Science and Technology

AGAIN, we are at the cutting edge of the zeitgeist – USA Today notes that the “adult” entertainment industry often leads the way in technology: Online pornographers have been among the first to exploit new technology for more than a decade – from video-streaming and fee-based subscriptions to pop-up ads …

For the latest round of RIAA lawsuits against alleged file sharers, they tried to lump over 200 in a single suit. A federal judge said no on Friday: The Recording Industry Association of America grouped 203 so-called “John Doe” defendants — “John Doe” because their identities are not yet known …

We are of course always trying to improve our economic situation by improving our content, getting the word out, increasing traffic, and selling more ads and doing more Amazon business. We still operate at a loss, but our situation has improved very steadily over time and I am confident we …

Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl assault on the sensibilities of the American viewing audience began a chain of events that includes the FCC and Congress cracking down on broadcast “indecency,” which is jeopardizing the careers of Howard Stern and shock jocks from coast to coast. Howard, in particular, is whining vociferously …

The only way you’re going to stop constant pressure toward cost and price reduction – which includes the “outsourcing of jobs” – is to convince consumers that bargains aren’t cool, that they are wrong to look for the lowest possible price on a given item. Considering that this isn’t rational: …

Austin is literally putting music in the air at this year’s SxSW Music Festival: Citizens of Austin, Texas, have free wireless Internet access in nearly 30 restaurants and coffee shops around the city. Thanks to the South by Southwest music festival, patrons also enjoy the added benefit of free music. …

We mentioned broadband over power lines over a year ago – now it’s a reality in Cincinnati: A unit of Cinergy Corp. today will become the nation’s first electric utility to offer high-speed Internet service to customers via its power lines, turning every electrical outlet in homes or offices into …

Metallica is joining Phish, String Cheese Incident and many others in offering digital downloads of concerts: In a continuing effort to provide their fans with the most unique services, Metallica, along with technology partners CinemaNow.com and nugs.net enterprises, today announced the launch of a new Web site, www.LiveMetallica.com. The site …

Special, super-duper NASA press conference on Mars today at 2pm EST: space-dudes have something important to announce. Little green men? Large purple women? Flesh-eating bugs? Or maybe traces of water? Info here: Significant findings from NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, now exploring Meridiani Planum on Mars, will be announced at …

Security firm mi2g offers some fascinating insight into the malware epidemic: As new variants of malware continue to arrive faster than they can be analysed or remedied, the malware tsunami is overwhelming both its victim organisations as well as anti-virus toolkit companies and security professionals across the world. Most security …