Entries Tagged 'technology' ↓

Cory just posted over at Boing Boing the best brief description of DRM that I’ve read so far:

DRM — Digital Rights Management, or Digital Restrictions Management — is technology that prevents you from using some files by taking over part of your computer so that it won’t obey your requests. DRM is always proprietary. Before a DRM is released, it is infected with “Hook IP” — a patent or trade secret that is introduced to the technology so that the only way you can implement the DRM is by licensing the Hook IP. Anyone who licenses the Hook IP is forced to promise to make their DRM behave as intended, preventing uses and taking over computers and devices. Without Hook IP, a company could implement the DRM but leave out the restrictions, shipping products that allow all the uses their competitors’ products deny. Hook IP gives the DRM maker something to sue over if this happens.

More on DRM:

• Wikipedia article, with a more detailed description
• EFF’s site on DRM, including discussion, court cases, pointers to related issues, links, etc.
• Defective by Design, the FSF’s campaign against DRM. From their website: “There is no more important cause for electronic freedoms and privacy than the call for action to stop DRM from crippling our digital future.”

Via Boing Boing I find a post on the thoof.com blog where they discuss some interesting stats on their users’ behavior.

Particularly amusing bits:

It seems that Windows users are 20% more interested in stories about religion than Mac users.
[...]
Mac users are 6% more interested in intellectual property law, and 5% more interested in fitness.

A couple of weeks ago I subscribed again to the RSS feed of El Pais, the biggest (and, supposedly, ‘best’) Spanish newspaper. Reading the headlines and some of their articles has become my daily dose of irritation with the so-called professional media. The articles are often misinformed, and at times show the utter ignorance of the authors and their unwillingness to do a little bit of basic research.

Take, for example, El Pais’ coverage of the OOXML vote.

The article’s headline is “Microsoft doesn’t give up in battle for OOXML”, and it is signed by Aitor Riveiro. The only external source referenced in said article is Héctor Sánchez, CEO of Microsoft Iberia. Mr Riveiro does not bother to mention which countries and organizations opposed the vote, and what are their reasons for voting ‘no’. Clearly Mr. Riveiro is of the opinion that it is of no interest to El Pais’ readers why countries like UK and Canada and France disapproved of the standard, or why the Spanish standards body, AENOR, decided to abstain.

Another El Pais article on the topic, linked in the sidebar of this first one, mentions in passing that Microsoft had “put pressure” on some countries. There is no mention of the accusations against Microsoft of trying to buy off its Swedish partners, or the uncanny correlation between corrupted countries and countries that voted in support of Microsoft’s proposal (not that I am suggesting that Ivory Coast and Trinidad and Tobago don’t have a stake in document standards, but you will agree that their sudden eagerness to participate in the ISO and approve OOXML is suprising).

Compare this coverage with an article on the same topic from the IHT: Microsoft’s bid for ‘open’ document format is unexpectedly rebuffed. This article quotes Microsoft’s manager for interoperability and standards, discusses Microsoft’s “agressive lobbying” that “reached into high levels of government”, gives hard numbers on the opposing/approving votes, and details on the upcoming final vote on the issue, which will take place in February.

:: sigh ::

In case you didn’t see it already, silicon.com has an interview with William Gibson (aka the father of cyberpunk) that has been making the rounds.

silicon.com: You’ve written much about the way people react to technology. What’s your own attitude towards technology?

Gibson: I’m not an early adopter at all. I’m always quite behind the curve but I think that’s actually necessary - by not taking that role as a consumer I can be a little more dispassionate about it.

Most societal change now is technologically driven, so there’s no way to look at where the human universe is going without looking at the effect of emergent technology. There’s not really anything else driving change in the world, I believe.

When I see things like this I am reminded of how very cool engineering is. It is amazing the stuff we can build when we want.

It is a 20m-long truck that will be used to move giant antennas weighting 115 tonnes each up the Andes to a plateau at 5,000m. The antennas will form the Alma telescope.

Full BBC article: Giant truck set for sky-high task (via Boing Boing)