This has been a bad year for some electronics manufacturers. There have been several reports of laptops that simply explode and burst into flame, and at least one company had to recall a portable DVD player when it was reported to have blown up.

The problem lies in the fact that we continually demand more and more of these machines. Applications demand more RAM and more processing power, which in turn require more and more energy.

Recently, chipmaker Intel has begun to address the required "energy per instruction", or EPI. The goal is to create chips that are not only powerful, but energy efficient as well. A more efficient chip can make for a lighter computer that runs at cooler temperatures - reducing the chances of mishap.

For awhile the trend was disturbing. The original 1993 Pentium required 13 nanojoules per instruction. Ten years later, a Pentium 4 consumed four times that much energy. The trend seems to be reversing, however. The latest Pentium chip consumes no more than the original, but has three times the processing power. The Core Duo processors consume only 10 nanojoules per instruction, yet their processing power is comparable to the Pentium 4.

The trend looks promising. The original Pentium chips in 1993 consumed 13 nanojoules per instruction. But the Pentium 4s from a couple of years ago consumed a whopping 49 nanojoules per instruction.

"There is a little good in all evil." My grandmother said that once. If any good has come from the recent spate of laptop and DVD player explosions, it's that the need for greater energy efficiency in computer chips has become apparent - and that the issue is finally getting the attention it deserves.

How mANY TIMES HAS THIS HAppened to yOU? yOU'RE TYPing along, theN NOTICE suddenLy, you'VE GoT a bUNCh of cAPiTaLS oN tHE pAge wherE THeY SHOULdN't bE...

Or perhaps you can't access a web page or a file because that dAMnable thing keeps screwing up your "CaSe-SEnsitIVE" pASsworD?

We don't know about you, but Pierter Hintjens of Belgian software company iMatrix is mad as hell and  isn't gonna take it anymore. He has made it his holy crusade to remove the "CapsLock" key from keyboards all over the world. In his blog on Slashdot, he said: "Sure, there are more serious problems to solve but please, think of the children! How am I going to explain to my kids why some of the most valuable keyboard real estate is squatted by a large, useless key that above all you must not press!"

Hintjens has launched a new blog called cappsoff.blogspot.com and has gone so far as to start a CappsOff forum on Google. The forum has 300 members, and its growing.

It's true that the Caps Lock key can be a problem. Still, there are software solutions already available that can deactivate the key, as well as many custom keyboards on the market. Is Hintjens overreacting...? What do YoU thInK?

Two years ago, the U.S. was 10th among nations of the world regarding the number of citizens with access to high-speed Internet.

Today, it's not even number 10.

Is there a problem, here? It depends on who you ask. Everyone agrees that investment in broadband infrastructure is a good thing in terms of economic activity. They also agree that growth is in danger of exceeding capacity. What people disagree on is how the problem should be addressed.

Critics claim that broadband is being held hostage by a "cozy duopoly" of DSL and cable providers, and that consumers suffer as a result. While it is true that small and rural communities lack choices in this regard, larger metro areas often have a choice of three or more providers, plus wireless - which in some large cities, is being offered "free" to residents as a public service, financed with tax revenue.

Companies are indeed making large investments in high-speed Internet. As prices (in some markets, at least) fall,  consumers increasingly abandon their slow "dial-up" connections for cable and DSL. While the U.S. is behind 11 other nations in terms of high-speed access, it's worth noting that when dial-up users are factored in, the number of U.S. users as a percentage is substantially higher than in other nations - and at least 60% of those appear to be occasional, casual users who express little interest in broadband.

Considering the growth of web activity, however, most everyone agrees that universal high-speed Internet access would be a good thing. The question is, what should the U.S. government do to encourage this, if anything?

This is a complex and contentious issue. On one side are those who believe that it should be left completely to the unfettered free-market.  This would involve auctioning off spectrum to the highest bidders to "ensure that it goes to its highest-valued use." Presumably, some of this use would go to universal broadband.  These people believe regulations should be eliminated so providers would not be required to negotiate with local governments to offer video services over broadband lines,.  "Net Neutrality," the idea that all web content should be treated equally, should not be legislated, they say. Because the Internet represents a dynamic and constantly growing marketplace, they claim that any regulation would be counterproductive.

