Monthly Archives: December 2025

ChatGPT still hallucinates

More than a year ago we read how ChatGPT would just make things up and how it embarrassed a lawyer who used it by citing court cases that it just made up. After all this time, ChatGLT is no better and maybe worse. At least 25% of the time I use it, I find it […]

When Technology Breaks, It Breaks Society

When a power outage in San Francisco last night caused Waymo’s autonomous cars to freeze in place, snarl traffic, and block emergency vehicles, it felt to me like a paradigm of big tech. It was a predictable failure. The tech industry loves to release breakthrough products, but consistently refuses to confront how fragile these systems […]

Favorite gadgets of 2025

I remember when my December newspaper columns were filled with new and unusual tech and travel products of the year, but no longer do see the swarm of new gadgets that we experienced in past years. Instead we’re mostly seeing refinements, improvements, and miniaturization of existing categories of products. This week I look back at […]

Why Under-Seat Bags Became the New Battleground

There was a time when the under-seat bag barely mattered. It carried a book, a computer, a boarding pass, maybe a sandwich. The real action lived in the overhead bin. The focus of interest was the rollerboard bag category, with every luggage company creating a line of bags measuring precisely 21 x 9 x 15 […]

The great texting onslaught from our politicians

My phone messages are being filled with a continuous torrent of requests for donations from our politicians. Day and night, I, a stranger they’ve never met, receive texts telling me I hold the key to saving their campaign. The tone is always frantic. “We are begging you.” “We are collapsing.” “We will not survive the […]