Crude Technologies

John Newton at TechNewsWorld writes:

"A now-famous AT&T Labs report, "Analysis of Security Vulnerabilities in the Movie Production and Distribution Process," revealed that of a total of 285 movies sampled on P2P networks, 77 percent were leaked by industry insiders. ... What's more, only 5% appeared after their DVD release date."

We've heard this everywhere, but could iPhone debut be for real? Mums the word over and Moto, and Cingular is zipped, but Apple announced on Monday that it would host a news conference on September 7.

The British Broadcasting Corp. is planning a new service for 2006 to let Web users download its television and radio programs up to a week after they have aired. That they're doing this isn't surprising. More interesting was BBC Director General Mark Thompson's realization that the march of technology is forcing their hand. "I accept", he said, "the premise that if the BBC remains nothing more than a traditional TV and radio broadcaster then we probably won't deserve or get license-fee funding beyond 2016."

I came across this interface yesterday, and was blown away. AgencyNet designed their web site as a cutaway view of their office floorplan, complete with tiny furniture, computers, and people, even a receptionist.

In the United States, our historic holidays leave a little to be desired. Look, someone signed something---let's blow things up to celebrate! Hey, fat birds---let's eat one to celebrate! The most recent millenium Americans noticed celebrated an event in Israel two thousand years ago.

A nineteen year old in Missouri was caught video taping "Bewitched", then uploading it to a peer-to-peer network. For this, he faces up to 17 years in prison under federal law.

Neil Harvey's objective is to make your company more profitable through information technology. To help you keep track of your newfound profitability, he's posted a guide to strapping a Verizon Samsung i700 Smartphone to the back of a Robosapien toy so you can see and hear what's going on, remotely.

They're capricious and arbitrary...

Proving again that everything new is old, the hit single "They" from Jem's recently released album "Finally Woken" is hauntingly familiar. The background chorus repeats a twelve note phrase, and once you hum along, you can't get it out of your head. You know you've heard it before, but where?