If private corporations' first mandate is to serve the public good, this viewpoint is valid. It should be noted, however, that present corporate charter laws no longer require that they serve the public good at all. The sole purpose of a corporation is to make a profit and a return on shareholder investment.

If the large telecom companies can be trusted to serve the best interests of the public without government oversight - even if it means a smaller profit margin -, then by all means they should be left alone to do so.

Whereas desktop computers lead sedentary, uneventful lives, laptops are the "Indiana Joneses" and "Lara Crofts" of the computer world. They get dropped, spilled on, left in hot cars, frozen, rained on, stepped on, and more.

Durabook, Itronix and Panasonic have special "armored" laptops for National Geographic writers, scientists studying global warming in the Antarctic and war correspondents in the world's "hot spots." Unless you work in one of these fields, chances are you won't need anything this overbuilt. On the other hand, if a laptop is your primary machine, you'll definitely want something sturdy.

Recently, four of the top PC-compatible laptop manufacturers submitted their latest models to a series of "torture tests." Models tested were Dell's Latitude D620, Gateway's NX560X, Hewlett-Packard Compaq NC6420 and Toshiba's Tecra M5-s433, all using Intel Core Duo processors running between 1.66 and 2 GHz. 

All four models demonstrated durability under a variety of abuses. The ultimate test, however, involved a 36-inch drop (about a meter) onto a piece of plywood atop a slab of concrete. While all four models continued to boot up and retain their data after "The Drop," only one model - the Toshiba - remained fully functional.

Conclusion? While the Toshiba is definitely the durability champ, all four models have points in their favor, with Gateway's having the lowest price tag and Dell's having the most features. HP's had a nice array of "goodies" as well, but is more expensive than the others.

Telephia reports that - at least when it comes to mobile-phone gaming - puzzles are a girl's best friend. And right now, they're generating about 33% of the revenue in the U.S. mobile gaming industry.

According to the Telephia Mobile Game Report for Q1 2006, the most popular titles were Tetris, Tetris Deluxe, and Bejeweled, followed by JAMDAT Mahjong. In this category - puzzle and strategy games - women account for 72% of the revenue.

Kanishka Agarwal, Telephia's V.P. of New Products, said "Mobile game purchases continue to grow with more than 8.6 million games bought in April, increasing 60 percent since the beginning of the year."

Other popular categories for women are trivia and word games, like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire 2005, published by Cosmic Infinity. Agarwal adds, The casual nature of mobile games provides tremendous appeal to women, who are not traditionally hardcore gamers by console or online gaming standards...the wireless industry has presented a hungry target audience willing to pay premium access to games through their cell phones."

Airfone, a division of Verizon, will cease offering in-flight phone service by the end of 2006, according to company spokespersons.  The parent company has decided to focus its resources on extending its fiber-optic cable network, through which it will offer high-speed Internet, VoIP phone and cable TV.

The air-to-ground phone service is over twenty years old, and despite cel phones, remains installed in over 1,000 planes operated by four major airlines. It's not cheap - service is as much as .69 cents a minute for Verizon Wireless customers, and as much as $5.99 a minute for non-customers. Nevertheless, the service has remained popular.

AirCell has won a license to use the 800MHz spectrum now being used by Airfone. Their intention is to offer "affordable" wireless broadband Internet access aboard commercial flights.

Years ago, the scuttlebutt was that excessive cellphone use may increase the chance of contracting brain cancer. Another rumor stated that sparks from a cellphone could potentially ignite gasoline while fueling one's automobile.

While the jury may still be out on those points, doctors in the U.K. are now advising that people avoid using cellphones during thunderstorms. They point out the case of a young girl who was struck by lighting while using her cellphone during a storm. Although she survived, she suffers persistent health problems and requires a wheelchair.

