Lessig And RIAA Answer NewsHour Questions, "Is downloading copyrighted music tantamount to stealing? Lawrence Lessig, an expert on Internet law from Stanford University's Law School, and Matt Oppenheim, senior vice president of business and legal affairs for the Recording Industry Association of America, answer your questions about this heated debate."

Hand-Held Scanner Designed To Detect Cancer, Italian scientists have developed and are testing a hand-held scanner, similar to metal detectors used in airports, to diagnose cancerous tumours. Its like a real life Tricorder!!! Thx dad!!!

See Ads Can Rock, check this one by Honda!!! Thx Tree!!! (Flash 6 req)

Ask The DJ, is a sophisticated mix engine which analyses the music's rhythm to perform DJ-like transitions between tracks... automatically! Crazy, hope this isn't putting any of my friends out of work any time soon!

The demo song is interesting and definitely worth a listen. Good proof of concept. Now if you can teach the program to distinguish between breaks and different types of music then they might be really on to something. But i guess one step at a time. Wonder how it does with really syncopated break beats!?!

"V" Sequel Coming to NBC, "According to CNN, twenty years after NBC's hit sci-fi miniseries "V" invaded the small screen, the network is bringing the aliens back with "V: The Second Generation," a three-hour TV movie from the original creator Kenneth Johnson."

The Body Behind Vice City's Tommy Vercetti, "Vice City antihero Tommy Vercetti snarls with the voice of Ray Liotta, but that’s only half of what brings the character to life. Meet the body: Jonathan Sale is a 29-year-old New York-based actor; you’ve seen him on everything from Law and Order and Ed to the soaps Guiding Light and As the World Turns. He’s also acted in independent films, off-Broadway shows and TV commercials. Jonathan graciously answered some of our e-mail questions about what it’s like to be Tommy Vercetti’s body."

Just go see it. (Quicktime req.) Thanks Jenn!!!

43 Million Americans Use P2P Software, "If the NYTimes article is correct then somewhere around 1 in 6 Americans apparently are unindicted felons. In the eyes of the public file swapping is as morally wrong as speeding on the NJ Turnpike. The rest of the article talks about the RIAA's carrot/stick/education approach and how they may find themselves entering into negotiations for some forms of file sharing. Also the EFF will be running ads in Rolling Stone next month asking if enthusiasts are tired of being treated like criminals." Thoes are some big numbers. Maybe its time to do some changing of the copyright laws!!!

RIAA Grabs Student's Life's Savings, "ABCNews is reporting on a 19-year-old college student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. He created a site named ChewPlastic.com where students could search for files on the university network. Mind you, this is not a music file sharing software, this is just a search engine. Presumably, the search engine was being used to search for music files as well. The folks over at the RIAA did not take too kindly to the idea, and sued the student. He settled but denies any wrongdoing. What was settlement, you ask? His life's savings." This has got to fucking stop!!!

Are we gona sue, google for making a search engine that lets people find copyrighted materials that have been misapropriated? How about m$ for making a server and a browser that that let you download them, or aol for that matter? Maybe apple? What the fuck is goin on here!!!

BTW if your reading this and you work for the RIAA, FUCK YOU!!!

Been picking up a bunch of new tunes. Actually more than i have had time to listen to, as of late. Anyway man just listened to Cat Power, Moon Pix album. WOW, this girls got it!!!

Cell Phone Number Portability Ruling, "Checking the Court's Opinion site every day has paid off. Verizon's action on the FCC's number portability ruling was dismissed by the D.C. Court of Appeals. The court found that Verizon had waited far too long to bring the challenge and it also sided with the FCC's interpretation of the Law rather than Verizon. Barring any other action we may see number portability this year. Unfortunately, Verizon is already lobbying to have the law changed. But it was also nice to see Cingular was on the FCC's side of the case." Looks like i might actually be able to a get a real phone and service soon!!!

T-Mobile Introduces Color T-Mobile Sidekick, "Customers who want to use just the device's powerful data functionality can get a stand-alone plan that includes unlimited email, Web browsing, AIM and text messaging for $29.99 a month...." Time to move over bb. Your time is done here!!!

i got a new TOY!!! err, uh i meant tool. for school that is. i got a new IBOOK!!! :)

Microsoft's Browser Play, "Purveyors and consumers of Web content and software, already unsettled by the pact between archrivals Microsoft and AOL Time Warner, may be in store for an even more radical upset: the end of Microsoft's standalone Internet Explorer browser." Looks like they are at it again!!!

