Current Blu-ray players are already infected with malware that shuts them down when a certain pattern of sounds is detected:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinavia

"You pathetic fool. That isn't Orac! Look at it! It's just a box of flashing lights!"

Alex: No. No! NO! Stop it! Stop it, please! I beg you! This is sin! This is sin! This is sin! It's a sin, it's a sin, it's a sin!

Dr. Brodsky: Sin? What's all this about sin?

Alex: That! Using Ludwig van like that! He did no harm to anyone. Beethoven just wrote music!

Dr. Branom: Are you referring to the background score?

Alex: Yes.

Dr. Branom: You've heard Beethoven before?

Alex: Yes!

Dr. Brodsky: So, you're keen on music?

Alex: YES!

Dr. Brodsky: Can't be helped. Here's the punishment element perhaps.

For anyone who doesn't subscribe to the journal, here's an interesting extract from the full text, describing early phase human testing of the procedure on a Romanian subject:

"There lay the Count, but looking as if his youth had been half renewed, for the white hair and moustache were changed to dark iron-grey; the cheeks were fuller, and the white skin seemed ruby-red underneath. The mouth was redder than ever, for on the lips were gouts of fresh blood, which trickled from the corners of the mouth and ran down over the chin and neck. Even the deep, burning eyes seemed set amongst swollen flesh, for the lids and pouches underneath were bloated. It seemed as if the whole awful creature were simply gorged with blood. He lay like a filthy leech, exhausted with his repletion."

I can't believe most antivirus companies would turn a blind eye to the tools used by law enforcement agencies and national governments. They only do that if the malware is installed by someone _really_ important. Like Sony:

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2005/11/69601?currentPage=all

You know that Voight-Kampf test of yours? Did you ever take that test yourself? Theo?

I'm sure this is how lib dem supporters prefer to remember it, but he (and 500 other candidates from his party, including every elected MP) did indeed sign the pledge:

http://web.archive.org/web/20101215160749/http://www.nus.org.uk/Campaigns/Funding-Our-Future/Lib-Dem-MPs-sign-the-pledge/

The wording was: "I pledge to vote against any increase in fees in the next parliament and to pressure the government to introduce a fairer alternative", a personal promise which does not assume the lib dems would hold sole (or any) power.

Here's a photo of Nick holding up his signed copy of the pledge for the cameras, and some quotations from confidential documents in which senior party members were planning to betray this promise in the event of a hung parliament (which is, of course, exactly what they did):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/12/lib-dems-tuition-fees-clegg

'Clear yellow water' indeed.

Fred Hoyle's 'The Black Cloud' is one of a select group of novels that manage to combine convincing science and a classic SF situation (intelligence is discovered in a dust cloud that envelopes the earth). I read it at about that age, and learnt a few things about how science is done, like the importance of testing theories by prediction. Dawkins is a fan, and wrote the Afterword to the current edition:

"But the real virtue of The Black Cloud is this - without ever preaching at us, Hoyle manages, as the story races along, to teach us some fascinating science along the way: not just scientific facts, but important scientific principles. We get to see how scientists work and how they think. We are even uplifted and inspired."

It dates from the late 50s, and was a period piece even when I read it (punch-tape computer programs, etc.) but should retain enough geek appeal to make it interesting today.

Recent review here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/23/black-cloud-fred-hoyle-review

Reselling media is only evil and wrong this week. It'll be absolutely fine, 'innovative' and mainstream as soon as Amazon, Apple or Google starts doing it:

http://www.zdnet.com/amazon-lands-patent-on-marketplace-for-selling-on-used-digital-content-7000010917/

http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/03/07/apples-digital-content-resale-and-loan-system-could-allow-drm-transfers-between-end-users

Ncevy sbby! - Alneyngubgrc.

There's an Easter egg at rot13.com - if you cypher that text it actually gives you the rot13 of "In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming".

The various Apple TVs have nice hardware, and It's easy enough to un-cripple the older versions (1&2) and run anything you like on them, including XBMC:

http://www.appletvhacks.net/

But no proper jailbreak yet for ATV3, AFAIK, so might go for a Pi if I was buying today. I suspect this is one product Apple would sell a lot more of if they made it hackable out of the box, especially internationally. It's silly to sell a product in the UK that offers MLB.TV (for all those dozens of British baseball fans) but not the BBC's very popular iPlayer service (though even an unhacked ATV is a good streamer for iPlayer content grabbed elsewhere with get_iplayer).

This prize has been 'offered' for over a decade, but for some reason has recently made the news. Occasionally someone bites, just to see what reaction they get, but trying to find mutually acceptable terms for a 'trial' is like arguing with the Timecube guy:

http://ncse.com/rncse/25/5-6/life-science-prize

Here's the prize page on Mastropaolo's site:

http://www.josephmastropaolo.com/prize.html

("All of these experiences confirm that evolution is the inverted fantasy based on the ancient Greek Gaea vitalism religion of 2,500 years ago that was disproven by the experiments, never overturned, of Dr. Francesco Redi in 1668.")

Well, it certainly isn't the product of Intelligent Design!

You cynics! This device is so sensitive that "in real-world situations, detection levels are in the pictogram range and below":

http://cominfosystems.com/Documents/Cominfo_ATSC_Brochure.pdf