Emru Townsend

Computers are all over movies these days, from the ones behind the scenes that create gosh-wow special effects to the ones on screen that are the constant targets of ridiculously good-looking hackers. What's rare is finding movies where computers and programs--androids and robots don't count--are actually part of the cast. A computer hasn't won an Oscar yet, but with these five films you can at least imagine them asking, "What's my motivation?"

1. Ghost in the Shell (1995)

The Ghost in the Shell title actually applies to three anime movies (and two TV series, as well as the manga and games they were all based on). They're all set on a near-future Earth where computer networks have infiltrated every aspect of life, and just about everyone has had some kind of cybernetic enhancement. That can mean a bionic arm, replacement eyes, communication jacks in the back of the neck, or a even a fully prosthetic body and cybernetic brain. (The title refers to the concept of a person's "ghost"--their soul, if you like--and their physical body.)

It seems a recent spin on wardriving resulted in an interesting picture of the state of Wi-Fi security around the Strip in Las Vegas.

The place was this year's hacker conference Defcon, and the leader of the project originated was information security engineer Rick Hill. Expanding on his earlier WarRocketing experiment, he and his team tried WarBallooning -- they rented a balloon (the type often used for real-estate photography) and sent it 150 feet into the air, along with antennas and scanning software, searching for wireless networks.

About eleven months ago I wrote about the third-generation FireWire and USB specs that were on the boards. Recently the 1394 Trade Association approved the FireWire S1600 and S3200 formats, with the final spec to be published in October. It's out of the gate first, but not by that large a margin: Intel's USB 3.0 spec is expected to be released by the end of the year. FireWire S1600 and S3200 will be backward-compatible with the current FireWire 400 and 800 formats.

FireWire has generally been the Betamax of plug-and-play port formats. It's technically a better format in terms of power efficiency and capabilities, and each generation has seen FireWire with a ransfer-speed advantage over its USB counterpart. (That may not be the case this time: the new formats' theoretical throughputs will top out at 1.6 and 3.2 gigabits per second, compared to USB 3.0's target of 4.8 Gb/s.)

Acoustic Coupler Modems

Osborne 1

(Looking for instructions on how to share files and printers between Windows 7, Vista, XP, and even a Mac? Read our new How To Set Up Your Home Network, Windows 7 Edition.)

If you have more than one computer in your home, you quickly discover what a hassle it is to be shoved aside when someone else needs the printer--which happens to be attached to your PC. You're also probably tired of running up and down the stairs to transfer files using floppy disks. And no one likes fighting over the only computer with Internet access. No wonder you're interested in home networking.