please!

Are you worried about geolocation privacy? (poll)

Geolocation services--mobile applications that allow users to share their physical whereabouts with their networks--are gaining momentum. This week, Foursquare said it hit 100 million check-ins, with nearly 1 million "check-ins" per day. Earlier this year, Twitter added its own geotagging feature and now Facebook is reportedly working on its own.

But as these services gain speed, so too, it appears, do user privacy fears--at least according to a survey conducted by Webroot, a maker of antivirus and antispyware software.

Given the nature of Webroot's business, the company does have a vested interest in the topic. Nonetheless, the … Read more

Forget needles. 'Please' delivers drugs via lasers

I've always envied people who can get injections without flinching, as somehow, seeing a needle enter the skin gives me the jitters. This is probably the reason intravenous drug abuse has never appealed to me (next to the addiction and death issues, of course).

But thanks to Pantec Biosolutions and its Please (Painless Laser Epidermal System) device, getting a jab may no longer require the doctor to chase after a 33-year-old man shrieking down the hospital halls.

Using a laser system, the device creates micropores on the skin through which a stick-on patch delivers drugs into the body. This … Read more

The dark side of geo: PleaseRobMe.com

More than a social statement than an actual utility for aspiring Colton Harris-Moore* copycats, a new site called Please Rob Me has popped up to expose the potential pratfalls of the geolocation craze: If you're pushing a "check-in" from Gowalla, Brightkite, or Foursquare to a local restaurant out to your public Twitter stream, you're broadcasting that you aren't home. Which could be taken to mean that your home is ripe for burglary.

Please Rob Me consists exclusively of an aggregation of public Twitter messages that have been pushed through fast-growing location-based networking site Foursquare, one … Read more

PleaseDressMe is Google for T-shirts

Start-ups that sell T-shirts are a dime a dozen, but a tool to let you search across all of the stores has been nonexistent. Enter PleaseDressMe, a simple search engine that lets you hunt for specialty T-shirts from several vendors at once using some simple filters.

Included are big-name online T-shirt stores like Threadless, BustedTees and TShirtHell. More will continue to be added, but for the time being the selection is far greater than any of those stores alone.

You can find the shirt you're looking for by keyword, tag, the color or price. You can also see shirts … Read more

Your papers please: TSA bans ID-less flight

In a major change of policy, the Transportation Security Administration has announced that passengers refusing to show ID will no longer be able to fly. The policy change, announced on Thursday afternoon, will go into force on June 21, and will only affect passengers who refuse to produce ID. Passengers who claim to have lost or forgotten their proof of identity will still be able to fly.

As long as TSA has existed, passengers have been able to fly without showing ID to government agents. Doing so would result in a secondary search (a pat down and hand search of … Read more

Google: No kids allowed

Google's terms of service, while ignored by the vast majority of users, contain a pretty shocking clause: Under 18's are not permitted to use any of Google's Web properties. That's right, kids--no search, YouTube, Gmail, news, or images.

Under 18s wishing to watch YouTube videos of skateboarding dogs, or perform research for a school project will have to go elsewhere--Ask.com or Microsoft's Live.com search, perhaps. The message from Mountain View seems clear: We don't want your (underage) business.

Google's terms of service, thick with legalese, state that:

"You may not … Read more

Real ID update: Only four hours left to tell Homeland Security what you think

If you don't like the idea of a national ID card, you have only four hours left to let Homeland Security know your thoughts.

That's because the deadline to file comments on the Real ID Act is 5pm ET on Tuesday. Probably the best place to do that is a Web site created by an ad hoc alliance called the Privacy Coalition (they oppose the idea, but if you're a big Real ID fan you can use their site to send adoring comments too).

Alternatively, Homeland Security has finally seen fit to give us an email address … Read more

The most dangerous game?

Puzzle Quest is one of the scariest games I've seen in years. I'm no stranger to game addictions. I've been on and off World of Warcraft three times now (permanently off now; I'm not getting the expansion and don't like raiding), and have been hooked on everything from Oblivion to Zelda. Puzzle Quest offers the kind of nightmarish addictive powers I haven't seen since Tetris DS and Lumines. I have no idea why, but there's just something compelling about shuffling around blocks to get points.

Bejeweled is one of the archetypical puzzle games. … Read more