Software

The Frackers and the Environmentalists Will Square Off at Dallas City Hall This Week

This was all supposed to be wrapped up months ago. The City Council formed the Gas Drilling Task Force more than a year ago, which was initially scheduled to wrap things up and have a final recommendation by November. A handful of issues -- proper setbacks, whether to allow drilling in parks and flo ... More >>

Want to Ride to Work With Strangers, North Texas? There Will Soon Be An App For That.

Slugging, aka commuting to work in random strangers' cars, has long been a thing in Houston and a handful of other cities across the country but never in Dallas. Maybe it's that use of our HOV lanes requires only two people per vehicle or that Dallas doesn't have enough pockets of density. Maybe it' ... More >>

Tabbed Out: The iPhone App That Lets You Close Your Tab without Really Opening One

The Katy Trail Ice House was a zoo on Friday. There wasn't a single seat available, and there was a wait at the bar to get a beer. Despite the crowd, I was able to get in, order a Lawnmower, chug it and get out in about five minutes. How'd I do it? An iPhone app called Tabbed Out that promises to li ... More >>

Southwest Airlines Takes On Site That Makes It Much Easier and Cheaper to Check In Early

​Love Field-based Southwest makes it easy to check in early: Pay the carrier an extra $20 for a round-trip flight, and as soon as the early-bird check-in line opens, some 36 hours before take-off, you'll get a boarding pass in the much-coveted Group A. Which isn't guaranteed, mind you, but it coul ... More >>

The Incredible Shrinking Bond Forfeitures: At This Rate, County Will Owe Bondsmen Money

Photo by Brantley Hargrove​On Sunday the daily reported that Dallas County had some $35 million in outstanding bond forfeitures. Oh, but wait: Yesterday Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins shot back, calling the number a "gross misinterpretation of the true nature and totality of the bail bond fo ... More >>

Get With the Program

Ableton Live becomes the latest technological advance to shape music.

Dear Dallas Morning News: I Love the Pay Wall. No, Really. Now May I Please Come In?

​I'm all for pay walls. Pay walls r me. When newspapers like The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times put up pay walls, charging readers for access to news content, I figure they're trying to get ink-stained schlubs like me paid. I know there are people out there who think we reporters ... More >>

Presenting! The New Village Voice Best Of App

Download the App in the iTunes Store, or search "best of " in the App Store.​A few months ago we announced the launch of the Dallas Observer iPhone app, (which is completely free, dudes), and now we have a new one for you: the Best Of.. Village Voice Media App. Before we get a breathy announcement ... More >>

Duck and Cover

Presenting! The Completely Free Dallas Observer iPhone App

Download the App for free in the iTunes App Store under Dallas Observer.​Let's get right to the announcement: our brand-spanking new Dallas Observer iPhone App is available for download, right now, in the iTunes App Store. Before we launch into an epic "presenting" speech, where we tell you that's ... More >>

Get Happy! And App-y

To get the Happy Hours App, click here or search Happy Hours in the iPhone App Store.​In this week's cover story, Jesse Hughey and the editorial monks working in the stoney basements of the Dallas Observer have cataloged 50 bars and clubs happy hour specials.The really, really awesome ones. But ... More >>

DC9er Mixtape, Vol. 9: DJ Merritt

​Twenty-something years ago, Merritt was just your average high school kid, hanging out and throwing keggers. But, one Saturday afternoon, on his way to help set up a party, Merritt witnessed a series of life-changing events which transformed him into DJ Merritt--pretty much over night. Now, with ... More >>

Since Everyone Loves Lists, Where Does Dallas Rank on "Riskiest Online Cities"?

