17 September 2003

Does Microsoft want to lose the plug-in patent case? Given that there are reams of prior art, why haven't Microsoft's well-paid, highly skilled lawyers been able to beat the Eolas plug-in patent lawsuit? A dark theory now emerging holds that Microsoft wants to lose the suit, because doing so will harm its competitors worse than it hurts Redmond. For conspiracy buffs and Microsoft watchers, it's a juicy, moutherwatering conceit. But it's probably untrue. Here's why. [Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report] 6:10:07 PM    comment()

The RIAA For Dummies - 60 Second Edition 'Splains it all: Cartoon by Neil Strauss and Bernard Chang Props to Ibergus. Bonus:... [Tim Swanson] Go consume Talking of *thinks of polite word* unwise intrusions on personal freedom caused by the music industry, last night I found out that my new Sony N10 minidisc recorder does not allow me to move any digital recordings I make off the player onto my PC. This is because I may record some sounds that are protected under copyright. I bought the minidisc player in order to record my own (non-musical) soundtracks for some video pieces. I now find that I can only get these recordings off the minidisc by recording the analogue output, apparently making the recorder no major sonic improvement on my old Pro Walkman. (The publicity didn't mention that I can only move my own recordings off the player at a breathtaking 1x playing speed, whilst the unit can move copyright files copied from a CD around at up to 64x. Nice one, guys.) I'm considering returning the unit, as I didn't really intend to use it as a smaller alternative to my CD Walkman. Sony uses the slogan Go create. Perhaps that should be Go consume. 10:47:17 AM    comment()

David Blane It would appear that as a UK blogger I am supposed to have an opinion about David Blane. Reluctantly, I'm about to have one. My opinion about David Blane is that if someone wants to sit in a glass box for 44 days without food, that is entirely his own affair. He shouldn't be bothered by hooligans or media people. As a side issue, I'm not too surprised about the hooligans, considering that my local bookshop has the following subsection labelled in its sport section:  (Click the image for a bigger view). 8:35:12 AM    comment()