privacy meets abortion debate

The attorney general of Massachusetts has taken the abstraction of online privacy and brought it into crystal clear focus by barring a Boston advertising agency from targeting anti-abortion ads at the cellphones of women the moment...

Star pitcher willing to join IT team

It’s a standard line of inquiry by sportswriters that until now has always generated answers straight out of the Crash Davis school of interview banalities.

White House to issue commemorative solar eclipse safety glasses

The White House announced Friday that come this summer it will be issuing commemorative safety glasses in anticipation of the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse.

Tech giants join effort to save legal services for the poor from Trump budget ax

The biggest names in technology are urging Congress to ignore a line item in the president's proposed budget that would entirely defund the Legal Services Corporation, a non-profit that provides civil legal assistance to the poor.

Americans value online privacy but voters do not care when it counts

Ninety percent of Americans tell pollsters they believe online privacy protections are important, but far fewer act upon that belief when they go to the polls.