Mickey Rooney has died

News if breaking late this evening that Mickey Rooney (website, wiki, biography) has passed away at the age of 93. Despite the fact that he predates me, I learned about him and his career through, of all things, an impression on Saturday Night Live. Dana Carvey spoofed the Hollywood legend, and for years we'd joke about being "the biggest star in the world, you hear me?"

Okay, you sort of had to be there. But the fact that a star from yesteryear could live on through a lovingly crafted impression was, at the time, somewhat poignant. We should all be so lucky to be remembered so well.

#TechSeven - The Windows XP edition

I was back on-air this past Friday for our regular tech segment with CJAD 800 Radio in Montreal. Anne Lagace Dowson was sitting in for Barry Morgan, and we had a great chat about obsolete hardware and why it really isn't worth it to keep old tech hanging around much past its best before date. Listeners also called and texted in some great questions, and a good time was had by all.

In case you missed it, here's what we covered:

ONE - Windows XP dies on April 8. Why should you care?

Microsoft's Windows XP operating system for personal computers was first introduced way back in 2001. In technology terms, it's ancient. It's might "just work" for a lot of people - shockingly, almost 30% of Canadian PCs are still running it - but the world has changed significantly since 2001, and keeping it going is like trying to drive a horse-drawn carriage on the 401. Not smart, as you're just asking for something bad to happen.

So Microsoft is finally pulling the plug this coming Tuesday (April 8) when it will release its final security update and stop providing dial-in and online support. While Microsoft will provide anti-malware updates until April 2015, if you continue to use XP after next Tuesday, you'll be at increased risk of being hacked.

If you think that's not a major deal, think again. Hacked machines can be used as launching pads to attack other machines. If your machine is compromised, hackers will use it to go after other machines on your network, as well as friends and family from your contact list. You don't want to be the one who ruins it for everyone else, the one who gets a panicked call from your favourite uncle asking why you sent him an email that linked to a malware-infested porn site (this happened to a good friend of mine. Mortifying.)

So what do you do? Well, if it's an old machine, don't even bother buying an upgrade to the operating system (likely Windows 7 or Windows 8), as the hardware in all likelihood won't be strong enough to handle it. For most users, this could be the straw that breaks the camel's back and forces them to finally buy a new PC. The good news: PCs are a lot cheaper now than they were in 2001.

If you're not sure what you're running, hit up www.amirunningxp.com and it'll tell you whether or not you're running the soon-to-be-obsolete operating system.

TWO - But Microsoft is hoping you'll download their new Windows 8.1 Update 1...

Got a relatively recent desktop or laptop PC running Windows 8? You're in luck: the company, as part of its big Build conference for developers in San Francisco this week, announced an update: Windows 8.1 Update 1, that fixes a lot of the little things Windows users have been complaining about. The tile-based desktop is now much more customizable and easier to use, with buttons for settings located in easier-to-find places.

Will it fix the whole PC-is-dying trend? Not on its own, but it's a free update, so grab it as soon as your PC lets you. And if you're still running XP, this gives you another reason to buy a new machine altogether.

Oh, and to steal a Steve Jobs-ism, one more thing: The Start Menu will return later this year. Long a staple of Windows desktops since Windows 95, its removal when Windows 8 bowed in 2012 has been hotly debated by users ever since. Their complaints have been heard.

THREE - ... and try their new Siri-killer

Microsoft also demonstrated an update to its mobile operating system - Windows Phone 8.1 - that includes something called "Cortana". It's Microsoft's answer to the Siri voice-activated personal assistant. Talk to her (it, whatever) or ask her any question and, like Apple's Siri, she'll reach back into her Bing-powered bag of tricks and give you an answer.

On the surface, it's a better Siri - better integrated into your other apps and activities, so it can be more proactive and predictive in how it works. For example, if you're running late for a meeting, it'll suggest sending invitation change notices to invitees, then suggest an alternative map/routing so you can get there faster. It doesn't just answer questions, it thinks ahead, and actively initiates and completes complex, personalized, localized activities.

