Monday, March 10, 2003|
Dan Gillmor:
Broadband competition might still be possible
"The radio-based Canopy system uses unlicensed spectrum, so no one has to ask for regulatory approval. The price is low enough -- a company or Internet service provider can serve hundreds of customers for about $20,000 in start-up equipment costs -- and it looks easy to deploy. Best of all, it offers excellent data-transfer rates, in the range of 6 to 7 megabits a second, which is much faster than the cable and phone-based alternatives today, though ISPs offering Canopy-based services commonly ratchet down individual customers' capacity to some extent." [Tomalak's Realm] Bring it! Competition for high-speed access would be a Very Good Thing, and unlicensed spectrum seems to be the only way that's going to happen. 9:54:48 AM | permalink | Bare your teeth [] |
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Thursday, March 6, 2003|
Boing Boing Blog:
GoogleHacks is out!
"Google Hacks contains 100 tips, tricks and scripts that you can use to become instantly more effective in your research. Each hack can be read in just a few minutes, but can save hours of searching for the right answers." 9:10:20 AM | permalink | Bare your teeth [] |
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Wednesday, March 5, 2003|
The Register:
Dark Apple?
"Eschewing the MP3 format, Apple's service will be based on Dolby's AAC (Advanced Audio Coding not Codec, as the LA Times report mistakenly states) in order to tie each track to a specific Mac and thus prevent unauthorised duplication." Well I guess that answers that question. Somehow it doesn't quite ring true - an unknown proprietary, copy-crippled format that only works on a pricey computer peripheral? Not exactly home run material in my books. 9:14:44 AM | permalink | Bare your teeth [] |
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Salon:
Waiting for Wi-Fi
"Wi-Fi Nation is on indefinite hold, at least until computer-carrying consumers can roam beyond the invisible tether of the base station at the office, or the AirPort in the family den. With tens of millions of customers ready to be wireless by next year, and the price of a Wi-Fi laptop dropping below $1,000, why isn't AT&T setting up antennae for us, instead of shutting down its Digital Broadband service?" 8:51:34 AM | permalink | Bare your teeth [] |
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Doc:
Free Fi Fo Fun
"Plenty of hotels, coffee shops, libraries, universities and whole cities are already providing free wi-fi for the same reason they provide street lights and public restrooms. None of those are free either - except to the users who expect them for exactly that price." The hotel I stay at in London started offering WiFi, so I gave it a go when I was down there last. They even provide the card. Unfortunately, you get a Windows CD with no information about network name, password, or encryption settings - and no tech support number! My PowerBook had good signal strength and I did get redirected to some kind of portal page when trying to browse out, but that was it. At $10.95 a night, definitely not in the Free-Fi camp at this point. But when I've got work to do, it's worth it. 8:41:51 AM | permalink | Bare your teeth [] |
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Tuesday, March 4, 2003|
Boing Boing Blog:
Apple working on music service for iPod users
"The LA Times reports that Apple has signed up several of the major labels to create a music downloading service for iPod owners." The 64Kbps question: in what format? MP3, the people's choice? Or (shudder) will Apple go over to the dark side with a DRM-laden Quicktime format? 4:14:20 PM | permalink | Bare your teeth [] |
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Thursday, November 21, 2002
Universal plans $1 downloads
"I don't know if someone caught wind of Janis Ian's grand plan or if Universal is just clicking to the worldbeat, but according to Geek.com, Universal has plans to offer cheap, unrestricted music downloads at a buck a shot"
[TeledyN]
Sounds good, but the bad news? "Liquid Audio and Windows Media Audio formats". Sigh. 11:57:04 AM | permalink | Bare your teeth [] |
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Wednesday, November 20, 2002|
Adam Engst:
The Evil that is the DMCA
"I recently attended a talk by Professor Tarleton Gillespie 10:58:57 AM | permalink | Bare your teeth [] |
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Tuesday, November 19, 2002|
Doc
passes along some honey from the hive mind of Google. Check out Google Sets and Google Glossary. 7:58:40 AM | permalink | Bare your teeth [] |
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