Views Archive
Copyright Victory
JibJab Media, the Web animators behind a popular parody of the Bush-Kerry race, has won its battle to keep distributing the film. Music publisher Ludlow Music backed down Tuesday from its claim that JibJab infringed Ludlow’s copyright on Woody Guthrie’s…
Webcam Virus
Bob Sullivan at MSNBC writes of a new computer virus that turns on webcams and sends out the contents to willing hackers. Sounds like something the FBI would have dreamed up, but it’s probably just for finding new sources of…
P2P Software Makers in the Clear
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Grokster and StreamCast Networks are not legally responsible for users who swap copyrighted content through their file-sharing software. The unanimous three-judge panel upheld a lower court ruling that dismissed the bulk…
Cryptographers Find New Weaknesses in Common Security Algorithms
More fodder for the computer security paranoid: Computer scientists have reported previously unknown flaws in three key mathematical functions embedded in common security applications at this week’s Crypto 2004 conference in Santa Barbara, CA.Both Chinese and French researchers reported weaknesses…
Video Game to Fight Hunger?
The United Nations’ World Food Program has created a video game called Food Force to help educate kids about hunger and the aid agency’s work. Billed as a cross between Tomb Raider and a lecture from the World Food Program,…
Downloading Television, Legal or Otherwise
Salon’s tech reporter Farhad Marjoo recently posted a thoughtful discussion of the current state of television downloads. The center piece of the article is a discussion of a recent FCC decision which cleared the way for TiVo, the digital recorder…
Blog n' Roll
The New York Times has a story about the sticky relationship between major record labels and independent bloggers. It reports that Warner Brothers Records spammed a bunch of music bloggers, asking them to post a track by an up-and-coming band…
ATM Keypad Security
Kevin Poulsen published an interesting article back in July about the security measures that go into ATM keypads. I missed it before but just found it and it’s pretty neat. Highly recommended….
Japan Launches Worlds First Solar Sail
Solar sails have been in science fiction for nearly 40 years. But in a poorly-reported event (at least in the US), Japan launched and tested a solar sail. Coverage at CNN.COM which somehow didn’t make the front page….
Seeing Phone Conversations
Given that we’re visual creatures, it’s surprising how much of the day we spend immersed in an audio-only medium: the telephone. But at the MIT Media Lab, researchers have built a device that bridges that gap, adding a mesmerizing visual…