August 1, 2003

The LA Times reports that record-industry executives and online music companies are quietly working with colleges and universities to offer legitimate sources of free or deeply discounted music to students if the schools agree to take steps to deter piracy on campus networks. Students would receive song on-line at little or no cost through the university computer networks a have the option of transferring the songs to CDs or transfer to portable MP3 players for a fee. One advantage of having a on campus collection of music is that it would reducing the amount of data transfer to the campus. Songs would be received from an on campus server and while there would be traffic on the networks from the server to individual computers, there would be less traffic on the connection to the outside world. 9:20:49 PM

AT Plastics Inc. has announced that its shareholders have overwhelmingly approved its merger with Acetex Corp. To will create an integrated international chemical company. 9:20:21 PM

Reuters looks at the disposable digital cameras which Pure Digital Technologies started selling this week through retailer Ritz Camera Centers. While their $11 price is very cheap compared to other digital cameras they have few of the advantages of digital cameras and should be only compared to regular disposable cameras. The article notes that the cameras does not have a preview screen, which means that while one can deleted the last picture taken from the camera’s memory it is difficult to tell if you should do so. Mentioned but not discussed fully is that the camera’s pictures cannot be downloaded to a PC and to develop prints the camera must be returned to the retail shop. Therefore you cannot take a picture and immediately print it out or email it. Basically the camera has some digital technology but few of the features that digital technology provides. 9:19:53 PM