Thursday, August 26, 2004

If you're in St. Louis, or will be over the course of the next month, don't miss The Vanishing: Photographs from a Small Midwestern Town photographs: Lowell Handler text: Jane Smith at the May Gallery of Webster University, 27 August - 1 October, 2004. (Gallery talk, Friday 27 August, 2:00 pm Opening reception, Friday 27 August, 5:00 - 7:00 pm) 12:06:37 PM    comment []

Two Benton Headlines: THE DAY THE E-MAIL DIES The number of daily e-mails in North America has tripled since 1999, to 11.9 billion. The ePolicy Institute, a Columbus (OH) consulting firm, says 48% of all office workers spend one to two hours a day on e-mail. Some 10% spend more than half the day on the stuff. One executive at a Californian software company decided to decree Fridays as "e-mail free days" and began to fine employees in his division one dollar for each e-mail they sent on Fridays. The goal was to get employees to call eachother or talk in person -- and the get people to think about what they send electronically. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Marlon A. Walker marlon.walker@wsj.com] (requires subscription) ABC'S DIGITAL CONVENTION SCAM [Commentary] Commercial broadcast television networks will provide the same slim coverage of the Republican convention as they did for the Democrats last month. But ABC is boasting of its "comprehensive" coverage. Through its new, purportedly ground-breaking ABC News Now digital service, the network promises "a more comprehensive look at what this election and these conventions mean." Using a combination of broadband streaming (via AOL and others), Sprint "Vision" phones and a handful of digital TV channels, ABC's "FAQ" sheet crows that "no other network is offering that kind of comprehensive coverage across multiple platforms." But only about 500,000 people will actually have access to ABC News Now coverage. That's out of 108 million US TV households and the 68 million US adults who have high-speed Internet service. ABC parent Disney president Robert Igar told investment analysts earlier this month that if the FCC or Congress passes the new rules that Disney and other broadcasters are lobbying for, new digital news channels like ABC News Now will flourish. In other words, ABC's new political programming offerings are a digital "Trojan horse" to help the company achieve a billion-dollar bounty of new corporate welfare. Disney paid more than $5 billion for a single cable channel (Fox Family) back in 2001 and has remained extremely profitable. Imagine how the bottom-lines of the broadcast industry will prosper from a policy which gives each broadcaster multiple cable channels for free. But Disney/ABC and other broadcast companies want this new policy without any public-interest strings attached. They oppose even a modest requirement that they would actually have to provide additional news and public affairs programming as a condition for such a policy. It is likely that once the government approves the cable "must carry" policy sought by Disney, such vaunted efforts as ABC News Now would be quickly replaced by entertainment, sports and other ratings-proven fare. [SOURCE: The Nation, AUTHOR: Jeff Chester] 10:06:20 AM    comment []

ITU report on "The Portable Internet". The International Telecommunication Union(ITU)have a report online due in September 2004,entitled "The Portable Internet".A preview of the report can be had below with sample pages in pdf available.From one of those pages."Identifying the market opportunity for the portable Internet.The potential... [Smart Mobs] 6:47:43 AM    comment []

Killer audio file of killer lawyers talking Grokster Ernie Miller sez, "I've started a new audio show on IT Conversations, where I'll be discussing issues of law and technology with many of the leaders in the field. You can stream the audio or download it either directly or via RSS enclosures in MP3 or AAC format. My first show is on the Grokster decision and features a panel including Fred von Lohmann, who argued the case, Denise Howell and C.E. Petit, two attorneys in IP law practice, and law professor Tim Wu of the Univ. of Virginia." 12.4 MB MP3 Link (Thanks, Ernie!) How to keep logs without endangering user privacy Parody of MPAA "Click but you can't hide" poster Following up on a previous post about the MPAA's "Respect Copyright" campaign, cheeky monkey Trevor Haldenby points us to his parody of the MPAA's campaign poster (Link to PDF original). Link to parody poster, cropped and thumbnailed at left (220K jpeg). Mirror 1, Mirror 2. MPAA's latest in-theater "respect copyright" spots inspire ridicule Defamer says: Recently, we were respecting the entertainment industry's copyrights in a $14 Cinerama Dome seat when Hollywood stunt coordinator Manny Perry began his impassioned plea for us to further respect copyrights by visiting the MPAA's scary website after leaving the theater. A chorus of groans rose up from the audience as the dreaded words faded into view: "Manny Perry Makes Movies." We don't personally blame Manny Perry for his misguided participation in the MPAA propaganda, as we assume that Jack Valenti was holding his wife hostage at gunpoint while threatening to feed his infant daughter to a poorly-bred pit bull in Manny Perry's ranch-style home in Chatsworth, but that doesn't mean that others are so understanding. Here's a representative sample of our readers' frustration... Link to complete Defamer post, and a subsequent update about Manny Parry, the star of one spot. Link to Low Culture's post on the "incredibly annoying respectcopyrights.org ads that run before the trailers at movies lately." Link to the MPAA's respectcopyrights.org, which boasts what may be the ass-suckiest, most uberbloated Flash interface on the entire intarweb. The campaign's happy happy joy joy slogan? "YOU CAN CLICK -- BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE." Link to poster bearing said slogan (PDF). Link to IMDB entry for Manny Perry, arguably the most copyright-respectingest man in Hollywood. Astute BoingBoing readers will note that the very first line of this IMDB listing reads "Trivia: Appeared in a commercial to battle the internet movie pirates." Aye, with his bare hands he did, matey! Arrrrrrrrrr!!! Links to *.mov video files of the latest trailer: low, med, high. And loads more, at bOing bOing. 6:47:02 AM    comment []

Computer People Reopen Art History Dispute. David Hockney's controversial theory that early Renaissance painters used cameralike devices has been challenged by researchers using digital techniques. By By SARAH BOXER. [The New York Times > Technology] 6:40:55 AM    comment []

Tunes, a Hard Drive and (Just Maybe) a Brain. The "shuffle" command on music players like the iPod is supposed to be a truly random way of making your way through a vast music collection. But some owners are wondering whether the iPod has a mind of its own. By By RACHEL DODES. [The New York Times > Technology] 6:40:50 AM    comment []

The Technological Juggernaut. As Larry Lessig has long and presciently emphasized, law and technology are substitute methods of protecting an interest. You can sue a trespasser; but it may be cheaper just to put up a strong fence. We used to think that if the technological substitute was adequate, it would be superior... [Posner filling in on the Lessig Blog] 6:33:05 AM    comment []

Internet Gives Teenage Bullies Weapons to Wound From Afar. For teenagers, online harassment has become a part of everyday life, but many schools and parents have only just become aware of it. By By AMY HARMON. [The New York Times > Technology] 6:32:36 AM    comment []

Built for America, Sold (Cheaply) to the World. Billions of dollars worth of global telecommunications networks bought or built by United States investors now belong to Chinese, Indian and other non-American companies that have snapped them up for a fraction of their cost. By By JENNIFER L. SCHENKER. [The New York Times > Business] 6:32:30 AM    comment []