By John Dodge

Phishing was not on my list of things to educate myself about until I was victim to a couple of attacks over the past month in my Twitter account. Who wants to bother with such things? Maybe you should before it happens to you.

Never sharing logins and passwords is common sense but people do it. And periodically changing important logins and passwords is not a bad idea either. Those are the basics and there is an abundance of anti-phishing advice online.

Here's what happened to me.

By John Dodge

At last, the Apple iPhone has some real competition.

The Verizon/Google Droid which I have been using for the past 36 hours ships today. Droid is the first mainstream device of what will be many based on Google’s Android operating system. You likely know about Droid given Verizon/Google’s ad blitz extolling the features it has that the iPhone doesn’t such as a swap-out battery and the ability to run multiple apps. Without identifying the iPhone directly, there’s no doubt what’s being identified in the Verizon/Google ads: “These arrogant little devices are barely worth more than the pocket link they rest upon.” Try telling that to legions of happy iPhone users!

By John Dodge

Please note: John's article was originally published on October 20th.

Day after tomorrow, Windows 7 goes public. I’m not getting too excited because previous versions have been frustrating and disappointing. And I, for one, am neither attending nor hosting a Windows 7 party.

But my lack of enthusiasm should not be mistaken for apathy. I truly hope Windows 7 is a better Windows.

By John Dodge

Microsoft is being soundly ridiculed for a 6 minute and 14 second video urging Windows users to host Windows 7 launch parties. The video called “Hosting Your Party.” See it below.

I have watched the video and so have nearly a million other who’ve watched it on Youtube. It’s reeeeally baaaad. As CNET pundit Brian Cooley says, “it’s bad for humanity.”

By John Dodge

This 4 minute and 22 second video may or may not convince you that social media is a fad, but it’s worth watching. With base thumping `get the juices’ flowing techno, the video recites some incredible statistics about the lightening fast growth of social media to the refrain “right here, right now.” It’ll pump you up more than Hans and Franz.

By John Dodge

Four, count em, four Verizon trucks are on my tiny four-house street running fiber to my home and the others, suggesting FIOS (Fiber Optic Service) and at long last, competition to Comcast might be materializing on my end of town.

By John Dodge

Netbooks are cramping John's style. His latest from The Dodge Retort tells us why netbooks are not ideal for 'real work' in most 'office spaces'.

We all have lots of Internet passwords and about half of them are not difficult to guess. Just take a look at the 500 worst passwords of all time.

“United breaks guitars” is the most powerful example yet about how social media empowers consumers and tarnishes images of big companies. In spring, 2008, Dave Carroll of the Sons of Maxwell band claims United Airlines broke his $3,500 Taylor guitar on a flight stop-over in Chicago while traveling from Halifax to Nebraska.

My full review of the HP Mini Model 1151NR bundled with Verizon mobile broadband is now up at eWeek.com. In any case, I give it a B- given the inconsistent bars I got, but it pretty much works as advertised.

A better option for Internet ubiquity is...