Technology

Network Neutrality

Monday's New York Times features an editorial that takes a somewhat soft stance on whether ISPs and telcos should be able to offer tiered network access to commercial partners -- i.e., giving Wal-Mart a fast connection while giving ...READ»

High-Definition, Highly Limiting

High-definition films with more than six times the detail as existing DVDs? That's the promise of the next generation of hi-def discs, both the HD-DVD format and rival Blu-ray. But the picture isn't all rosy, so to speak. These new ...READ»

Progressive Programming

Today's Wall Street Journal features an article (access code required) about TopCoder's programming contest. A couple of years ago, Fast Company spent some time with the 2004 winner, who expanded on his strategy for success. Both ...READ»

Silence Is Golden?

Can a car engine be too quiet? In the case of hybrid cars, those hushed engines may pose an unforeseen risk because they are too quiet to be heard by pedestrians. Idling hybrids pull out of driveways and pedestrians, who don't hear ...READ»

Product Review: Kensington Travel Plug Adapter with USB Charger

Going strictly by its function, the Travel Plug Adapter ($39.99) is nothing new nor special--there are dozens of plugs out there to let you use your electric shaver overseas. But what Kensington's product has going for it is its ...READ»

Digital Dominance

Panasonic will no longer be making analog televisions, not particularly surprising since technology and media have been steadily converting to digital for a few years now. All of the major manufacturers are concentrating on the ...READ»

Brave New MacWorld

As Scott Kirsner noted in his blog today, Steve Jobs' keynote at MacWorld focused almost exclusively on the Mac computer. Where was the iPod in the discussion? Before the expo began, many predicted a new version of the Shuffle. It ...READ»

High-Definition Discs Debut

The sides are lining up for the next format war. At this week's Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the two camps behind competing formats for next-generation DVDs announced their launch plans. HD-DVD players will debut in ...READ»

Gadgets of the Year

Today, David Pogue of the New York Times wrote about his top ten gadgets of the year (free registration required). There are a few obvious choices, such as television a la carte, but his selections are mostly overlooked advances. ...READ»

Spam a Lot Less, but Worse

America Online has released its list of top spam for 2005. Surprisingly, a message mentioning Donald Trump was the worst offender. Other spam subjects include the iPod nano, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. Another tactic, besides ...READ»

Postcards from the Future

It sounds like the premise for a film--you receive an email from a loved one who passed away a week before. There are several sites now promoting this service, such as LastWishes.com and MyLastEmail.com. You can write an email that ...READ»

It's the Thoughtlessness That Counts

Potpourri? A Chia Pet? An oversized Pobody's Nerfect T-shirt? The ease of online shopping -- a boon for year-end e-commerce sales -- might be increasing your risk of getting a really lousy gift, a Shopzilla study showed ...READ»

Through a Camera, Darkly

Today's New York Times article (free registration required) about teens selling sexual Web-cam pictures and footage of themselves alarmed me. While it is a common joke that the Internet exists to trade pornography, teens involving ...READ»

Keep Your Friends Close...

Microsoft and Google have never been this cozy. The two giants, along with Sun Microsystems, will support a $7.5 million Internet-research effort called the Reliable, Adaptive and Distributive Systems Lab (RAD Lab) at the University ...READ»

Seth Godin, 23 Squidoo!

If you haven't checked out Seth Godin's latest venture, Squidoo, I strongly encourage you to do so. It's in public beta and I've been playing around with it over the last week since the beta went up and been having a lot of fun with ...READ»

Wikipedia, Vol. 2: Encyclopedia Smackdown

Much like a Wikipedia entry, our discussion of the online encyclopedia is nothing if not dynamic. In fact, it's already time for an update. As FC Now reader Shel Holtz points out, the science journal Nature posted an article ...READ»

What's the Word?

Let the zeitgeist watch begin. With time running out on 2005, some popular Websites have begun to look back at what we've all been looking for. In recent days, AOL, Lycos, and Merriam-Webster released their lists of the most-searched ...READ»

An Open Wound for an Open-Source Reference

Look up Wikipedia on Wikipedia and you learn that the free online encyclopedia that anyone can contribute to has grown to more than 2.5 million articles and over 100 active editions in different languages. Impressive, but is it true? ...READ»

FC by SlideShow

In case you missed any of the 30 or so slideshows featured on Fastcompany.com in 2005, check out our recently updated SlideShow gallery. Among the highlights are end-of-year bests such as Great Business Reads, Most Creative Minds, ...READ»

Rest High Above the Clouds, No Restrictions

The New York Times had an article (free registration required) this weekend about satellite radio coming under fire from the music industry. Both XM and Sirius are offering players that let you record off their channels, not unlike a ...READ»

www.CompanyNameHere.eu

The European Union began taking applications for Web sites with the new domain name, ".eu," on Thursday. More than 110,000 companies and government agencies applied on the first day, according to EURid, the non-profit group handling ...READ»

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Retooling Technology

CNN has been airing a documentary about North Korea. As the hour-long program shows, dissidents are smuggling in digital cameras and recording the public executions of political activists, as well as glimpses of the country's famine ...READ»

Mac Closing Windows?

Wall Street analyst Charles Wolf of Needham & Co. has gotten Apple enthusiasts talking with a recent report suggesting that 1 million Windows users switched to Macs in the last year. The analyst points to the success of iPod as the ...READ»

URL Hell

It seems GoDaddy.com has a new service, appraising the value of domain names. There are two price points, one with two-hour turnaround and one with a more comprehensive report that takes two business days. While this is a logical ...READ»