Dream Machine, c. 2006?

With Motorola and Apple announcing a partnership to put iTunes-like features on cellphones, the tech world took one small step closer to producing the dream all-in-one device the Union has been waiting for.

Right now, we lug around an iPod, a Canon Powershot SD10 and a 12" Powerbook G4 -- while still mulling our next choice of cellphone or internet (VOIP) phone.

The ultimate gadget would include the capabilities of the following:

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Poindexter redux

The Associated Press (via Smirking Chimp) reports that despite Congress appearing to drive a stake in the heart of former Admiral Poindexter's "Total Information Awareness" program, some of his Big Brother-ish schemes have risen from the dead elsewhere in the government -- possibly with total Congressional awareness that this would happen.

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Target = Blank?

What does the highest-paid baseball player on earth have in common with the New York Times' ombudsman? Both are well paid on the assumption that they have mastered their professions -- and both appear totally clueless about the most basic workings of the World Wide Web...

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(Defense) Dept. of Lowered Expectations

Here's what passes for good news nowadays: Wired.com reports that the Pentagon no longer plans to gather every single scrap of information it can about you:

"The Pentagon canceled its so-called LifeLog project, an ambitious effort to ... gather in a single place just about everything an individual says, sees or does: the phone calls made, the TV shows watched, the magazines read, the plane tickets bought, the e-mail sent and received. "

(Drat. Does this mean people will have to start keeping diaries again?)

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