Just when you thought it was safe to live in your own home, a Santa Fe man who claims to suffer from electromagnetic allergies is suing his neighbor. Why? From the Santa Fe Reporter:

Arthur Firstenberg, the plaintiff, has been sleeping at friends’ homes or in his car to avoid the electromagnetic waves created by his neighbor Raphaela Monribot’s cell phone, wireless network, computer, compact fluorescent lightbulbs and dimmer switches.

Wait. There’s more. And it gets worse. Other residents claim that WiFi internet waves aggravate their electronic allergies, too, and they’re suing to remove all WiFi Hot Spots in the city.

To add merit to their case, they are classifying their “allergy” or “sensitivity” as a disability and are claiming the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination based on disability.

What if they’re allergic to radio and television waves?

Shameless self promotion:

The Mac brought massive change to the world of computers. The iPod brought change to how we listen to and manage music. The iPhone changed how we use cell phones. If this trend continues, Apple’s iPad may signal another era of dramatic change. Should we begin to prepare for the day when our Macs and Windows PCs are no longer the center of our computing universe? Yes.

Frédéric Filloux in The Washington Post worries that the iPad could be used to censor bad news (at least, in France).

Imagine this scenario in a coming iPad era. An iPad newsmagazine publishes an investigative piece that triggers a legal injunction: Remove that from the publication or face a $10,000 penalty per day. No, says the publisher, who has guts and money (proof that this is a fiction): We want to fight in court. The plaintiff then turns to Apple. Same threat: Face a huge fine or remove the offending content. Furthermore, says the plaintiff’s attorney, thanks to the permanent and unique electronic link to your proprietary devices and the fact that the electronic kiosk now resides on the device, you must extend the deletion to each user’s tablet. Just as you keep pushing updates and various content bits to these gizmos, you can push a delete instruction code.

Far fetched? Maybe not.

With the iPad structure, Apple is creating absolute control for product, delivery and even ownership that can be revoked at will. Apple allows or rejects the application (the container); it can remove all or part of any content from its servers; and it can even remotely delete the stuff you purchased. Imagine: You go to a bookstore and spend $25 on a book that a court later finds illicit; a bookstore employee then goes to your place, takes the book from the shelf and leaves some money on your kitchen table. Wouldn’t you be slightly uncomfortable with this?

Interesting, no?

Microsoft says Windows 7 should ship to customers by the end of 2009.

Although the company has until now maintained that the OS would ship near the three-year anniversary of Vista, or early 2010, senior Windows VP Bill Veghte now says he expects the update to ship before the holidays.

My bet is that Mac OS X Snow Leopard ships by October.

Unless you’ve been on a sabbatical to Elbonia, you know that Apple, Inc. is about to release a tablet computer. The unannounced, unknown device is commonly known as iTablet, iSlate, iPad, or Jesus Tablet by technology pundits. Arik Hesseldahl in BusinessWeek:

The hunger for information—and misguided speculation—reminds me of the mistaken prognosticating about the iPhone before its introduction three years ago. It may be time to step back and realize that Apple may uncork a product so surprising that the company again leaves the tech industry scrambling to catch up to its products’ smooth operation and sleek design.

So, what should we expect from Apple (besides the unexpected)?

Apple may throw everyone a curve ball here. Imagine an Apple tablet about the size of a 11-in. spiral notebook with an iPhone-like touch screen. How about the ability for the machine to recognize voice commands and dictation of text? A built-in video camera and maybe a mini-projector for meetings would be nice. And if the reports of Apple’s discussion to land print media content in the iTunes store are true, how about an easy-on-the-eyes display for reading electronic magazines and books?

Besides email, music, movies, TV shows, and browsing on a larger screen device, what will the Jesus Tablet do that isn’t already being done by an iPhone or a Mac?

We use PCs and laptops to get things done when we’re stationary; we use mobile devices to stay informed and complete small tasks when we’re out and about. This device, it seems, will either have to incorporate both paradigms or have to create one of its own.

Basically, nobody but Apple knows.

But I’ll buy one.

Survey of computer use over 12 years from the University of Virgina. The trends are clear. From 1997 to today nearly all students own a computer, notebooks out number desktop PCs, and—drum roll—Mac market share is nearly 40-percent.

Each computing inventory is the compilation of statistics regarding computer ownership; type of computer; operating system; network capability; peripherals; and in recent years, mobile device ownership, too—among incoming first-year students at UVa.

Stunning trend. No wonder Microsoft is so desperate. The red bar is the Mac. Click for a larger version.

The Macalope on Walmart as a potential Mac retailer.

The thought of a premium brand like the Mac being pushed through a high-volume retailer with a logo that looks suspiciously like the end part of the human digestive tract may lead you to some uncomfortable analogies.

Is the iPhone a less premium brand than the Mac?