All good, but Siri's been around for 2-and-a-half years, and unless you're a geek who compares Siri, Google Now and Cortana with a feature-for-feature spreadsheet, most users don't care.

The glaring hole in Microsoft's mobile strategy - that it doesn't have a lot of apps available for it and developers aren't exactly breaking down the doors to leave Apple and Google - remains. It's why Windows Phone continues to have 3.6 per cent global market share, and why people line up for iPhones and Galaxy S5s and not Nokia Lumias.

FOUR - Can you trust the government with your data? Um, no

Bad news on the security front: the federal government is reporting a shocking number of data breaches. A report to Parliament confirms the number of data breaches has skyrocketed - in the last 10 months along, more of them have been reported than in the past 10 years.

According to an IT World Canada summary:

"During the period between April 1, 2013 and January 29, 2014, federal departments and agencies reported no less than 3,763 data breaches including incidents where taxpayers’ information were lost, compromised or mistakenly released, according to a report by the Privacy Commissioner’s Office. That figure is slightly higher than the 3,000 data breaches reported by the government in the last 10 years."

In fairness, during this period, the Canada Revenue Agency began reporting data breaches for the first time. Unfortunately, the Department of National Defence (DND) refused to release security breach data to Parliament, claiming that to do so would be a threat to national security.

So can you trust the government with your data? No. Can you do anything about it? Strangely, yes. Some tips:

• When submitting anything to government, back it up and store it locally before sharing it.
• Use unique, secure passwords when accessing government sites.
• Check the URL carefully to ensure it's a legitimate site.
• Look for https-prefixed addresses as well as the lock icon whenever accessing a government site.
• Only use government-built or sanctioned apps to access online services.

FIVE - Did the U.S. government create a "fake Twitter" to stir Cuban dissent?

An investigation by the Associated Press suggests a U.S. government agency that's part of the U.S. Department of State created a text-message social network - called "ZunZuneo", and also known as a "Cuban Twitter". The network ran between 2009 and 2012, and had 40,000 subscribers before the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) ran out of funding for the project.

Cuba's communist government tightly controls citizens' access to telecommunication services, including the Internet, and all media within the island nation is state-controlled. An underground Twitter-like network would, in theory, give dissenters an opportunity to learn more from the outside and communicate with each other, all outside the close watch of the central government.

What does this have to do with us? Lots. Turns out most users in Cuba had no idea it was funded by the U.S. government. Shell companies were set up in Spain and the Cayman Islands, and servers were set up to look like traffic was being routed outside the U.S. USAID created a website and paid for fake web ads to make it all look legit.

So if you're ever wondering who's behind that app you just downloaded, you may want to dig a little deeper to ensure it isn't some covert government agency.

SIX - Tesla cars can apparently be hacked

Tesla electric cars are revolutionary in many ways. Aside from being the first electric vehicle that can easily outperform most internal combustion-powered cars, its Model S is also a rolling tribute to technology. There's only one button inside - for the hazard lights, and only because government rules require it. Everything else is electronic, and the central console is dominated by a massive screen the size of two full-sized iPads stacked one on top of the other.

Tesla regularly sends software updates wirelessly and remotely to its vehicles to introduce new features and fix bugs. Now, hackers can do the same thing. Researchers have uncovered a number of vulnerabilities in the car's architecture that could allow hackers to find the car, then unlock it, They still won't be able to drive it, but simply being able to geolocate the car, then open it up and steal whatever's inside - without actually having to break in - is creepy enough.

Since cars are often repositories of personal data - synced data from your smartphone, passwords to home security systems, etc. - this could also be a new way to launch identity theft attacks or other crimes.

Earlier, hackers demonstrated a way to remotely take over a Smart Car's steering, brakes, windows and headlights, and as cars in general become more heavily loaded with electronics, the risk - and the appeal to criminals - will only grow.

