Some of them end up famous; some of them are destined to spend eternity in archives designed for the uninspired. Most of these contraptions will find meaningful uses and applications. On the other hand, some should be transformed into cat o’ nine tails (in their original incarnation and intention) with which to make their creators’ behinds burn.

Microsoft Does CSI

Evildoers should thank their lucky starts Bill Gates chose to be an IT guy instead of becoming a police officer. With his trademark brain power and persistence, Microsoft’s co-founder could have given criminals a hard time.

Just take a look at Microsoft’s Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor, which despite its rather long and forbidding name is enabling thousands of police officers in the U.S. and other countries to easily decrypt passwords of computers. Available for free from the software giant, the USB thumb drive analyzes a computer’s Internet whereabouts and the data stored on its hard disk.

Hmm. Bill Gates is set to retire from day-to-day operations at Microsoft. Maybe criminals should start praying that he does not think of having a second career in law enforcement.

Repo Guy From the Future

Car loan companies and car sellers in the U.S. are installing special payment-reminder devices on automobiles they sell to high credit-risk buyers. These gadgets are programmed to stall the car once the consumer misses a payment.

Some of these devices have flashing lights that remind the drivers that payment is due. Others, meanwhile, are equipped with GPS technology, which enables car sellers to determine the locations of the automobiles they may have to repossess.

What would they think of next, credit cards that transform into handcuffs when monthly payments are due?

Pennies for Energy Research

The U.S. government is spending billions of dollars monthly for its ill-conceived war in Iraq. And what does it have to show for it? Goodwill and prestige lost, not to mention the thousands of Iraqi and American lives claimed by the war.

On the other hand, the U.S. Department of Energy plans to appropriate up to million to support development of low-cost concentrating solar power technology. The funding allocations, according to the agency, are part of the government’s efforts to make the country less dependent on oil imports.

Well, maybe, if the world’s greatest country would learn to control the urge to engage in costly wars, it would have more money available for alternative energy research initiatives. And maybe then, it would become less addicted to Middle Eastern petroleum exports.

The same message goes to our government leaders. Well, this country might not be as ready and willing to go to war for oil as our former colonizers, but we are not lacking in leaders who are equally nearsighted as their former overlords. They do not see or are unwilling to see the need for alternative energy sources.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.