Palm To Buy Handspring In Stock Swap, Palm said Wednesday that it will buy rival Handspring for approximately $169 million in an effort to strengthen its grip on the market for handheld devices. Bummer! Its the end of an era and possibly handheld innovation for a while!!!

Quick update. For thoes who do not know, i just started school. It is a one year LL.M. program in entertainment and media. An LL.M. is like a masters, kind of. You can get one after you get your JD, what i got on my first trip to law school. Anyway the program is in LA at Southwestern. The program is the only one of its kind and it just started. So i'm a beta tester once again! :) Anyway this semesters (summer) classes are Entertainment Law (my third time taking it), Entertainment Labor Law, and Music Publishing (the understanding of which has some how always alluded me, but now it's nailed). In any case school is cool and i am happy to be back!!!

TiVo To Sell Data On Viewing Habits Of Subscribers, TiVo, known for re-inventing television viewing through digital video recording, will begin selling advertisers data it collects on the viewing habits of its subscribers. Bummer! Maybe it is time to hack your tivo and become a blank!!!

Nextel To Up U.S. 'Push To Talk' Range, Nextel subscribers will soon be able to use Nationwide Direct Connect, which the company plans to introduce Monday, to "push to talk" (PTT), which creates a direct connection between cell phones, walkie-talkie style. (wow nice sentence!) PTT conversations to travel on Nextel's Internet protocol backbone! More reason for me to switch providers!!!

Stem Cell "Master Gene" Found, From the Washington Post (via /.), "'Scientists yesterday said they have discovered a long-sought "master gene" in embryonic stem cells that is largely responsible for giving those cells their unique regenerative and therapeutic potential.' The report summarizes an article in the newest issue of the scientific journal, Cell"!!!

NPR : The Spiritual Message of 'The Matrix', "The film The Matrix Reloaded has excited philosophers, clerics and theologians who find rich in spiritual meaning in the film trilogy's underlying themes. NPR's Rick Karr speaks with authors and experts about the religion of The Matrix trilogy and the the significance of being 'The One.'" Must listen!!! (real or wmv) Also check...

The Gospel According To Neo, Theologians and pop-culture experts see 'The Matrix' as a phenomenon shaping public opinion about religion by Josh Burek a staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor.

WOW! Didn't any of them get it...there is no spoon!!!

Justices Decree DVD Show Must Go On, "Claiming that a controversial DVD de-scrambling code has long been available online worldwide, a man accused of improperly linking Internet viewers to the code asked earlier this year that the case against him be declared moot. On Wednesday, the California Supreme Court rejected his plea 4-1, ensuring that the closely watched case remains on the court's May 29 oral argument calendar in San Francisco." Here it comes!!!

Sony Debuts Eye Toy for PlayStation 2, "at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, Sony shows off the Eye Toy, a new accessory for the PlayStation 2. The USB camera functions as a custom game controller and is expected to eventually support videoconferencing and other uses." New interfaces are dope! This ones not 100% but its a new direction that may show promise so give it up for Sony!!! (real or wmv)

Matrix Reloads For Gamers, "At the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, ZDNet's Patrick Houston looks at Shiny Entertainment's video game "Enter the Matrix," developed for the PC, Xbox, GameCube and PlayStation2. " Ok so not only did they do it in the movie but the Brothers W smaked an hours worth of never before seen footage into the game too!!! (real or wmv)

N-Gage at E3, "At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, Nokia showcases a combination game console and cell phone called N-Gage. The device allows users to play games with each other over a cellular telephone network." If you have not seen this you MUST! This could change the world of entertainment!!! (real or wmv)

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Gameboy Advance Users To Get Bluetooth Internet, "According to this Extremetech article, X-Tra Fun has developed a Bluetooth module for the Gameboy Advance which is expected to ship by Christmas 2003. The $49 module includes Bluetooth connectivity, although a cellphone or other Bluetooth device with Internet access is required to use the Internet, and it comes with an embedded eCos Linux kernel with a Web browser and 255 pages' worth of cache. A $99 upgrade adds a Secure Digital card slot and a dongle!" The world just keeps getting better!!!