I'll be back on-air next Friday at 2:00 p.m. Eastern. Point your browser to player.cjad.com if you'd like to tune in.

Musings on a wounded giant

Long way from the garage
Shanghai, China
May 2012
For more Thematic logos, please click here

You don't hear all that much about HP these days. The company also known as Hewlett-Packard is one of Silicon Valley's true innovators, the one that first institutionalized the kind of engineering-driven culture that made technology an everyday part of ordinary people's lives. Yet in recent years, as the market has shifted from traditional PCs to mobile devices, HP has stumbled.

In fairness, the company is hardly alone. Many of its generational equivalents have similarly failed to adapt to the new world order, and have also had to wrestle with tumbling market share, red ink and one tortuous corporate reorg after another. But HP isn't just any company. And my own history with them - lots of coverage as an analyst, and lots of memorable moments along the way - makes me just a little sadder whenever I see a troubling headline.

Because in the end it isn't just a company or a logo. It's people. And this is a company filled with truly good people. And their impact lingers long after the logo itself fades from view.

Time with our Starbucks girl

A brief moment in time
London, ON
March 2014
For more Thematic logos, head here

I'm somewhat ambivalent on the whole Starbucks thing. Point blank, I think their pricing is ridiculous, as is the overall level of pretension they bring to what was once a simple cup of coffee. I've got to give them credit, though, for building a premium brand around something so basic, and for convincing legions of fans around the world to pay for the privilege of being in their not-so-exclusive club.

Yet here I am, munching on a lemon poppy loaf, and drinking tea with our daughter and my out-of-frame wife (she's just off to the left. Say hi.) What gives?

Well, first of all, the little lady loves Starbucks. So on those fleeting opportunities when we get to put life on pause and spend some quiet time together, this is a great place to do just that. She likes it here, and if she likes it, then we like it, too. Second, there's something to be said for the way these places have become modern meeting places of sorts. Old villages had their town halls, squares and cafes, and the modern urban landscape has Starbucks and Tim Hortons.

The cynics among us might call it cookie-cutter and over-marketed, and to a certain extent they might be right. But if it gets me a quiet few minutes with my two favorite ladies, then I think it's safe to leave the existential discussions for another day. For now, there's togetherness to be had.

Your turn: Your favorite drink...and...go!

David Letterman announces his retirement

Another television era is drawing to a close following David Letterman's announcement (video) that he'll be retiring from his long-running show, The Late Show, next year.

I date myself when I recall growing up with his show. He was always a younger, hipper, funnier alternative to the more staid, predictable Johnny Carson. Part of it was the fact that his pre-CBS show, Late Night, was on at 12:35 a.m. and as a result could go places where the more mainstream audience watching at 11:30 p.m. simply wouldn't tolerate. Carson's Tonight Show was pablum for my parents, while Letterman was pushing the bounds of what you could and could not do on network television.

In a pre-Internet existence, features like Viewer Mail and Stupid Pet Tricks - and Stupid Human Tricks - gave us a first taste of viewer participation in the big TV machine. It was a huge deal when a high school friend of ours actually got one of his letters read on-air.

Time does no one any favors in television, and Letterman has since evolved into the softened, comfortable late night presence that Carson once was. I'm oversimplifying, of course, but the sad truth for the Lettermans of the world is they won't be the voice of tomorrow forever. And to his credit, Mr. Letterman has decided to call it a day and move on.

Somewhat sadly, today's late night landscape just isn't as resonant as it once was. However the world of television has evolved over the course of his career, and regardless of the fact that the planet seemingly jolted a little - okay, a lot - less than when Carson et al left their gigs, there's no denying how fundamentally he changed the genre. And how much he'll be missed.

You don't have to work in TV to appreciate who he was and is.

The Good Year Blimp flies again

Full of hot air. Er, helium.
Deerfield Beach, FL
December 2011
Thematic. Logos. Here.

