and then editorialize their contents. It's not new, so, let's get on with it...
First, a follow-up...
So, a couple days ago, I mentioned, in passing, that Steve Jobs had written an open letter talking about the future of digital music and DRM (Digital Rights Management).
Today, the Chicago Sun Times is reporting that EMI, who owns is in talks with online retailers about selling their music DRM free. We're not talking about a few songs here and there, like some others are considering, but EVERYTHING, their entire catalog of music. Considering they are in control of such assets as The Rolling Stones, Norah Jones and Coldplay, that's a pretty interesting consideration.
I thought it was an interesting follow-up, coming on the heels of Steve Jobs's editorial. It's pretty clear that his letter had nothing to do with the decision, because EMI has been testing the idea for months, and certainly, record label execs aren't likely to just abandon their current strategies in just a few days because of something a computer mogul like Jobs' said, but now I wonder if his letter had anything to do with the impending news of EMI's DRM destruction.
Food for thought.
Porn industry may NOT be the deciding factor, after all.
Another follow-up, where I had mentioned that the Porn Idustry might be the deciding vote for the HD-DVD vs. BluRay controversy, as they were for the VHS vs. BetaMax rift so very many years ago, it seems, according to this article, that the numbers they are putting up regarding their sales numbers and what kind of effect they might have on the world my be slightly 'inflated'.
I can't help be say that it's not hard to believe the numbers that were thrown around, based entirely on the firm knowledge that people loves them some pr0nZoRz, but, it seems that, while not uncommon in the world of sex and such, some exaggerations might have been made.
World's biggest waste of webpage?
The maker's of this site claim to be the 'World's Highest Website', and oddly, it has nothing to do with weed. It's actually a CSS experiment, CSS or Cascading Style Sheets, are basically exactly what they sound like, though, the technology behind them is a little more complex. Literally, it's a sheet, that can be layered over others to provide a uniform style to a site. Make sense? Good.
The reality is that the web page you load has a source consisting of only about 55 lines of html, yet, if you actually scroll down through the page it will take you hours, because, it's designed to be 11.769 miles high. Silly, yes? Waste of time, perhaps, but, it's funny none-the-less.
Zie German's are looking to ban freedom to deny...
This article on bbc.com talks about the German's wish to push through measures that would criminalize speaking out in denial of the holocaust, genocide, and crimes against humanity.
I've read a few posts discussing the topic, where people are claiming 'the Nazis are still in charge', and it's wrong to deny freedom of speech, no matter what the topic. The thing to understand that Germany doesn't have freedom of speech, and, as whole, has been, since WWII, a hugely xenophobic country, trying desperately to stamp out any negative public speech that might portray the country in a negative light. It's not hard to understand why, since the country was responsible for so very many atrocities. They've even banned video games that have anything to do with WWII imagry, such has Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and have even pushed for games like Call of Duty and Company of Heroes to be banned within their borders. On top of that, a lot of other media that broaches on subjects of WWII, religion, and violence are banned within the country.
So, why are people so surprised by this?
I don't think it's right to ban free speech, even if what someone is saying is really stupid. Of course the holocaust happened, it's generally accepted, but, there's no reason you can't say it didn't.
Excellent Video!
This is a video of a group of people throwing dynamite into a pond and then riding the waves out on a surfboard. Many people, the world over have screamed "FAKE" as if it wasn't painfully obvious when you reach the end of the video and see the 'Quicksilver' logo. It's a viral marketing campaign, and I think it's working pretty well. There's no need to break out your engineering degree and tell people that there's no way to displace that volume of water with dynamite, etc...
Check it out, because it's still a lot of fun to watch.
Thai women ends up lost for 25 years... no she's gone home...
I know it's my cultural insensitivity, but, I can't see how this story is even possible, much less plausible. I suppose, when you lay out the facts as reported, it's plausible, but, it just makes my head hurt.
A synopsis: Woman in remote part of Thailand gets on bus to neighboring Malaysia, then, mistakenly gets on bus to Bangkok, then, when unable to communicate, speaking an obscure Malay dialect called Yawi, she gets on another bus to somewhere else that's wrong. In the end, she ends up in a homeless shelter for a couple decades, until a student checking out homelessness for a project over hears her singing an old song, places the dialect, and helps her to get home.
The article can be found here. I think my only problem is that, as a father of only 2 children, I couldn't be separated from my children, no matter what the odds, I would fight my way home, I wouldn't ever just settle down in a homeless shelter and prepare to die. This woman left 7 children behind in 1982... it just doesn't make sense. On top of that, it seems like, just from talking to enough people who speak a SIMILAR LANGUAGE, that you might be able to pick up enough to be able to relay your predicament, and appeal to peoples sense of decency to help you get home. I mean, really, you can't say that it would take you more than a few years to pick up another language in complete immersion.
I can't help but laugh, however, that the story was written by someone named Rapee Mama. Sorry, but that's just... funny to me.
Family in CA tries to sell painting for college money.
According to this article, a family in California put up a painting they'd had for auction. They hoped to sell it for a few bucks, recognizing that it was very old, and therefore likely worth something. The auction house they brought it to was unable to authenticate it, however, in the end, a rumor about it being a lost work of an Italian master, Pier Francesco Mola, from the 17th century bumped the bidding all the way of to $600K. Talk about cash in the attic.
Brain Scanner?
There's a lot of buzz about this new contraption, which can, we're told, read the brain patterns of a person and predict their behavior / intentions. The guardian has an article on the subject.
There's apparently a lot of ethical debate about the thing.
If it works, great... but, if there's even a margin for error....
Well, polygraphs aren't admissible in court in the U.S., I can't imagine that this will be.
The uses of the technology range from improving artificial limb interface, and mind controlled computers, to minority report style 'future crime' detection. The latter, which is mentioned in the article, escapes me, as I can't imagine that this is a ray-gun you can just point at people to get a read, how would you even know to hook people up to this machine to find out if they are going to commit a crime?
The future of operating systems!
As you may have noticed, I have a lot of interest in technology, so, it's no surprise that I read a lot of articles about Operating Systems.
This article didn't escape my purview as it's an estimation about the coming age of the OS world.
I think it's pretty well written, it touches on current standards and the likely-hood of modularization of OS's, the *nix condition, and the fact that Mac OS is actually drawing customers from the linux world simply because the new Mac OS hardware can run Windows. It discusses the idea of pure internet based applications and OS systems, and, also talks a little about the current, and impending rifts of the OSS community.
It's a good read, though, much of the suggestions have been floating around since the late 90's, a fact the writer actually calls to light.
and finally, half life 2: episode 2, the one driving force in video games keeping me going...
it's been announced hl2:ep2 will be delayed even farther in to 2007, being pushed back now until sometime closer to 2008. but, on top of this horrible news, they've also announced the box art for the 2 editions. they will be 'black' and 'orange'. it's obvious that the box art is NOT what keeps causing the delays.
it's amazing what these talented folks can come up with...
*le sigh*
they're damn lucky that i love the game, and that portals looks like it's going to be the best thing since sliced bread.
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