Following Up on Nerd News

So, the first thing to know is that I’m trying typing this in a new program (Windows Live Writer), so if this looks weird that’s why.

The second thing to know is that I’m back from England for three weeks.  I’m mostly around Westborough/Boston, but may be doing some ice climbing in NH and/or rock climbing at the Red River Gorge while I’m here.

Finally, I’ve seen some articles recently that relate to previous posts.  This NYT article mentions wireless power.  According to the article, wireless power is already here!  Except with kind of a huge caveat.  Devices with coils can be charged from pads with coils which are plugged into the wall.  The problem is, it appears that each device, at the moment, needs its own pad.  So instead of having a bunch of devices plugged in all over the place, you just have a bunch of pads plugged in all over the place (possibly with devices sitting on them that will be easy to knock over).  So at the moment I think we need to do some more work before wireless power starts to have a point.

Additionally, Eugene sent me this article in response to this.  The most interesting thing, I think, is going to be what happens if new gTLDs are introduced.  It may solve problems when, say, multiple users have legitimate claims to the same domain name (i.e., who should get aa.com?  American Airlines?  Automobile Association (English thing)?  Alcoholics Anonymous?), but may also lead to more cybersquatting issues and also more YouTube/Utube problems (for that story, see this JOLT article that I worked on last year).

P.S.:  For anyone who asks themselves “what sort of nitwit would possibly try to spell YouTube as Utube?” like we all did when we were working on the article, Nick is exhibit A.  He does that all the time.  Or at least he used to, before I started making fun of him for it.