The Globe and Mail - Kapica's Cyberia

Finally, something for voters to laugh about

Jack Kapica — Mon, 6 Oct 2008 18:02 EDT

They're unscientific in the extreme, but the kind of offbeat polls that crop up at election time can be really fun. You know the ones I mean — the “hamburger polls,” or the beer polls. The candidate whose name is associated with a certain burger of beer gets a vote with every one sold - Follow link to read full post

The spammers have spoken

Jack Kapica — Fri, 3 Oct 2008 12:48 EDT

Online security company Secure Computing is set to release a report next week that shows Barack Obama is simply clobbering John McCain in the U.S. presidential race, and that Sarah Palin is doing the same to Joe Biden for the job of vice-president. That conclusion was reached by counting the number - Follow link to read full post

The RCMP's odd approach to copyright law

Jack Kapica — Wed, 1 Oct 2008 15:19 EDT

If you think the cards are stacked in favour of tough new copyright legislation, consider what the RCMP thinks about our current legislation. A[amp]nbsp;snail-mailed bulletin from an industry blog and news site called[amp]nbsp;The Consumer Electronics Daily News reported comments made Friday by a Royal - Follow link to read full post

Google in Quotes a great tool for democracy

Jack Kapica — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:03 EDT

Further proof — as though any were needed — that the brains trust at Google are a bright bunch comes with the unveiling of an experimental website called “Google In Quotes” that places quotations on any given subject from the two U.S. presidential candidates side by side. What - Follow link to read full post

Who's cool now, Mac or PC?

Jack Kapica — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:40 EDT

I suspect the success of the television series Mad Men has turned many people into armchair advertising executives — at least that's what it looks like after reading a lot of reactions to the new series of TV commercials for Microsoft (“I'm a PC”). Aside from the Pavlovian response - Follow link to read full post

Music, with extra added attractions

Jack Kapica — Tue, 9 Sep 2008 18:02 EDT

It's been obvious for quite a few years that the recording industry really had no intention of operating in the digital age. It was only after a lengthy and Pyrrhic legal war that they decided to allow outfits like iTunes to sell songs as MP3 files or as whole albums. So whatever happened to the concept - Follow link to read full post

Internet service providers: What's their game?

Jack Kapica — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:33 EDT

Last night, the very nice man in Sympatico's (oops, I mean Bell Internet's) tech support in New Delhi who had solved a minor problem with my connection offered me a new Internet service package: I could “bundle” my home phone service with my Bell Internet service and Bell would boost my download - Follow link to read full post

The terrors of travelling with data

Jack Kapica — Thu, 7 Aug 2008 15:41 EDT

One thing that hasn't been given enough attention by the public is the recent discovery of regulations that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security border agents now[amp]nbsp;have the power to seize travellers' electronic devices, such as hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers and beepers - Follow link to read full post

The Scrabulous scrap

Jack Kapica — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:59 EDT

It's been with a mixture of awe and sadness that I've been following the case of Scrabble and Scrabulous, of the game-making giant Hasbro and Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, recent commerce graduates of St. Xavier's College, Kolkata. On the surface, it appears to be a war over copyright, and therefore - Follow link to read full post

Where's Canada's regulator?

Jack Kapica — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:16 EDT

This morning, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, based at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law, asked the federal Privacy Commissioner to[amp]nbsp;investigate the Internet service provider (ISP) industry's practice of profiling users online to target them with advertising. - Follow link to read full post