an image of an eye glowing green...

0wn yourself

2006-06-13

we need to spread

i love stephen hawking. the guy's a genius.

and he always seems to have some good points. this time, it's a point i've talked about before. humanity needs to spread out.

whether it's nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, a meteor or whatever, it greatly raises our odds of survival.

the more self-sufficient human civilizations that we can set up, and the more places we can do it in, the better our chances of species survival.

to paraphrase orson scott card, we need to spread ourselves over a thousand worlds and make peace with each other, and we'll be all but impossible to destroy.

keep asking questions...

--cid

say it ain't so

could it be true?

so far it's just a rumor--apple merging with nintendo?

apple's a company i've got mixed feelings about, but nintendo has more or less stayed true to its consumer base. they've kept their roots strong, they didn't dick people over with prices, and they've continued to strive for creative new ways of interacting with games (motion controllers in the wii, touchscreen on the ds).

while, technologically speaking, i am an apple fan, and i'll even give them style points, but idealogically, i haven't felt at home with an apple product in a long time.

from a marketing standpoint, i think this hypothetical merger could do the nintendo name some good, but i guess that's what worries me. apple is a marketing machine and i shudder to think what would become of nintendo if this happens.

i guess we'll just have to wait and see.

--cid

0wn your console

china accuses the i triple e of strongarming

so, wi-fi's an open book, and wep's like using a proverbial slice of swiss to stop others from reading your book.

well, there're a couple of new standards to take over where wep fell short, but not everybody can seem to agree.

in fact, china just walked out of talks about their wireless encryption standard, wapi. they said that the ieee (i triple e) uses dirty tactics to push their standards. they said that since the talks clearly weren't really accomplishing anything, the whole setup was unfair, and there was no point in continuing.

*shrugs*

--cid

2006-06-07

every day a step closer

we're (at least some of us) always struggling to refine our picture of the universe and how it works. every new little thing we learn helps to shape our overall understanding of this reality we live in.

space dot com has an interesting article recently talking about the new info being compiled on andromeda. as we study other galaxies, we gain tools which assist our understanding of the way galaxies move and work--including our own.

we've got some relatively close cosmic neighbors to study, but these are all local astronomical phenomena. it's kind of tough to get a good view of our own galaxy since we're right down in it. kind of a 'forest for the trees' thing.

but by figuring out how lots of _other_ galaxies do their thing, we can get some ammo to help figure out what's happening in our neck of the woods.

keep learning.

--cid

0wn yourself

every day a step closer

we're (at least some of us) always struggling to refine our picture of the universe and how it works. every new little thing we learn helps to shape our overall understanding of this reality we live in.

space dot com has an interesting article recently talking about the new info being compiled on andromeda. as we study other galaxies, we gain tools which assist our understanding of the way galaxies move and work--including our own.

we've got some relatively close cosmic neighbors to study, but these are all local astronomical phenomena. it's kind of tough to get a good view of our own galaxy since we're right down in it. kind of a 'forest for the trees' thing.

but by figuring out how lots of _other_ galaxies do their thing, we can get some ammo to help figure out what's happening in our neck of the woods.

keep learning.

--cid

0wn yourself

2006-06-05

some wise words about sony

okay. first, i've got to apologize for two things--harping on sony's love of proprietary formats and my hitting you with something else from slashdot.

but with good reason. this article presents a balanced (and objective) view of sony's current (apparent) plan with regards to the ps3, their decision to include a blu-ray drive in the console, and their love of proprietary technologies (and the history that illustrates it).

so, that's it. just saw a good one and thought i'd point it out. i'm finished now.

--cid

2006-06-03

net neutrality

here's one that i'm having trouble digesting. net neutrality.

both sides have some really good arguments.

on the one hand, i agree with sonia arrison in her articles on the matter of regulations usually being a bad thing. i understand that the internet (and all of the concepts, ideas and paradigms that have sprung from it) happened largely because of the hard-to-control nature of the decentralized network. it's headless, so it's very resiliant, and simultaneously, anyone can introduce and idea from any point and have it spread to any (or even every) other point on the network without much time, effort, or way to stop it.

basically, it's a more level playing field.

and i also understand that there are ways to alter that level playing field to once again stack the proverbial deck in a particular entity or interested party's favour.

but i can also see that large entities controlling a large portion of the infrastructure can institute certain practices (for whatever reasons) that can have effects on performance and usability.

and what i mean by that is that an entity which controls a large enough portion of the backbone, can effectively disrupt, cripple or break sites and services which run over their channels.

now the real question becomes one of the lesser of two (actually three) evils--allow these companies to do as they will (i.e. throw network neutrality right out the window and forget about it), allow the government to regulate the backbone providers (and i think we all know about some of the perils that one contains), or to come to some other solution...maybe the honour system? some kind of independent (and unbiased) third party audit scheme? *shrugs*

i understand how _i_ feel about the matter--i just don't know which of the two apparent factions i fit into.

actually, i guess i don't necessarily have to pick one of the existing sides. i've never been very good at fitting in anyway...

besides, pretty soon we'll get to see what all the politicians think. hehe.

as always, i'm still learning.

--cid

a paper by tim wu--the guy who coined the term 'network neutrality'

PERFORM act

platform equality and remedies for rights holders in music. that's the latest clever acronym to disguise a piece of legislation being put in place by a very specific (and coincidentally filthy rich) corner of an industry we all know and love...

what's this one all about, you ask?

perform, at first glance, seems to be there for two reasons--firstly, the riaa wants more money from satellite radio providers, and secondly, because it's an opportunity to set more precedents and get a little more case law going their way.

specifically, riaa is pissed about the hybrid satellite radio/mp3 player combos coming down the pipe. the reason they're mad is because these devices allow you to timeshift and/or your paid for subscription content so it can be listened to at a different time or setting. well, both of these practices (timeshifting and placeshifting) fall under the concept of 'fair use' and if you've followed the anything about the riaa, you prolly know how they feel about fair use...

anyway, it seems that they're still unhappy with current laws covering fair use (not to mention relatively recent laws--such as the dmca--which attack the legal basis of such concepts as fair use) and are still persuing methods of weakening consumers' rights, ensuring their ability to squeeze unfair percentages out of both the artists whose work they're getting rich off and their own customers who are making it possible, and to strengthen their own abilities to control (through legal means and business tactics) market variables, release (and the disabling of functions) of new technologies.

announcements like this make me want to redouble my efforts in opening people's eyes (my own as well as others) and to go out and find (or make!) more alternative media choices.

you don't like what's on tv? get a camcorder and go make your own video. don't like the crap clearchannel puts on most of the radio stations in america? go find an internet radio show you do like. go _make_ your _own_ internet radio show. go volunteer at your local public station. get a short wave and listen to international broadcasts. go to the library and read a book. _write_ a book. draw a picture. go for a walk. reassess the media you consume on a daily basis and think about why you're into what you are.

think about how it used to be. think about how it is. think about how it might be soon. think about how that makes you feel.

don't forget that we _do_ still have power. we do still have functioning brains and independent wills. we can do things on our own. we can bond together and accomplish things. amazing things.

new products and ideas don't have to come from some corporation.

we are the people and knowing that makes me feel vibrant and alive.

--cid

0wn your media consumption habits

if you want to read more about the perform act (and other laws pertaining to the rights of citizens) please check out the following...

if you know me, you know i'm always pimpin' the eff. and there's the hrrc and and article about the situation (and another). oh, and an arstechnica article, too. and, the actual text.

keep your eyes 0pen....