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It was Sunday evening at a casual Orland Park restaurant. A couple, in their late 20s or early 30s, held hands, deeply kissed and couldn't take their hands off one another. The young lovers were both men. Often in articles relating to changing social mores, the writer begins by assuring readers he's no prude. That's not happening here. I live a sheltered life by design. I know that I'm an old fogy, a fuddy-duddy and a stuffed shirt. Oh, and of course a curmudgeon too. Even if that weren't the case, though, I think seeing these two characters in action,...

Canary Wireless LLC, a Chicago start-up, has launched the first hand-held device that not only detects Wi-Fi hot spots and measures how strong their signals are, but can tell whether they are open for subscribers or available for a free ride to check e-mail. Wi-Fi buff Ben Kern, 34, a technology lawyer with Gordon & Glickson, who founded Canary Wireless, said, "Wi-Fi is booming, and people need an easy way to find hot spots they can use."

A weekly series by United Press International examining emerging wireless technologies. -- CHICAGO, June 11 (UPI) -- A moniker given to business travelers who lug a lot of computer gear with them through major airports from New York to Los Angeles and beyond -- road warriors -- is fast fading away. Advances in technology for personal digital assistants, made by Sony and other manufacturers, and for other wireless devices, such as the Blackberry, are making the notebook computer seem as dated as a manual typewriter. Faster processing power, in a package nearly as small as a mobile phone, with a...

WASHINGTON, July 11 — The Transportation Security Administration spent $6.9 million to outfit the federal air marshal corps with voice-capable wireless handheld computers for in-flight use and then subsequently banned any voice usage because of potential interference with cockpit functions, according to interviews with several air marshals. THE HANDHELD DEVICES, made by Palm Inc. and commonly known as “personal digital assistants” (PDAs), have become a running joke, in part because they are unwieldy to use, according to interviews more than a dozen air marshals and administrators within the air marshal program due to the unwieldy nature of their use. Although...