Month: July 2006

The Vidco Copy Cart – old school video game piracy

(via RetroThings)
copycart.jpg

I actually knew someone who had one of these Atari 2600 cartridge copying things (well, I knew someone who knew someone who had one, but I actually saw the thing in action at my friend’s house). Plug an original Atari 2600 cartridge in one end, plug the erasable and reuseable copy cartridge in the other, push a button, and you have a copy. See – videogame piracy is not new. It’s just taking more clever hackers to make it possible for all you grubby little pirates to steal games. 🙂

[tags]Atari 2600, Atari VCS, Retro-gaming piracy[/tags]

Portable music players loaded primarily with legal music

(via Ars Technica)

A recent study by the marketing research company Ipsos Insight shows that more than 70% of all music on portable music players is acquired through legal means, and that the percentage of legal music is growing. Nearly half the music on players is ripped from the users’ own collections, and roughly one-quarter is from legal pay-to-download services. So despite claims from Microsoft that most people steal music, it appears that most music is legally acquired.

A new study by global market research firm Ipsos indicates that as many as one in five Americans over the age of 12 now own portable MP3 Players and one in 20 own more than one. And interest in viewing music videos, photos, TV shows and even full-length movies from these devices is especially strong among younger consumers who have experience downloading music.

. . .

Nearly half of music downloaders own a portable MP3 player (48%), and these owners use their devices an average of 12 hours per week. Younger downloaders use their MP3 Players more often (average of over 16 hours per week among teens), but have less digital content stored on their devices. Overall, there is an average of 700 songs or files stored on a U.S. music downloader’s MP3 player.

Existing CD collections continue to be the primary source of MP3 Player content among music downloaders. Nearly half (44%) of the content stored on MP3 players is ripped from the owner’s personal CD collection, and another 6% is ripped from others’ CD collections. Fee-based downloads (25%) and files obtained from file sharing services (19%) are also common sources of content.

So things aren’t quite as bad as the recording industry would have you believe.  I’m guessing the poor sales recently have more to do with most music sucking rather than with everyone on the planet stealing.  But that’s just my cynical view of life.

[tags]Portable music players, Music downloads, Music fans aren’t pirates[/tags]

Guide to net neutrality

(via LifeHacker)
With all the buzz going on about ‘net neutrality, it might be good to actually understand what it means and why it matters.  So if you don’t already have all the necessary information on what the whole net neutrality issue is, read up on the How Stuff Works Network Neutrality Primer.

The net neutrality debate is divided into two camps: Fighting against net neutrality are the telecom companies and cable providers, who provide Internet access to consumers. Opposing them are content providers like Google, Amazon, and non-profits like MoveOn.org and the National Religious Broadcasters. But what are they fighting about?

. . .

Defeating net neutrality would give telecom companies the ability to charge content-providers (like Google, eBay and Amazon) to use their bandwidth and, in essence, have access to their subscribers. Not only would the content providers have access to the telecom subscribers, by paying they would have preferred access — higher bandwidth and better delivery of their content. At the heart of this strategy is the telecoms’ claim that they need revenue to make necessary updates to Internet infrastructure. Emerging technologies and media require improvements, they say, and the money has to come from somewhere.

Those in favor of regulation worry that telecoms will abuse their control and punish companies that won’t pay up. Catherine Yang of “Business Week” explains that, “The network operators could block consumers from popular sites such as Google, Amazon, or Yahoo! in favor of their own. Or they could degrade delivery of Web pages whose providers don’t pay extra. Google’s home page, for instance, might load at a creep, while a search engine backed by the network company would zip along.”

. . .

Two main voices have emerged, each supporting one side of the issue. Confusingly, both organizations’ mission is to “save the Internet.” HandsOff.org, or “Hands off the Internet,” is in favor of the telecoms. In favor of Net Neutrality is SavetheInternet.com. Consider each of their positions in their own words (for a more exhaustive representation of their purposes and goals, visit their Web sites).

There’s a large chunk of what the article covers, but there’s more to learn.  The primer explains what net neutrality is, why it matters, and what some well-known “experts” are saying about the issue.

[tags]Network neutrality, How Stuff Works, LifeHacker[/tags]

Man with bomb parts boards plane – all involved point fingers

(via boingboing)

Given how many people go through all the airports here in the US, I think it’s totally understandable that sometimes, some people get through screening that shouldn’t. When it does happen, though, I think figuring out what went wrong and trying to fix it beats playing the blame game. Unfortunately, in Houston, the blame-game appears to be the more notable part of the story.

Houston police and the federal Transportation Security Administration disagree over who is responsible for allowing a man with what appeared to be bomb components board an aircraft at Hobby Airport last week.

Although the FBI eventually cleared the man of wrongdoing, police officials have transferred the officer involved and are investigating the incident while insisting that the TSA, not police, has the authority to keep a suspicious person from boarding a flight.

“Our job is not to be the gatekeepers,” police Capt. Dwayne Ready said. “That burden falls squarely on the airline and TSA to make that final decision.

. . .

The report states that a man with a Middle Eastern name and a ticket for a Delta Airlines flight to Atlanta shook his head when screeners asked if he had a laptop computer in his baggage, but an X-ray machine operator detected a laptop.

