​Randomly typing the start to questions into Google launches a whole host of weirdness that changes depending upon the searches people type into the search engine giant. Not only are they often interesting, but downright strange. I type in the requests and then answer the questions. You're welcome.

​Dear searchers of Google, you are so fascinating. Over the past few weeks, I've answered the pressing questions you want answered. Questions like "Why are Texans so proud?" and "How stupid could I be?" were cleared up and never need be searched for again. Today, it's a new and exciting question. As usual, I'm up for a challenge.

It should be noted that while I am poking fun here, it's not at overweight people. Hell, I am one of those people. I'm more fascinated by the fact that the most popular fill-ins for the start of this question include "...so fat?" A better question would be "Why are dumb Google searchers so dumb?"

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​Imagine for a moment you own a business and are being investigated for a crime. You come to work and your offices are shut down and your phones turned off by your building's management at the request of the government.

Now, take it a step further and imagine that you weren't the one being investigated; one of the other tenants in your building was the culprit. But you showed up to work and the entire building was closed, power and phone service cut off simply because the government was investigating one of the tenants for wrongdoing -- no warrant, no court order. Pretty scary, right? In the virtual world, apparently, that's already happening.

JotForm.com, an Internet startup that allows users to post forms on Web sites and collect data, had its primary domain name shut down by GoDaddy, the company they bought it from, as the result of an investigation by the Secret Service. According to Ars Technica, JotForm.com co-owner Aytekin Tank was never notified by the government or GoDaddy.

As Ars points out in their story, this is not a site that hosts child pornography or even pirated movies, music (see MegaUpload) or software. This is simply a company that allows users to create forms and collect data.

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​App: Grocery Time
Platform: iPhone
Website: GroceryTimeApp.com
Cost: $1.99

I've tried grocery-helper apps before and never found one that blew me away. I was persuaded to give this one a shot when our own John Royal told me he was doing a story on a Houston Aero who designed the app and I gave it a shot.

In general, grocery apps help organize lists and even track what's in your pantry, but it's a laborious task to get them set up and keep them up to date. I always figured only the most anal among us could possibly keep a grocery app updated often enough to make it useful. I also found most of them to be less than functional.

While I applaud Grocery Time for its unique approach, I can't say I'm any more enthusiastic about apps of this ilk now than I was before.

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John Royal

Meet Chris Clackson, hockey player, iPhone app developer.

​It's been a strange season for the Aeros. They shot off to a quick start, having the best record in the league for the first month or so. Then the injury bug hit the parent club, and key player after key player got the call to join the Wild, leaving the Aeros depleted and relying on young players just recently arrived from the low minors.

Despite slumps, despite an inability to win games on home ice, or to win games that get into overtime, the Aeros are hanging in the playoff hunt with a record of 25-13-3-9 (62 points) and safely in second place of the West Division. They've developed an uncanny ability to win games on the road -- their 16-6-0-3 road record is one of the best in the league. And they've won two of their last three games, all on the road, which is a good way to start a record 11-game road trip.

One of the young kids called up to the Aeros is Chris Clackson. So far he's played just ten games with the Aeros. He doesn't have any goals, and he's got just one assist. He finished his college career a couple of years ago, and since then, he's primarily been exploring the realms of hockey's lower minor leagues with a few short stops in the American Hockey League.

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​When it comes to online security, most of us want to feel safe in the knowledge that our normal Internet behavior won't sacrifice our privacy. We all want to believe that when we surf the Web, the only person who knows what we are looking at are the people in view of the computer monitor and anyone we choose to allow into our intimate online lives. But, the truth is there are a lot of statistics and pieces of data being gathered about you every time you open a browser and start visiting Web sites.

The vast majority of this data mining is harmless. Most of us could care less if others know what browser we use, what operating system, where our Internet service provider's servers are located and the like. Generally, we don't care if Web sites track which pages we visit or how long we are there. That's pretty benign information. But, there can be a lot more to it.

Last week, Ned Hibberd from Fox 26 news contacted me about a Firefox extension called Collusion and asked if I would speak with him on camera about what it tells us about online data gathering. Never having heard of it, I did some research and was surprised at what I found.

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​App: App Shopper
Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Windows, Palm
Web site: WeatherBug Web site
Cost: $0.99

People who know me know I'm a weather nerd. I love reading about it and talking about high pressure areas, cold fronts, hurricanes and the like. The doppler radar plays a prominent role in my mornings. It's ridiculous, but I'm okay with that.

Last year, I put together a list of my nine favorite weather apps. The Weather Channel app, which also ranked fourth on my list of the best apps of 2011, was my number one. The app that is the subject of this post was number three. Well, there's a new app in town and it's my new number one with a bullet.

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​Randomly typing the start to questions into Google launches a whole host of weirdness that changes depending upon the searches people type into the search engine giant. Not only are they often interesting, but down right strange. I type in the requests and then answer the questions. You're welcome.

​It's a question that has been plaguing man for centuries. How stupid? The answer is quite often: very. When typing "how stupid" into Google, there are at least a couple responses that seem obvious. One surprised me...pleasantly.

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​App: App Shopper
Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Mac
Web site: AppShopper.com
Cost: Free

The iPhone may be good for many things -- most of those may be the result of cool little apps that extend its features -- but finding cool apps via the App Store is not one of them. Calling the App Store utilitarian is like calling water wet. It's beyond obvious. Apple may love to make things hyper-simple; there is a point where more complex functions are needed.

That's where App Shopper comes in.

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​Over the past month, I've gotten multiple notices from Google about an update to their privacy documentation and, apparently, it's caused quite a little furor. As usual with any large tech company that commands so much of our data, any change is viewed with skepticism. When Facebook has a policy change, the comments in response make it appear Mark Zuckerberg personally performed a ritual designed to bring about the end of the world.

When it comes to search monolith Google, the fears are even more palpable. After all, this is where people search for all sorts of things they don't want the rest of us to know about.

If you hadn't noticed the changes with Google recently, they have been working to combine many of their already existing tools -- Google+, Gmail, Google Docs, Search, Maps and more -- into one, massive system designed to harness your personal information and search history to deliver better search results and information. On the surface, this may seem a little scary and it's perfectly reasonable to cast a wary gaze in the direction of Mountain View, California, but the reality is this meshing of technologies may be very beneficial.

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​If you haven't been paying attention, a very tiny little war has been brewing over access to the ears of people who like to listen to radio online or on their smart phones. I say it's a tiny war because, at the moment, it is. While many of us who love music and like to listen to it a lot will do whatever we can to seek out alternatives to what we have, the vast majority of people are satisfied with commercial radio.

However, that becomes less and less true and the demographics are skewed younger. Music lovers under 30 continue to abandon the traditional radio format in favor of a wider range of options and flexibility. The hugely successful U.S. launch of Spotify should be fairly obvious proof, but a more interesting battle is being waged between a virtual David versus an online Goliath.

For anyone who hasn't tried it, Pandora is one of the most interesting and wildly successful online music tools ever created. But its domain is being infiltrated by a very big kid on the block, Clear Channel Communications and its relatively new iHeartRadio app. Which is better? Let's find out.

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