Stories by Robert X. Cringely

iPod: The device that changed everything

Amid all the hubbub last week <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/will-windows-7-change-our-minds-about-microsoft-281">surrounding Windows 7</a> -- not to mention <a href="http://www.esarcasm.com/6777/microsoft-promises-seven-minutes-in-windows-7-heaven/">Burger King's 7-layer Windows Whopper</a> -- I totally missed one of the key anniversaries in tech history.

Don't bite that Apple, it's full of worms

Talk about kicking somebody when they're down. Apple <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/news/feeds/09/01/14/Steve-Jobs-taking-medical-leave-from-Apple-until-June.html?source=gs">loses its fearless leader</a> (aka The One) for six months, if not permanently. The company's stock is in the toilet, and <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/fidelitys-contrafund-largest-apple-shareholder/story.aspx?guid={474865F7-4990-436D-9161-B3D71C6F8FD5}&amp;dist=msr_5">its largest investor is dumping shares</a>. The products it rolled out at Apple's last-ever Macworld show could put a crystal meth addict to sleep, and <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/158084/sec_apple_jobs_health.html?tk=rss_news">the SEC wants to know who's been playing doctor</a> with Steve Jobs' medical reports.

RealDVDs, surreal lawsuits

Like a Brachiosaur sinking into a tar pit, the recording industry as we've known it for the past 70 years is very nearly extinct. But unlike dinosaurs, the RIAA is trying to drag everyone else into the pit with it.

Tech firms faking job ads to avoid hiring US workers?

Ask the Programmers Guild that question, and their answer would be an emphatic "yes!" The US-based organization has accused Hewlett Packard of advertising for jobs it has no intention of filling -- at least with US citizens -- on the Idaho Department of Labor Web site.

Memo from DEMO: Six startups worth watching

This been quite the frantic week for geeks. There was DEMO in San Diego, now in its 18th year and still going strong. At the same time there was TechCrunch50 in San Francisco; Crunchy Michael Arrington crowed that TC50 was going to bury DEMO, but <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/10/day-two-at-techcrunch-we-have-internet/">faulty Internet connections on day one</a> left many in the crowd Twittering amongst themselves.

Chrome sweet Chrome?

Google finally <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/09/02/Google_brings_out_big_guns_in_support_of_Chrome_1.html">enters the browser business</a> (finally fulfilling years of rumors), and you'd think there was nothing else going on in the world -- no political conventions starring pistol-packing ex-beauty queens with pregnant teenage daughters, no hurricanes turning the weather over the southeast into the world's biggest daiquiri machine. Nope, nothing but all browsers all the time.

Uploading democracy meets US justice

Last week FBI agents raided the Los Angeles home of 27-year-old blogger Kevin Cogill and arrested him. Cogill's crime? He uploaded nine unreleased tracks from the upcoming Guns N' Roses album to his blog.

The RIAA's comic crusade

The Recording Industry Association of America probably sees itself as a band of caped crusaders fighting for truth, justice and the American way. (And in this case, "American Way" translates into propping up a dying cartel seeking to squeeze as many pennies out of consumers as possible before they sink into the ooze.)

Data security meets disco fever in Shanghai

Here's a travel advisory: The next time you find yourself in a foreign city at night with nothing to do, take my advice: rent a movie in your hotel room. Don't go to discos. And if you do go out, don't bring a smart phone with you.