Monday, October 25, 2004

A Hint of a Nuclear Compromise by Iran. Iran hinted that it might maintain its freeze on enriching uranium to end a standoff with European countries over its nuclear program. By By NAZILA FATHI. [NYT > International] 10:44:43 PM    comment []

The bulge lives!. The presidential debates may be over, but the Bush bulge controversy won't die. In today's Doonesbury, cartoonist Garry Trudeau takes up the question: What was under Bush's jacket anyway? Maybe in tomorrow's strip the President will tell all. We can't wait. [Salon.com] 10:31:52 PM    comment []

The Real Threat: Me2Me. Jason proposes an interesting theory below: he argues that the recording industry's war on P2P may be a distraction from an even more mission-critical battle -- gaining control of "me2me." It looks like David Bernstein of the Boston Phoenix would agree with Jason; in a recent piece on the RIAA's strategies, Bernstein writes: "[The] labels are missing the fact that store-bought CDs, while probably retaining a place in the consumer's world, cannot provide what today's users want: total portability of their music. If users can connect electronically to every song or album they have ever paid for, wherever they may roam, well, the CD just can't match that." HBO, for one, is very straightforward in its FAQ that the goal is to take away your time/space shifting rights in order to sell them back to you. In one section, HBO says that it has sole discretion to "decide what copying privileges [we] wish to extend to consumers." In another, it tells you its "On-Demand" service means you no longer need to "time shift" programming. But if you would like to own the programming you've just paid to watch, you are certainly welcome to pay for it again. "[The] entire series of HBO's Original Programming (such as The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, etc.)...[is available] in attractive box sets with special features such as out-takes and directors' notes." So perhaps this battle isn't so much about "competing with free" as it is about competing with our expectation that we can, as we did with analog media, pay once to enjoy our purchase anytime and anywhere. [unmediated] 10:26:06 PM    comment []

Why market-forces can't correct DRM: Link (via Hack the Planet)  [bOing bOing] 6:47:31 AM    comment []

Including an RSS feed as a sidebar on your weblog. Jessica was wondering how to display an RSS feed on your website, say, in a sidebar. There are tools and websites out there that will let you enter a feed’s address and then output some Javascript that you can cut and past onto your page. RSS Parsing Programs - RSS Workshop has a guide including a list of sites and tools you can use to display an RSS feed on a site. [Learning The Lessons of Nixon] 6:44:12 AM    comment []

LHASA, TIBET—Deng Hsu, 14, said Monday that he is "totally getting into Western philosophy." "I've been reading a lot of Kant, Descartes, and Hegel, and it's blowing my mind," Hsu said. "It's so exotic and exciting, not like all that Buddhist 'being is desire and desire is suffering' shit my parents have been cramming down my throat all my life. Most of the kids in my school have never even heard of Hume's views on objectivity or Locke's tabula rasa." Hsu said he hopes to one day make an exodus to north London to visit the birthplace of John Stuart Mill [The Onion] 6:41:17 AM    comment []

Would President Kerry defang the DMCA?. CNET News.com Washington watcher Declan McCullagh says the senator's first major departure from Bush hints at bolstering consumer rights over copyrights. [CNET News.com] 6:38:32 AM    comment []

Historian unfolds History Unfolding. History Unfolding is a new weblog on current American politics and government by David Kaiser, a teacher of history at the Naval War College.  In a recent post reviewing Bush Administration foreign policy the author concludes [u]nder Bush's leadership, the United States, which as the richest nation in the world has the greatest interest in a peaceful world, has begun smashing the international order and promoting international anarchy. This is a catastrophic policy that neither we, nor the world, can afford. [Subdued Citizen] 6:38:17 AM    comment []

Amid the Errors, the Red Sox Do Not Drop the Ball. For the second game in a row, the Red Sox made four errors. It made no difference after Curt Schilling beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-2, in Game 2 of the World Series. By By TYLER KEPNER. [The New York Times > Sports]   Grrrrrr. 6:37:53 AM    comment []

The Inquirer Rant of the Weekend: Prepare to get screwed by digital rights management. [Hack the Planet] 6:26:25 AM    comment []