I was in the back of a cab yesterday -- no, before you start wondering, this isn’t one of those kinds of stories -- heading to an event, and as luck would have it, got a rather chatty cab driver who asked me what it was that I did. I explained I was a freelance technology writer, and this led into an interesting discussion between the two of us on the merits (or drawbacks) of the adoption of technology via a particularly mobile form of technology: GPS.

Before that ride, I would have figured that, while every cab I’ve been inside in the last few years has had GPS, the general trend of GPS systems to give ever so slightly wacky directions would be the taxi driver’s sole source of contention. As it turns out, I was wrong. He was somewhat surprised to hear me talk of GPS in terms of inaccurate directions, as he stated he’d never had a bum call from his.

His problem wasn’t the quality of the instructions, but what it was doing to the cab trade in general. The new taxi booking system (or at least the one in his cab; I’ve seen some that appear to be being held in place by duct tape, possibly to stop the hamsters running the dot matrix printer from escaping) also uses GPS, and this means that when jobs come in, the cab “knows” where it is, and only offers up those nearby. This, to him, was a problem; he couldn’t use his accumulated knowledge to skip past an area to another that might have more short fares, because the cab system would know and log this.

Similarly, he’d also seen a rise in less knowledgeable cabbies getting by on just GPS alone. Where previously such drivers might have passed on a job because they didn’t know it, now jobs were being snapped up by any driver because they figured that the GPS would tell them where to go. I think I’ve been in a few cabs like that, and it’s not always the most reassuring thing, especially if you know how interesting and “creative” some GPS instructions can get. I’m admittedly a biased sample -- I once had a GPS system quite literally tell me to continue driving forwards when my car was facing the edge of a sheer cliff -- but that’s still something of a worry. On balance, while a GPS beats the heck out of a taxi driver thumbing through an A-Z trying to find streets while steering with his knees, I’d rather get into a cab that had some basic knowledge.

On the topic of GPS-aware cabs stopping him being able to cherry pick fares, I had less sympathy, but remained mostly quiet. Frankly, if I need a cab, I’d rather there was one there, rather than racing to where the ‘premium’ (in this case, short fares with lots of flagfall fees to collect) locations are.

Still, an interesting perspective to take in; not all uses of technology to ‘improve’ something -- in this case the application of GPS directions to cab driving -- will always lead to an improved service.

The recent story on Auscamonline re: a Sydney pair with the backing of super-brain Andrew Denton to use BitTorrent to publicise their new movie, The Tunnel, certainly generated a lot of traffic. I had not heard of such a thing before and was quickly notified of this by Gadget Guy’s @leighlo, but the fact remains it is a very novel way of doing this.

BitTorrent has been much maligned – fairly so – in the past as it is almost synonymous with movie, video and file piracy. But it’s fair to say it is people who do the piracy; the technology is therefore unfairly blamed.

I cannot condone movie piracy using PirateBay and their like, but I am curious about people’s reactions to TV shows. Jeremy Clarkson is on record as saying that if people pirate Top Gear, effectively contributing nothing towards its costs, why should he waste time and money (and presumably that means taxpayer’s cash seeing as it is a BBC show) to make it? I get what he means, but how many would download something such as Top Gear or other top rating shows when they become available, which is usually well before they go to air in Australia? More importantly, how many watch the show AGAIN when it does comes to TV here in Australia? Does this then justify your initial download?

Another issue is when you will never actually get to see the program on FTA TV. For example, where I am in Bridgetown WA, WIN TV is a hybrid mixture of 9 and 10 and GWN is a somewhat copy of 7 so there are some programs we will never see. Is it then OK to download such a show? Or is that like copying a DVD you’d never in all reality buy?

It’s a complex argument, and not going to get easier. OneHD has attempted to block one hole by streaming sports such as Formula One live, and the current breed of TVs with ‘net connections help here. But they need to spruce up their game if the Spanish Grand Prix broadcast the other night was anything to go by (missing the start, a fair slice of the first pit stops and almost the finish!)

So what’s your take on BitTorrent and its siblings?

A group of people got very rich late last week as shares in networking site LinkedIn more than doubled on debut. Welcome to the new tech bubble.