Online NewsHour, is taking your questions and comments on the topic, "is downloading copyrighted music tantamount to stealing? Lawrence Lessig, an expert on Internet law from Stanford University's Law School, and Matt Oppenheim, Senior Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs for the Recording Industry Association of America, answer your questions about this heated debate." Go post your own, be heard!!!

Hybrid Robot Uses Rat Brain "After two recent stories of artificial brains used to control rats and one about MIT doing the reverse, NYTimes now has a piece on similar work done at Georgia Tech From the article: "...the layer of rat neurons is grown over an array of electrodes that pick up the neurons' electrical activity. A computer analyzes the activity of the several thousand brain cells in real time to detect spikes produced by neurons firing near an electrode." But this time you can buy one for $3,000." The only thing i like more than a good robot is one that combines biological properties!!!

DVD Copyright Case Mulled Over By Judge, slashdot says, "news.com is reporting that the judge in a closely watched lawsuit challenging the legality of DVD-copying software said she was 'substantially persuaded' by past court rulings that favored copyright holders, but closed a hearing Thursday without issuing a ruling in the case." This is one to watch!!!

Are you a friend of P? Long live the Rentals!!!

Paperfolding, is a nice site that explains a little bit about the math in Origami. This ones for Dog!!!

The Madonna Remix Project, is the home for the "What the fuck do you think you're doing," sample and remixes. Thx Tree!!!

Kill Rock Stars lets you "type in a band and it tells you all of the bands they were in or guested with...." Thx Tree!!!

Back with a new addition. See the right side. More regulars on the way.

Coachella, the festival of festivals is back on April 26 and 27!!! Here is the line up:

Saturday:  Beastie Boys, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Queens of the Stone Age, Groove Armada (live), Blue Man Group, The Donnas, N*E*R*D, Ladytron, Felix Da Housecat, Masters At Work (Little Louie Vega and Kenny "dope" Gonzales), Kinky, Roger Sanchez, Darren Emerson, Talib Kweli, Peanut Butter Wolf/Jaylib (Jaydee & Madlib)/Wildchild, Badly Drawn Boy, The Libertines, Gomez, The Music, Hot Hot Heat, Idlewild, Amon Tobin, Ben Kweller, Joseph Arthur, Particle, Christopher Lawrence, Division Of Laura Lee, South, Stereo Total, The Mooney Suzuki, Nightmares On Wax, Herman Cantanneo, D:Fuse, Spymob.

Sunday:     Red Hot Chili Peppers, The White Stripes, Underworld, Jack Johnson, Primal Scream, Blue Man Group, Sonic Youth, Thievery Corporation, Café Tacuba, Fischerspooner, Dirty Vegas, Deep Dish, Richie Hawtin, Timo Mass, The Mars Volta, Johnny Marr and The Healers, G. Love and Special Sauce, Rooney, Ben Folds, Tortoise, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, The Polyphonic Spree, Mouse on Mars, El~P/Aesop Rock/RJD2/Mr. Lif/Murs, Black Eyed Peas, The Von Bondies, Whirlwind Heat, The Kinison, DJ Irene, 22-20's, DB, Eisley.

looks like it's going to be another great year. tix on sale sat. feb 22. thats this one. anyone interested?!?!?!

Should You Fear Google?, "Google-watch.com is presenting a list of nine complaints about (almost) everybody's favorite search engine. Some of the salient fears are "Google has no data retention policies. There is evidence that they are able to easily access all the user information they collect and save." and "Matt Cutts, a key Google engineer, used to work for the National Security Agency." The concerns seem like paranoid hand waving to me, but maybe I'm not paranoid enough." i am a big fan, but this is food for thought!!!

Streaming Patent Claims Go to Court, "Acacia Media Technologies, a company owning broad patents that could affect virtually all companies streaming audio or video online, is going to court for the first time to test its claims." i haven't read the patent, yet, and i will, but things are getting a little out of hand!!!

The Shape of Things to Come, Jonathan Ive "Given the buzz attached to his name in the hallowed halls of Apple, Jonathan Ive might be expected to be something of an egomaniac. In fact, this shaved-headed, soft-spoken Brit is anything but. The only time you'll hear him use the word "I" is when he's naming some of the products he helped make famous: iMac, iBook, iPod."