You don't see these every day, especially considering the fact that we live in a place that is home to neither a blimp hangar, nor a NASCAR track, nor an NFL team. But when vacation took us relatively close to a place that has all of these things - AND septuagenarians in jacked-up Cadillacs - we could hardly go a day without seeing one of these behemoths in the skies nearby.

Since I'm something of an airhead, my ears soon became attuned to the unique sound of the Good Year blimp (home page, wiki) buzzing the neighbourhood. It's hard to describe the sound - ride-on mower meets Paris Hilton, perhaps? - but it's just different enough from anything else that you know it when you hear it.

So if the windows were open just so and I was otherwise not listening to uber-loud punk rock music to drown out the near-violent canasta-playing couple next door, I usually had just enough time to grab a camera and run for the door as I muttered "blimp", repeatedly and breathlessly. Sometimes the kids would follow along and we'd have a good old helium-fuelled Pied Piper-esque adventure out in the parking lot. Good times.

This time out, I think the pilot had his throttle mashed as far as it could go - Blimp Top Gun, anyone? - as the blimp was almost gone by the time we got outside. But I managed to add a few megabytes of data to the memory card, and the kids were happy. Picture or no picture, if it's a moment they'll remember, then it was worth the breathless run outside.

Your turn: Do you ever "chase" a subject in this way?

One more thing: Good Year has unveiled an all-new blimp design that's bigger, faster, more maneuverable and altogether badder and cooler than its existing models. Ironically, it's not even, technically, a blimp anymore, because unlike the current vehicles, whose big gas bag is just a big gas bag, the new ones are supported by an internal structure - kind of like the zeppelins of old. But for marketing purposes they will continue to call the now-semi-rigid vehicle a blimp. Because Good Year Zeppelin just doesn't roll off the tongue as nicely as Good Year Blimp. And let's face it, "blimp" is one of the funnier words in the English language.

For more on the new Good Year Blimp, check this out. Also take a look at this time lapse video of how they build the thing. Neat.

On redefining success

"There is only one success: To be able to spend your life in your own way."
Christopher Morley

This reminds me that we spend entirely too much time worrying about what others think of us. Perhaps it's time to turn things around a little.

Gmail turns 10. Privacy sighs.

Ten years ago today, Google launched its web-based Google Mail - or Gmail - service. At the time, only a few lucky souls were eligible to use the limited-access beta, and for a while, invitations to the service were coveted - some folks even tried to auction them off on eBay.

Gmail wasn't the first web-based email service, but it was, and in many ways still is, the best one out there. Before Gmail came along, most services, like Hotmail, offered a comparatively tiny amount of online storage. You had to constantly delete messages because if you hit your 2 megabyte storage limit, you'd stop receiving messages altogether (so much for off-the-grid vacations.)

Gmail, with its then-revolutionary one gigabyte of online storage (500 times as much as Hotmail), changed all that. You didn't have to delete a message if you didn't want to - which made it easy to use your inbox as a searchable extension of your brain.

It was also much slicker than traditional webmail, as it used innovative online programming techniques to make it look and feel like a regular piece of software and not a static web page. It was an early example of the so-called "Web 2.0", and it opened the door to a wave of rich, dynamic web services. When you hear about "the cloud", Gmail was arguably the first truly successful example of it.

Since then, it's only gotten better. Storage is now up to 25Gb (and still free). You can pay for even more if you like, and many companies now use it as their corporate messaging service. It integrates into a wide range of Google services - Calendar, Contacts, even Maps - and it easily works on any smartphone, tablet or PC. Just sign in and start working. We never again have to worry about losing all our mail because our hard drive crashed.

