By Mark Frauenfelder at 11:04 pm Tuesday, Aug 8
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Here's a long but interesting and jargon-free explanation of how the RIAA shakes down people for $3750 a pop, and why most people who get sued by the RIAA settle out of court even if they haven't ever downloaded music on a P2P network.
The person being sued may have never shared a file, or logged on to a P2P network. They haven't been convicted of any crime involving copyright protected material, nor have they been charged with one. They've simply been sued in a "civil" action. In the United States, anyone can sue anyone else for anything at any time. It's quite possible (and maybe even more likely than not) that these average people didn't violate anyone's copyright.
In any event, the burden of proof for a civil suit is much lower than that of a criminal prosecution. There is no possible way that anyone who has been sued by the RIAA could be convicted of any crime with the evidence the RIAA collects.
Link (Thanks, Grant!)
By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:43 pm Tuesday, Aug 8
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Here's a gallery featuring artists who use Adobe Illustrator to create extremely realistic drawings that look like photographs. The
drawing of the woman shown here was created by Thai artist Ussa Methawiitayakul. Here's a
link showing some in-progress screen shots.
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:32 pm Tuesday, Aug 8
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Another great doubleheader from RU Sirius this week. On
NeoFiles, he has the
neo-cyberpunk writer Chris Nakashima-Brown, who
Cory
described as "a cross between William Gibson and Mark Leyner."
And
The
RU Sirius Show features an interview with one of our favorite
comedians, Heather Gold, who has an "open source humor" project in
progress.
RU SIRIUS: What's funny about open source or Web 2.0?
HEATHER GOLD: I call it that because I let the audience participate
in the live shows that I do… I thought, what if I didn't write all the
jokes? What if I'm not the only funny person? Because I was doing this
Internet roast during the dot-com boom where I was making fun of stuff
at SXSW and people in the audience were hilarious. I was doing some
joke like… "Anybody else here have repetitive stress industry?" And it
was like, "We can't raise our hands."
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:29 pm Tuesday, Aug 8
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(From Dave Farbers IP mailing list) Art Evans says:
My wife is beneficiary of a trust administered by a reputable bank in New York. Today someone from the bank called seeking information that (she said) was required by the Patriot Act. Well...
Where, I was asked, did the money in the trust come from?
As the bank knows, I said, the trust was established by my wife's mother, Mrs G.
Where did Mrs G get that money? I explained that she inherited it from her mother, Mrs B.
Where did Mrs B get money? From her husband, who pre-deceased her.
Where did Mr B get the money? I said I thought he was a stock broker but wasn't sure. Should I ask my wife? No, that's good enough information, thanks very much. And my caller went away, satisfied.
I can understand that the government could be interested if someone now shows up with a large sum of money. Did that money come from some sort of illegal enterprise. However, Mr B. my wife's grandfather, died in 1953, 53 years ago. Of what possible use could it be to the government to know how he made his money, particularly if (apparently) it's not important if I answered correctly?
Moreover, how much taxpayer money is spent gathering such information?
Link
Elliott says:
I found your post on the bank calling a man about his wife's trust fund rather ironic, considering that Bush's granddaddy, Prescott was in charge of a company called 'Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation' that was run by slave labor from Auschwitz during the German occupation of the area. He was put in charge of managing the company and even a portion of the slave labor after Union Banking bought the company from Fritz Thyssen, who was worried about it being destroyed by the Allies. When the Allies released seized assets of CSSC due to the death of Thyssen, all American shareholders quietly sold their shares. Prescott made 1.5 million dollars off of this, and George H.W. Bush, his son, put it into a blind trust fund. Today, that money is worth around 15 million bucks, a good portion of the Bush estate's value.
I wonder what he would say if a bank called up and asked the president about this under the Patriot Act.
By Mark Frauenfelder at 9:30 pm Tuesday, Aug 8
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Machine says:
We're doing two events with Make Magazine this weekend, a launch party on Saturday for the Backyard Biology issue, and a USB hacking workshop on Sunday. We hope to see you there.
Make Magazine Issue #7 (Backyard Biology) Launch Party
Saturday August 12, 8pm
Machine Project
1200 D North Alvarado Street, Los Angeles
Lately when we tell people about the classes at Machine Project, they say, “Oh, like Make Magazine“. So we’ve decided to embrace the confusion and host a launch party for the new issue of Make. Jed Berk will be there to talk about autonomous flocking behaviour in robotic blimps, Make editor Mark Frauenfelder will be there to introduce the new issue and chat with you about general makery, and Issue 7 (Back Yard Biology) will be there for you to peruse and purchase, which includes an article on making a home mushroom growing lab by our friend Phil Ross. Link
USB power supply hacking 101 - Sunday August 13th 1pm - 4pm
Speaking of classes, Sunday we will be leading a workshop on USB power supply hacking. Based on two articles in the new issue of Make by Erica Sadun, we will go over how USB power works, how to make a USB powered fan (or other small device), and how to make a 9v battery powered usb charger. Then we’ll plug the USB fan into the USB charger and your head will explode. Along the way we’ll explore some basic laws of electricity and learn how to solder. All materials and a copy of the new issue of Make Magazine #7 included. $75.
