THE REINY DAY GUIDE TO TECHNOLOGY
Summer 2000
June - August
- An Italian scholar has discovered the origin of the at-sign (@) in a 1536 document. The @ is actually called an amphora and was chosen as a seperator for e-mail addresses by Ray Tomlinson in 1972.
- Computers restore sex drive according to Italian scientists. They claim they can cure impotence by sending men on a virtual-reality (VR) journey through their youth with an 84% success rate.
- Slashdot ran an article about Masters or PhD theses for sale without the authors' permission. Legal battles are ensuing, and perhaps some concrete laws about online copyright will come into existence... A similar article at About.com discusses text aventure games being sold without the authors' permission.
- The article Lying With Pixels discusses what it refers to as "video-manipulation technology". This article is close to home, as I am currently employed in the visual effects industry.
- WebMD has a nice lenghtly look at What Is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?. The article covers causes, symptoms, and treatments.
- SunWorld has a short article on Choosing a scripting language. The authors review Perl, Tcl, and Python.
- CNN ran a story on NASA's images of asteroid Kleopatra aka the 'dog bone' asteroid. Astronomers have known about the asteroid since 1880, but only now know its shape. Another article explores a Robonaut which is intended for spacewalking. It is more flexible than humans, and is supposed to be a great breakthrough in space technologies. If you want your own robot around the house, the iRobot is for sale.
- Slashdot ran articles about Iranian Coup Plotters Exposed By PDF File and Wearable Computers. Both illustrate how technology is becomming more pervasive.
Feature: PayPal
ZDnet ran an article called PayPal is sellers' friend, buyers' enemy. The article discusses PayPal's only downfall; there are no failsafes against fraud. You cannot stop payment or dispute payments as you can with a credit card. But PayPal is incredibly safe in terms of protecting your bank and credit card accounts.
The article is a startling contrast to Robert X. Cringely's glowing review I'll Gladly Pay You Tuesday -- How PayPal Has Already Won the Battle of the Internet Payment Systems. Cringely's article covers more than just PayPal, an online system which allows people to send money to any person with an e-mail address, either via a bank account or credit card.
X.com is a web-based financial services site which created the internet payment service which has beat out Yahoo!'s Bill Pay and ebay's Billpoint.
PayPal, Bill Pay, and Billpoint are in competition, but PayPal has won over the auctioning community, with 5 million users and 2.5 million auctions. PayPal has stated they are working on automated payments, but right now none of the online systems are perfect for paying your roommate your half of the rent without having to write a check. None of the systems are set up for you to make an anonymous payment to your favorite charity. PayPal is now offering a 5.2% yield on balances left in your PayPal account, which will no doubt attract even more users.
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