Conspiracy theories are often entertaining. The conventional explanation about an episode, usually a tragedy, is really a cover-up. There are actually other reasons why things happen that don’t necessary depend on a lone gunman, or some haphazard event over which we have no control. Certainly in our unique corner of the world, we wonder why […]

Let me say at the outset that I’m posing this question not because I truly believe that Microsoft would actually give money to Consumer Reports, or that the publication would even accept such a donation, but I have to wonder about a few things in the December 2012 issue. This is the annual product wrap-up edition, where […]

Supposedly Microsoft is in favor of focus group testing, the better to evaluate new products and get public reaction. Yet you have to wonder how they continue to come up with curious, ill-thought solutions that seemingly defy logic. Take the ribbon toolbar. Microsoft wanted you to believe that toolbars containing icons that were context sensitive […]

Let’s start with Apple: We can assume that the recent executive changes at our favorite fruit company were the result of failures. iOS head Scott Forstall apparently got dumped for his Maps misfire, his refusal to sign the letter apologizing for the mapping defects, and perhaps for being  a jerk. John Browett was fired because […]