Few people are aware of what’s going on in Connecticut. Read this highly interesting and disturbing article about one of the poorest regions in the USA – and the fact that the media refuses an occupation that has been going on for two months now.
Do you remember the Iridium wireless phones? You would be able to use your phone everywhere in the world? Well, seems that the servis will be put to rest forever. Motorola announced that the service will be discontinued. More interesting than the announcement is the Slashdot discussion.
Everybody is talking about Software and Business Patents lately. The whole discussion has been triggered by Amazon.com’s one-click ordering patent. Now Bezos wrote this letter, defending his practice and making suggestions on how to improve things. This is really exciting reading, and Tom O’Reilly’s follow-up letter is as exciting.
This is kind of amusing! Boing through away parts for the space station by accident – being worth $750,000. People were combing through a landfill to find them…
Here is a story about the OpenCore project, that will offer everything you need to know to build a 32 bit RISP processor. This is pretty exciting, as it is the equivalent to the Open Source and Linux movement for hardware (chips).
Not only was my birthday last Friday, but I also got the greatest birthday gift – Maha organized a Party for me. Certainly that’s something I want to share with everybody – so check out the pictures by clicking above!
Did you follow what happened in the music industry? Someone wrote a piece of sofware that can decode copy protected DVDs, called DeCSS The MPAA (Movie Picture Association of America) in return threatened to sue, not only the maintainer of that site, but also everybody who would link to it. So, this guy wrote a piece of Software that’s called DeCSS as well, but totally unrelated to the “real” DeCSS. The idea is to make it difficult for the MPAA to find links to DeCSS, by putting this sofware out. Have fun!
Today, my current employer, Post Communications, got acquired by Netcentives. So, we won’t have an IPO. Acquisition instead. Oh, well. Read the Press release.
I am torn about this – when I was still living in the Tenderloin, I hated Meter Maids – as they were ticketing my motorcycle for parking on the sidewalk on a regular basis. And now they get flowers from the SFBC, which I enthusiastically support. I use my bicycle almost daily in the city – so I guess this is a good thing…
SFBC members delivered hand-decorated Valentine’s cards to the city’s 230 Parking Control Officers (PCOs) today. The personal cards and a bouquet of flowers for their headquarters are meant to thank (and encourage!) the PCOs for keeping bike lanes and sidewalks clear of cars and helping to keep bicyclists and pedestrians safe and happy. Our effort was mentioned in the Sunday Examiner yesterday and on KCBS radio today. Huge thanks to Michael Calfee and Adriana Valencia.
Finally they arrive: PCs that don’t look like PCs. Kerbango is an Internet radio that looks like a radio, and not like a computer. Inside it’s a full PC, and it can decode G2 and MP3. Reminds me a little bit of WebTV, but even more specialized. Definitely not a device for the average geek, but great for non-computer literate people, who want to tap into the huge pool of sound streams available on the Internet.