Category: Technology

Commentary and analysis about new technology and business developments.

Consensus at Lawyerpoint

A new EFF weblog with the aim of being a true account of the undertakings of the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group. If you care about technology, this blog is virtually guaranteed to make you angry.

Consensus at Lawyerpoint is a new weblog by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which aims to give ordinary people access to information and visibility into the process of decision-making and deal-brokering by the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group.

In other words, this blog aims to give you a day-by-day, blow-by-blow description of how Big Entertainment really is trying to take away our digital rights. If you care about the future of technology, this blog is virtually guaranteed to make you angry.

Which is why you should read it. Get angry now, while you can still do something about it!

Borg Journalism

We are the Blogs. Journalism will be Assimilated. And journalist John Hiler thinks it’s for the better. (He’s right.)

John Hiler has written a great article about how weblogging is changing the face of journalism. While he uses the Borg metaphor, it’s pretty clear that he thinks the changes will be for the better.

Funnily enough, Rochelle’s had some experience with something like this. Chowhound.com, a food-oriented discussion site where Rochelle frequently participates, seems to spawn a mainstream food story every couple of weeks. For example, there was a vibrant discussion about taco trucks, with many people telling about their favorites. And sure enough, the Chronicle soon ran a story about taco trucks in the Bay Area, an article we read and enjoyed.

The best journalists credit their sources and inspiration, because it means they’ll get more of it. Right now weblogging and online communities of all types are very new, but it’s clear their impact on and integration into mainstream culture is something we’ll be noticing for some time.

Microsoft’s Whining Competitors

“The whole point of the [Microsoft antitrust] case is that Microsoft’s abuses of its market power have damaged competitors, and any remedies the court imposes should be designed to correct that situation.”

Microsoft has repeatedly asserted that the trial is really about their competitors whining about losing, and that those trying to add restrictions to the proposed settlement are just competitors trying to gain extra advantage.

Duh.

As Henry Norr writes, “The whole point of the case is that Microsoft’s abuses of its market power have damaged competitors, and any remedies the court imposes should be designed to correct that situation.”

Since the proposed settlement won’t correct the situation, the damaged parties continue to try to create a settlement that will. Which is exactly what they should do, and what the law should help them in doing.

Pets Warehouse Sues Hobbyists

Why Salon.com is great: covering little stories like Pets Warehouse Sues Hobbyists.

I’m grateful to Salon.com for running this story, about how the people behind Pets Warehouse sued a bunch of hobbiests. From reading the article, it sounds like a classic case of someone using the legal system to intimidate and outspend an opponent into submission. I doubt very much if Salon.com will roll over and play dead in quite the same way, and so they’re making sure the story of the little guy is heard.

Salon.com is a great online publication. They have outstanding political coverage, and do a great job of covering technology in a way that no one else really does, with thoughtful, in-depth writing of the highest quality.

Recommended.

Purging Spam

If spam in your Inbox is a problem, Mailfilter is a pretty good solution, especially if you’re using Mac OS X.

Update: I no longer recommend Mailfilter under any circumstances. See my Personal Survey of Anti-Spam Tools for more current recommendations.

I get a lot of spam (unsolicited commercial e-mail), primarily because I have a lot of public web sites with my e-mail address on them. The spammers have robots that spider the web, scanning for e-mail addresses and adding them to their databases of victims to send offers for free porn, herbal viagra, multi-level marketing opportunities, transfers of money from Nigeria, and the like.

I get dozens of spam messages a day. For a long time I sent them to the Spam Recycling Center, but recently that started bouncing the messages back to me, so I had to find something else to do with them. And frankly, I’m tired to trying to fight spam. Now I just want to get less of it.

I recently found a utility called Mailfilter that is my new answer. Basically it pre-scans my incoming e-mail, and if anything matches a spam rule, it deletes it before I ever see it. I’ve been using it for less than a week, and it’s already deleted more than 200 spam messages. I am a very happy user.

The best thing, for me, is that it runs natively on Mac OS X, and integrates quite well with my e-mail client, Eudora, via AppleScript and cron.

It’s not for the faint-of-heart, technically. If you don’t know what a compiler is, or cron, or a shell script, then it’s probably not for you. But if any of those things sounds familiar then Mailfilter may be a pretty good solution for you, too.

When Elephants Dance

When Elephants Dance is the single best survey of the technological, political, and legal aspects of the current intellectual property power grab. It weaves together the complete story and history of the issue.

If you only read one article, make it this one. If you think I’m a zealot on this issue, the 15 minutes it will take you to read the article will prove you right or wrong. I’m pretty confident where you’ll come out.

Probably the best summary I’ve read comes from this article:

As security and cryptography expert Bruce Schneier explains it to Mike Godwin: “If you think about it, the entertainment industry does not want people to have computers; they’re too powerful, too flexible, and too extensible. They want people to have Internet Entertainment Platforms: televisions, VCRs, game consoles, etc.”

Who’s Your Rep

Find out who your congressional representatives are, and who’s paying for their votes.

Since I’m regularly suggesting you should contact your political representatives and let them know how you feel about some proposed laws, I thought I’d make it easy for you to figure out who your representative is.

The website opensecrets.org makes it very easy to learn your congressional representatives, and who’s paying for their votes. Here’s a quick interface to their database:

Who’s My Rep?

For example, you can use this tool to learn that the fourth largest campaign contributor to Adam Schiff, who recently introduced a version of the CPDPTA into the House, is Big Entertainment. Surprise, surprise…

Ebert says “Thumbs Down” to RIAA

No less than Roger Ebert weighs in on the issue of digital rights management.

In an online editorial, Roger Ebert (of Siskel and Ebert fame) turns his Critical Eye on the RIAA and their campaign to copy protect music, and says Don’t Confuse Fans With Pirates.

In other words, it’s not just technology geeks who care about the hot issue of digital rights management, and are noticing that Congress is selling us out. You will be reading a lot about this issue, and how it will affect you if Big Entertainment gets their way…

Stop Buying Music

The CBDTPA is the most recent attempt to take away virtually every use of any form of digital media, except pay-for-use. It’s egregious, and serves Big Entertainment at the expense of everyone else. A simple boycott can send a big message: stop treating us like criminals.

Big Entertainment’s attempt to neuter and hijack personal technology continues to be a big issue, with the recent introduction of the CBDTPA (by whom else, the Senator from Disney), which would essentially turn computers into expensive DVD players, and the Internet into online TV.

Dan Gillmor writes about this, and proposes we send a strong message to Big Entertainment, by doing one simple thing: stop buying music CDs.

By not buying music from the big record companies for the rest of 2002, we send a powerful message that we don’t want to be treated like criminals. Read Dan’s article for the details.

Don’t think this is a big deal? Here’s an article that illustrates how the CBDTPA bans everything from two-line BASIC programs to PCs.

Think this is just a theoretical abuse? Here’s an article that illustrates how the DCMA, CBDPTA’s precursor, has already made some forms of free speech impossible.

The time to make your displeasure known to our politicians is today.

Right now.

Back Now, Feeling Better

After taking me off the Internet for 3 days, my ISP roars back with some very good customer support.

It looks like my new ISP may have actually saved their relationship with me. After 6 or so touches, mostly me calling them, where I got zero helpful information, I finally got a tech to call me back.

Not only did she call me with information that actually solved the problem, but she called back twice more to make sure I had the information and that it had worked.

Anyway, I’m still skeptical of BroadView Networks, but I’m definitely willing to give them a second chance.