We expect this class will fill rapidly. If there is sufficient demand we will offer another session in the morning from 9-12. Registration and more information link.
By Mark Frauenfelder at 9:06 pm Tuesday, Aug 8
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I've tried several different ways to play my computer's MP3s on speakers around the house, but each one fell short in some significant way. Either the wireless range was too short, or it interfered with my WiFi, or the system's controls and interface were so clunky that it was too much of a hassle to use.
Experiencing the Sonos after struggling with these other systems for years was astonishingly pleasant. Finally, somebody has done digital music right. Sonos is a beautiful system that matches Apple's products in terms of slickness and ease-of-use. I got the Sonos ZP80, a package that comes with with two ZonePlayers — white cubes that are approximately the size of a Mac Mini. These can be connected into any stereo, radio, or home theater system. The ZonePlayers don't require an AC adapter — the power supply is built in, so all you have to do is plug the ZonePlayer into the wall. One ZonePlayer must be directly connected to your home router, but the other ZonePlayers can communicate with the system wirelessly. (There is a way to use Sonos completely wirelessly, but it's an unsupported feature.) You can use up to 32 ZonePlayers on one network.
The controller looks and acts a lot like an iPod, with a 3.5-inch full color display and a touch wheel. It has a motion detector, so it comes to life when you pick it up, and a light sensor to illuminate the buttons when it's dark. Even with these energy-saving features, the battery life isn't great. I have to recharge the remote controller every two or three days, but that's a small price to pay for having complete control of your home music system in your hand.
I've set up several wireless networks over the years, and each time, I got snagged on some arcane configuration detail that had me running to Google for help. Not so with the Sonos. I installed the Sonos software on an old eMac I keep running in the laundry room. (Sonos works with Mac and Windows). The software slurped up all the MP3s on the machine as well as the iTunes playlists. (Sonos can't play songs purchased from the iTunes music store, because Apple does not allow other hardware makers to decode the DRM it uses to scrambles the songs with. No matter -- I don't buy songs from the iTunes music store because I don't like being prevented from playing my music on non-Apple players. People are nuts to buy music from the iTunes store, if you ask me.)
I attached one of the ZonePlayers to my Ethernet router and pressed two buttons on it. The Sonos software recognized it and prompted me to give it a name (I chose "TV Room"). I attached the other ZonePlayer to my home stereo system, pressed the buttons, and Sonos asked me to give it a name ("Living Room"). I also got a ZonePlayer 100, which has a built-in 50W amplifier, and a pair of speakers, and I put that in the kitchen and called that zone "Kitchen."
I was expecting that there'd be more to the set-up process, but that was it. I didn't need to consult the manual to use the controller because the interface, controls, and display are very well-thought out. It's very easy to select any one of the three zones and start playing music. You can have different playlists going in different zones, or you can link zones together to play the from the same queue. You can control the volume of each Zone separately, or all at once.
You can play Internet radio with Sonos, and add stations that aren't already on its list. It also plays Rhapsody if you have a subscription. I don't, but I'm considering it now. I'm also considering getting a 500 GB NAS hard drive to store the music that the Sonos system plays.
My wife usually complains when I introduce a new technology into our lives. This is the first thing since TiVo that she really digs. My daughters like it, too -- I have a playlist for my seven-year-old and one for my three-year-old. I'm listening to as much music as I did when I was in college. Sonos really has brought back music into my life. Link
By Cory Doctorow at 8:12 pm Tuesday, Aug 8
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Capn sez, "The excelent CBC Radio program The Contrarians devoted a whole show to the issue of perpetual copyright, artists rights and DRM. Features an interview with Michael Giest." This is a great show -- it runs from free expression to election-fixing to economics to spyware and DRM. Nice stuff.
Link
By Cory Doctorow at 7:57 pm Tuesday, Aug 8
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The guy who makes the
amazing hand-carved wooden glasses has branched out into hand-crafting glasses out of old vinyl record albums.