Goodbye, Dolly "Dolly, the famous cloned sheep has been put to death after being diagnosed with a progressive lung disease, according to many reports. This follows on earlier reports that she was prematurely aging, including developing arthritis. While one should be cautious about drawing conclusions from a single data point, its interesting to speculate." Bummer!!!

Japanese Man Arrested For Virtual Theft "The Daily Yomiuri is reporting that a 21-year-old man was arrested for "illegally accessing an Internet game server to sell a virtual 'house' owned by a woman to another game participant for 50,000 yen, police said Thursday. According to the MPD, Ryusei Sakano of Itabashi Ward, Tokyo, posed as a female game player he met online while playing 'Ultima Online,' a popular Internet-based game. Sakano reportedly asked the game's system administrator to provide the female player's entry password on the pretext that she had lost her password to the game." Not sure how this one works yet but very interesting, not unlike other virtual crimes of the past, however i think this is the first designed to make actual money in th enon virtual sense : ) !!!

U.S. Backs Merging Net, Phone Numbers "In a recent internal letter, the Commerce Department recommended that the United States participate in an emerging electronic numbering system, known as ENUM, that will allow people to use one identifier for many different purposes, including mobile phones, e-mail, instant messaging and faxes. ENUM is designed to accelerate the convergence of the telephone network and the Internet and is expected to offer a huge boost to online telephony services." Cool this also likely means numbers need to be portable and i can leave my damn cell provider!!!

Opera Says 'Bork' To MSN "Opera Software has released a new version of its Opera 7 Web browser with just one tweak--it turns Microsoft's MSN Web site into gibberish that was inspired by the Swedish Chef from "The Muppet Show." Good for Opera ideology, bad for Opera biz!!!

Democracy In The Dark? "Melissa Bar has written an insightful article on how Westlaw and Lexis Nexis restrict public access to case law databases. She writes, '[T]he courts and the court's words belong to us. In more ways than one, the American people have already paid for the case law produced by our courts. Commercial vendors must not be allowed to highjack our law or dictate who may have access to it. By refusing to allow public libraries to purchase electronic subscriptions that can serve their patrons, Westlaw and LexisNexis are closing the door on information.' Individually purchasing the documents over credit card is incredibly expensive, making it virtually inaccessible to most library patrons." This is something i only learned about after starting law school. I find it very distrubing!!!

This post is some sad news i forward from Paul. "It is with a heavy heart that I announce the following:  tomorrow is the last installment of Therapy Radio.  Groovetech Seattle is closing its doors, so no more show. 

DJ MB and I will be doing our farewell set tomorrow from 3-6 PST.  You can tune in at Groove Tech.  Click on broadcasts.  Click on either audio or audio & video under 'Seattle'.  You gots to have Real Audio."

Open Content Music Database Launched, an alternativ to CDDB that now includes "audio fingerprints" when cd id is unavailable!!! Wonder how long it will take to implement this as a DRM system?!!!

Infineon Chip To Read Brain-Cell Signals, "Researchers at Infineon Technologies in Germany have developed new semiconductor technology that will allow scientists to read electrical signals in living nerve cells, the company said Tuesday." 'Bout time!!!

RSSify At VoidStar.com This form takes your web page and turns it into RSS 0.92. This is especially useful for Blogger users. RSS allows you to syndicate your headlines!!!

Annotate Space...is a project to develop experiential forms of journalism and nonfiction storytelling for use at specific locations.

Websites Complaining About Screen-Scraping "There have been two cases recently where websites have requested the removal of modules from CPAN. These modules could be used to access the websites (EuroTV and Streetmap) from a PERL program. The question being asked on the mailinglists (threads about EuroTV and about Streetmap) is 'can companies dictate what software you can use to access web content from their server?" A very interesting question? Unfortunately the answer is probably that they can by contract : ( We'll have to see how this one turns out!!!

Instant Live CDs Of A Concert? "Experiments are rife in the music business these days -- and Boston will be a test market for one of the most novel of them. Clear Channel Concerts, the nation's largest concert promoter, has ambitious plans to record live CDs of its shows and sell them to patrons within five minutes after those shows end. Clear Channel is targeting Boston as the first site for the new plan, according to sources within the organization." This is the first smart thing they have done to turn the industry around. Lets see how long they stick with it!!!