"This rare phenomenon is a public health issue, and education is necessary to highlight the risk of using mobile phones outdoors during stormy weather to prevent future fatal consequences from lighting strike injuries," said Dr. Swinda Esprit of Northwick Park Hospital in England.

Normally, skin is a high-resistance substance, conducting an electric flash over the body's surface in what is called a "flashover." Although this can result in painful burns, internal organs are not usually affected. However, if the skin is in contact with an object containing metal, the flashover can be conducted into the body, and serious internal injuries can result.

Three fatal cases of lightning strikes during a cellphone conversation have been reported in Asia.

"The Australian Lightning Protection Standard recommends that metallic objects, including cordless or mobile phones, should not be used (or carried) outdoors during a thunderstorm," Dr. Esprit advises.

It is not much of a secret - nor a surprise - that the homeless population in the U.S. has been rising steadily since the early 1980's, and has increased exponentially in the last five years. They have been marginalized and denigrated as men claiming to be "Christians" do their best to put them out of sight and out of mind.

The digital age is promising to change some of that.

Thanks to internet cafes, public libraries, and the fact that last year's state-of-the-art hardware can be had for a song, the homeless are increasingly making their presence known on-line.

HappyIvy, who runs a website called "AboutUsNow.com," lives in a bus without power nor plumbing. Nonetheless, thanks to public Wi-Fi, he's able to run a 24/7 online TV studio, record an album, write his memoirs and - to the terror of neoconservatives in Congress - is organizing a grassroots political movement.

Those clinging to survival in the urban jungle may be pushed into the shadows of society, but the digital divide is becoming irrelevant to these people. As Michael Stoops, director of the National Coalition For The Homeless points out, "More have e-mail than have post office boxes....the internet has been a big boon to the homeless." The new technology allows homeless persons to maintain contact with family members, helping many to get some kind of footing in society.

Although many homeless persons agree that the Internet has been empowering, it's not a panacea. Contrary to the official "party line" in the U.S., the causes of homelessness are many and complex, although virtually the entire problem is a result of grossly misplaced priorities and unconscionable economic policies. Nonetheless, if the Internet cannot take the homeless off the street, it can give them a voice.

The digital age has brought con games and rip-offs that grifters like Johnny Hooker and Henry Gondorff (from the 1973 classic, The Sting) could never have imagined in their wildest dreams.

The latest involves sending an SMS text message to victims' cellphones, which thank them for subscribing to a non-existent "dating service." The message states that $2.00 a day will be added to their phone bill until their subscription is cancelled on-line.

According to Websense, the security company who issued the warning, this message has appeared in comments sections of several on-line bulletin boards.

Once the victim logs on to the fictitious "dating service" web site, they are prompted to download a file that turns out to be a "trojan-horse/4559" id="tag" title="">Trojan Horse" - a "virus" masquerading as a legitimate file. Once the Trojan Horse is installed, it turns the victim's computer into a "zombie," which can be controlled remotely by hackers. These machines become a part of a "bot" network, that are then used to launch cyber attacks.

"This is definitely the first time we've seen this specific approach," said Ross Paul, a Websense development manager. "Basically, they're taking a social engineering attack vector with a lot of users."

Websense is monitoring the situation, but at present, cannot divulge suspects' identities (who are "organized rings of people," according to Paul), or whether they are working with law enforcement.

At a recent conference in Japan, a Dell laptop suddenly exploded and burst into flames with no apparent explanation. One witness reported, "The damn thing was on fire and produced several explosions for more than five minutes". 

Fortunately, no one was near the laptop when the incident occurred.

The witness - who identifies himself only as "Guilhem" - offers this advice should this happen to you. "Don't try anything courageous/stupid, stay away, away, away!"  He notes that the "laptop of death" was indeed a Dell, although the exact model was not specified. "It is only a matter of time until such an incident breaks out on a plane," he adds.

In the meantime, you might want to avoid actually using a laptop on your lap...