As the first major social networking service to go public, all eyes were on the early performance of the company. But even the most enthusiastic must have been impressed as the share price thundered skywards.

The rush proves there is strong demand for shares in companies active in the social media sector. And that demand is strong enough to push prices well above their natural levels.

Sound familiar? It should to anyone who witnessed the crazy market action as the dot-com boom headed for its peak in March, 2000. Back then people were throwing crazy amounts at anyone with a sexy URL and a business plan scribbled on a scrap of paper.

Obviously we are not at that stage - yet - but you can feel the temperature rising. Prepare for bubble 2.0.

If everyone is still hot under the collar if and when FaceBook decides to go public, expect sharemarkets to go totally nuts.

For too long TV makers have been passing off online video and basic apps as “smart” TV, but we’re finally seeing the two converge.

To me the rise of Smart TV has been a three-phase process. Phase 1 was mostly about adding online video to your AV devices, such as Sony’s impressive Bravia Internet Video service. Phase 2 was about adding basic apps - the usual suspects such as news, weather and the social media crowd. We’ve seen this from plenty of TV makers, but it’s generally stuff I can already do on my notebook/smartphone/tablet while watching the television. Phase 3 of Smart TV is when apps and video start to interact and really revolutionise the viewing experience.

Some of the best examples I’ve seen of Phase 3 Smart TV apps are the Bigpond AFL and NRL Game Analysers, which are now available on LG and Samsung televisions. These apps provide an interactive timeline which lets you manipulate match replays and jump to the highlights. It’s a concept that can be applied to any televised sporting event and developer Accedo Broadband is about to unveil a few more to sit alongside the AFL and NRL offerings. Accedo is working with other Australian content providers and also developing for Google TV, so big things are on the horizon.

The Bigpond Game Analysers are proof that the Smart TV concept is finally coming of age and I'd say we’ve got an exciting 12 months ahead. One thing is for sure, Smart TV means you’ll start looking at television in a whole new way.

During the last month or so there's been an apparent burst of activity on the Mac malware front.

Fake antivirus software scams have been popping up on Mac screens thanks to what seems to have been effective search engine poisoning campaigns involving Google image searches in particular.

The windows generated by the malicious web pages are becoming increasingly Mac-like. You can see an example at Intego's Mac Security Blog and at Sophos's Naked Security blog (with video). Keep in mind that the names used have varied, and may change again.

Basically, the scam is to persuade the victim that their Mac is infected (eg, with dire warnings and by automatically opening smutty web pages), and that a paid copy of the fake AV software will clean it up. User interaction is needed, so it's not a huge threat - but some people are being fooled.

The other issue is that "The first advanced DIY (Do-It-Yourself) crimeware kit aimed at the Mac OS X platform has just been announced on a few closed underground forums" according to security researcher Peter Kruse at CSIS Security Group. The 'Weyland-Yutani BOT' carries out web injection (ie, it can add content such as bogus form fields to web pages before they are rendered) and form grabbing (ie, it can steal data you typed into web forms, such as usernames and passwords). The initial version worked with Firefox, but Kruse said support for Chrome and Safari would follow.

What wasn't made clear is how purchasers of the Weyland-Yutani BOT are supposed to get the malware onto victim's computers in the first place (presumably via the usual tricks employed to induce people to visit malicious pages), but the existence of kits like this do make life easier for the criminally inclined but less technically able.

There's a tendency in some parts of the Mac community to liken anyone expressing concern about the likelihood of a serious outbreak of Mac malware to the boy who cried wolf. In one way, I think they may be right: the wolf did eventually show up. The difference that when (if) that happens, the boy will be safe but his fellow villagers will be in jeopardy. So I believe the assumption that anyone expressing such concerns must be acting out of self-interest or malice (as did the boy in the story) is misplaced. Yes, there are commercial interests at play, but it would be a mistake to think that's the whole story.

I've practically given up offering advice on this issue. It's become an almost religious matter with little chance that people on either side will change their minds. So I'll continue to take the precautions I consider appropriate, and leave everyone else can do whatever they think is best - which for some is nothing beyond installing OS and application patches when they get around to it. We'll see who ends up worse off.