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Universal Music Thinking Subscription... But In A Way That Will Never Succeed
Last week, there was a lot of buzz about the NY Times Magazine profile of Columbia Records boss Rick Rubin. Among the interesting tidbits was the idea that Rubin and many other executives in the industry have finally started to come around to the idea of a universal "subscription" service -- which many people had suggested years ago (and which the recording industry insisted would never work). Of course, the devil is always in the details -- and a big question is whether or not record labels will set this up like the existing "subscription" services like Napster and Rhapsody, or will actually recognize the value of going DRM free and making it more of a licensing program, rather than a limited subscription service. Nearly as big a question is whether or not all of the major players would ever agree to terms that would make such a system work.Surprisingly, it sounds like Universal Music is trying to take the lead in pushing out just such a subscription service, but the details...

Massive Cyberattacks Like Hacking The Weather?
For years, fear mongerers from industry and government have been warning about the growing threat of "cyberwar" and "cyberattacks" where hackers would totally take down important critical systems that rely on the internet. The reality, however, is that it's not so easy for hackers to do this. In fact it's been exceedingly rare that hack attacks cause huge problems, taking down critical systems on a massive basis (though, they can do plenty of localized damage). Instead, as the NY Times notes, it seems that all of the big computing disasters lately have much more to do with overly complex computing systems, where some bug triggers a catastrophic failure. The article mentions things like the recent United Airlines computer problems and the recent Skype downtime, both of which were attributed to computer failures rather than malicious attacks (though, there's some debate over how true those explanations are). One of the most interesting points made in the article is that...

China: No, No, No, It's Other Countries Hacking OUR Military Computers
There were a bunch of reports recently claiming that various government agencies (including the US, Germany and New Zealand) had computer systems hacked by hackers tied to the Chinese government. The details have been quite vague, and it has all the warning signs of a story that's been blown out of proportion (perhaps for political purposes). However, China apparently feels that it's time to strike back. While initially denying any responsibility, the Chinese gov't is now taking a different strategy, claiming that it's actually China that's been a regular victim of foreign hackers breaking into its classified military computer systems. Of course, the truth is probably that spies on all sides are constantly trying to hack into computers of foreign gov't agencies. That should hardly come as a surprise, so all of these recent press reports are nothing more than posturing about how "shocked" gov't officials are for actions that everyone knows occurs all the time. ...

Arrested For Googlebombing (And Insulting The President Of Poland)
The concept of Googlebombing has been around for quite some time. Basically, you get a bunch of folks to link to a certain site using a specific word or phrase and hope that Google picks it up and the site you link to reaches the top of the list. Wikipedia has a lot of good info on the history of Googlebombing. It's especially popular in the political arena, particularly in trying to insult a politician one side doesn't like by associating that person with a derogatory word or phrase. During the last Presidential election, both major candidates had this done to them. The real damage of a Googlebomb is quite miniscule. Often, the phrases being used are somewhat rare -- which is what allows the Googlebomb to work in the first place (otherwise, there's a lot more competition to get it up the list). Second, it's unlikely to impact anyone's political views to do a search on an insulting phrase and see a link to a political candidate. Realistically, all that happens with...

Big Energy Company Makes Small Effort To Go Green
As big energy companies jump into the green tech gold rush, some of them have faced criticism that their efforts amount to little more than a cosmetic makeover. Chevron's recent release of an online game in which players are asked to tackle the energy demands of a virtual city does little to soothe such critics. Chevron was beaten to the punch by Starbucks, of all companies, who launched a similarly themed online game back in April. Both companies state their aim to increase awareness of energy issues and encourage participation in the search for solutions. Judging by their investment of creativity into these games, however -- Starbucks' "Planet Green Game" is both more fun and more informative than "Energyville" -- the energy company has been soundly beaten on their own turf by the coffee company (even then, Starbucks' game won't be mistaken as much fun or brilliantly informative any time soon). Chevron appears to have realized that video games can be a useful tool to...