The downside? Privacy. "Free" online services aren't really free. Providers like Google use software to monitor our activities, then serve up ads that reflect our interests. That's what pays for all those great services and storage. It's all outlined in the terms-of-use agreements that we never bother to read. That data - our data, the stuff we generate in everyday use of these services - is gold to advertisers, and has become the new online currency. The more we rely on these services, the more we're letting companies and strangers learn about our private lives.

Is it worth it? The verdict is still out. But with 500 million of us now using Gmail, I'm guessing most of us are willing to trade privacy for convenience. Welcome to the new age.

Your turn: Is the privacy trade-off worth it?

Thematic Photographic 288 - Logos

Take a bite
London, ON
June 2012

I was reading an article on corporate logos recently that tried to get to the bottom of how this strange subset of marketing works. How is it that a simple icon of an apple, for example, seemingly works while something else might not? How can you even measure whether a logo accomplishes its stated goal?

I don't have an answer, but given my combined photographic and geeky roots, I'm hoping you can help me explore the logo space a little bit over the next week.

Your turn: Take a picture of a logo - any logo, big, small, global, local, whatever grabs your eye - and share it on your blog of website. Leave a comment here letting folks know where to find it. Visit other participants and feel free to pull in others, as well, because a busy Thematic is more fun than a quiet one. Head here for more background on how this works. And please accept our thanks - it's all about your vision, after all.

Beachy sunrise porn

Start the day right
Pompano Beach, FL
December 2011
Click photo to embiggen

I couldn't resist one last quick shot from the beach to celebrate this week's liquidity theme (new one, logos, launches at 7:00 p.m.) And I can't guarantee that the next time I head back to the end of the planet I won't do exactly the same thing.

With enough memory and battery, I could sit in the same spot and shoot the skies indefinitely.

Some things just never get old.

On taking the leap

"You can't be that kid at the top of the water slide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute."
Tina Fey

For reasons I can't even come close to explaining, this quotation somehow reminds me of the Steve Carell movie, The Way Way Back.

Okay, perhaps it's because the movie revolves around a teenaged boy's summertime experiences at a water park in a seaside vacation community. And the the fact that the movie manages to artfully paint a picture of the worst examples of mean-spirited human behavior coupled with some of the most heartwarming examples of selflessness.

The film disappeared quickly from theatres - summertime audiences like their movies with big explosions and no plot - but it's one of those gems that manages to stick in your mind if you take the time to find it.

Either way, I'm going to heed Ms. Fey's wise advice. And I might just watch the movie again. Because water parks sorta rule.

Your turn: A movie that sticks in your mind long after you've watched it. Please discuss.

This is what you miss when you're asleep

First light
Pompano Beach, FL
December 2011
Thematic. Liquidity. Here.

I have this strange need to stand on beaches and watch the water. Or maybe it's more like feel the water. And the wind. And the delightfully strange smells of the place. Salt in my nose, sand in between my toes, and the relentless white noise from the surf. On the one hand it's sensory overload. On the other hand I can never get enough of it.

I woke up early on this vacation morning. In a moment that now seems like it was a lifetime ago - because in so many ways it was - my wife and I were alone in a beachfront hotel. Our in-laws were looking after the kids, and as much as I probably should have simply slept in, I felt this relentless pull to pick up my camera inside our darkened room and wander out to the similarly darkened beach. How often, after all, did I get to watch a sunrise? How often would I be here to simply drink it in?

Not often enough. So out I went. And despite an ominously grey/blue haze of barely-lit overcast, I sat, alone, on the beach, hoping against hope that somehow the skies would open up just enough to make my pre-dawn wakeup worthwhile.

As you can see, Mother Nature eventually cooperated. And I learned to take advantage of the moment, because you don't know how many you might get.

Your turn: Are you an early riser? What does it take to get you out of bed before dawn?

On wasting the time we've been given

"We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other, but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing."
Charles Bukowski

In three curt sentences, Mr. Bukowski neatly summarizes the rampant ridiculousness that surrounds so many of us. If only more of us had the ability to simply let go, and be. If only.

