Technobabble

Hanukkah Solo I hope all you tech readers received a healthy amount of gigabytes, silicon and circuitry to keep you satisfied this holiday season, even if you ended up buying it for yourself as I did (hey, if you don’t love yourself, no one can).

Growing up on Long Island, N.Y., I thought I was Jewish until I was denied a Bar Mitzvah. But being raised in a community where we celebrated Hanukkah as much as Christmas has left me with many happy childhood memories of playing with Dreidels. Now someone has given us tech geeks our very own holiday of lights top: the Droid Dreidel. It can be found at: http://www.starwars.com/kids/activity/crafts/f20051216/index.html

Just print it out, glue it to card stock, cut it out and assemble your very own R2-D2 Dreidel.

Bad Santa It’s good to know that malicious virus coders are in the holiday spirit this year. Some merry prankster released the IM.GiftCom.All worm on American Online, Microsoft MSN and Yahoo instant-messaging (IM) programs. If you get an IM from a “friend” with a Santa Claus image attached, don’t click through. By doing so, you activate a worm that installs a rootkit on your computer, a tool that hacks into your machine at the administrative-level, gaining access to your system. This Santa worm then procreates by sending itself through IM to all of your contacts disguised as you. Infectious digit tidings for all.

Dying to play So you thought I made it through a whole column without mentioning the online game, World of Warcraft. I should say, I wouldn’t be an addict if it weren’t for this column. I first heard about the biggest massively multiplayer online game (MPOG) while doing research for Technobabble and the more I read, the more I wanted to play. I dropped the $50 for the game (plus $15-per-month subscription) and now I have no friends. At least no non-virtual friends. There are now more than five million subscribers playing this MPOG worldwide. But I’ll have to keep my habit in check as there are a number of people dying from playing. A 28-year-old Korean man died this summer after playing Starcraft for more than 50 straight hours without sleep and very little food or water. Last year, a 13-year-old Chinese boy jumped to his death from a 24-story building after playing too much World of Warcraft. So maybe you’re fortunate your aunt gave you that 5,000-piece cat and yarn puzzle for the holidays instead of an online game.

Happy New Year.