The Blog
08 Oct 2001 Music biz wants tougher DMCA, CPRM 2 to protect copyright - Exclusive Scary strategies revealed at secret Washington meeting Damn! Why don't these people just Back Off? I've worked myself and I've got friends who work in the record business. The big labels are now nothing more than a group of anti-competitve cartel with a monopoly on distribution and marketing. They add no value. They're fighting for survival, but we can't allow them to control what PC, OS, software we use.
[ 08-Oct-01 4:25pm ] Gbloogle Search --- Plumbing the Depths Most excellent full text search of UK weblogs that belong to GBLog. Updated twice a day.
[ 08-Oct-01 3:49pm ] Today's CD - Michael Franti & Spearhead - Stay Human The Gil Scott Heron of the late 90s and early noughties. I really like all his stuff from The Disposable Heroes of HipHoprisy through the William Burroughs collaboration and Chocolate Supahighway.
[ 08-Oct-01 3:42pm ] SlugBot: Enemy of Slugs -
The world's first fully autonomous robot is being developed by a team of British scientists. The SlugBot eats slugs and uses their decomposing bodies to generate electricity. I want one of these! We have a big slug and snail problem in our garden. I also find these sorts of mini robots impossibly cool. [ 08-Oct-01 1:06pm ] There's been a load of political speak about broadband in the UK recently with BT claiming that the government and others should help drive up demand. The reality is that it is way too expensive. £40 per month is ridiculous. Even NTL's £24.99 is over the top for 512Kb/128Kb. At this price, NTL can't keep up with demand. But hidden in the small print is an incredible bargain. If you take NTL's cable and telephone package, you can get 64Kb always on for an extra £5 per month. Now this isn't broadband, but it is always on internet access with no extra charges. It'll do fine for now until true broadband comes down to £10pm which is where I would predict demand will really take off.
[ 08-Oct-01 1:04pm ] See on alt.fan.rawilson : I am begining to wonder what Universe I am living in. I roam the web and see wonders and projections of wonders: teleportation, warp drives, time travel, longevity research, gene therapy. "These are marvelous times," I think to myself, "surely the future will be even greater than we can imagine". Then I turn on CNN and watch monkeys throwing shit at each other. Then I listen to under-monkeys telling me that this is Intelligent and Responsible behavior... Indeed!
Is this a war by Gallup poll? There were reports on the TV coverage last night that US Polls were beginning to show dis-satisfaction with the apparent inaction, post WTC. Is it significant that the attacks were timed to allow Bush to speak about it on the early evening news on a Sunday? Or is all this just good propoganda control?
I'm depressed that so much US and UK politics is driven by short term poll results. Next time a professional poll organization asks your opinion, Just Say No. Let the bastards work it out for themselves. [ 08-Oct-01 9:00am ] 07 Oct 2001 So it begins.
[ 07-Oct-01 6:56pm ] True Names - the novel by Vernor Vinge Here's a better more accurate simulation of the original book. It's well worth reading and remarkably visionary for 1979.
[ 07-Oct-01 4:03pm ] 06 Oct 2001 n/a
[ 06-Oct-01 7:30pm ] The digest version of "Learning to Fly" by "Victoria Beckham" : Literally my very own book. How cool is that? Well that's Posh Spice for you!
[ 06-Oct-01 4:41pm ] I write this stuff for myself as much as anyone. But I do wonder sometimes if anyone else is reading it. I get very occasional comments, and there are 18 registered users, so maybe they are. Why not waste a couple of moments and drop me a line to provide some encouragement?
[ 06-Oct-01 4:20pm ] AE Innovations - Midnight Engineering Home built head up displays and wearable computers. I love this stuff but even home built, it's a little out of my league. Maybe next year. The MkIII model he's built is almost invisible as part of a pair of sunglasses. Very cool. Combine this with an 802.11b connected belt PC, a mini vidcam and a one hand chording keyboard and mouse and you it would be perfect for blogging and webcam while walking round an exhibition or commuting (train) to work. Or how about a heads up revcounter and speedo for a motorbike?
[ 06-Oct-01 4:16pm ] True Names by Vernor Vinge After years of searching for this seminal Sci-Fi short story, I finally did a Google search and of course it's on line. It's been out of print for years so looking for it in sci-fi bookshops was obviously a waste of time. Most Excellent!
[ 06-Oct-01 4:12pm ] Vernor Vinge on the Singularity : What is The Singularity?
[ 06-Oct-01 1:24pm ] Behind Enemy Lines - A Spammer's Luck Runs Out When She Forges The Wrong Domain Who cares if it's true or not? But wouldn't you just love it to be real?
N. Negroponte in Converge Magazine
Question: If MegaCorp of the Galaxy granted you an unlimited budget to have the Media Lab focus on improving education today, what things would you choose to pursue? Easy: primary education in the developing world. Hundreds of millions of children do not get elementary education today. The only way to eliminate poverty is through education. This is a given. The most precious natural resource of any country is its children. 05 Oct 2001 Religious Satire from The Brains Trust: The World Atheist Society (WAS) also cautioned members not to lump all theists into the same category as the religious extremists thought to be responsible for the attack.
[ 05-Oct-01 7:55pm ] I just got my rant on web services published on WebServices.org. this was a response to a Clay Shirky piece on xml.com. The gist of it is that common business semantics are indeed a major problem, but that doesn't mean that XML-RPC, Xmethods, WSDL, UDDI and so on do not solve other real world problems. Equally, the comparatively trivial implementations at xmethods (and xml-rpc) don't mean that real world solutions can't be built. And finally, yes, the hype produced by UDDI.org and slavishly re-printed by the analysts and commentators is unfortunate. On the fly integration probably is a pipe dream unless there's a large installed base of a de facto standard. But reducing app to app integration effort from months to hours *is* a huge advance.
[ 05-Oct-01 8:20am ] sp!ked-IT | Article | Don't blow IT A more concise review of the Spiked conference than mine.
[ 05-Oct-01 8:16am ]     3541 to 3560 of 3860 |