18 Aug 2007
Watermarking to replace DRM?

Interesting ... not sure I'd object to this at all if used only for identification, as I can't see any way it impinges on my fair use material I've purchased, while it would certainly give pause to the outright thief of copyrighted material. Throwing ads in, well, I'd find that obnoxious, of course, and would demand a lower price for any material so encumbered. Like free.

Watermarking has been in the news twice in the past week. First, Wired's Eliot Van Buskirk revealed that Universal will insert watermarks in the DRM-free files it's distributing through Rhapsody, Amazon.com and other online stores.

(link) [CNET]

09:50 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Plain soap as effective as antibacterial but without the risk

I've blogged about this problem before, and it looks as though my misgivings were well placed.

Antibacterial soaps show no health benefits over plain soaps and, in fact, may render some common antibiotics less effective, says a University of Michigan public health professor.

(link) [Physorg.com]

09:45 /Agriculture | 1 comment | permanent link

Thompson: Roe 'bad law and bad medicine'

This fellow's one of the more dangerous Republican demagogues running this year - somebody needs to remind him that we've had this debate before, and it's outcome was enshrined as the full faith and credit clause in the Constitution itself. Without this Constitutional clause we'd be an aggregate of squabbling states, not a federal republic. Debates over this framed the Civil War, when the South (Constitutionally correctly, incidentally) insisted on the return of runaway slaves over the objections of the Northern states - it was resolved by the fourteenth amendment, not by the removal of the full faith and credit clause.

And that's good enough from my standpoint.

Likely Republican White House hopeful Fred Thompson told CNN Friday that he would work to overturn Roe v. Wade if elected president, and would push for a constitutional amendment that protects states from being forced to honor gay marriages performed in other states.

(link) [CNN]

09:41 /Politics | 2 comments | permanent link

Domestic Police Buy Weapons-Ready Robots

One of the reasons often cited for the impossibility of a military coup here is that front line American combat troops wouldn't open up on a protesting crowd of American civilians, despite orders.

Looks like pretty soon, they won't have to.

A military-droid builder sells a domestic model to law enforcement for dangerous duty. They haven't been deployed yet but cops and company officials say it's only a matter of time.

(link) [Wired Top Stories]

09:32 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

A Campaign to Block Firefox Users?

Well, hrumpf! Simple solution: I use Firefox, and if I run into a page that blocks me, I don't see the page. Which is usually OK, as a site that's inconsiderate enough to do that is not somebody I'd want to do business with anyway. And I'll let them know it.

Kinda reminds me of a situation in the 80's, when I was repairing mailing machines for a living. The company car was a Toyota, and the UAW, which was a customer, had a large sign in their parking lot saying "Park Your Japanese Car in Tokyo". And when they called for service, I gleefully obliged, calling in the run as a refusal, as Tokyo was a bit far to walk to the call. After about 5 days of not getting any mail out, the sign mysteriously disappeared, and they placed another service call. Imagine that.

A website is aiming at blocking Firefox users. This because a fraction of the Firefox users installed an Ad Blocker and are therefor 'stealing money' from website owners that use ads. They recommend using IE, Opera or IE tab. From the site: 'Demographics have shown that not only are FireFox users a somewhat small percentage of the internet, they actually are even smaller in terms of online spending, therefore blocking FireFox seems to have only minimal financial drawbacks, whereas ending resource theft has tremendous financial rewards for honest, hard-working website owners and developers.' Be interesting to see where they are getting their numbers from.

(link) [Slashdot]

09:28 /Technology | 1 comment | permanent link