Links for 26-09-2006
Lotsa DRM goodies, better bionics, Payphone Warriors…
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“The British Library has called for a “serious updating” of current copyright law to “unambiguously” include digital content and take technological advances into account.”
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“I find much of the current discussion concerning DRM a bit disingenuous. Leveraging tangibility is to me no different than leveraging high-priced lawyers; in both cases the advantage falls to the privileged.”
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“We had a few things to ask the person whom we’ve identified as Viodentia, the creator of FairUse4WM…”
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“You, too, can be an autodidact; the breadth of free educational materials available online is absolutely astonishing.” You don’t get the magic certificate, of course, but still a bargain, right?
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“Apparently all those bloggers out there have been striking out when it comes to turning their blog celebrity into book celebrity, or at best hitting singles when they should have hit home runs.” Scalzi calls a reality check.
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Does what it says on the tin.
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“Nevertheless, citing unnamed “top officials,” the trade journal asserts that “China not only has the [anti-satellite] capability, but has exercised it.” Experts seem somewhat more cynical, however. Propaganda?
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“From artificial intelligences dominating humanity to disgruntled Luddites engaging in violence, the poll looks more like an abandoned script by Michael Piller than a serious exploration of the future.” Tongues slightly in cheek here, I think.
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9 – Children of Men“When I walked out of the cinema, I said to my friends that I wasn’t sure whether Children of Men was genuinely excellent, or simply the best-directed bad sf movie I’ve ever seen.” I may have to go see this one.
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“In science fiction, advanced bionics that not only replace but surpass human potential are often treated as a given. Although today’s technologies come nowhere close to that ideal, it’s increasingly tantalizing to ponder what-if scenarios.”
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“The SF writer Greg Egan has issued the following public plea to save the magazine New Scientist. Please take a look, and consider sending them an email.” He’s not pleased with coverage of that electromagnetic drive…
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“While the question is not a pressing one for most people, for the futurists mapping the humans path to space, the destination makes all the difference in the world.” Orbital colonies get my vote, for what it’s worth.
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13 – Payphone Warriors“The streets of 2030′s New York remain the only venues not under the thumb of the monolithic corporations. The streets are, as was in times even less bleak than these, the domain of gangs.” Not a novel; a game played in meatspace!
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“On the airplane is a pan-and-tilt camera, controlled also wirelessly … The video is viewable through virtual reality goggles, which have a gyroscope built in to sense the movement of the goggles.” I want one!
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“A new type of optical switch could help aerospace engineers replace heavy copper wires with fiber, making planes lighter.” Their headline, not mine, BTW.
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“Scientists … at the … Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory announced today that they have met the exacting standard to claim discovery of astonishingly rapid transitions between matter and antimatter: 3 trillion oscillations per second.”
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“…the company is looking into GPS integration in order to examine terrain, geography, and location from afar, as well as utilizing autonomous instructions to handle lifting, moving…”
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“Worn on the hip or wrist, the device brings an IP-54 sealing rating and can survive drops to concrete from as high as 4-feet (1.2-meter).” Nice chunky ‘ruggedized’ wearable PDA gadget thingy.
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“The [UK] Ministry of Defence went to extraordinary lengths to cover up its true involvement in investigating UFOs.” So can we trust them when they say they didn’t find any, huh? HUH?
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