While record companies prepare for the sentencing of three Sydney men convicted of music piracy by the Federal Court, a new survey shows most musicians and other music professionals believe copyright laws are too harsh. It found that 81% of the 200 respondents felt that the Copyright Act should be changed to allow the copying of a user’s own legally purchased CDs, but not borrowed or downloaded music. Less than half of respondents felt that downloading free music constituted theft from artists and composers, while only 25% felt it was theft from record labels. 27% of respondents did not feel downloading music was theft
Everyone knows where Lego bricks come from. They’re scraped off the inside of magic trees by tiny Danish elves, right? Wrong! The truth is both more ordinary and much, much stranger. Take an interactive tour of a typical Lego factory and learn how Lego bricks begin the long journey that ends up under your couch
Noticing some commonalities in the spam flooding their e-mail in-boxes, a small group of hackers set out to track down who was responsible. Along the way they uncovered a trail that led them to an organised gang of criminals halfway around the world, and right back to some of the largest financial institutions in the US, and their customers, that became the gang’s prey
The US$10.99 Dakota reusable digital camera announced in July was usefully hacked on 6 November. First attempts to extract picture data took 10 hours to read out 16MB, but new code for Windows, Linux and Mac lets you get pictures quickly over USB and view or print them without Ritz’s help
In a rare sign of trouble for the booming search marketing business, Google is fending off complaints from angry customers who say recent changes to the company’s advertising program are costing them sales
An independent PC developer has created a program called MyTunes that lets users of iTunes share MP3 files almost as easily as they could using programs such as Kazaa
For dedicated fans of the legendary science fiction hero Doctor Who, the long wait is over. A new animated version based on the ninth incarnation of the doctor, played by Richard Grant, has been placed on the BBC’s Internet arm BBCi and can be downloaded for viewing. The 85-minute series called The Scream of the Shalka also coincides with the show’s 40th anniversary
Surround sound can make home movie viewing more fun, but requires peppering your room with speakers and cables. No more. Nirotek‘s DVD player, the NIRO 1.1 PRO, delivers the surround effect using just a single unit. It works by packing five small speakers into one case. Each speaker signal is then manipulated by computer algorithms to mimic the effects used by the brain to identify the direction a sound is coming from
Microsoft plans to add pop-up blocking features to Internet Explorer next year as part of its Service Pack 2 update for Windows XP, a move that would go far toward stamping out the Web advertisements
Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble conducted a secret RFID trial involving Oklahoma consumers earlier this year. Customers who purchased P&G’s Lipfinity brand lipstick at the Broken Arrow Wal-Mart store between late March and mid-July unknowingly left the store with live RFID tracking devices embedded in the packaging. Wal-Mart had previously denied any consumer-level RFID testing in the United States
The government has finally gotten a clue about the reality of IT jobs in Australia, with information and communication technology skilled jobs cut from the federal government’s list of high-demand jobs for potential migrants
One for the web people, this guy has made the impossible possible. He has found a way to have IE5.01, 5.5 and 6 installed together under Windows XP, 2000, Server 2003, 98 and ME. (awe inspired gasp and eyes filled with hope…)
For those who aren’t aware, you can’t run different versions of Internet Explorer — on Windows. This causes incredible arse pains when web designers and developers need to test their work to make sure it’ll work in as many configurations as they’ve promised.
No more going onto this machine and then that one, and asking someone else how sites look and work, and bribing them, or just crossing fingers and offering virgin scarifices to the browser gods — please, please work, I beg you!
But I digress. I myself have not had the chance to try this out, but all the feed back on the site is incredibly positive.
Small countries in the United Nations have been arguing to put the Internet under the control of the UN so that countries can more easily control Internet content. It’s on hold for now, but this could become a very real censorship problem, very soon. Some nations have gone so far as to suggest ‘monitoring boards’ for internet content
While OzEmail subscribers fume over undelivered email, the supplier of the ISPs e-mail platform says it has not asked for technical assistance. According to OzEmail, only its MyMail webmail users have been affected by an outage that has been going on for more than two weeks. However, many customers have described a wide range of problems beyond the webmail product
Optus has announced it will soon begin offering ADSL to residential customers, after finalising negotiations to use Telstra’s infrastructure. Which means that it will be prone to the same faults and breakdowns that plague the Telstra product
With a pending server move leaving the installation of Jay Allen’s MT-Blacklist temporarily on the back burner, Joseph Duemer took a decidedly different course when dealing with a recent comment spammer… he invoiced the bastard
A free, experimental IPv6 migration broker has been announced, which will allow Australians on IPv4 internet connections to test out applications for the newer internet protocol
The disposable mobile seems like a nice alternative to being locked into a lengthy contract, or for people who only need a mobile for a short period of time. Plus the company offer a $5 rebate for you to bring it back and swap for the next one
Cyberkinetics is about to ask federal regulators for permission to start testing a device that would enable paralyzed people to control computers directly with their brains or possibly help them move their limbs. Initially, the device, implanted into the brains of paralyzed people, will help them control a cursor on a screen or play video games. Researchers believe the technology could one day enable paralyzed people to type, control lights and heating controls, manoeuvre wheelchairs, or even manipulate robotic arms
Researchers at Harvard University have demonstrated for the first time that they can easily apply a film of tiny, high-performance silicon nanowires to glass and plastic, a development that could pave the way for the next generation of cheaper, lighter and more powerful consumer electronics. The development could lead to such futuristic products as disposable computers and optical displays that can be worn in your clothes or contact lenses
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