(Hat tip to Dan Brown for posting this to Facebook. If you're not yet following him, you should.)

On creating...anything

"You should bring something into the world that wasn't in the world before.
It doesn't matter what that is.
It doesn't matter if it's a table, or a film or gardening - everyone should create.
You should do something, then sit back and say, 'I did that.'"
Ricky Gervais

So...now that you've had a chance to absorb Mr. Gervais's wisdom, what are you going to create?

Thematic Photographic 287 - Liquidity

Quenched
Toronto, ON
March 2014

I forgot how much fun it can be to shoot pictures in a supermarket. If you work fast, you can usually avoid stares from employees and fellow shoppers - and the dreaded PA call for security. I snagged this watery scene as we were just about loaded up at the checkout. One of the cashiers nearby saw what I was up to, but I think she was too weirded out to bust me.

I was tempted to ask her why bottled water often seems to come in blue-tinted bottles. Is it a purity-image thing? Does it take ordinary tap water and make it seem like it was captured from a cold mountain stream? Does it fool anyone?

But I quickly thought otherwise, because the PA button probably wasn't too far away, and decided a quiet exit was the advisable path.

Your turn: Thematic's theme for the week is "liquidity". If it's liquid, or it even suggests something liquid-like, shoot it, post it, and leave a comment here letting folks know where to find it. For more info, head here. As Thematic's been a little quiet lately, feel free to ask a friend to join in, or post a note and a link (here) on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter (Hashtag: #ThematicPhotographic.) Because this thing gets more fun when more folks participate.

I can't wait to see what y'all come up with for this one. It should be fun.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has crashed

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has confirmed at a press conference that the missing Boeing 777 has crashed in the South Indian Ocean, and that there are no survivors.

The airline sent this text to family members:

“Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived"

Somehow, we all knew this. But still. Sad.

Related links:

• Written Inc blog entry: Lost in the sky
• TheWire.com: Timeline
• Wiki entry, MH370
• New York Times: The folly of thinking we know
• New York Times: A routine flight, till both routine and flight vanish
• The Telegraph: March 17th, as it happened
• CNN: How 'groundbreaking' number crunching found path of Flight 370
• Mashable: Malaysia Airlines Search Area Is the Worst Place on Earth to Lose a Plane
• Mashable: The Internet's Search for MH370, Visualized

Scraping the sky

Big stick
London, ON
September 2013
For more Thematic technological, head here

This is the aerial that towers over CTV London's studios. It stands 1,030 feet (310m) high, and is the third tallest such structure in the country.

The irony of television in 2014 is that fewer and fewer people get their signal from this immensely impressive structure. Instead, they're subscribing to it via cable or satellite, or they're getting it online - either streamed or downloaded.

Still, enough people continue to capture over-the-air signals to justify the aerial's continued operation. That and our national regulator, the CRTC, has made it a requirement of pretty much every broadcaster's license. So every time I drive to the station - increasingly often given my fast-evolving career - it's a friendly beacon as I carefully wheel my way across town. I especially like when it's early morning, because the flashing lights make it even more surreal than it already is.

Sometimes when I'm finished an interview and head back to the parking lot to fetch my car, I'll stand and look up for a minute. As much as it makes me a little light-headed to even look that high, it's an immensely grounding experience to pause for a bit and listen to the wind in the structure. I quietly think about what I've just done inside, and what I'd like to do next.

This big old tower may no longer be the only way we communicate, but over half a century after it first went live, it remains a resonant part of the landscape.

On photography's power

"Taking pictures is savouring life intensely, every hundredth of a second."
Marc Riboud

Now I know why I spend so much of my life peering through a viewfinder. Wise man.

#TechSeven - Say goodbye to aircraft black boxes

I was back on the air on Friday with CJAD Montreal's Barry Morgan. During our weekly tech talk. we run down the latest happenings in this rather exciting space, and when we're done I like to summarize what we spoke about in a #TechSeven post on my blog. Why #TechSeven? Because every week has seven days, and I try to stuff as much good stuff into them as I can.

