Technobriefs

by Craig Reynolds

Networks: EFF on TW's Beaumont, Texas tiered rate test: Time Warner Puts a Meter on the Internet and AT&T's self-destructive move: 3 Things on AT&T's Proposed Net Filtering Plan. New wi-fi bandwidth?: FCC tests "white space" prototypes, again (unrelated to the ongoing 700MHz auction), and a distributed net for a really big crowd: Wi-Fi Mesh Lights Up Mecca for Hajj. The best engineering has a beauty all its own: When data center cabling becomes art.

Visualization: see these very cool visualization, both static and interactive, of travel time to a given location: Travel-time maps. Lots of related examples of visual complexity: A visual exploration on mapping complex networks.

Copyright: citing The Tech, Slashdot notes MIT Student Plans to Take on RIAA. And why are we not surprised that MPAA's assessment of the monetary loss due to downloading was vastly overstated?:
MPAA Admits Mistake on Downloading Study.

Games: NASA is looking to creating a massively multiplayer game or trainer or recruitment tool: NASA investigates virtual space (I can almost hear the High Concept pitch: "...its The Last Starfighter meets America's Army..."). More on cheap and/or free downloadable games: The Video Game May Be Free, but to Be a Winner Can Cost Money (mentioned last week: A New Front in the Console Wars). Fox commentator broadcasts false hearsay as fact, later admits she "misspoke": Author Faults a Game, and Gamers Flame Back.

Technobits: Kite-powered ship sets sail for greener future --- Best Buy Sold Infected Digital Picture Frames --- Vista virtualization move opens real doors --- Yale Profs push for major uniting computers, art --- way cool: Polymer Vision unveils rollable display mobile phone (see also this and this) --- New website advances the science of turning 2-D into 3-D (visit the do it yourself site: Make3D) --- Entrepreneur Unveils New Tourist Spacecraft --- OK, presumably its just a Martian rock, but dang if it don't look like a woman with an outstretched arm --- kids love politicians: exhibit 1, exhibit 2.