Microsoft is using FM radio band to transmit messages to retrofitted objects like watches, magnets, your butt (just making sure you are paying attention): It feels so retro, this wireless wristwatch from Microsoft. While most technology firms were chasing the Next Big Thing, the Redmond software giant spent the past …

The agreement to maintain the status quo is further explored in the Washington Post: Key players in the computer, software and recording industries this week announced that they now see eye-to-eye on how to stem the rising tide of electronic piracy, but their accord raises questions about where the groups …

TiVO may be even more of “God’s machine” than the FCC’s Powell or anyone else realized. Richard Shim reveals all in CNET: A hidden feature on remote controls for TiVo digital video recorders lets viewers skip ads more easily. The “Easter egg” –industry jargon for a feature that is revealed …

More on the Supreme Court’s decision against Eldred, Lessig, et al. DigitalConsumer.org Statement on Eldred Case: Digitalconsumer.org today issued the following statement regarding the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Eldred case: Today’s Eldred ruling is bad for consumers, bad for innovation and ultimately bad for America. It is another in …

The tectonic conflict between the defenders of intellectual property (and its defense mechanisms – copyright, DRMs, etc.) and the forces of free expression is generating news headlines almost daily (just scan our front page) and will shape our vision of knowledge into the next digital era. Every citizen should be …

Much has been made of blogs as access to the great viral memepool, but the Internet offers other methods of getting out the word, rallying energy and enthusiasm, leading by example, and tapping into the power of linking to direct sources of information. I live in suburban Cleveland; check out …

Nothing is less funny than child endangerment, but at least you can alleviate that sick sense of helplessness by the catching the baby, over and over. Do not be distracted by the music delivery devices.

Veteran (b. 1938) tenor saxophonist-flutist Charles Lloyd’s 2-CD set Lift Every Voice on ECM is a panoramic stylistic and emotional tour de force. He strides across a huge langscape of original material; spirituals; hymns; standards; folk, love, and protest songs; speaking boldly with unadorned melody lines (you won’t think of …

The Fat Possum label continues it’s blistering run of traditional and psycho-lectric Mississippi Delta blues classics (Junior Kimbrough, T-Model Ford, Paul Jones, Super Chikan) with the rerelease of Mississippi Fred McDowell’s Mama Says I’m Crazy, recorded in 1967 under freaky real-world circumstances: Fred couldn’t have been more excited about doing …

In 2000 owners spent like there was no tomorrow: tomorrow is here. It’s hard to fathom that the good-old days of free agency are not old at all. It was just two years ago, during the winter following the 2000 season, when the dollars flowed as never before. Even Marvin …