Technobriefs
October 07, 2007
Copywronged: the first verdict was reached in the RIAA's nonsensical scheme to prop up their outmoded business model by suing their customers: RIAA Jury Finds Minnesota Woman Liable for Piracy, Awards $222,000 and Woman Ordered to Pay $222,000 in File-Sharing Case. The guilty verdict came despite weak evidence, with the help of recent RIAA funded changes to copyright law and surprisingly pro-RIAA jury instructions from the judge. All that was actually proved that someone using the defendant's computer downloaded some music using Kazaa. By default that application then offers to share the content to other users. No evidence was offered that anyone actually downloaded music from the defendants computer, but the judge told the jury that it didn't matter, since actual harm to the RIAA was irrelevant. Declan McCullagh cites Four reasons why the RIAA won a jury verdict of $220,000 and complains about the ludicrously high penalty. See also Despite Lawsuits, P-to-P Use Still Growing and Analysis from EFF.
Apple and friends: some iPhone related news: Apple's Not 'Bricking' Hacked IPhones for Revenge, Application blocking diminishes iPhone, Samsung takes wraps off its iPhone rival Serenata and Verizon unveils iPhone rival. A review from The Register: Apple TV 160GB media player. iTunes: Big online music stores provide one stop shopping for consumers, for musicians they provide a web store framework. But these days a web store is within the means of any successful musician: Radiohead shuns iTunes, sells new album online direct and Radiohead's bid to revive music industry: pay what you like to download albums. It annoyed the WSJ that Radiohead fans failed to bid down the price of the music they love: What Price a Download? ("Given the Option to Name Their Own Price for Album, Radiohead Fans Overspend").
Web 2.0 and trust: new rules to upgrade the quality and stability of information at Wikipedia, essentially requiring review of public edits by trusted editors: Wikipedia 2.0 - now with added trust. The idea of academic rigor in online encyclopedia has previously been explored by Scholarpedia. I hope these two efforts can cooperate and not compete for qualified contributors.
Phighting phire with phire: a very clever white-hat use of phishing to educate web users about the dangers of phishing: Carnegie Mellon Researchers Fight Phishing Attacks with Phishing Tactics. Their research paper is online: Getting Users to Pay Attention to Anti-Phishing Education: Evaluation of Retention and Transfer.
Old bio: yet another feathered dino: Big Waddling Dinosaur Discovered and an interesting take on the issue of evolutionary specialists versus generalists: Sabretooth's surprising weak bite.
Technobits: Backpacker turns Myanmar activist via Facebook and Satellite images show Burma's plight --- UC Berkeley's YouTube channel: 300 hours of videotaped courses and events (press release) --- One laptop per child: Laptop With a Mission Widens Its Audience --- Sony to launch world's first OLED ultra-thin TV --- Nanotube forests grown on silicon chips for future computers, electronics (a similar concept was mentioned here last December: Pitch black metal) --- Hany Farid on digital forensics: Proving That Seeing Shouldn’t Always Be Believing --- Fifty Years After Sputnik and Oct. 4, 1957: Russ Puts Man-Made Moon in Orbit! --- Robotic Therapy Tiles: Playing Your Way to Health --- Intelligent playgrounds --- one-off customizable consumer product manufactured by 3d printing: Freedom of Creation: Downloading Clothes (this is so proto-Diamond Age!).