Now getting ready to fly home. Coffee breakfast borito and robots. Much love to all adventure partners and hostesses!!! More play soon in a city near you!!!

Say jenn tri and william. Went to steps of rome and city lights. Jenn found of a robot book. Also went to kid robot! Bomb! Went to monico. Had wine cheese futures and massages. Then great indian in the office. A full royal spread, queen tan and king curry. Them nickies bbq. WOW!!!

Saw nat and damon's place. Saw dance dance revolution home floor. Went to robot speak. Saw live. Tried sparks = red bull + beer. Went to hait, ameba. Had great food i castro and soba and spring rolls at noodle house. Got tunes played in mission.

Book rec and vid shopping in berk. Got a history of studio 54. Rolled to see chris at work. She runs her own lab at the med school. And has an office full'o'toys. Went and met nat at her gig. She rocked. Learned world was small when nat took us to her friends art gallery opening. Chris ended up knowing them. Net many new kids. Saw old friends. Had old brandy. Fell asleep sitting up.

In sf. Flew jet blue. No other way to go. Blue corn chips and direct tv. Breakfast at anns. Dope as ever!!!

Talkin' Smack, Michael Dell, when asked, said that the best thing Jobs, upon his return to Apple, could do would be to dissolve the company and return the money to the shareholders. Since that time, Dell Computer Corp. has started selling the iPod and nixed floppies. Hmmm interesting!!!

Wikipedia, is a multilingual project to create a complete and accurate open content encyclopedia. We started on January 15, 2001 and are already working on 103531 articles in the English version. Visit the help page and experiment in the sandbox to learn how you can edit any article right now. Learn something new every day!!!

Just saw Roger Corman speak!!! WOW!!!

IBM, Screensaver To Tackle Smallpox, "IBM and a host of technology partners are working on software for the U.S. Defense Department that will let the idle time of anyone's computer be devoted to investigate antismallpox drugs, the companies are expected to announce Wednesday." This is part of their Grid plan, which is really quite cool. I had an idea, i thought it would be cool, to sell cycles as a consumer. Like every machine sold has an app that uses an open format and subscribes to servers publishing lists of project to be accomplished. Some may be donation only, others might be for profit, this way consumers could sell (and thus recoup on their investment in their new shiny box) their cycles. In addition companies might subsidize machines to consumers who could not otherwise afford them in exchange for cycles each night. This system would allow more people to buy machines, and work on project they truely find important. If you have a pc you leave on check the story above and see if you can help out on the small pox thing!!! btw i have a patent pending on the idea mentioned above, so don't get any funny ideas!!! ; - )

Saw great tunes. Man Planet! If i had a label i would sign them! Amazing like Devo meets The Rentals. Then the Groovy Goulies like channeling the best of the Ramones and Bill Haley. Also incredible! Then Rap at Mon Social. Next Three and Ione Sky at a KCRW benefit. Missed djs but saw old friends! Attending Lily Taylor and Annabella Sciora.

Weekend chilled. Still not 100%. But did in to CA2 wrap party. Strange and i quote "bowling between Demi Moore and Sugar Ray". In any case it was real nice to see so many very drunk friends!!!

Drug Policy Alliance Action Center, has made us aware of the new Rave act (thx Jenn)!!! And more info can be found at National Review Online (thx D) and Electronic Music Defense and Education Fund.

Also watch here for my soon to come legal analsys of the Rave Act, the Justice Enhancement and Domestic Security Act of 2003, and McClure v. Ashcroft!!!

Light Particles Are Duplicated More Than A Mile Away Along Fiber (reg. req.), Employing a facet of quantum mechanics that Albert Einstein called "spooky action at a distance," scientists have taken particles of light, destroyed them and then resurrected copies more than a mile away. Transporter here we come!!!

Suppliers Dim Xbox Sales Picture Sales of Microsoft's Xbox video game console are likely to scrape the low end of current company forecasts, based on recent reports involving key component suppliers. i've been predicting they were in trouble for a while. Looks like the numbers say its true, wonder if there will be an XBox in 2 years!!!

Hollywood Says No To Filtering DVD Player "There is a posting over at ZDNet about how Hollywood continues to trample on the American consumer's free use rights. They want to prevent the sale of a special DVD player which can be used to edit out offensive material from a DVD in realtime. While I don't agree with censorship in general, I do believe its everyone's right to do what they wish with their own media."

