POI: Show #20 - 03.11.2007

[Download Show #20 as MP3]

News

The fallout from Microsoft's recent courtroom loss to Alcatel-Lucent over MP3 patents
"Alcatel-Lucent isn't the only winner in a federal jury's $1.52 billion patent infringement award against Microsoft this week. Other beneficiaries are the many rivals to the MP3 audio-compression format... Now, with a cloud over the de facto industry standard, companies that rely on MP3 may finally have sufficient motivation to move on. And that raises some tantalizing possibilities, including a real long shot: Open-source, royalty-free formats win."

Boucher tried in 2002 to introduce this bill and failed.
He also tried in 2003 with no success.
Should bring back some fair use rights for the consumer
But it is not a complete fix, the law about circumventing encryption will still be illegal under the DMCA

Software / Hardware / Power Web Picks

Mostly limited to your PC
Can NOT make emergency phone calls, so not a complete replacement for your home phone
Stand alone skype phones range in price from $80-$200 depending on brand and model
To utilize free Skype to Skype, you need to have friends on the services
Hardware utilized to encrypt communications

Penny Pinchers

PSI ratings can usually be found on a little steel panel inside the doors, on the tires, or even in the owners manual
Keep your Tires rotated and balanced as well

The cleaner you keep your car's internals, the less your engine has to work, which means less gas used

Security & Privacy

Gamer's Corner

A Christian group is going to start a smear campaign that because Opera, a web browser, runs on the Wii, it is a porn portal.
Like many new gaming technologies, the Wii's wireless internet capabilities make it a portal to porno. "Parents think the computer is the only way for their kids to get porn on the internet. Unfortunately, they are dead wrong," says Mike Foster, founder of ThePornTalk.com. "Gaming devices like the Wii and the PSP aren't just for fun games anymore. You're able to surf the net, chat with friends, email, and view porn because of its internet access. Kids know this but parents don't!"

Editorial ("Power Up")

Everyone has seen the "I'm a Mac" Commercial where Mac just got out of a meeting
Apple can already connect to Windows Networks
Microsoft Office, Keynote, and other productivity software on the Mac
With the switch to Intel architecture

States will need to upgrade hardware to print on the card stock and also need to maintain the storage requirements for 10 years worth of documents
The card stock will need to glow under ultra-violet lights

Tech Forum Talk Back

DRM = Digital Rights Management
Invented to maintain creative control of digital media (music/movies)
DRM restricts your use of the files as a consumer in that you can only play the files on a limited number of computers or only on certain devices (depending on where the media was purchased)
For example when you buy a track off iTunes it is wrapped in FairPlay DRM which limits the number of computers that can be authorized to play the song or movie to 5 computers.
The idea here is to prevent piracy of digital files.
Has not really worked all that well because programs exist to strip the DRM from the files so that those files can be played on other devices and computers
The content makers need to learn to focus on a way to digitally watermark the files with the username and place of purchase on the file so that they can work on suing the people actually pirating songs rather than those they think are pirating.

POI