...more recent posts
The indentity-sure tipping system (now called the tipster protocol) Jeff Kandt hatched on Wes Felter's Hack the Planet has now moved to a web site of its own. This is the one to watch if you are interested in viable payment methods for the future of digital content. Of course its much too reasonable to ever work in the marketplace (big money will squash it,) but it's fun to watch smart people in action. I wish I could tip them.
I will be off line for the next day and a half (gasp.) Please don't mess up the place while I'm gone. Bye.
Two ex Microsoft gazillionaires (Paul Allen and Nathan Myhrvold) have given 12.5 million dollars "to a group of
astronomers in the San Francisco region, for the construction
of the largest-ever radiotelescope to be used in the search for
alien life." (According to this ZDnet story.) What was that Terence quote? "To search expectantly for a radio signal from an extraterrestrial source is probably as culture-bound a presumption as to search the galaxy for a good Italian restaurant." Still, this might be interesting. At the very least it will give us enough data so that everyone in the world can run SETI at home and we still won't be able to crunch through all the information. But while we're busy doing that, the question remains: aren't they already here?
It said: "Your face is like an imperfectly shaven tennis ball." I thought: "How true." And it was a computer that served me up this forehand volley of wisdom. The Surrealist Compliment Generator to be precise. Go there now and generate your own compliment, because "You cannot compare with the apex of a ferris wheel, nor the nadir of a ditch filled with a coelocanth's droppings." And you know it's true.
In a follow up to the previous CDR camera post, ArsTechnica again points the way, this time to the Hitachi DZ-MV100 DVD-RAM camcorder. That's right. This thing records video in MPEG-2 directly to DVD-RAM. Wow. Frankly, I don't mind recording to DV tape because I always figure I need to do lots of cutting before anything would be worth watching, but recording directly to disc is pretty freakin' cool. I'm amazed they can stabilize these drives enough. Awesome.
By my own judging, I'm doing pretty well in avoiding the more contentious political battles. A few months ago I was so angry at the state of affairs here in the U.S. that I was only able to generate some rather negative vibrations when discoursing on the subject. And except for a little slip up last week at a drunken dinner, I've been doing O.K. There is some reason in trying your best just to be happy. Still, I miss the occasional good rant. Thank god Ethel the Blog has been holding up his end. And much better than I ever could. Go read his last week of entries. Way to go Steve. And I can really relate to the prize he is offering to anyone who can guess the author of a quote he printed:
"If anyone guesses correctly... they win a 'get out of hearing me rant about politics in a bar after 10 P.M. free' card, a prize for which many would trade their left eyeball."
Geek bumperstickers on the information highway I always laugh when I see this guys .sig on /.
"My other car is a cdr"
I really should get out more.
No frills tech news aggregator.
Mourning Sir Alec Guinness the Rasterweb way:
"The day was marred only by the loss of Obi-wan... sigh... Obi-wan said it best when he told Han: 'Let's just say we'd like to avoid any Imperial entanglements.' How true! A good Jedi, a good friend. The report says 'The spokesman could not confirm the cause of death.' Um, gee, I'm pretty sure Darth Vader killed him, hello???"
If consumers are getting their music for free now, I guess the government decided they can get something out of the record industry too. The BBC reports:
"State attorneys from 28 US states have filed a law suit against the world's five largest record companies, accusing them of fixing compact disc prices.... The attorneys have filed suit against Time Warner's Warner Brothers music group, Sony Music, Universal Music Group, Bertelsmann's BMG Entertainment, and EMI.... The states are demanding damages running into 'hundreds of millions of dollars', or 'several dollars' per CD sold."I can't wait to hear what they will propose to do with the money. Programs to keep kids off gangsta rap? Free Britney Spears CDs for low income families? Isn't the market speaking loudly enough on this one?