​According to Symantec, Dallas does rank fairly high on the list of American cities "under the greatest threat from cybercrime" -- 22 out of the top 50, which makes us the Adam Lambert to Seattle's Rihanna. There's one significant reason Dallas doesn't rank higher: We're not so connected to the Wi ... More >>

Dallas Among Top 10 Cities When It Comes to Putting Off Filing Tax Returns

​So says Intuit, maker of Turbo Tax, which this morning released a list of "this year's biggest tax procrastinators." For the second year in a row, Dallas comes in at No. 9 on the wait list -- which, incidentally, is topped by Houston, so there. And Austin comes in at No. 4, after placing 11th las ... More >>

In the War of Attrition Waged by the Texas Attorney General Against Robert O'Donnell, There Were Unintended Consequences

And The Winner Is...

It was an unusually frantic week at City of Ate, thanks in part to those [expletive deleted]'s at Lazare, but more to our own tedious blogging software, which one day decided--all on its own--to block all comments.Still, we had a lot to work with. And if we were giving away prizes, these fine folks ... More >>

Garland Game-Makers Taken to NY Court Over Loooong-Delayed Duke Nukem Forever

One of the few things folks have seen from Duke Nukem Forever, in the making since 1997According to its Web site, Apogee Software "is considered the founder and father of the local Dallas-area game development community," but it's no more. The PC shareware developer's been dead all of a week now, so ... More >>

A Wolfenstein at the Door: Id's Still Working On a New iPhone App, But There is Quake Live

A screenshot from Wolfenstein RPG for your cell phoneMesquite-based id Software's but moments away from unleashing its browser-based Quake Live, and in advance of that momentous open-beta occasion, John Carmack talks to MTV Multiplayer today about everything happening at id these days (everything ex ... More >>

A Dallas Company Has Figured Out How to Keep Cell Phones Off the Road

A Dallas-based company called WQN now sells software called WebSafety, which runs $10 a month and shuts down a cell phone when a driver is, um, driving. The software uses GPS technology, and, after the driver hits a certain speed, the software disables the phone. Which parents love, since it'll keep ... More >>

It Only Took Seven Years to Find Out Convention Center Bought Bum Software

John Carmack Has Space Balls

At the Anatole, John Carmack Got Gamers Quaking in Their Booties

New Dallas-Based Seach Engine, Viewzi, Is Fun to Look At, If Nothing Else

Doo bee doo ba ba da!

Danny Tanner would be proud

Review: Jonathan Coulton at Club Dada

At Least Tom Leppert's Done Bullshitting

Greg Brady Owes SEC $8.3 Million, But Still Gets To Keep Room in Attic

The Backdating Scene

Full House

Gamble on Lost Vegas at Barnes & Noble

Software Bug

Dallas Appraisal District battles a software developer over property rights

Wize Guys

Here's your chance to get rich quick -- or lose your shirt, in which case, GlobalTec disavows all responsibility for, well, anything

Burning the Faithful

New copy-protected CDs screw over the only honest customers the music industry has left

Spike Dance

The Hunt Oil people were shakin' their booties at City Hall last week

True Stories

Anne Tucker shows Beauty is in the Feet of the Beholder

Lemonade

Mark Cuban, you so smart!

Screwing the Man

Electronic Robin Hoods claim music file-swapping is an act of civil disobedience

Cheap Thrills

Movies in Motion are movies for gratis

Hard Words for Software

DCAD spends $5.5 million developing its own computer program. Why?

Big-Ticket Laura

No fix for potholes, but big parks for the fat cats

Best Used Computer Store

Tran Computer Service

Code of Conduct

Dave Thomas' book offers workplace philosophy for more than just computer freaks and geeks

Look at this!

Loving art -- and Art Kid -- at the DMA is a many-gendered thing

Shut in

iSong.com breaks down the last barrier to being a musician -- leaving the house

Ignorance is bliss

Two supposed champions of open government are pushing hard to keep campaign finance records off the Internet. What don't they want you to know?

Censor.com

Plano wades into the thicket of Internet access, porn, and the First Amendment

Invasion of the bodyshoppers

A shortage of American engineers and programmers spells boom times for brokers who peddle skilled foreign workers at bargain prices. Is it exploitation, or just good business?

Executive sweet

DISD Superintendent Yvonne Gonzalez spent a lot more on her new office than taxpayers were told

Space Aliens are Breeding with Earth Women

Buzz