A search of the man’s baggage revealed a clock with a 9-volt battery taped to it and a copy of the Quran, the report said. A screener examined the man’s shoes and determined that the “entire soles of both shoes were gutted out.”

No idea what the real story is here. Hopefully someone figures it out, works on clarifying procedures, and we don’t hear about this kind of snafu again (because it doesn’t happen, not because no one reports it next time…). I should mention that I may be picking up the wrong side of the story anyway:

The incident gained enough attention at higher levels of the TSA that the FBI was asked to investigate. The TSA issued a statement saying its screeners “acted in accordance with their training and protocols.”

FBI Special Agent Stephen Emmett in Atlanta said agents there investigated the passenger.

“It was looked at and deemed a non-event,” Emmett said, declining to give further details.

So maybe the bomb-parts thing is just an erroneous part of the report.

[tags]TSA, Air travel safety[/tags]

Ted Nugent comments on the French

(via Snopes)
If you know anything about Ted Nugent, the following bit from an interview he did with a British journalist won’t surprise you.

And yes, he did make the comment in a May 2006 interview conducted by a British journalist Robert Chalmers for The Independent on Sunday, the expanded Sunday version of the UK newspaper The Independent:

“What do these deer think when they see you coming?” I ask him. “Here comes the nice guy who puts out our dinner? Or, there’s the man that shot my brother?”

“I don’t think they’re capable of either of those thoughts, you Limey asshole. They’re only interested in three things: the best place to eat, having sex and how quickly they can run away. Much like the French.”

Internet-spread versions of this exchange have changed the interviewer’s nationality from British to French to position the rocker’s observation as an even greater slap-down.

[tags]Ted Nugent[/tags]

CNN and the war

Two US Marines are listening to the radio in Iraq.

“American soldiers,” coos a soft female voice, “Your so-called national Leaders have lied to you. You are needlessly risking your lives to wage A useless, unjust, illegal, and unwinnable war. Now is the time to return home to your loved ones, while you are still alive. If you foolishly insist on remaining where you are not wanted, the brave resistance fighters will have no choice but to kill you and add your name to the long ever-increasing casualty list of this insane war. So why risk never seeing your loved ones again for a so-called president who has repeatedly lied and deceived you at every opportunity? Why should you be sacrificed so that US corporations can enjoy fatter profits? The only wise thing to do is return home now, while you are still drawing breath, before you return zippered into a bodybag.”

“What’s this?” sneers one Marine. “An Islamo-terrorist version of Tokyo Rose?”

“No,” answers the other. “It’s just CNN!”

I’m no fan of the war, but that’s just funny.  And perhaps a bit too accurate a portrayal of CNN.

[tags]Iraqi war, CNN, Humor[/tags]

Ricoh working to invalidate the next-gen format wars

(via Engadget)
Not wanting to let the petty squabbles of two industry consortiums get in the way of letting people take advantage of new technology, Ricoh has skipped past the “we’ll make a Blu-Ray player and a HD-DVD player and let the losers, erm, consumers pick” idiocy and produced a device that could potentially play all current and next-gen video disc formats.

Trying to bridge the gap between next-generation optical disk formats, Ricoh said it has developed an optical component that reads and writes all disk formats— Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD, as well as DVD and CD—with one pickup and one objective lens.

Ricoh will show the optical device at the International Optoelectronics Exhibition ’06 outside Tokyo on July 12-14. The company intends to begin sampling the device with OEMs by year’s end.

The component is a 3.5-mm diameter, 1-mm thick round diffraction plate with minute concentric groves on both sides which function as a diffraction grating.

. . .

Multiformat players and recorders can identify which format disk is loaded. Based on the disc information, Ricoh’s optical diffraction component adjusts the laser beam with its diffraction grating for each format and passes it to the objective lens. The lens then forms a beam spot at the appropriate depth for each disk format.

Potentially good for the consumer, and a bit of a “screw you for not making a good choice for consumers” snub of the big players. Let’s hope Ricoh can make the multi-next-gen-format player a reality soon so we don’t have to choose the winner.

[tags]Ricoh, Next-gen video format[/tags]

Today in history – July 18th

Random historical tidbits, intended to keep you ahead of the class.

[tags]Today in history[/tags]

Your wife lied – size *DOES* matter

(via Engadget)
This falls under the category of “Things Randy will never, ever own, no matter how cool they are and how much he wants them” but I didn’t feel like adding that category to the site, since so much of the “Stuff I want” category already fits there, too.  That said, check out the monstrous 103 inch plasma display from Matsushita.   This sucker does 1080p, so you know you’ll get a sharp picture.  According to the manufacturer, it has a 3000:1 contrast ratio, but given the lack of standardization on that measurement, I’d just say it has a very high contrast ratio and leave it at that.

As the folks at Engadget point out, the only display to come close to this one is the 102 inch display from Samsung, but you can’t actually order one of those yet.  So assuming you come up with the (still unannounced price) necessary money for this display, what’s it going to take to get it on your wall?  I mean, this baby weighs 473 pounds (that’s almost 215 kilograms for those using a more sensible measurement system).  I’m not even sure my walls would support that.

[tags]Plasma display, High-def TV, Matsushita[/tags]