Microsoft retail store coming to Denver: Get ready, nerds!

Everybody loves the Apple Store in the Cherry Creek Shopping Center. Even Westword. In 2006, we honored it with one of our annual Best Of awards: The Best Spot to Scope Smart Hotties. In 2009, we wrote about how the Apple Store is the modern-day mall arcade, teeming with “dozens…

Cybercrime in Denver: We’re number eight

In the not exactly thrilling 1995 cyber-thriller The Net, Sandra Bullock’s character, Angela Bennett, reveals that she was raised in La Junta — a community whose name she pronounces as if she were Hugo Chavez. Little did Bennett know, however, that her hometown would share a state with a nexus…

Investigator visits Chatroulette, sees penis in ten seconds flat

Earlier this week, Investigator Mike Harris, who’s assigned to the Child Sex Offender Internet Investigations unit of the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office, visited the Chatroulette website for the first time — and promptly got an eyeful. “Within the first ten seconds we looked at it, we already saw a…

Internet Explorer 6 is dead — and the funeral is in Denver

Mention Internet Explorer to most knowledgeable computer types and you’re likely to prompt a flood of profanities that would even embarrass the cast of Jersey Shore. So don’t expect such folks to mourn at the funeral for Internet Explorer 6, which takes place next week under the auspices of Denver’s…

Twitter Tuesday: Ef Rodriguez, our featured Twit

Our featured Twit this week goes by the handle @pugofwar on Twitter, and Ef Rodriguez most other places. When he’s not busy blogging (on his own blog and for the Huffington Post), he can be found playing World of Warcraft, organizing events such as Boco.me and Ignite Boulder, or engaging…

Twitter Tuesday: Matt Bernier, our featured Twit

Our featured Twit this week is Matt Bernier (@mbernier on Twitter), a local web developer and blogger. Matt came to our attention when he was recommended as someone to watch by a fellow Twit (always a good sign on a medium used first and foremost for self promotion). When we…

Twitter Tuesday: Eric Elkins, our featured Twit

This week’s featured Twit is Eric Elkins, a local writer, blogger, CEO of a social media company and “avowed narcissist.” He caught our attention on Twitter because he’s one of those Twits that’s just everywhere — he seems to know everyone, and everything going on, all the time. He’s always…

Twitter Tuesday: Elisabeth Rappe, our Twit of the Week

Today’s featured Twit is Elisabeth Rappe, a local film blogger who writes for Cinematical. Rappe caught our eye on Twitter (where she can be found as @ElisabethRappe) because she is one of the rare members of that fabled species, the Geek Girl. In other words, she blogs (and tweets) about…

Five fearless tech predictions for 2010

The end of the year — and the decade — is just around the corner. So it seemed like a good time to pull out the old crystal ball and look ahead to the year and decade to come. Predicting technology is a fool’s errand, but you’re in luck: I’m…

Facebook’s new privacy settings will screw you

If you’ve logged into Facebook recently, you probably remember seeing a message (it was inescapable, you got it the moment you logged in) with a big song and dance about how Facebook was taking great new steps to protect your privacy and had implemented all these new tools to keep…

Twitter Tuesday: Tim Davids, our featured Twit

Another Tuesday, another Twit we’d like to bring to your attention. Today, the Twitter limelight falls on Tim Davids, a writer and filmmaker from Boulder. When we opened nominations a few weeks back to figure out who we should be featuring, Davids tweeted this: “i wanna be a featured twit…

Ignite Boulder lit my fire

Infotainment. That chestnut of a neologism was originally coined, if I recall correctly, to describe cheesy CD-ROM products designed to entertain and educate. Later, it was used as a pejorative description of A Current Affair-style journalism. But for my money, there’s no better word to characterize the experience of Ignite…

Denver Public Library offers e-titles on the go — sort of

The Denver Public Library has long been hip to technology, whether it’s offering DVD selections that rival Blockbuster or allowing patrons to download tawdry B-movies from its website. Now the institution’s getting into the smartphone craze, having developed a mobile website optimized for portable devices where folks on the go…

Five least legitimate uses of social media

Social media is a great tool with dozens, if not hundreds, of legitimate, quality uses. It’s an excellent tool for networking, doing all kinds of research, sharing important information, managing collaborative projects and so forth. But unfortunately, that’s not all it’s used for. Not by a long shot. The fact…

Top-notch topos now free from USGS

Finding the right map for the trip at hand has always posed certain hard choices. Do you go for one heavy on the topography contours, or one with legible road numbers? Hydrographic features or better trail markings? In one of the more practical developments to emerge from Washington, the U.S…

Twitter Tuesday: Patrick Hester, our featured Twit

Our featured Twit this week is one Patrick Hester, or @atfmb, as he’s known on Twitter. In addition to his very fine hat, Hester is a Denver writer, blogger and Twitter wit who captured our attention with this plea: “How about me?! I’m a Denveridianiteism looking to be a published…

Social-media Frankenstein

Every day, I use multiple social media services to work, stay in touch with friends and keep up to date with what’s going on in the world. Half an hour on MySpace here, twenty minutes of Facebook there, and a quick look at Twitter every hour — it adds up…