Link
(
via Make Blog)
By Xeni Jardin at 4:13 pm Tuesday, Aug 8
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I recently
traveled to India, China, and Tibet to explore how technology is changing the lives of Tibetans -- both inside and outside of their homeland. Starting today, a four-part radio series from the trip airs on the NPR News program "Day to Day" --
Hacking the Himalayas. Each segment will also be archived online, along with lots of multimedia goodies: multimedia slideshows, maps, and more:
Link
Part one of the four-part radio series is The Gaddi People of Dharamsala. This nomadic Hindu tribe has lived in the shadows of the Himalayas in Northern India for generations. Before Tibetan refugees and Western tourists arrived, they were the dominant ethnic group -- but as development looms, their culture is changing. Link to archived radio segment, and here's a direct link to photo slideshow with an original composition by Gaddi folksinger Sunil Rana (Flash with sound)
I put together a "reporter's notebook" blog around the project at xeni.net/trek (here's the RSS feed). I'll be posting links to each of the radio, print, video, and online reports I'm filing from the trip. I'll continue following these stories here after the reports from my trip have all aired. But I'll also post the scribbled footnotes that didn't make it in.
Video, snapshots, audio snippets, branches of these stories you just can't cram into 7 on-air minutes. The little daily details that comprise life on the road -- including HOWTO production info, and reviews of the production hardware and software I tested out on the road from Apple, Canon, Skype, Inmarsat, Palm, and other tech gear providers.
Images: (Xeni Jardin, 2006).
Top -- Gaddi women singing prayers as they climb a rocky path to the shrine in Kanyara village, Himachal Pradesh, India. Middle -- A Gaddi child seeks rest in mom's arms, while women pray to the local goddess of slate. Bottom -- A Gaddi woman in ceremonial dress paints holy symbols on river rocks.
I shot these photos and most others along the trip with a Canon 5D, and a 24-70 2.8L USM and 70-300 4.5-5.6 DO IS USM lenses. Images were later sorted, tweaked, and prepped with Apple's terrific photo content management app, Aperture. More on that later!
(Special thanks to my NPR producer Rob Sachs, and my editor Alicia Montgomery).
By Mark Frauenfelder at 4:02 pm Tuesday, Aug 8
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I am waiting for Pat Robertson to talk to God and find out why He sent in this dust devil that put an abrupt end to a children's soccer game.
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 3:45 pm Tuesday, Aug 8
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Jan Erik Vangen provides a detailed step-by-step account of how he built this Leela casemod.
Link (Via Neatorama)
By Mark Frauenfelder at 11:42 am Tuesday, Aug 8
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What did
you do on Saturday night? I'll bet you didn't have as much fun as Dylan Stiles, who works in the Trost lab at Stanford University. He spent the evening using expensive equipment to figure out the chemical composition of his ear wax.
Saturday night, shortly after that oxalic acid rant, I think I started cracking up. If ever there were a reason not to work alone in lab, this is it. I was standing in front of the rotovap watching the toluene crawl over, ie watching paint dry, when I started idly picking my ear. A huge chunk of wax came out. I stared at the gooey mass and wondered to myself what’s in there?
I had a vague recollection of a 5.08 lecture about the biosynthesis of cholesterol from squalene, and how the latter is a major component of earwax. There’s at least one way to test that hypothesis. I had NMR time anyway so I figured what the hell. I scoped all 36 milligrams of my waxy secretion into a test tube and took it up in CDCl3. I was expecting it to go into solution freely, but there was a mass of material that wouldn’t dissolve even with sonication[1]. So I filtered it through Celite and ran 16 scans on the 400 (vide supra)[2].
Link (Thanks, Phil!)
By Mark Frauenfelder at 11:23 am Tuesday, Aug 8
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You'd be hard pressed to find a better Nancy panel than the one Jim Woodring selected. The comments about the panel are excellent.
Did I ever say it? I am the son of Sluggo, who carelessly wasted the best of his dew kissed days, and who looked neither forward nor back, choosing instead to lovingly know each day platonically and lay down with every dusk and know it carnally.
Sluggo, whose gaze fell when they passed the hat. Sluggo, for whom every cooling pie was a gift from God. Sluggo, the enemy of effort, the opposite of opposition.
I want this on a T-shirt.
Link (Thanks, Coop!)
By Mark Frauenfelder at 11:03 am Tuesday, Aug 8
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Phil Torrone says: "MAKE is coming to Japan! It will have a lot of our content from the pages of MAKE, but will be specifically for Japan. We'll be shipping at the end of August, here's a bit about it and a pre-order link."
「モノ」を作り出すテクノロジーが現在のPCと同じように安価に手に入り、専門的な知識がなくても自分の作りたいものを容易に作ることができる時代が近づいています。オープンソースがソフトウェアの世界を変えたように、「工業の個人化」と「ハードウェアハッキング可能な機器の普及」によって変わるテクノロジーと私たちとの関係を伝えるのが『Make』です（英語版は季刊誌として発行されていますが、日本語版は英語版を再構成した書籍シリーズとして刊行されます）。その中心をなすのは実際に手を動かして楽しむ「プロジェクト」の紹介。安価な材料や中古製品を利用して、実用的な「モノ」を作る方法をステップバイステップで解説します。他に、先進的な取り組みを行っている研究者のインタビューや、ガレージで生み出されるユニークなガジェットを紹介するコラム、ティム・オライリーをはじめ充実した執筆陣のエッセイなど読み物記事も豊富に掲載しています。洗練された誌面デザインも特徴です。日本語版Vol.1のプロジェクトでは「凧にカメラをぶら下げて空中撮影を行う方法」「ビデオデッキを改造して猫の給餌機を作る方法」「水道管で作るカメラスタビライザー」などを取り上げます
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:12 am Tuesday, Aug 8
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TurnHere is a nicely designed and organized library of videos of neighborhoods around the US and the world, shot by amateurs. What a terrific idea! I enjoyed watching the
video of my own neighborhood, Tarzana. (Danton Burroughs looks almost exactly like his grandfather, Edgar Rice Burroughs!)
