Science and Technology

So you’re an antisocial type who would rather confer with the disembodied for Halloween – the NY Times has some cool links: For the members of www.masquerade.org, for example, every day is Halloween. In this so-called MUSH – “multi-user shared hallucination” – those who log on portray various types of …

Like it or not, the last five years have seen an explosion of media aimed at infants and very young children. In the guise of education, parents are utilizing the electronic babysitter – TV, video, computer – from birth on. Is this good, bad or indifferent? I’d say the best …

Please recall the DMCA exemption request process in which many of you helped participate – it was essentially all for naught: The U.S. Copyright Office has opted to leave a controversial software-protection law largely in place, despite protests that it interferes with consumers’ rights to watch movies and listen to …

Napster selling prepaid music download cards in convenience stores and elsewhere: Prepaid cards for tunes from the Napster online store soon will be on sale at 14,000 electronics retailers, supermarkets, convenience stores and other outlets around the country, Santa Clara-based Roxio Corp. plans to announce today. The cards are being …

Very compelling telling of the Alex Halderman-“shift key”-copy protection-SunnComm tale of madness and hilarity in USA Today: About every 30 seconds, the phone rings in the Phoenix offices of SunnComm Technologies. When the receptionist at the 28-employee company answers, someone on the other end curses into the phone. That’s happening …

I want to take a moment and commend Henry Copeland and Blogads for doing what a year ago looked impossible: turning blogs into a viable advertising medium. When Blogcritics was getting off the ground 14 months ago, the notion that blogs could generate traction enough to interest advertisers was viewed …

Only two days until Halloween – why do the holiday, movies, attractions, stories, etc., that trade in fright find such resonance with us? I looked into this and the bizarre rise of Internet “ghoul pools” on MSNBC.com: “It’s a dead man’s party, who could ask for more?Everybody’s coming, leave your …

Stalwart, omnipresent Farhad Manjoo calmly eviscerates Hollywood’s calls for a “broadcast flag” that would prohibit the transfer of digital television programs over the Internet, and that really entails telling electronics manufacturers how they must make their machines: On its Web site, the Motion Picture Association of America provides a handy …

A pair of MIT students have developed a music sharing system that is in compliance with current copyright law: Keith Winstein and Josh Mandel may soon be the most popular guys on campus. They say they’ve discovered a way to give their fellow students at MIT and elsewhere dorm-room access …

Accumulating pearls of wisdom at the feet of my personal digital music guru Jim Griffin: get your collective act together or risk having government authorities slap compulsory licences on the business. In a hugely entertaining and passionate speech, Griffin expressed his clear preference for voluntary negotiations, advocating charges to be …