Stories by: John Brandon

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The supercomputer on your desktop 17 February, 2010 06:59

High-performance computing (HPC) has almost always required a supercomputer - one of those room-size monoliths you find at government research labs and universities.
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Five ways to improve Web site uptime 05 November, 2009 07:17

When the site GDGT.com went live this past summer, Ryan Block was expecting a lot of interest.
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How the iPhone works 10 October, 2009 01:45

You put it up to your ear and the screen goes blank. Turn it on its side, and the screen rotates. Walk outside and it can find your location, point a compass in the correct direction and post your geostatus on Google Latitude. Point it at a Twitter user in the real world, and you can see his or her status on a pop-up screen.
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Game-changers: 10 potentially huge technologies 01 June, 2009 15:35

They start as a mild tremor at first: rumors of an Apple Phone and rumblings about Web 2.0, whispers about touch interfaces and flash storage.
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Inside HP Labs: 8 cool projects 31 March, 2009 12:38

On tap: A color thesaurus, photonics, and book and magazine publishing
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10 Microsoft research projects 02 December, 2008 10:09

Innovation is not just about cool new products. In technology, the best ideas require a) really smart people and b) lots of funding. For the past 33 years, Microsoft has had both in spades.
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FWIW -- The origins of 'Net shorthand 10 November, 2008 08:01

Leetspeak, Internet shorthand, computer jargon for instant messaging -- whatever you call them, initialisms like BRB, LOL and BTW have now entered the public lexicon. (I know a few teenagers who actually say LOL to each other in person!)
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The top 10 best-written blogs 20 October, 2008 07:37

A personal diary, the latest tech gossip, new Web sites of note, hypertext links to upcoming Apple products -- there's a blog for just about every topic under the sun, and the quality of these daily journals is all over the map.
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Famous tech myths that just won't die 29 September, 2008 09:07

Have you heard this story?
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Internet suicide and a call for decency 26 September, 2008 11:57

Techdirt.com posted many weeks ago about the charges against Lori Drew related to the suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier in 2006. In the post, which has the subhead that being a jerk isn't illegal, Mike Masnick argues that there is an attempt to prosecute Drew for "something, even if there's little evidence she actually broke the law." In the case, the prosecutors say Drew is responsible for Internet fraud by using a fake MySpace name. It got me thinking: what should be the consequences for Internet use in this way?
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What the heck is Mozilla thinking? 12 August, 2008 08:53

I'm continually amazed at how the premier Web properties are willing to share what they are doing. We get to peek behind the curtain routinely. Google and Yahoo both have good lab pages, but there's some seriously experimental stuff on the Mozilla labs page. Here's what they're up to.