Proposed New Spam Law"Several weeks ago, Larry Lessig proposed anti-spam legislation he'd like to see Congress pass -- legislation which he was willing to bet his job on. A congressional aide appears to be drafting legislation based on Larry's suggestions and is asking the Politech list for suggestions."

Telemarketers Sue to Stop Do-Not-Call List, Telemarketers went to court on Wednesday in an attempt to stop the U.S. government from setting up a proposed "do not call" list that would help consumers block unwanted sales calls. It seems that they forgot comercial speech, can be limited by congress. Moreover it seems that since individuals place themselves on the don't call lists, that telemarketers' comercial speech should recieve no protection because it is the individuals act not a state action that tells them not to call. i my self a huge advocat of free speech however i get and this is a real figure about 90% telemarketing calls at home. Something has to be done!!!

SmartDust Sensorwebs 'Real Soon Now' "EE Times has a piece on progress with the four-year-old DARPA-conceived Smart Dust self-organizing sensor networks. Based on Berkeley's TinyOS and TinyDB open-source projects, the article reports several companies are demonstrating both military and civilian applications. Ars Technica adds background and commentary on issues not discussed in the EET article." Welcome to the future!!!

P2P Content Delivery For Open Source, "The Open Content Network is a collaborative effort to help deliver open source, public domain, and Creative Commons-licensed content using peer-to-peer technology. The network is essentially a huge 'virtual web server' that links together thousands of computers for the purpose of helping out over-burdened/slashdotted web sites. Any existing mirror or web site can easily join the OCN by tweaking the HTML on their site." Lessigs minions are building weapons!!!

Griffin Technology iTrip, no not that kind. For all the kiddies out there with thoes cool little ipods i want so much, say bye,bye wires, this time with style!!!

Casperelectronics, got the goods on speak and spell and speak and math! cool sounds. reminds me of the atari 2600 generator. thanks paul!!!

still sick!!!

saw anna paquin on way out of park city. wow!!!

back now but very sick. have been in bed for 3 days, phone off. hope to be up and around soon.

Missed 28 days 1 and a 1/2 times. Waited 3 hours. Bummer. See it latter. Off to in america us premier. Seriously best movie i have seen in years! Cried like a baby now understand the samantha morton buzz. Look for the two kids in the film to do great things! Off to la at 1055. Asr on thursday.

Got into southwestern entertainment llm program. Will likely start in summer.

Selma`s movie the bomb. Laughed cried loved it! Now for danny boyle.

Dustin hoffman on street. Solders girl trans-sexual love story. Brilliant. The share of things adapted play by lebute. I liked it but g and john no love. Stoked the gator story. Wicked brilliant! Just saw fonda and now gona see him in selma direct debute.

Worked on Charlie's again. Did two nights. Saw a car flip over! It was a pretty cool stunt. Hal worked on the set too. Now i am hopefully off to see Eric in Salt Lake. Gona do some boarding and see some films at Sundance with G and HT! I hope anyway. Next week Asr Long Beach is on. Gona be a fun next few weeks.

iGo, the coolest computer desk like thingy i have ever seen. This is reason alone to have an iMac!!!

I, Cringely, compu pundent Crigly on Aplle and M$. Good Article but this quote is the reason i posted it. A wonderful bit about the M$ case i had never heard before. Funny now it seems so obvious... "Apple feels it needs Microsoft, Microsoft demands a pound of flesh, and Apple gives in.? Most recently this happened with web browsers as Microsoft periodically threatened to drop Internet Explorer for the Mac.? And they probably should have dropped it, too, since the Macintosh product was the fatal flaw in their "IE is just a part of Windows" legal strategy of a couple years ago.? I took great pleasure at that time in asking Steve Ballmer what part of Windows was Internet Explorer for Macintosh?" Love that!!!

Bar Monkey!, simply put, is a vending machine that serves mixed drinks. Just go see the damn thing!!!

DMCA Defendant To Stop Making Chip, A federal judge has agreed to Static Control Components' offer to temporarily cease manufacturing a toner cartridge chip that drew a lawsuit under a controversial copyright law. Maybe my memory is failing me but wasn't a giant exemption in the DMCA designed to protect interoprability!!!