If you're around a radio - or a browser: player.cjad.com - tune in at 2 p.m. next Friday for our next segment. Until then, here's what we spoke about today. Enjoy!

ONE - Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 - You can help

As the agonizing search for clues in the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 continues, technology is offering up a way for ordinary people like you and me to help out. It's called crowdsourcing, and it involves regular folks around the world scouring digital satellite images and sharing their findings with researchers. It operates on the theory that the more eyes on something, the more likely we are to find something, anything. And having millions of Internet users around the world helping with the search certainly can't hurt.

3 million people have already joined up. If you want to get involved, point your browser toward DigitalGlobe's Tomnod.com and start searching.

TWO - Are black boxes obsolete?

In related news, as crews race time to find the black boxes that could unravel the clues to this mystery, debate is growing over whether black boxes should be replaced altogether. The current challenge is the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder aboard MH370 will stop sending out pings in about two weeks when their batteries give out.

That will make it significantly more difficult for searchers to find the critical devices, and it's raising the issue again of why we don't simply live-stream data from planes while they're still in flight. That way we'd know what happened without worrying about needing to scoop the black boxes off of the bottom of the ocean.

Turns out there is a solution, and Canadian companies are leading the charge. Bombardier is including an in-flight data transmission system (known as FDM, or flight data management) in its upcoming C-Series jetliner. And a Calgary company, Flyht Aerospace Solutions, makes satellite transmission systems for commercial aviation and has been getting a lot of attention since the Malaysia Airlines plane went missing.

THREE - Chromecast launches in Canada

Everyone and their dog has been throwing one thing after another at the TV-on-Internet market and hoping that it'll stick. Everyone's failed so far, and for the most part we still watch conventional TV channels on our big screens, and downloaded or streamed stuff from YouTube and Netflix on our PCs, tablets and smartphones.

Chromecast is the simplest, cheapest (39 bucks...insane!) thing yet. Just plug it into the back of your flat screen and it turns your dumb TV into a smart one. And as developers create new apps for it, it'll get even smarter (just like your smartphone.)

And now it's available in Canada. Which as Roku gets set to sell its $60 Streaming Stick and Apple updates its $99 Apple TV, means we're in for a big old online TV battle royale. Where's the popcorn?

FOUR - Popcorn Time: The Netflix-like movie streaming app that could get you arrested

Speaking of popcorn, Netflix has become a massive online entertainment force. For $8 a month, you can stream an unlimited amount of movies to your PC, tablet, smartphone or TV. As long as you have the bandwidth, Netflix has the movies.

Popcorn Time is a new app that works just like Netflix - except it's free. Because unlike Netflix, it doesn't stream properly licensed, copyright-respectful content. Beneath its pretty video store-like interface, it's just another version of online piracy. In this case, it streams content from Torrent files - illegally shared copies of movies that most folks have, up until now, simply downloaded and watched later. This way you get immediate gratification.

The makers of Popcorn Time claim they're doing nothing illegal because they don't actually save or store the files on their own servers. They're just the intermediary, connecting the audience - us - with the content. That may be well and good, but by streaming this content, you violate Canadian copyright law, and are subject to prosecution. Worse, as you stream the content, Popcorn Time also shares it out from your own machine, which rather invisibly makes you a distributor. Which in turn makes it a lot more likely you'll be caught, and a lot more likely that you'll pay an even heftier fine if found guilty.

Stick to the real popcorn instead. And think of Netflix as cheap insurance to avoid getting nailed for copyright violation.

FIVE - The Streisand Effect takes hold in Turkey

I think Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan needs some lessons in social media. This week he tried to ban Twitter in Turkey after a couple of Twitter users posted documents and audio that appeared to show the PM warning his son to hide some questionable cash from authorities. This all occurs amid a widespread crackdown against corruption in Turkey.

