How much does a dog enjoy jumping off a tall mountain on the back of an enormous green bird? It's hard to say. Depends on the temperament of the animal, of course, but if you had to bet money you'd say the spectrum of enjoyment went from "paralyzing fear" to "uncomprehending acceptance."

If winching the dog down to the rock made you flinch from fear of heights, the sight of the guy going down the rope as if it was a bannister may have convinced you that this is a pastime you will never explore.

TECH A Nest thermostat was hacked. Everyone panic:

True. In this case, however, the hackers had physical access to the device, and could insert some malware via a USB stick. Defenders note that if they're in your house for nefarious purposes, they'll probably go for the jewelry. True, but it doesn't mean some Bond-villain minions couldn't install some eavesdropping programs in the thing, and it doesn't mean these devices will be forever protected from a network attack. I can do without my thermostat talking to Google. I can live without getting a Google Alert because the device's motion detector said there was someone in the house, when I know it's the dog. It is the dog, isn't it? Right. Has to be the dog! Sigh: fire up the webcam on the stove, see if there's anyone in the kitchen . . . hmm, doesn't work. Or maybe it's smeared with grease and smoke. Let's try the motion sensors on the dishwasher . . . odd; there's text on the screen. It's an URL for pills. Arrgh; forgot to update the anti-virus.

Those are the fears, but I suspect the reality will be less perilous. There will always be evil little twerps who spend their time figuring out how to load malware on your Android to reprogram your freezer, but it's not exactly a high-value target.

GAMES John Romero is going to make you a twitch, to paraphrase an infamous ad campaign. He's making a new first-person shooter, PCWorld says. Took 14 years to recover from Daikatana, apparently. A clip from the interminable Wikipedia entry on the plot:

Nevermind. Here's what it looked like.

In 2000, compared to Quake 3, that was laughable. You can watch a fellow wisecracking his way through the last level here, and if you can get past the occasional nasal snort, you'll see the SHOCKING REVELATION of the plot.