eWEEK Labs’ Stupid Technology Tricks of 2006

Written by eWEEK Labs; Illustrated by Brian Moore

From the NTP vs. RIM wars that raged in January to the patent FUD-mongering surrounding Microsofts and Novells late-year collaboration agreement-and all of the billable hours in between-2006 was probably a bonanza for intellectual property attorneys. No

MP3 players are becoming a vector of opportunity for viruses and spyware when vendors outsource production to manufacturing partners. This trend originated in the fall of 2005, when Creative Labs shipped 3,700 Zen MP3 players carrying the Wullik-B virus.

Google came under fire-and rightfully so-in 2006 after it distributed e-mails containing the Karma Sutra worm to users of the Google Video Blog-group. More than 50,000 members received e-mail with the W32/Kapser.A@mm mass mailing virus from Google. Since

Hewlett-Packards wireless Memory Spot data chip, disclosed in July, squeezes a remarkable number of mistakes into a space about the size of a grain of rice. This little device is a dandy science project, but it demonstrates practices that a

In March, Jerry Taylor, the City Manager of Tuttle, Okla., discovered a mysterious new Web page where the city home page should have been. Thinking the screen was actually a sign of malfeasance, Taylor sprang initiated a fiery exchange with folks supporti

In September, Accenture pulled out of a $3.73 billion contract to revamp the United Kingdoms National Health Service IT, a project that has been plagued by massive budget overruns, outages, flailing confidence and critical delays from supplier iSoft for

RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology offers ‘benefits’ such as allowing thieves to record your name, credit card number and expiration date from your new swipeless credit card without you having to take it out of your wallet. However, while RF

As a result of a pair of thefts of VA laptops that had been brought home by employees, millions of veterans were forced to take measures to protect themselves from the possibility of identity theft. The FBI determined that the thefts were motivated by a d