What Lawyers Can Learn From Comic Books, Lessig reivews Mr. Mehra's (a University of Chicago-educated lawyer) latest article in Rutgers Law Review which looks at the question of copyright from the perspective of business. "For it seems clear, as Mr. Mehra demonstrates, that this copycat market fuels for original manga art demand that otherwise would not exist. The "use" of this copyrighted content therefore benefits the original author." I have always thought the same of music. I have many friends who are professional DJ's and music producers, almost all when they hear a sample they like go hunt down the original to own!!!

What's Everyone Crying About, i just read all the current stories from all the big Mac web site. You know the ones. Anyway there is something i just can't get my head around. People are complaining Apple upgaded there hardware and software. Wait i evan have trouble typing that. APPLE UPGRADED!!! People who are Mac consumers, lovers, advocates, evangalists, are up in arms! What is really going on?

No one complains when M$ upgrades, not like they ever do...or when Dell brings out a new machine. So why Apple. Last i check people were stoked with the release of PS2. But what about my PS1! Damn i thought it was the latest greatest. : (

Anyway, seems strange to me. People should enjoy inovation. If you don't want to by the next product don't. End of story. Why should they keep stuff in the labs thats ready to go?

Another thing is puzzeling to me as well. Maybe this is not quite as timely but here goes anyway....These same people are crying over the cost of .Mac, MacOSX updates, potential upgrade costs of iLife products. When did anyone every give you the idea that you were always entitled to free software? Why is it yours? Did it cost nothing for Apple to develop and as a result you are some how entitled. BTW it cost shit loads to develop.

As for me i'll take the new tech as soon as its ready and most i'll take before that.

As for the lot of ya i refer to above, fuck off ya punters!!!

Mac World Updates

Big big show, using mpeg4 to stream!

Switcher (Ellen gets big ups), 68% of visitors to switchers site are on windows.

51 stores opened in 21 months. 85 million people live within 15 miles of one. Grove LA is most popular, making very good money. Stores on target, 50% sold to windows switchers.

ical, isynch = getting better and important.

.mac got 250,000 subscribers.

ipod out for only 14 months, sold 600,000 units, or 1 every minute, in japan it has a 42% market share, #1 in us as well. Burton also making ipod compatable jacket with controler on arm.

macosx gets 5 million active users, picking on quark for not updating. pro tools will be updated this month!

final cut pro is #1. final cut express, a light version of pro, looks and works the same minus a few features. reads imovie and final cut pro files. software real time effects, no render time. cost $299.

NO LONGER CAN BOOT 9, classic only!

all iapps will be integrated, iphoto2 released, can get stuff from itunes, can archive to cd and dvd, one button enhance (fixes, white ballence, contrast, etc...) and touch up brush.

imovie3, now does chapters recognized by idvd, precise audio editing, added george lucas sound effects library, still photo effects (pick start point, finish point and duration). when making dvd takes chapter point and automatically builds scene selection list on dvd.

idvd3 new themes, integration to other iapps. steve likes the cure, but likes moby more. $3 a disk.

suite now called iLife available Jan 25, all three already free itunes+imovie+iphoto or whole with idvd for $49

Safari BROWSER!!! i-Bench Safari killed everything!!! 3xs faster than ie on html, 2xs on javascript, load 40% faster. google integration. one bounce! new snapback feature very cool. open source render khtml, and have added back all improvements. available in beta today.

keynote, presentation app, built for steve. keynote was used to build every apple keynote in 2002. all built against quartz. supports every file type known to man! has themes, very idvd like. compatability, imports and exports POWERPOINT, PDF, and quicktime. ITS also got an open XML file format! cost $99. free to all at keynote.

oh my god here comes the titanium! oops not titanium any more, aircraft grade alluminum. 17 inch power book, widescreen, took it right off the imac only changed back light, it is actually thinner than the current titanium!!! keyboard GLOWS but only when ambient light drops!!! firewire 800 can use adapter to go 400+ firewire 400 + gigabit ethernet + DVI + USB both sides + line in + headpphones + s-video + bluetooth + airport extreeme 54mb 802.11g card built in (two antennas built in and moved to screen, and equal to ibook reception) cost $3299. bridging built into base station, usb printing on base station, 50 users supported, cost $199.

one more thing! 12 inch powerbook! smaller than ibook! G4 + slot load combo drive + bluetooth, same battery life as ibook, cost $1,799. build to order with a superdrive for $1999. sorkin likes big screen for two scripts at once, bt big screen for more than one app at a time, but loves illuminated keyboard for gigs.

ending with one of the funniest ads in computing history!!! and what a wonderful world by the ramones!!!

quote of the day "why not a cube?"

