DRM comes to SymbianOS

By Cory Doctorow at 11:31 pm Wednesday, Feb 2 • Comments • Share

SymbianOS has a DRM called "SymbianSigned" that can prevent you from installing and running software on your own phone without permission from your carrier. This excellent article explains the danger from this:

Now, please don't stop reading just because you're not a developer. This all affects you because it will affect the software you can load onto your shining new smartphone. One of THE strengths of the Symbian scene, even if it's not often recognised as such, is the community involvement in software development. Applications are used by enthusiasts, feedback given and improvements made, on an ongoing basis. Among other things, Symbian Signed implies that applications are more complete at birth, as developers try to avoid the feedback and improvement cycle because of the cost implications. But without that cycle, applications are less capable and usually buggier.

Link (Thanks, Ewan!)

Cell towers disguised as fake trees in Disney World

By Cory Doctorow at 10:55 pm Wednesday, Feb 2 • Comments • Share

NEXTEL has become an official sponsor at Walt Disney World and now these strange "trees" -- disguised cellular antennas -- are cropping up around the park. Link (via The Disney Blog)

HOWTO sleep in an airport

By Cory Doctorow at 10:23 pm Wednesday, Feb 2 • Comments • Share

The Budget Traveller's Guide to Sleeping in Airports is pretty much what it sounds like: user-contributed reviews of the sleeping "facilities" in the world's airports, bus-stations, train-stations and the like.

Always Have a Backup Plan: This is the most important tip for anyone who voluntarily sleeps in airports. Airport officials are not totally supportive of the airport sleeping idea. Although in 95% of the airports you won't be kicked out, you will be asked why you are there, why you are not in a hotel like normal people and they will ask for proof that you are flying out the next day. So BE PREPARED to answer those questions! They seem to not appreciate us using these massive wastes of space as our personal hotels -- go figure!?!

Link (Thanks, Smash!)

DRM-free music service from MP3.com founder

By Cory Doctorow at 10:16 pm Wednesday, Feb 2 • Comments • Share

The founder of MP3.com (who is also the CEO of Linspire, formerly Lindows) is launching a DRM-free music site that distributes tunes as MP3s.

To Robertson, such restrictions are anathema. "I think [DRM] is a problem; I've made no bones about it," he said in an interview Wednesday. "I'm not a fan of DRM. I think it penalizes paying customers. If you can get music from file sharing networks and pay nothing, and then get it from the record guys with a pair of handcuffs attached…I think it's awful."

Link (via /.)

Amazon $79/yr unlimited two-day shipping program

By Cory Doctorow at 10:14 pm Wednesday, Feb 2 • Comments • Share

Amazon has launched a program for its heavy US customers: pay $79 a year and get unlimited two-day shipping for you and your household. This pretty much solves the downside of shopping on Amazon -- the decision to either pay a fortune for shipping or wait forever for your parcels. Link

DIY graphic novel made from chainsaw safety comic

By Cory Doctorow at 10:13 pm Wednesday, Feb 2 • Comments • Share

Johannes from Monochrom found an instructional cartoon for a chainsaw in his grandfathers' shed. He's scanned it and asked various writers to create captions to accompany the four frames and turn them into a "mini-graphic novel". I wrote one, as did several others: you're invited to contribute one too! Link (Thanks, Johannes!)

Simpsons Choo Choo Choose You valentine to print & cut

By Cory Doctorow at 10:08 pm Wednesday, Feb 2 • Comments • Share

There's a classic Simpsons episode where Lisa gives Ralph a valentine with a picture of a locomotive on it that says, "I Choo Choo Choose You," something that cracks Ralph up so that he falls in love with Lisa.

Geoff was so impressed with the episode that he imported a framegrab of the valentine into Illustrator, traced it as vector graphics, and posted it as an EPS, along with the "Let's Bee Friends" card that ends the episode, which was generated by another Simpsons trufan. Link (Thanks, Geoff!)

Kosher easter-eggs

By Cory Doctorow at 10:03 pm Wednesday, Feb 2 • Comments • Share

These crucifix-adorned chocolate Easter eggs are Kosher. Link (Thanks, Scott!)

