Category: outside

As seen on ARS Technica… The next generation of High-Definition (HD) content will be significantly harder to crack and may require a commercial license to be playable on a device or computer. A technology called High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) will encrypt the signal at the last point of transmission to the television or computer screen. Hardware will have to support HDCP to be able to play the content, and any cracked keys can be revoked so no future content will play. Unless some company decides to try selling a commercial video player to Linux users, the next generation of High Definition DVD content may not play at all on operating systems other than Windows and Mac OS X. Likewise, most of us would have to purchase a brand-new television or computer display to be able to see the content at its native resolution. Additionally the encryption system in the next generation of DVD technology is being designed to be very difficult to crack. All of this doesn’t bode well for our rights to fair use as consumers. Maybe these developments will provide an opportunity for independent content developers to gain a foothold in the industry, but most people will still just want their Will Smith and Jennifer Lopez.

The organization that controls the video game rating system, the ESRB, has decided to revoke the ‘M for Mature’ rating from the GTA: San Andreas. The game cannot be sold in stores until some sort of resolution is found. This all stems from some mods that were released for the game that exposed some graphic sexual content in the form of a mini-game.

Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) is already available in some markets today. Power lines reach deep into rural areas that cable companies have not ventured into and where DSL is not available so there is a lot of excitement about the potential for expanding broadband access. So far BPL has not gained as much traction as cable and DSL Internet and they are still ironing out some kinks, but this infusion of cash should help that situation. It would be very nice to have another way to get the high-speed hookup so I’m hoping it all works out.

Google’s reason for the interest is not totally clear. They say they want to “help promote better access to the Internet” and I think that is a true statement. I’m sure they would also like to have their fingers deep into this new broadband pie when it becomes more universally available so there is an additional financial incentive. I’m all for a company like Google giving the telcos and the cable companies some good competition!

Experiments for NASA have shown that meat tissue can be grown from existing meat cells, and now a new paper proposes two new techniques for large-scale production of lab-grown meat for human consumption. They still have to figure out how to make the cultured meat more meat-like by combining all the different kinds of tissue naturally found in meat and ‘exercising’ it for the proper texture, but they seem confident.

The article is very optimistic about the potential health and environmental benefits, but I’m wondering about the possible cultural ramifications. There is already a divide between the people who eat organic food and those who eat standard chemically treated food. Organic food still mostly costs quite a bit more than standard food so there is a resulting economic (and social) gap. Some people just can’t afford organic food no matter how good it is for you. With cultured meat, a similar thing may happen.

If cultured meat techniques develop to a point where it is cheaper overall than raising and slaughtering livestock, the number of people producing traditional meat may go down and the prices may go up. If that trend continues then, at some point, only the well to do of the world will even be able to afford real meat and most people will only ever eat food grown in labs or genetically engineered to be easier/cheaper to produce. Organic, natural food may become even more of a luxury item than it already is today.

The Broadcast Flag that was recently struck down by a Court of Appeals as not within the FCC’s jurisdiction may become law this week after it was tacked onto an appropriations bill. This has very serious implications on the future of all media content. The flag would allow content creators to specify how you are allowed to use their content that you acquired legally. They could specify that you can only view it once after you record it, for instance… presumably unless you pay them to watch it a second time. All devices sold in this country would have to abide by the flag. If you care about your right to do what you want with something you buy, contact your local important people now.

A ‘broadcast flag’ mandated by the FCC in 2003 would have required consumer electronics makers to abide by specific digital flags encoded into digital television broadcasts. The flags could restrict whether or not the broadcast could be recorded or in what ways a recording could be used. It would allow content broadcasters to tell you how you can use your television recordings. The whole situation is pretty crazy but a ray of light has appeared as a Court of Appeals has ruled that the mandate is beyond the scope of the FCC’s authority. The original mandate required that any devices sold after July 1, 2005 adhere to the flags so this ruling came just in time.

More than 1,000 toads have puffed up and exploded in a Hamburg pond in recent weeks. They have basically no idea why it’s happening. I suspect something along the lines of a mischievous young wizard in training, but I’m no scientist. This bit of weird news was passed to me by Tom.

ARSTechnica comments on a case where a woman was contacted by a collection agency and ordered to pay $4500 or risk being sued for much more money. Her personal information was collected from Comcast, who provided the information of their own free will. They were not required to do so by any court order and they did not notify the woman or any of the other customers whose privacy rights they violated. The RIAA has previously filed lawsuits against a few hundred people and they have apparently now decided that the lawsuit method is too costly and have resorted to simply billing people directly via a collection agency. It saddens me that all of this is allowed to go on. The woman is suing Comcast over it so we’ll see what comes out of that.

Proponents of the arctic drilling plan claim it would only affect 2,000 acres of the 1,500,000 total acres in the coastal plain, but the part they don’t mention is those 2,000 acres are spread out all across the whole park. Check out the map and info on the NRDC Action Fund website. They are activists so their information is probably biased as well, but I know I certainly trust the activists more than I trust our current administration.

Found via ARSTechnica, movie of an octopus ‘walking’ on two of its legs and using the others as camouflage. Creepy and kooky!