40Tech

According to a Dutch study, our beloved Wi-Fi — the stuff that large populations of the planet now use in their homes, their workplaces, where they shop, where they drink coffee, and pretty much everywhere else they go — may be killing our trees. Or at least contributing to it. The researchers of Wageningen University say that more analysis is required to reach a solid conclusion on the matter, but so far, it looks like the particular radiation that is Wi-Fi is not at all interested in becoming a tree-hugger.

Okay, so hands up if you’ve heard of RockMelt.

If you are one of the people who put up your hand — stop that. This is text and I can’t see you. Know, however, that you are quite possibly more connected and in tune with the techieverse than your now shame-faced tech-writer. Somehow, for reasons unknown to all but the almighty Goog itself, my keenly developed tech senses missed this wonder entirely! But, that’s all behind me, now. I’ve seen the light, got an invite, and have been playing with the world’s latest, greatest — and Google Chrome based — social browser for several days now.

Here’s what I’ve discovered:

One of the big news stories last week was the hacking of Gawker Media’s servers. As part of the attack, user accounts were compromised on Gawker sites, including Lifehacker and Gizmodo. More than 500,000 user emails and 185,000 decrypted passwords were posted online.  If you’re not sure which account you used on a Gawker site, and want to determine if your account might have been compromised, there’s a tool for that.

It was my birthday the other day. I turned 35. Yep, 35, and I write for a blog called 40Tech. I’m mature for my age, ok? Either way, I was feeling pretty good about myself that day. 35 years old is young, right? Well, that’s what I thought until I saw this video by Accenture that has little kids explaining cloud computing.

I now feel positively ancient. Video after the jump.

Whether due to failing eyesight or website clutter, some websites can be difficult to read.  If you find yourself in that situation, here are some tools and methods for making a site easier to read.  Some of these tools work by stripping away extraneous material, others make the text of a site larger, and some do a combination of the two.

Are we approaching the day where remote access software will be meeting its grim reaper – the cloud?  A few months ago, we compared LogMeIn and Teamviewer, two popular choices for accessing your PC when away from home or the office.  How often do you need to access your PC remotely, though?  Now that we now live in a cloud-based world, where we let third parties manage our data, how will consumer remote access products survive?

Internet Explorer has been slowly but steadily losing ground in the “browser wars” since the invention of that little hot little canine browser, Firefox. Google Chrome shook up the market even more and is continuing what’s considered to be a fast upward climb. Safari is Safari, and Opera is largely underestimated.

In the article I read about IE’s plummet, on Mashable, the tone was very much in the negative for Internet Explorer, citing phrases such as “to little, to late” and “Hail Mary” in reference to the coming improvements of IE9. Now, I am no fan of Internet Explorer (my web-designer-self hates it with a furious feral fire), and no disrespect intended to the knowledgeable minds over at Mashable, but I think a little bit of perspective may be called for.

Does your blood boil when you see a company gouge its consumers?  In a world with competition, that wouldn’t be such a big deal.  The free market would rule, and consumers could just move on to a competitor.

That isn’t always possible, though, in a world where, for a variety of reasons, monopolies or pseudo-monopolies exist.  In some situations, you have to suck it up and accept a company’s onerous terms, or not play ball at all.  Here are three markets desperately in need of more competition.

The Obama administration plans to submit a bill next year that would require all online communication services to be capable of complying if served with a wiretap order.  According to the Times, this includes “encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct ‘peer to peer’ messaging like Skype.”  The mandate “would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.”  Is the government going too far?

Hot tubs aren’t the only things that can double as time machines.  Your computer can, too, with a bit of help.  YouTube Time Machine is a website that allows you to pick a year, and watch video content from that year.