Link (Thanks, Stephina!)
By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:02 am Tuesday, Aug 8
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On Dave Farber's
IP mailing list, Greg Brooks wrote about a suburban mom who used grocery store surveillance video tapes to nab some kids who toilet papered her house:
There's an interesting piece in the Riverside (CA) Press-Enterprise about
a woman who got her house toilet papered and decided to hunt down the
culprits. She didn't want to involve the police, reasoning that they had
better things to do, so she took the following steps:
* She canvassed local stores to see which one had a run on toilet paper.
* She then got the manager of the store to show her surveillance videos,
allowing her to see the personalized letterman's jacket of one of the
purchasers, as well as the license plate of the vehicle they got into.
* Finally, she used a high school yearbook (matched to the school based on
the letterman's jacket) and online databases to get the names, phone numbers
and addresses of all the teens spotted in the store tapes.
To me, this is a bit more than a "talker" feature. One takeaway, IMHO, is
that we're pretty far down the road to sheepdom when average citizens start
thinking "well, everything's monitored all the time anyway - let's see if I
can make use of that."
Link
Reader comments:
Garrett says:
I saw the story you posted on BB about the tp
detective. I think you're being a little bit selective
in what you posted there. The full story lists how it
wasn't just an innocent tp incident, the woman's cars
were vandalized, her lawn fixtures damaged and her
lawn ruined with dog food and flour. The kids she
tracked down are facing felony charges, and I know
from bitter experience that means they did hundreds of
dollars in real, not just tp damages. Don't you think,
taking that into account, it's a bit more clear why
she persued this matter with such vigor? Portraying it
as just a tp'ed house makes her actions look alot more
extreme.
Roger Krueger says:
Here's another busted-by-grocery-store-video story, some teens building dry-ice bombs.
By Mark Frauenfelder at 9:44 am Tuesday, Aug 8
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Yesterday I linked to a
Flickr set of Engrish (English words on Japanese signs and products). Here's a Flickr pool of English words on Chinese signs and products.
Link (Thanks, Xiaming!)
By Cory Doctorow at 6:51 am Tuesday, Aug 8
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The hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow has created Offensive Computing, a malware repository site, inviting security researchers and others to upload infectious software of all description, and maintaining a database that any new piece of badware can be compared against. You can download malware, compare a newly discovered piece of badware against known samples, and so on.
Link
(
Thanks, Grandmaster Ratte'!)
Update: Val Smith sez, "One thing to note is that offensive computing is a new group of its own, which is affiliated with cdc. I am the founder of offensive computing."
By Cory Doctorow at 6:47 am Tuesday, Aug 8
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Jeff at Neoformix continues his amazing data-mining of Boing Boing's posts, turning up quantified stats and pretty pie-charts about our posting habits, subjects, frequency, and so on. He's up to eight separate sections now, each covering a different aspect of our posts.
Link
(
Thanks, Jeff!)
By Cory Doctorow at 6:42 am Tuesday, Aug 8
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The city of Hoboken had a contract dispute with the operators of a robotic parking garage; the garage operators cancelled the city's license to its software and locked all the cars inside:
In the course of a contract dispute, the city of Hoboken had police escort the Robotic employees from the premises just a few days before the contract between both parties was set to expire. What the city didn't understand or perhaps concern itself with, is that they sent the company packing with its manuals and the intellectual property rights to the software that made the giant robotic parking structure work...
When it's working, the robotic garage is a wonder. It allows twice the parking of a traditional ramp garage, says Robotic's Clarke. "If you back off and look at this, you are looking at elevator technology."
"Wonkavator" might be more apt. The lifts act independently of each other, and move in many directions, instead of just up and down. Every entry/exit station can accommodate 40 cars per hour, and every space is essentially a separate machine acting cooperatively. As the lot is used, it learns when particular cars tend to be picked up and dropped off and shuffles its load to optimize pickup time.
Link
By Cory Doctorow at 6:40 am Tuesday, Aug 8
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Today on the Worth1000 photoshopping contest: misbegotten toy ideas. I'm very partial to this PlaySkool toddler's switchblade.
Link