Blaming MP3s And iPods For Ruining Music
It seems that with every new generation of music delivery, there are going to be people who complain that the quality just isn't up to par with what came before. Remember when CDs first came out, there were quite a few upturned noses who insisted the sound quality just couldn't compete with vinyl LPs. And now that mp3s are becoming the standard, folks are complaining that the quality simply can't live up to CDs. This has certainly gone on for a while, as we've noted there are even online stores that cater to audiophiles who believe that compressed mp3s just aren't worth listening to. However, now it's going even further, as the WSJ claims that some audio engineers are saying that the popularity of mp3s and iPods is ruining music. The theory is that audio engineers are using iPods and mp3s as the lowest common denominator for recordings. Since they know that so many people are going to end up hearing the song just through the cheap white earbuds of an iPod, that they don't...

Australian Online Forum Sued Because Users Wrote How They Didn't Like Accounting Software Package
While there are lots of problematic laws when it comes to the internet, two things that the US got right (though, in otherwise troublesome laws) was putting in various "safe harbor" provisions that protect service providers from the actions of their users, whether it's for copyright infringement (in the DMCA) or libel (in the CDA). Folks in other countries aren't so lucky, leading to all sorts of questionable lawsuits that seem to be a lot more about silencing critics than dealing with actual libel or infringement. The latest such story comes from Australia. Reader technofear writes in to let us know that a popular Australian online forum (and the guy who owns it) is being sued by a software firm because a number of forum users posted negative reviews of their software -- which the firm considers defamatory. As the article explains, the software firm is going to have quite a difficult time proving the case, because the company would need to show the statements were false...

Can You Teach Computers To Understand Knock-Knock Jokes?
We were just discussing how difficult it is for computers to handle certain types of tasks, that are often much better suited for human intelligence. However, that won't stop some from trying to program computers to do all sorts of things, with the latest such effort focused on teaching a computer to understand knock-knock jokes. Knock-knock jokes, of course, are usually based on puns, that involve recognizing how a word is being misused for the sake of humor. It's easy (if groan-inducing) for humans, but extremely difficult for computers. The idea, it seems, is that figuring out how to teach computers to understand humor could go a long way in figuring out ways to program stronger artificial intelligence. At least that's the theory. Of course, this isn't the first time we've talked about computers and their senses of humor. Back in 2001, when some researchers set up a program to pull a Monty Python and find the world's funniest joke -- for a long time, the leading entry...

Developers Keep Cracking Away At Mesh Networks
Mesh networks have been talked about for many years as a wireless networking technology for the future. The basic idea is that instead of having every individual access point or cell site backhauled to a larger network (like the internet or the PSTN), access points can talk to one another, and traffic can hop from one AP to the next, until it reaches one with a backhaul connection. This sounds great, in theory, since it makes it much easier to deploy wireless networks, but mesh networks haven't proven easy to get going in the real world. Still, researchers continue to push forward, with the latest development coming from a Swedish company that says it's got a way for mobile phones to communicate directly with others up to a kilometer away, bypassing a centralized mobile network. While the direct range is limited, the mesh functionality can expand the coverage area. Assuming the technology actually works well in the real world, it could be a useful way to allow communications...

Copyright Alliance Pretending That Gov't Backed Monopolies Are The Free Market Again
A few months back, the big entertainment companies formed yet another copyright lobbying group -- as if they didn't already have enough -- to push for more restrictive copyright policies that would limit the rights of consumers. This was the group that just last week was trying to spread the myth that fair use was not a right and copyright holders should be able to lie about what rights copyright grants them. However, the head of the group, Patrick Ross, really seems to get into trouble when he tries to trot out free market concepts to support his positions. You may recall back in January his position that getting rid of the DMCA would go against the free market because it would represent government intervention. He seemed to totally ignore the fact that it was the DMCA that was gov't intervention in the first place. Apparently, Ross hasn't given up on this "up is down, day is night" type of debate style, as copyright expert William Patry has taken Patrick Ross to task...