All Blog Posts from Tech Talk

The announcement hit the tech world today like a ton of iPhones: Steve Jobs will not be appearing at MacWorld 2009 in early January and Apple is pulling out of future MacWorlds going forward. Everyone has an opinion on what this means and why it's happening. Theories range from the Apple company line (non-Apple trade shows are no longer necessary or relevant), to Jobs being unwilling to front a relatively newsless event, to a sign of the economic downturn, to a slow transition of power within the company to someone like Apple VP Phil Schiller, to (of course) the rumors about Jobs' health. Whatever the real reason(s) it's clearly a changing of the landscape. MacWorld has historically been THE place to witness Apple's big announcements and the most visible platform for its iconic CEO. It certainly leaves one scratching one's head. I'll try to post more thoughts on this tomorrow but in the meantime I'm curious to read people's comments.

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Massively multi-player online (MMO) games are increasingly popular these days. They all ask players to assume a new identity whether it's a sword-fighting warrior (e.g. "Warhammer Online") or simply an "alternate you" (e.g. "Second Life"). Among other companies, just this week game executives meeting in Japan announced that both Sony and Microsoft will get into the act by providing virtual worlds for owners of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. But a new game from designer Jane McGonigal seeks to be quite different. With "Superstruct" McGonigal wants players to imagine their actual self in the year 2019. It's all part of a larger project for the Institute of the Future that aims to see where we're all headed and how we can handle the challenges.

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Ingenious. That’s probably the best word to describe computer programmer John Breen. He’s the man behind Freerice.com, a new Web site with a unique, two-pronged approach to tackling literacy and world hunger. A lofty-sounding goal, I know. But Breen is determined to make it happen, one click at a time.

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Do you work at an e-mail-free Friday company? There’s an article in today’s USA Today that points out the growing trend. The idea being to encourage more phone calls or face-to-face meetings. I’m just as tethered to my inbox as the next person, but it seems to me productivity would drop dramatically. I could certainly see a decrease in stress, which would be welcome, but in the news business e-mail is necessary, and dropping it from the day’s communication tools would be detrimental to business. In an office environment with more internal networking, perhaps it might work better. But wouldn’t all those requisite social niceties really slow things down? Your thoughts? And now for a quick recap...

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Beginning today, I'm starting a video blog to introduce you to my travels through online virtual worlds like "World of Warcraft," "Lord of the Rings Online," "Eve Online" and others. I'm prepared to share my inner gamer during these regular segments, warts and all. I don't pretend to be an expert, but I will say I've spent many hours slaying orcs and their ilk in the digital domains of such games.

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Earlier this month I mentioned a story we were working on about people addicted to online games like "World of Warcraft," "Final Fantasy" or "EverQuest." Tonight you'll get a chance to see it as part of a three-part series called "Caught in the Web" during the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.

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