Very sad to report that TVcatchup has been nobbled. It was an online video recorder (PVR) that seems to have upset the UK's broadcasting industry.
As ever, good reporting from The Register
And a fine MUST READ article from TorrentFreak
A nice video explaining Web 2.0 and some of the implications.
Yes - I know its geeky - but since your connected to it, you may as well understand some of whats going on.
Another detailed, but much less amusing video here.
Thanx David
Online privacy is vastly overestimated, as ad networks and marketers track surfers, study reports.
Jaikumar Vijayan, Computerworld
A surprising piece on Fox news.
No, not surprising in its content, we know the US is losing the very freedoms it believes were given to it by god (!), but this is surprising as it was on Fox, a channel not normaly associated with dissent.
Judge Andrew Napolitano - A Nation of Sheep
We know America has become a surveillance state, here is the reason why every other country should be worried too.
A lucky coincidence of economics is responsible for routing much of the world's Internet and telephone traffic through switching points in the United States, where, under legislation introduced this week, the U.S. National Security Agency will be free to continue tapping it.
The RIAA has won its court case against an American woman for making mp3s available across the net. (Kaazaa).
Copyright law is, as Berkeley law professor Pam Samuelson points out, way too verbose; it's now swollen to an unbelievable 200 pages long. It's complex, incomprehensible, designed to favor large copyright holders over defendants, and thoroughly out of touch with reality.
Found this great article for optimising & securing your Windows PC. Great tips for Tor, Freenet etc...
WARNING ! - very very techy.
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We all have our suspicions that the Government is nosing around our private affairs but getting definite proof of the existence of Echelon, Carnivore & Fylingdales is (obviously) difficult.
'The Register' has a lucid & informative article on the subject, piecing together the fragments to build up an overall picture.
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Well - something to do with the theme of this blog. Apparently the US copyright database is copyrighted, and costs money to access.
That's really going to encourage innovation.
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I really don't know how I survive on the Web.
All though I embrace the topology, I have a deep distrust of these new fangled gadgets.
This succinct post outlines some salient points.
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Gary McKinnon, a UK citizen is under threat of extradition to the US & 60 years in a US Jail, for discovering US Govt. machines with blank passwords.
Allthough this clip has interesting information for UFO devotees, I find it a more interesting example of crap IT policies being shored up with 'knee-jerk' legislation.
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The venerable Washington Post has a 3 part in depth analysis of Cheney & his shenanigans.
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The Good news - Google maps has a 'Streeet View' Feature, now you can take virtual car journeys.
Bad news - its only for a couple of US cities, and its restricted to US browsers.
Good News - a hole has been found.
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EFF's Danny O'Brien writes with this urgent message for Europeans:
IPRED2, the insane EU plan to criminalise almost all copyright violation (meaning that rightsholders could pressure the police to prosecute companies they don't like - eg a Euro-YouTube on the taxpayer's dime, and even join police investigation teams as "experts" to assist looting and destroying business competitors), will be voted on on April 25th.
EFF has been running a campaign against it at CopyCrime; they've worked with FFII, Europe's biggest consumer group and the EU librarian's association to file amendments that might fix it. Even the UK government has now thrown its weight behind the coalition's amendments.
But EU citizens still need to stand up and tell their MEPs to vote for the amendments.
If you're in Europe, your elected representatives are probably on a train right now to Strasbourg and preparing their voting lists for a vote ON WEDNESDAY.
Make sure when they reach their Strasbourg offices, they have hundreds of messages telling them to "Support the Librarians', Consumers' and Innovators' Coalition Amendments to IPRED2".
You can find your MEP here. If you have more than one MEP, go through the list. If you know they're eurosceptics, point out that IPRED2 would give the EU new powers to create criminal law. If they're euro-socialists, tell them Segolene Royal doesn't like it. If they're pro-business, point out that the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law hates it.Copycrime has more details. Don't let them turn you into a copyfighting criminal.
With all the current fuss about the Glastobury Festival, I thought it appropriate to post this old but good backgrounder on the political shenanigans going on behind the profitable media front.
Ive been going to the Glastonbury Festival for nearly 25 years now (as of 2007) and Ive seen some remarkable changes. Not all I expected from an organisation that would appear to support anti-globalisation & the promotion of Peace.
Believe me, as an insider, this article only touches the surface.
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'The inventor of the World Wide Web explains how the Semantic Web works and how it will transform how we use and understand data.' (MIT Technology Review article).
via Disinformation
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Following on from my Machine is Using Us post here is an informative essay on Google's tracking of your searches. I dont know if this happens with all users, but as I also have a Gmail account, Im getting well tracked.
I'm not to sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, yes, its usefull to go back to something I was searching for last year, on the other, with so much stuff that Google offers now, hacking a Google account would bring a wealth of information on the target.
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A very thought provoking piece about the future of Web 2.0. Every time you click, the machine learns something about you. The Question is - whos watching the machine?
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