The latest low-tech billboards along the highways of the Netherlands are startling enough to prompt motorists to indulge in U-turns. Or make that ewe-turns. These ads are walking, woolly flocks of bleating sheep
For the last few years, a coalition of technology companies, academics and computer programmers has been trying to persuade Congress to scale back the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Now Congress is preparing to do precisely the opposite. A proposed copyright law would expand the DMCA’s restrictions on software that can bypass copy protections and grant federal police more wiretapping and enforcement powers. The new law would send you to prison for attempting to infringe copyright. It would make it even more illegal to own tools that could be used to remove copy-restrictions, like DVD-ripping software — it could even bust Symantec for making software that removed the Sony rootkit malicious software that the company distributed with its CDs last year
International carrier Southern Cross Cables said it had fixed a problem with its Internet link between Australia and the United States on Saturday that several local ISPs had warned could cause slow international speeds
It’s not a Can’t beat ’em? Join ’em
scenario but it’s pretty close. In a move that will most likely anger DVD buyers in western markets, Warner Home Video is trying to compete with film pirates in China as they launch a trial program. A new release movie, sans all the normal packaging, is available for the equivalent of US$1.50
South Carolina’s Legislature is considering outlawing sex toys. The South Carolina bill, proposed by Republican Rep. Ralph Davenport, would make it a felony to sell devices used primarily for sexual stimulation and allow law enforcement to seize sex toys from raided businesses — via Boing Boing
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have discovered a material that gives a whole new complexion to the term fridge magnet
. When this alloy is placed in a magnetic field, it gets colder. Karl Sandeman and his co-workers think that their material — a blend of cobalt, manganese, silicon and germanium — could help to usher in a new type of refrigerator that is up to 40 percent more energy-efficient than conventional models
Bob Cringely offers an intriguing reason behind Apple’s recent strategy of Boot Camp. I believe that Apple will offer Windows Vista as an option for those big customers who demand it, but I also believe that Apple will offer in OSX 10.5 the ability to run native Windows XP applications with no copy of XP installed on the machine at all. This will be accomplished not by using compatibility middleware like Wine, but rather by Apple implementing the Windows API directly in OSX 10.5
A group of telecoms companies — Optus, Macquarie Telecom, PowerTel, Primus, Internode, Soul and TransACT — has joined together to form a plan for upgrading broadband around the nation. Telstra’s nose has been put out of joint by the move and responded with a childish rant that the plan is a scam
LiveJournal recently introduced ads on some pages for free users. More interestingly, they also added a new restriction to their TOS (XVI 17 b.) banning users from using or providing ad-blocking software. The new TOS also permits them to immediately terminate the account of anyone they catch doing this
Holographic data storage pioneer InPhase Technologies, has announced that it has demonstrated the highest data density of any commercial technology by recording 515 gigabits of data per square inch. The first generation drive will have a capacity of 300 gigabytes on a single disk with a 20 megabyte per second transfer rate — via digg
Higher education, technology companies, and a consumer group are the latest to band together in an attempt to fight the growing problem of viruses and spyware plaguing the Internet
iiNet’s broadband customers have for several weeks been experiencing slow speeds to some international Internet sites as the telco wrangles with a congested connection in the United States
Rupert Murdoch has made another foray into e-commerce, with an investment in the world’s largest job search engine. Simply Hired received a total AU$18.11 million from New Corp’s Fox Interactive Media and venture capital firm Foundation Capital
A rat nerve cell attached to a semiconductor chip has exchanged a signal with the chip, an achievement that could lead to organic computers that process information like a brain — via Discovery
America’s estimated 30,000 Elvis impressionists fear that they are about to be put out of business. Robert Sillerman, a New York businessman, has bought the rights to Elvis’ name and likeness and has threatened to ban unauthorised
Elvis clones — via The Times
Five girls decorated their Ohio hometown with life-size Super Mario Brothers power-up bricks. The Man responded with full-on terrornoia, dispatching video-game illiterate bomb-squads to defuse
the bricks, and now the girls face potential criminal charges
— via Boing Boing
In 1993, Jack Rogers grudgingly agreed to serve on a task force studying whether his local Presbyterian church in Southern California should ordain gays. Quite frankly, he wasn’t interested in giving the topic serious thought. I opposed homosexuality reflexively — that was just what I thought Christians were supposed to do,
he recalls. But once he did embark on a scholarly journey, the Presbyterian minister found that his views changed 180 degrees: He’s become a vocal advocate of ordaining gays and marrying gay couples in the church — via The Detroit News
A legal spat over a Web site criticising Jerry Falwell for his antigay views won’t ascend to the US Supreme Court. The justices on Monday declined without comment to take up the evangelical preacher’s appeal, which challenged the operator of Fallwell.com, a site that aims to explain why Rev. Falwell is completely wrong about people who are gay or lesbian
. The televangelist had claimed the domain name’s spelling was too close to that of his official Web presence and asked the courts to shut it down
Shoppers in the British city of Nottingham are being kept in line by a team of former Ghurkas hired to patrol Ikea. Since the team took over three weeks ago, not a single crime has been reported — via SBS News
The world’s strongest glue is made by bacteria. The adhesive can withstand an enormous amount of stress, equal to the force felt by a quarter with more than three cars piled on top of it
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