Craig Reynolds' Technobriefs
Craig Reynolds' Technobriefs
Sony's invasive DRM, part III: welcome to week three of the DRM debacle that wouldn't die. Sony BMG swallowed hard and did an about face. Within a week they went from proudly announcing their intention to eventually use the malware DRM on all their CDs to recalling the ones in stores and offering to replace CDs already purchased with DRM-free versions: CD's Recalled for Posing Risk to PC's. The BBC described the drum-beat of anti-Sony news as: More pain for Sony over CD code. Then Microsoft formally classifies Sony DRM scheme as "spyware" to be swept from users PCs: Microsoft to remove Sony BMG malware. Latest Sony news: 100% of CDs with rootkits, mainstream condemnation, retailers angry. A DHS Official Weighs In on Sony, warning about potential public health risks. (Probably over the top, but I like that even DHS is piling on!) Bruce Schneier asked a key question in the Real Story of the Rogue Rootkit: "...The story to pay attention to here is the collusion between big media companies who try to control what we do on our computers and computer-security companies who are supposed to be protecting us... But much worse than not detecting it before Russinovich's discovery was the deafening silence that followed. When a new piece of malware is found, security companies fall over themselves to clean our computers and inoculate our networks. Not in this case..." Then yet another outrage, evidence that the Sony BMG virus contains open source software in blatant violation of the copyright that protects open source: Software writers spot open source in Sony BMG CDs, Sony Rootkit Allegedly Contains LGPL Software and DVD Jon's Code In Sony Rootkit?. Could it be that in its ham-fisted attempt to protect its own copyright, Sony BMG was violating someone else's copyright? That is just too sweet! EFF: An Open Letter to Sony-BMG and Sony issues non-apology for compromising your PC. USA Today ran this backgrounder on the whole DRM mess: Firestorm rages over lockdown on digital music
Google: new this week: Google Analytics, with coverage by NYT, Reuters and Businessweek. On the launch of Base: Google Aims for the Classified Ads Business. More small steps for Google WiFi: Google wins approval to give home city Wi-Fi access. Big picture on Google Print: If Books Are on Google, Who Gains and Who Loses?
One Laptop Per Child: progress on the $100 laptop: The $100 Laptop Moves Closer to Reality, Negroponte: Laptop for Every Kid and MIT suffers hubris over $100 PC idea.
Hybrid hijinks: Wired wrote about people who "mod" their hybrids to produce variations like full Electric Vehicle mode: Hacking the Hybrid Vehicle (more on such mods from last June). And how about this for coming out of left field? A Diesel/hydrogen hybrid: Truckers Choose Hydrogen Power. Fuel cell technology still a decade away? No problem, just inject hydrogen into the Diesel engine's air intake for more power and better mileage! No hydrogen filling stations? No cheap onboard storage for hydrogen? Again, no problem, use the truck's existing electrical system to extract hydrogen by electrolysis from a tank of distilled water.
Colored Bubbles: coming next spring to a toy store near you, Zubbles colored soap bubbles. See this photo and watch the video on their homepage. Now I've been a fan of those multicolor swirls of traditional bubbles since I was old enough to blow through a bubble wand. (See these cool photomicrographs of soap films .) Yet these new fangled monochromatic bubbles are certainly eye-catching. As the inventor notes, there are lots of commercial applications for team colored or logo colored bubbles. But to me the best part of this is the incredible journey he took to bring his simple concept to reality, as documented by PopSci: The 11-Year Quest to Create Disappearing Colored Bubbles: "Chemical burns, ruined clothes, 11 years, half a million dollars -- it's not easy to improve the world's most popular toy. Yet the success of one inventor's quest to dye a simple soap bubble may change the way the world uses color." That the desire for colored bubbles lead to an entirely new class of pigment chemistry is amazing. Via Slashdot.
Technobits: Volunteers helped turn IMDb into big business --- Cost of making games set to soar --- TV Networks Say Digital Recorders Raise Viewership --- amazing picture from Spitzer of a giant stellar nursery APOD, NYT --- Huge Solar Plants Bloom in Desert --- Just another day at the South Pole... --- Switch to Firefox Kill Bill's Browser.
