Hot Setees Ready 4 U
"I know it's tempting to make wall art with your old Ace of Base CDs, but I saw the sign and it said 'No'." More savage critiques of amateur pr0n subjects' home decorating tastes at Obscene Interiors (via Sharpeworld).

posted by Matt Hinrichs @ 8:03 PM

Google art
Googlism offers examples of appropriating or using Google to generate net.art:

Artist T. Whid recently declared Google's 'Live Query' function, 'a net art masterpiece.' Years earlier jodi.org listed their 10 favorite sites as search engine queries for terms like "cccccccccc." From Christophe Bruno's GogolChat to Yoshi Sodeoka Prototype #38, search engines continue to be a source of net art experimentation. And recognized net artists aren't the only ones getting into the act. Some favorite search engine recontextualizations: googlism (http://www.googlism.com/), googlefight (http://www.googlefight.com/), googlewhack (http://www.googlewhack.com/), metaspy (http://www.metaspy.com/) and zeitgeist (http://www.google.com/zeitgeist/).

Videos From Creative Commons Launch
I'm on dial-up for the x-mas break so I can't see these, but Lisa Rein of On Lisa Rein's Radar has posted videos from the Creative Commons launch. Up now are speeches from Larry Lessig, John Perry Barlow and Jack Valenti, with more to come throughout the week.
posted by Donald Melanson @ 3:00 PM

Zeitgeist: 2002 through Google's eyes
Google's 2002 Zeitgeist is out and about. Read to see what the world searched for. Contrast with 2001's, or those related to the September 11th attacks, to feel history swooping by.

(via JD)
posted by Bryan Alexander @ 11:59 AM

Blogs weigh in on DVD clipping vs the DMCA
A group of fine legal minds blog away on a key fair use question. Can critics "quote" from (i.e., post clips from) DVD extras in reviews? A strict reading of the DMCA is: no.
posted by Bryan Alexander @ 10:18 AM

Elcomsoft gets off, DMCA smacked down
eBook-cracking software maker Elcomsoft was found not guilty of violating the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).

In a crucial limitation, the court found that the act was illegal, but that, due to ambiguities in the law's text and promulgation (to say nothing of its odd approach to digital media), the company didn't intend to break the law.
posted by Bryan Alexander @ 5:43 PM

Bell Canada Tries Wi-Fi
Is this the shape of things to come? Bell Canada is running free trials of their AccessZone system in Toronto. I found a unit after some hunting inside Union Station and took a shot. Note how it fits easily where a payphone used to.

You can read more about the pilot on the Bell Canada website.
posted by Jim Lai @ 8:50 PM

Bare Bones Software Supports the EFF
Bare Bones Software, maker of the popular BBEdit text editor, announced today that they will be donating $10 from every copy of BBEdit sold to the Electronic Frontier Foundation through the month of December.
posted by Donald Melanson @ 11:10 PM

Interview with Wayback man
New Scientist has a fine interview with Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive. Also known as the Wayback Machine, Archive.org is the world's best respository for the living history of the World Wide Web. The idea has deep historical roots:

Where did the idea for a universal archive come from?

Technologists have promised the digital library for decades. In 1945, Vannevar Bush, who was technology adviser to several US presidents, wrote an article in The Atlantic magazine outlining how computers might one day augment libraries. Then in 1960, a young graduate called Ted Nelson got sidetracked from his masters degree in sociology at Harvard into writing text–retrieval software. He published his ideas, and coined the term "hypertext" in 1965. So in many ways the digital library is long overdue.

Supernova, Day 2: Dan Gillmor
Dan Gillmor gave a great keynote speech to open the second day of the Supernova conference. He spoke about the the growth of blogs as new journalism and the perils of that, the evolution of "We Media" (a term unfortunately trademarked by someone else) and other topics well covered in Cory's notes. For me, the great thing about this conference is that I'm surrounded by people who are excited by the future. As I'm fond of saying, I spent the last couple of years nursing a dying dot.com, and while they may turn the corner, it sucked the excitement out of the industry for me. This conference is helping to resuscitate the interest that brought me to Silicon Valley.
posted by Douglas Roberts @ 2:08 PM

filtering in China: new study
A new study, "Empirical Analysis of Internet Filtering in China", was released by Jon Zittrain and Ben Edelman. They found that the Chinese government actively blocks sites, developing new tactics as the Web, and their expertise, evolves. Routers are a primary target. The methods remain secret:

The Chinese government and associated network authorities are clearly continuing to experiment with different forms of blocking, indicating that -- unlike Saudi Arabia, which appears to have a single, declared method of blocking and a much more constant (and apparently smaller) list of non-sexually-explicit blocked sites -- Chinese network filtering is an important instrument of state Internet policy, and one to which significant technical and human resources continue to be devoted.

ScummVM Saga
It looks like the story behind ScummVM is as interesting as the program itself. ScummVM is an emulator for classic LucasArts adventure games bassed on the SCUMM game engine (Monkey Island, Sam and Max, etc.), letting you run these games on everything from Linux to Mac OSX to a Dreamcast. Things got interesting behind the scenes when LucasArts served the ScummVM team with a DMCA notice. After a fan backlash, LucasArts is now apparently trying to negotiate a settlement.
posted by Donald Melanson @ 6:57 PM

Mitch Kapor speaks to my heart at Supernova

Mitch Kapor is speaking about a subject near and dear to my heart: the needs of the small office to share mail, calendar and other information a la MS Exchange. Our office of 6 people tried this, but it was like using a bomb on an ant. A very complex, expensive bomb. Mitch is part of the Open Source Aplications Foundation, and is working on a project called Chandler that is Exchange-like in its functionality, but doesn't hurt the pocketbook or brain as much. He says that if they release Chandler and they haven't created an intuitive and empowering tool, then they will have failed.

As the IT Manager for a small company with exactly the needs he is addressing, I think I want to hug him.

This is all happening at the Supernova conference in Palo Alto, CA.

posted by Douglas Roberts @ 6:25 PM

Tierra Updates King's Quest II
Tierra Entertainment released their updated and unofficial version of King's Quest II this week. The new version not only features updated graphics, as they did with King's Quest I, but new puzzles and and an expanded storyline. Home of the Underdogs has a review.
posted by Donald Melanson @ 4:52 PM

Blogs at war, part II
Forbes has an article arguing that an upcoming war with Iraq might do two things:

1. Get some information and communication under war's censorship
   
2. Do for blogs what the Persian Gulf War did for CNN
   

Supernova Weblog Launches
The Supernova 2002 weblog launched today. The conference, put on by Kevin Werbach will be held next week in Palo Alto, California. Mindjack will be there and we'll have a complete report soon after.
posted by Donald Melanson @ 5:02 PM

key DMCA trial about to start
A major test for the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) is about to start. Elcomsoft's two major players in the case have finally won clearance to appear in the US. Watch this one carefully.

(via DigitalConsumer)
posted by Bryan Alexander @ 11:38 AM