Norway Teen Cleared in DVD Case, The court said Jon Johansen, had not broken the law when he helped unlock a code and distribute a computer program enabling unauthorized copying of DVD movies (DeCSS).

It should be noted that the story above along with almost all others ignores the fact that DeCSS is not required to copy DVD movies. An exact copy can be made without the use of DeCSS. DeCSS only real use was to make DVD content viewable on non-licenced DVD players, a major concern of the Linux community. At the time of its creation there were no DVD players licenced for use under Linux. The reason for this was most likely the small market for creating player coupled with the high cost of licencing the DVD decryption algorithms.

Edge, looking for answers or at least opinions on our greatest questions. Everyone from Ray Kurtzweil and Alan Alda, to Jaron Lanier and Marvin Minski. Oh and my personal favorite Douglas Rushkoff!!!

Organic Data Memory Using The DNA Approach, over the hollidays, my friend Paul and i discussed the value and problems associated with the use of PDAs. This lead to a discussion of how one might build such inside the body, well looks like the hard drive is on the way!!!

Laser-Scanning U.S. Landmarks, The National Park Service is creating detailed 3-D maps of national monuments such as the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore using high-resolution laser scanners. Their goal is to create highly-accurate blueprints that can be used to reconstruct the monuments if they are damaged by a terrorist attack or other means. Funny i remember just a few months ago people freeking out over tourists photographing or video taping such monuments thinking they must have been terrorists, in tourists clothing!!!

A Viable System for Micropayments, Nielson makes the case that subscriptions fence you in because you either pay nothing and get nothing or pay a large fee. Wonder why no one ever just tallied the micro payments up and billed you later after a period of time like say, uh, the phone company. Amazing!!!

Xbox Private Key Distributed Computing Project, The Neo Project has added "The Xbox Public Key Challenge" to it's distributed computing client. The aim is to compute the 2048 bit private key that Microsoft uses to sign Xbox media. If it is a success, modchips wouldn't be necessary. Not sure what the DMCA would say about this but i wish luck to all who take on the beast that is M$!!!

Star Wars Origami, Why combine Star Wars and paperfolding? Why not?!!!

Supreme Court Backs Off DVD Case, The U.S. Supreme Court has bowed out of a long-running dispute over a DVD descrambling utility, dealing a preliminary defeat to Hollywood studios and electronics makers. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor placed a ruling by the California Supreme Court on hold last week, but rescinded her emergency stay on Friday. Looks like there may be a fair shake (no pun, well yeah, it was intended) after all!!!

STARSHIP EXETER, just go see it! It really should not be explained except to say trekies will love this!!!

Supreme Court Enters DVD-Copying Case , The U.S. Supreme Court has granted Hollywood studios and electronics makers a temporary victory by stepping into a long-running dispute over software that can be used to copy DVDs.

ElcomSoft Verdict: Not Guilty, A jury on Tuesday found a Russian company ElcomSoft and employee Dmitry Sklyarov, who was arrested during Defcon after giving a speech about his company's software which is designed to crack protections on Adobe Systems' eBooks making the ebooks more usable and portable (ie. blind users can have their computers turn thee text to speech), not guilty of criminal copyright charges under th DMCA!!!

Memorex Videoball TV, This is the one! The TV i have been waiting for. No its not lcd, led, or even plasma. Its not even flat! Its old school!!!

Captchas, are puzzles that have the property that computers can generate and grade the tests even though they cannot pass them. The researchers decided to call their puzzles Captchas, an acronym for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart. NYT (sub req) has a cool article on this research and what it may mean for artificial intelegence and encryption.

Got temp job on set of a movie! Lots of fun. Got temp job at talent management company. Lots of fun, learning tons. Looking for new stuff turn of the year. Applied to go back to school in LA at Southwestern for an LL.M. in entertainment and media law. It's the first program of its kind. Also got sworn in so I can now officially practice.

Added back search....