Technobriefs
October 16, 2006
GoogleYouTube: a couple of weeks back Mark Cuban famously remarked that only a moron would buy YouTube (that's his story and he is sticking with it, see more on this). Yet its worth noting that the $1.65 billion price is about 2% of Google's stock market value, so this is sort of a small deal from that perspective. Also relevant to the moron issue: "In a move that appears to pre-empt the threat of legal action against YouTube, Universal Music Group and Sony BMG said earlier on Monday they signed distribution deals with YouTube, following a similar agreement with Warner Music Group last month." See also: YouTube buy lends more weight to media deals, Google swallows YouTube for $1.65bn and GooTube, YouGoog, Tugle. In Stop The Press: Entertainment Industry Exec Acknowledges That Piracy Is Competition the YouTube deal is seen as positive mindset shift on part of media companies.
Allergy vaccines: news about a "hay fever" treatment: Vaccine May Ease Ragweed Allergies and High Hopes for Ragweed Vaccine. This idea surfaced in 2004: Allergy vaccine hopes get boost and Hopes over food allergy vaccine.
Planetary press: Jupiter tiny spot goes from white to red and Probe peers into Venusian secrets. Cosmic rays could power icy moon's plumes: in a continuing series on the wonders of ammonia, turns out it may be key to the power source behind Enceladus's geysers (video). Meanwhile, back on Earth: Planet enters 'ecological debt'. Big mountains: destroyer of life or its source?
DRM doings from last week: LimeWire take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing (hopes to) end them: A File Sharer Fights Back, while In A Twist, Now DVD Jon Wants To Give You More DRM.
Technobits: Fox uses Treo to break N.Y. plane crash news --- free (mostly classical) music downloads from Wikipedia (via) --- explaining the apparent rise in autism rates? When Engineers' Genes Collide "Could modern patterns of marriage be concentrating the genes that predispose people to autism?" --- I ended last week's post with two interactive animated toys, both based on simulated physics (this and this) but forgot to include this very cool "live whiteboard": MIT sketching (via Lisa) --- finally, from YouTube: 9 months of gestation in 20 seconds (also via Lisa).