Thursday , March 28 2024

Science and Technology

42% of Americans Still Offline

New study finds surprising number still in another century: More than half of nonusers said they don’t want Internet access or don’t need it, a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found. It’s not just a matter of not being able to afford a computer or a …

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Madonna Not Digging the P2P

Madonna’s disembodied voice enquires of file sharers, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” as they try to download a copy of her “American Life” single via Kazaa or other sharing services. But Madonna isn’t only thwarting file sharers: companies trying to launch legitimate online music services are asking …

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OMG, Administration Email Chats Begin

The Bush team has joined the chat generation, beginning an ongoing series of email Q&A’s between the public and members of the administration last night with Andrew H. Card Jr., President Bush’s chief of staff. However, as the Washington Post cautions: Those who join the chat should not expect a …

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New Jazz Thing

Blogs are blooming with the spring like flowers and bloomy things and stuff. Slicing the bloggy pie into ever finer specialties, radio station KSDS (Jazz 88 San Diego, 88.3 FM) has a jazz blog: The hunt is on for people who are blogging about Jazz, Music, Art, and Radio! Each …

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New Music Copyright Based Upon “Free” Software Model

Harvard Ph.D. candidate Derrick Ashong thinks he has a better way: Ashong, a Ph.D. student in Afro-American Studies and Ethnomusicology, is also CEO of ASAFO Productions, a talent agency that represents new, up-and-coming musical performers – like the funk/harmony/R&B group Ashong himself sings with, Soulfege. But ASAFO Productions does more …

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Dave, Bill and William

Dave Pell, an interesting if overly self-deprecating fellow, has switched his news links and commentary email newsletter to a web-based format, transforming himself simply by a change in technology, into a blogger, voila! His latest essay is a penetrating if somewhat meandering look at the meaning of his favorite reality …

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31 Flavors of WiFi

Arik Hesseldahl has a cogent explanation of the various WiFi’s out there now and coming down the pipe in Forbes: Finally, down the road, Wi-Fi will likely have to speed up again–as there will come a day when 54 megabits per second simply isn’t fast enough. A new IEEE group …

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AOL Tries to Can Spam

AOL files five lawsuits against spammers: AOL, the nation’s largest Internet service provider, with 27 million subscribers, said the targets of its suits were responsible for sending its members an estimated 1 billion pieces of spam that resulted in more than 8 million complaints. The unsolicited messages contained such things …

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Into the Pool

Fred von Lohman, senior staff attorney of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and attorney for the Princeton student sued for billions by the RIAA, writes in the Daily Princetonian on the digital download miasma: Suing college students. Forcing ISPs to rat out customers. Petitioning Congress for unprecedented vigilante powers. Deploying armies …

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Blogs: Yeay, Sneer Quotes: Boo

Alan Jacobs’ essay on war reportage has the twin virtues of acknowledging the vital role in war coverage of blogs (Command Post, Glenn Reynolds, Andrew Sullivan), and of shining a spotlight on the passive aggressive journalistic habit of using “scare” or “sneer” quotes: reading Fisk’s account, I noticed something else, …

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