Technobabble

iBirthday Happy birthday to the iPod, a whole 5 years old Oct. 23. The little Mp3 that could has become a worldwide phenomenon by its kindergarten year. I bet you are hoping you can be as successful in your 20s or 30s. If you’ve ever felt guilty spending two or three weeks’ wages for your little white music box and all its accessories (we won’t tell if it’s more), feel comfortable knowing that you share your iObsession with celebs such as Bono, Madonna, Queen Elizabeth, the late Pope John Paul II and Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush. About five years ago I was very concerned with the longevity of this company that develops computers that I rely so heavily on. Thanks to the iPod, I can sleep soundly knowing my computer company will be functioning for many years to come.

iVirus That said, if you bought the little white wonder sometime after Sept. 12, you might want to make sure it’s not infected with the RavMonE.exe virus (all you 9/11 conspiracy theorists back off). Of course, it takes a Microsoft product to infect a Mac item. I’ve read that this virus is found in less than 1 percent of new iPods (only 25 as of writing this) and will not affect the iPod or Apple computers, but Windows users beware. Apple did the righteous thing of admitting fault and offering a free virus download. Accepting responsibility and solving the problem is rare in the U.S. these days.

Not HerSpace An assistant principal is suing two high school students and their parents over a MySpace page with doctored photos that depicted the administrator as a lesbian (is being a lesbian still considered a bad thing in some places in the U.S.?). Anna Draker, the alleged lesbian, works at Clark High School in San Antonio, Texas, and has disciplined the two students several times. Many other Clark students added less than complimentary comments on the Web site as did some nonstudents. Hmmm … Now being that some of the computers used to create this Web site are located in the homes of the students’ parents, this lawsuit attempts to implicate the parents, something new to this type of litigation. Unsupervised surfing by high school students can make their most-likely overworked parents liable.

GPS Hookers A difficult profession that is truly unsafe is that of a prostitute. Avoiding police and aggressive Johns puts those in the world’s oldest profession in myriad potentially life-threatening situations. Queue the Aphrodite Project, developers of high-tech, high-rise shoes. I couldn’t find a name for this soon-to-be-available product, but a pair of these platforms will contain a GPS receiver, an emergency button that relays the hooker’s location to public emergency services and APRS technology (Automatic Position Reporting System) so sex workers’ rights groups will know if the prostitute has been arrested. Technology that saves lives.