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Music

Submission + - Record Industry Woes Aggravated by Years of Bad PR

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: MP3 Newswire has a lengthy, but compelling article that details how the major record label's attempt to control music online with an iron fist has only to weakened their position by alienating consumers. Rather than work to leverage the opportunities brought by new technology, they called everything that could change their business piracy. Not only were the opportunities lost, it made them look like past-generation bullies to unhappy customers looking for innovative digital products. "Today the major record labels don't have a positive brand image and the very public actions they have taken to control the rise of digital media and the Internet over the last several years is at the very heart of their fall from grace. To some the big labels are an anachronism. To others they are anti-consumer. The erosion of their image is dramatic".
Biotech

Submission + - Brain-computer-interface for Second Life (pinktentacle.com)

Submitted by
Tjeerd
Tjeerd writes: ""A research team led by professor Jun'ichi Ushiba of the Keio University Biomedical Engineering Laboratory has developed a BCI system that lets the user walk an avatar through the streets of Second Life while relying solely on the power of thought. To control the avatar on screen, the user simply thinks about moving various body parts — the avatar walks forward when the user thinks about moving his/her own feet, and it turns right and left when the user imagines moving his/her right and left arms.""
Media

Submission + - Nine inch Nails ditch label

Submitted by
smash
smash writes: "After much public comment on the record industry in general and and his label in particular, barely a week after Radiohead, Trent Reznor has ditched his label and will focus on sales via the net. Read the scoop here. Is this the beginning of the end for the RIAA?"
Education

Submission + - iPods Required Listening in Some Schools 1

Submitted by
theodp
theodp writes: "Long a staple of affluent schools like Duke, iPods are finding their way into the classrooms of one of New Jersey's poorest urban school districts. At José Martí Middle School, iPods are being used to help bilingual students with limited English ability sharpen their vocabulary and grammar by singing along to popular songs. Spanish-speaking students have been able to move out of bilingual classes after just a year of using the digital devices, compared with an average of 4-6 years for most bilingual students. 'It's an innovation,' declared a school board spokesman. 'Most people think of the iPod as just entertainment.' Toys 1, Blackboards 0!"
Patents

Submission + - Court Limits Software Patents

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Techdirt has the scoop on how a recent court ruling may severely limit the scope of both software and business model patents. The court found that "The routine addition of modern electronics to an otherwise unpatentable invention" isn't enough to get over the "non-obvious" hurdle that every patent is supposed to clear. This is a huge step in the right direction and one of the first admissions from the court system that perhaps software and business model patents have gone too far.
The Courts

Journal SPAM: Judge Voids California Election Over E-Voting Flaws 177

Journal by Jeremiah Cornelius

A judge in Alameda County, California, has voided some election results after the e-voting tallies from Diebold machines couldn't be audited. The vote was on a controversial ballot measure addressing the operation of medical marijuana dispensaries, and the expected result was a close margin. Activists went to court to demand a recount, but elections officials had
Toys

Submission + - Linux on the handle bars (bikeradar.com)

Submitted by
xpqz
xpqz writes: "Quarq introduces a linux-based bike computer! BikeRadar.com reports: One of the most intriguing launches at Interbike was a pairing of power measuring crank spider and power meter/global positioning system (GPS)/heart rate monitor/altimeter computer from new company Quarq Technology. What's especially interesting if you're a hardcore bike instrumentation geek is that the display unit will run open-source software, so developers will be able to modify it and write applications for it. http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/interbike-quarq-power-meter-real-bike-computer-12672"
Security

Submission + - Qwest to notify victims of hacked computers. (startribune.com)

Submitted by
mnslinky
mnslinky writes: "From the article:
"Telephone company Qwest Communications, portraying itself as a "safe" way to access the Internet, has introduced a "Customer Internet Protection Program" that protects both Qwest and its customers.

By monitoring outgoing Internet traffic from subscribers to its DSL broadband service, Denver-based Qwest can identify individual computers that are spreading computer viruses or unwanted spam e-mail, said Melodi Gates, the company's chief information security officer.

[...] So, when malicious activity is traceable to a particular PC, the customer is contacted via a message that appears in a Web browser, urging the customer to download free software tools to cleanse the computer. If the user acknowledges the message, it disappears."

