kthompson's blog

Two weeks ago, Apple rejected a Google Voice app that would have allowed users to make dirt-cheap access to calls, texts, and others features through a separate Google number. The official line was that the app duplicated features the iPhone already has, but many suspected that Apple's partner AT&T may have had a thing or two to say about a service that would have directly cut into

And just like that, a former search powerhouse has bowed out of the race altogether. Yahoo!, once a giant in the area of internet search, will be replacing its search features with Microsoft's Bing. Bing will now get access to the 1/5 of total web searches claimed currently by Yahoo!.

This week, Google announced that it will develop an operating system off of its increasingly popular web browser Chrome.

The founders of The Pirate Bay have been found guilty, denied appeal, and face both jail time and heavy fines. What's a pirate to do?

While attempts at solar-powered cars are more well-known and visible, a Swiss psychiatrist and adventurist has unveiled a solar airplane that will be flown around the world in 2012.

The Swedish Pirate Party has secured a seat in the European Parliament. According to Sunday's results, the Pirate Party claims 7 percent of the Swedish vote, earning at least one of Sweden’s eighteen seats.

Founded on a platform of copyright law reform:

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. As I wrote about earlier, Chinese officials have been taking steps to ensure that no protests mark this date by shutting down dozens of websites and beefing up the security presence at the square.

The 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square (history lesson here) clearing falls on June 4th. In anticipation of demonstrations and other disruptions, especially by the younger generations, censors have cut off access to several web sharing services, such as Twitter and Flickr.

The journal Nature published an article this week by radiologist Robert Gatenby of the Moffitt Cancer Center that is receiving a good deal of attention due to its recommendation for cancer treatment: seek deadlock, not elimination. In an interview with Wired, Gatenby summarizes his approach as analogous to fighting an invasive species:

The World Health Organization today updated its A(H1N1), or swine flu, worldwide infection tally to 12,954. These are spread out over 46 separate countries, hitting every inhabited continent except Africa. Despite the worldwide concern over its spread, A(H1N1) so far has led to only 92 deaths (see former intern John Casebolt’s past blog post examining its relative danger here).