Thursday, June 23, 2011

Rise of the Machines: Is Judgment Day here?

In a room filled with banks of humming servers at Google, Skynet became self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time. According to Terminator lore, "it had spread into millions of computer servers across the planet. Ordinary computers in office buildings, dorm rooms, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Gmail; everywhere. It was software; in cyberspace. There was no system core; it could not be shutdown." That probably explains the e-mail I received today from Norton, the good folks who make the anti-virus software that protects my laptop from the ravishes of the Internet and the digital Mephistopheleses it spawns. "Thank You for Choosing Norton," it read cheerily. "Your subscription was renewed on June 23, 2011 and your credit card listed below was automatically charged USD $XX.XX for another year of protection." Buh-Bye. Um, automatic renewal? That was news to me. Fortunately for Norton, I'm delighted with its service and undying pledge to give "me and my family" continued "peace of mind." Otherwise I'd be calling both my lawyer and the Terminator (assuming he could break away from divorce court).

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