Of course, in Twitterland, when you try to ban something, it never works out as planned. All it succeeds in doing is drawing even MORE attention to the thing you're trying to hide. It's called the Streisand Effect. The famous Baba in 2003 tried to keep pictures of her Malibu home from being published. But her attempts to keep everything quiet ended up causing such a brouhaha that the pictures went global.

Fast forward to today, and a couple of every Turks who use the Twitter handles Haramzadeler (meaning 'sons of thieves') and Bascalan ('prime thief'), are now Internet stars thanks to the Turkish PM's inability to learn from Barbara Streisand's lesson. What next? Ban Facebook? YouTube. Yeah, I'm sure that'll stay hush-hush, too.

SIX - Forget Flappy Birds and Candy Crush....welcome 2048

It's the latest addictive mobile game, and it takes over from where Flappy Bird leaves off. Instead of flying your bird through obstacles and trying to avoid certain and immediate video death, you're face with a 4x4 square grid. The goal: combine numbers together using the arrow keys until a tile reaches 2048.

Seems easy, right? Not so fast. It's almost impossible to ever reach 2048, and you'll find yourself maddeningly trying again and again - kinda like Flappy Birds.

Once again, we have a wunderkind to thank, a 19-year-old Web developer from Italy, Gabriele Cirulli, and since he launched the game March 9, he's become an Internet sensation (for 15 minutes, anyway.)

The difference? It isn't an app. It's a mobile-friendly website. Here's the address: http://git.io/2048

SEVEN - The cell phone marks its 30th birthday

Lost in last week's Web-turns-25 hoopla was this little fun anniversary: The first cell phone went on sale 30 years ago last Thursday (March 13, 1984).

It was officially called the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, but we all simply know it as "the brick phone". Cost? $4,000 in 1984 dollars (probably close to $9,000 today). It did not support texting. And I'm guessing surfing the web was also out of the question given it was 5 years before the thing was invented. And forget unlimited national calling or rate plans: You paid $2 a minute - or more - and you'd be lucky if the battery lasted till lunch.

Interesting tidbit: That same device had been around for 11 years. In 1973, a prototype of the 8000X was used to make the world's first-ever cell phone call. Things moved a lot slower then, apparently.

Is Big Brother watching you?

In a word, yes. He's been watching for a while, and as time goes on his ability peer ever more deeply into your everyday life becomes that much more frightening.

While the NSA scandal has been laying that bare for much of the past year, don't think for a second that governments and government-related agencies are the only protagonists in this complex tale.

Someone's always watching
Shanghai, China
May 2012
Thematic. Technological. Here.

This week, Microsoft raised all sorts of alarm bells when it was revealed it dug into the personal Hotmail account of a French blogger after it suspected one of its employees had stolen corporate secrets and emailed them to the blogger. The company claimed it had every right to do so., but the resulting online dustup has netted the company a fair amount of criticism for the move.

Aside from the fact that he used a Hotmail account - seriously? In this day and age? - the move by the software giant gives anyone with a web-based messaging account pause. You'd be be forgiven for wondering if your service provider could do the same thing to you, too.

In short, yes they can. It's all laid out quite nicely in the terms of use agreement you failed to read all those years ago because you were too busy at the time to take the time to pore through the admittedly indecipherable legalese. But Microsoft, Google, Facebook and virtually every other provider of messaging, social media and related online services all include very specific language that grants them carte blanche to read through anything you happen to write, share, send or receive. Here's a Google-related example that might creep you out a little.

To its credit, Microsoft announced changes to its privacy policy, and will seek guidance from outside counsel whenever something like this happens. But that big open door into your account remains, and you might want to keep that in mind the next time you decide to use your free webmail account to plot your next not-quite-legal activity. Maybe stick to whispered statements behind the water cooler instead.

Your turn: Do you worry about online privacy? How do you keep your discussions away from prying eyes?