April 4, 2002

Rip 'n' Roll: A Date With 8 Jukeboxes. Until recently, individuals who taped songs off the radio or made copies of CDs they had purchased, say, for use in their car, infringed copyright (horrors!). The home taping regime, which is now in force as the result of an Act of Parliament, changed this. Individuals in Canada are now allowed to copy a sound recording of a musical work onto an audio recording medium (e.g. CD-RW) for their own private use.  Over the last 18 months a new class of portable digital jukebox has emerged with onboard hard drives that can hold as many as 8,000 songs. Who knows? This may be the beginning of a new, more beautiful relationship with your music.  Wilson Rothman reports. [New York Times: Technology] 6:48:38 PM

Broadband slowed by high prices.  This MSNBC story digs deep to reveal that people are turned off by the high price of high speed internet.  In fact Imran Khan, senior analyst of the Yankee Group is willing to go out on a major limb and say  “The key factor keeping consumers from migrating to broadband is pricing. The narrower the gap between dial-up and broadband, the broader the adoption.”   Well.... Duh? 2:15:30 PM

Free speech and the Internet; a fish story.  This website is dedicated to the idea that Free Speech and a Free Press is more available to a greater number of people today due to the internet.  However with great power comes great responsibility. A legal dispute between online aquatic plant enthusiasts and a pet supply store illustrates the perils of casual opining on the Web.  Katharine Mieszkowski at Salon.com has the story of a multi-million dollar lawsuit that has transformed a sleepy online community of aquatic plant gardeners into a hotbed of accusations of libel, conspiracy, defamation, computer hacking, infringement on freedom of speech and even death threats. 11:49:26 AM

Smart Glass Knows When It Needs Another Beer LONDON (Reuters) - Drink up that beer -- another will soon be whisked to the table thanks to a hi-tech pint glass that tells bar staff when it needs refilling.....The iGlassware system works by coating each glass with a clear, conducting material, enabling it to measure exactly how much liquid has been sipped or guzzled. 9:09:11 AM

Reuters has this story on how new devices like "digital pens" could possibly replace keyboards as primary data entry devices. I would really miss my spell checker. 7:41:44 AM

"Silence machine" zaps unwanted noise Noise pollution? I just moved into a new house, and the former owners left the noisiest fridge and dishwasher. They are so loud, the airport calls to complain about the noise <bada ba>.  Well  NewScientist.com mentions a "Silence Machine" that gets rid of unwanted noise.   These are being tested in cars, to make the car quieter. 7:37:42 AM

Sony and Toshiba are expanding an alliance with IBM that will give the companies access to Big Blue's chip breakthroughs while making the tech giant more of a player in the burgeoning market for consumer electronics. [ZDNet] 7:16:26 AM

Studios aim for digital standard LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The seven major movie studios are forming a joint venture to establish technical standards for digital cinema. The goal is a set of open technical standards to enable competing digital projectors, software and distribution systems to operate using the same language. [ Canoe.ca ] 7:11:12 AM