Self-amplified 1950s hand-powered record-player

By Cory Doctorow at 10:00 pm Wednesday, Feb 2 • Comments • Share

This "self-amplified" 1950s promotional record for Skippy peanut-butter was played by inserting a pencil into the record-hole and turning the disc by hand, while a needle attached to a cardboard tone-arm transmitted the sound to the cardboard megaphone. Christ, why can't I get all my music this way? Link (via Waxy)

NPR: businesses try to cope with e-mail overload

By Xeni Jardin at 6:26 pm Wednesday, Feb 2 • Comments • Share

My Day to Day colleague Eric Weiner contributed a great piece today about a seminar that promises to help people manage their e-mail traffic. Spam ain't the half of it. Link

Absolute Bottom 50 blogs

By Xeni Jardin at 5:31 pm Wednesday, Feb 2 • Comments • Share

Snip:

# IWillLinkToYouIfYouLinkToMe.com
# MyExpertInsightsIntoTheIndustryThatWontHireMe.com
# PicturesOfMyTaintInLowLightConditionsPlusEssays.com
# IronicPopCultureReferencesObscuringAnUtter LackOfInterestingOpinions.com
# RegurgitatingShitIJustHeardAlFrankenSay.us
# HotNewConsumerGadgetAdvertisement.net
# TragedyBuzzard.com
# 300LbBoilCoveredSocialCriticInADoublewide.com
# TheSameKookyKrazyStuffEveryoneElseIsLinkingTo.com
# VelvetClad.ChunkyGothGirls.com

Link (via BitterHollywoodAssistantsSneeringInHTML.com)

Copyrighting the Eiffel Tower

By David Pescovitz at 3:18 pm Wednesday, Feb 2 • Comments • Share

DMD recently discovered that it's now illegal to publish photographs of the Eiffel Tower at night (like this one found on ntech's Flickr stream) without permission. From DMD's Fast Company blog post:

"The Eiffel Tower's likeness had long since been part of the public domain, when in 2003, it was abruptly repossessed by the city of Paris. That's the year that the SNTE, the company charged with maintaining the tower, adorned it with a distinctive lighting display, copyrighted the design, and in one feel swoop, reclaimed the nighttime image and likeness of the most popular monument on earth. In short: they changed the actual likeness of the tower, and then copyrighted that."

Link

Death by alcoholic enema

By David Pescovitz at 2:40 pm Wednesday, Feb 2 • Comments • Share

A woman in Lake Jackson, Texas was indicted on a charge of negligent homicide for allegedly killing her husband... with a sherry enema. Pumping him full of two large bottles of sherry caused his blood alcohol level to skyrocket to .47 percent.

Michael Warner, a 58-year-old machine shop owner, had a long history of alcoholism, but couldn't ingest alcohol because of medical problems with his throat, said Lake Jackson Police detective Robert Turner. The wine enema was a way he could become intoxicated without drinking alcohol, Turner said.

Link (Thanks, c-lo!)

Bigfoot 911 call

By David Pescovitz at 2:13 pm Wednesday, Feb 2 • Comments • Share

The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization has a recording online of a pretty weird 911 call made during the 1990s in Kitsap Peninsula, Washington:

caller: "That son-of-a-bitch is about 6 foot 9... I don't know.
operator: "Do you see him now sir?"
caller: "Yes, I'm looking right at him!"
operator: "Uh-oh. OK, hang on. Is he in your yard, sir?"
caller: "Yeah. God, he's big!"
operator: "OK, what's he doing in your yard?"
caller: "He's looking at me!"
operator: "And the guy is on foot? This..."
caller: "I don't know what... It's a real big person. That's all I can say.
operator: "OK, but it is a person?"
caller: "Uh, um, yeah, I'd say it was a person, or somebody really big. But he's all in black."
operator: "Is he a black male or a white male? Did you actually see? Or was he just wearing black?"
caller: "He's all black and he's big. He is big!"

Link

Social networks online conference

By Cory Doctorow at 2:08 pm Wednesday, Feb 2 • Comments • Share

Howard Rheingold, Joi Ito and others are throwing an online conference on social networks:

OSN2005 will be a summit for all those interested in working with social networking processes, tools, and media. In addition to attending many workshops, panels, and presentations by leading experts and practitioners, attendees will have the opportunity to be part of a community with a significant role in defining the future direction of online social networking. If you want to help shape this industry, come to OSN2005!

During the OSN2005 summit we will co-create and publish a manifesto describing what we want and need from online social networking tools. What are the key criteria for choosing and assessing OSN products and services? What gaps exist in currently available software and related tools? What needs to happen before it's common knowledge that OSN products and services can deliver significant value? What are the most promising developments in the OSN industry?

Link (Thanks, Emily!)