Mike Elgan

Social scientists have recently begun to piece together a growing and disturbing phenomenon: People are falling in love with their PCs, cell phones and robots. There’s no question that we’re becoming increasingly dependent on our computers and gadgets. And it’s common to hear people casually say things like, “I love my new iPhone.” But is […]

Steve Jobs once said in an interview that “the only problem with Microsoft is, they just have no taste.” That may be true. But the only problem with Apple is that it has no gratitude. Or humility. Or generosity. Or manners. I’m a big fan of Apple products. But there’s no escaping the fact that […]

Everybody’s talking about Google’s secret “My World” project, a cross between the virtual environment Second Life, and the social network Facebook. Like Second Life, “My World” would let you create a cute, cartoonish avatar version of yourself, build and furnish a virtual home, play games, see the avatars of and chat with friends, and see […]

While scanning the news lately, you may have seen the headlines about China’s Lenovo and their amazing new “solar-powered PC” product, the ThinkCentre A61e. You may also have heard that Dell will soon announce a solar PC of its own. And didn’t some company unveil a solar powered laptop last year? And what about solar […]

I don’t know about you, but I find myself sitting through more than a dozen conference calls per month. Conference calls haven’t changed much in the past couple of decades. They’re still an unproductive and annoying waste of time. A typical corporate conference call involves participants invited via e-mail to “call in” using the number […]

Distracted people rarely achieve great things. And multitasking is a myth. Unfortunately, people interrupt you all day by drop-ins, phone calls, IMs, texts. And these interruptions clutter your mind and kill your power to accomplish. It’s an extreme problem that requires extreme solutions. If you really want to stop people from cluttering your thoughts with […]

Each communications medium offers unique power. E-mail is asynchronous and can broadcast “one-to-many.” IM and e-mail can be done on a PC and with a proper keyboard. IM and phone calls are instantaneous. SMS and cell phones calls catch people away from their desks, and grab attention by audibly ringing the phone. A new service […]

Everyone talks about blogs as if they’re something truly different from other kinds of Web pages. In fact, blogs are nothing more than content Web pages published with tools that make publishing super easy. Once you set up a blog, you simply open a page, type in your text, maybe add a picture or video, […]

Last week I told you about my old-school method for capturing interesting and useful web sites — I add links to a categorized Web page, and upload it via FTP — and how I use that page as my “start page.” At the end of the piece, I asked for better ways to do all […]

So here you are again, reading another online article you think might give you a hot tip, or inspire a new way of doing things. (You’re right, so keep reading.) What if I told you about the most amazing Web site in the world — would you still remember it six months from now? Or […]