This was pointed out by a co-worker of mine, and he had an interesting point. "The only problem with this is that said users are trained to ignore [popups asking users to update/fix their computers]." Be interesting to see how well this works."
Wii

Submission + - Nintendo offers free Wii Jackets (nintendo.com)

Submitted by ApolloX
ApolloX writes: Nintendo, apparently aware of the damage caused by Wii Remotes, has begun proactively offering Wii Jackets now included in new Wii consoles and Wii remote packages. Furthermore, owners of existing Wii systems can sign up for free Wii Jackets on Nintendo's website similar to the way people have been able to order replacement Wii straps in the past.

Its good deal, except for anyone who all ready spent $5-10 per remote for 3rd party covers.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - UMG Considers iTunes Contract Terms 'Indecent'

Submitted by
Bemopolis
Bemopolis writes: "Brace yourselves for a shocking revelation: The CEO of Vivendi, parent company of UMG, is not happy with the current deal with the iTunes Store.

"The split between Apple and (music) producers is indecent ... Our contracts give too good a share to Apple," Vivendi Chief Executive Jean-Bernard Levy told reporters at a gathering on Monday organized by the association of media journalists in France.
I must admit, it is outrageous what Apple is charging them for maintaining an online store that doesn't require the manufacture of physical media; foots the bill for advertising, bandwidth, credit card charges, and software updates; and maintains what must be an incredibly modest server farm (only 6 Msongs in it, after all). In case you've forgotten just how bad Apple has them over a barrel,

At present, UMG, the world's largest record company, gets 0.70 euro ($0.99) out of the 0.99 euro retail price charged by iTunes, Vivendi said.
From what I could read through my tears, the usual argument about older music priced at the same rate as new music is trotted out. No doubt UMG would prefer to make the former cheaper, while maintaining the current pricing for the latter. At least he had the decency not to claim that they were trying to defend their artists against predatory iTunes pricing. Or maybe he just misplaced the index card with that boilerplate on it."
Media

Submission + - SCO shill has remorse.

Submitted by xzvf
xzvf writes: SCO shill Dan Lyons of Forbes has remorse for backing doomed company. To quote "The truth, as is often the case, is far less exciting than the conspiracy theorists would like to believe. It is simply this: I got it wrong. The nerds got it right." http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/09/19/software-linux-lawsuits-tech-oped-cx_dl_0919lyons.html Judge for yourself if the retraction is genuine.
Censorship

Submission + - Parental Controls 10

Submitted by Orange Crush
Orange Crush writes: .
As the resident computer geek in an office full of accountants, my boss recently asked me how she could reasonably keep her teenage son from using the family computer to "access inappropriate sites." I of course responded "Give up now. There's nothing in this world that can keep a determined teenager from acquiring porn." Sadly, she was dissatisfied with this answer. I mentioned that there was in fact software available for this purpose, but that all of it was trivially easy to bypass for a clever young mind. (Beyond: watch him constantly or just deal with it like the adult you intend to raise him to be.)

I really can't think of another answer. She could password protect the BIOS to prevent booting a different OS, but that's easily defeated with a screwdriver at most. The only solutions I can think of involve upstream firewalls/proxies/etc to which I gleefully redirected her to her ISPs tech support number.

As much as I disagree with her reasoning — and ignoring the obvious "go to a friend's house" loophole — is there really any other way (on a home budget) to netnanny a household computer? (she does sign my paychecks...)
Announcements

Submission + - DirecTV takes a hit by EFF

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: San Francisco — In an important ruling today, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked satellite television provider DirecTV's heavy-handed legal tactics and protected security and computer science research into satellite and smart card technology after hearing argument from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

The cases, DirecTV v. Huynh and DirecTV v. Oliver, involved a provision of federal law prohibiting the "assembly" or "modification" of equipment designed to intercept satellite signals. DirecTV maintained that the provision should cover anyone who works with equipment designed for interception of their signals, regardless of their motivation or whether any interception occurs. But in a hearing earlier this year, EFF argued that the provision should apply only to entities that facilitate illegal interception by other people and not to those who simply tinker or use the equipment, such as researchers and others working to further scientific knowledge of the devices at issue.

http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2007_09.php#005434

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You must realize that the computer has it in for you. The irrefutable proof of this is that the computer always does what you tell it to do.

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